Original Title: Is It Still a Relevant Topic? Evaluating the Historical Objectivity of Chronicles Based on Kenneth Scott Latourette’s View on History Writing.
Is the record of the events in Chronicles reliable? Heavily influenced by historicism, the historicity of Chronicles has been a long-circulated topic among OT scholars. Yet, due to the challenges in arriving at a conclusive understanding, the focus of research has broadened to encompass a broader range of topics beyond mere historicity; thus, recent scholars of Chronicles no longer substantially discuss this topic.
However, the question concerning the book’s historicity will never fade due to its innate nature—that is, scholarship often compares the book’s content with its Vorlage (e.g., Sam–Kings) to delve into the book’s message. Thus, students of the book often inquire about the reliability of the text (e.g., which one, Samuel–Kings or Chronicles, is more reliable?).
This study aims to reignite the discussion on this timeless question through an interdisciplinary approach that bridges Old Testament scholarship with Church history. The early twentieth century could be characterized as the era of the scientific or positivist philosophy of history, and whether a historian could write an objective history was a conspicuous topic among historians who were evaluating the reliability of history. The works of Carl Lotus Becker and Kenneth Scott Latourette in this period merit particular attention. These two scholars were a few of the leading figures who sharply opposed each other regarding the issue of objective history writing. While Becker and his followers rejected the possibility of rational certainty in history, Latourette and his advocates suggested the opposite, believing in the existence of an objective report of history. After reviewing the works of the two scholars, this research will apply Latourette’s insights on historical writing to the study of the Chronicler’s narrative techniques and assess their implications for understanding the Chronicles’ historicity. In sum, the paper will argue that modern readers can perceive Chronicles as objective historiography by reevaluating the concept of objectivity and examining specific elements presented in the text.
To accomplish the goal of this research, first, this study will briefly review the history of research on Chronicles, specifically concentrating on the scholarly debate on the historicity, genre, or nature of the book. Next, the study will expand upon the thoughts of Becker and Latourette, especially their understanding of the concept of objectivity in history writing. Lastly, this research will examine the text of Chronicles and discuss how one could perceive the book of Chronicles as objective historiography.
The approach taken in this paper is a previously unseen study, which will add a meaningful perspective to the discussion on the historicity of Chronicles.