The Chronicler's Description of the Temple Administration and the Incorporation of Non-priestly Cultic Personnel among the Levites

Abstract

To approach the lesser known topic of the temple administration in the post-exilic period (539-333 BCE), we have examined specific passages in the book of Chronicles that create a portrait of the temple administration. This portrait focuses on gatekeepers (1 Chr 9:17-32; 26:1-19); treasurers (1 Chr 9:26-28; 26:20-32); and tax collectors (2 Chr 24:5-11; 34:9-13). The first two sets of texts belong to what this work will call "David's Installation Block" which provides the major framework for the relevant material of the Chronicler, who authored the book of Chronicles around between the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. The third set of texts shares the Chronicler's characteristic redactional traits in common with "David's Installation Block." These three sets of texts communicate the Chronicler's ideal image of the temple administration. The guiding question in the present work is whether these selected passages can be used as a source to reconstruct the temple administration in the post-exilic period. We conclude that the Chronicler's description of the temple administration, especially his incorporation of non-priestly cultic personnel among the Levites, must be considered to comprise an argument for an ideal temple administration. The Chronicler's ideal was grounded in his creative exegetical approaches to Pentateuchal traditions and his responses to the contemporary debate about the legtitimate priesthood among different priestly circles; his ideal is not simply a projection of the administrative reality of his own time. For this purpose, we have expounded on the selected passages through a series of literary analyses. These analyses have enabled us to identify, building on the work of other scholars, the Chronicler's literary methods by which he built his sophisticated arguments. Furthermore, we have compared the Chronicler's presentations of the temple gates, the temple revenue, the temple tax, imperial taxes, and the temple staff with other post-exilic biblical and non-biblical data. This comparative approach successfully shows that the Chronicler's treatments of those topics deviated, to a greater or lesser extent, from his contemporaries, while the Chronicler's work displayed the linguistic and sociocultural peculiarities of Persian era Yehud. Although the book of Chronicles does not provide straightforward data to reconstruct the actual realities of the temple administration in the post-exilic period, the work done in this dissertation illuminates how the Chronicler engaged ancient traditions and contemporary situations to develop his image of the ideal future temple administration.