Download or read book The Biblical Illustrator; Or Anecdotes, Similes, Emblems, Illustrations, Vol. 1 written by Joseph S. Exell and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Biblical Illustrator; Or Anecdotes, Similes, Emblems, Illustrations, Vol. 1: Expository, Scientific, Georgraphical, Historical, and Homiletic, Gathered From a Wide Range of Home and Foreign Literature, on the Verses of the Bible The Books of Kings and the Books of Chronicles. - The Jewish literature contained two historical books which virtually covered the same period. The two Books of Kings, and the two Books of Chronicles are in many respects alike, bat the differences are more evident than the resemblances. Ah historical works that cover extensive periods ofttimes must, of necessity, be compilations. The writer of any national history may more precisely be designated an editor, or a computer, than an author, because he does not create any new material, but puts into shape and order material that already exists, for which he may indeed elaborately and perseveringly search, but which is in no sense his own.e The ruling purpose and prevailing bias of a writer are shown by what he selects from the facts at his command, and by the particular setting which he gives to the facts, and his annotations upon them. The compilers of the Books of Kings and Books of chronicles were certainly not the same person. Their points of view and historical purpose were distinctly different. But they had the same literary materials at their command, and we can reasonably infer what those materials are likely to have been. Every civilised and organised nation is careful to preserve authentic and official historical records, and we may be sure that the Jewish national records were anxiously preserved when the people were carried into captivity. These would be available for the later historian. It also appears that the keeping of genealogical tables and family and official lists was the business of that priestly class, which included the scribes. They were exceedingly jealous of the safety and correctness of their tables. It was their special duty, because certain religious privileges and offices were reserved for those whose pedigree could be traced. And in every nation, in every age, men have been raised up who were endowed with the literary historical genius; and such men will, in various forms, make their records of the events of their time. But all such independent and unofficial work is sure to be written with a personal political or religious bias, of which the later reader, or the later compiler, has to take due account. The later editor of any extensive and varied series of earlier records, covering long periods, has a very anxious and difficult work. And it is all the more difficult if he himself has a strong personal bias, from which he can never get himself wholly free. And this appears to have been the case with the compiler of the Books of Chronicles. He evidently had an ethical, we might have said, a sectional purpose, which guided and determined his selections and settings. Historical Material At The Command Of The Compiler. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.