Background of 2 Chronicles

The earlier history in Samuel and Kings addressed the questions of those who had experienced the fallThe fall refers specifically to the disobedience of Adam and Eve when they listened to Satan rather than adhering to God's command not to eat the fruit from the tree. When people act contrary to God's will, they are said to fall from from grace... More of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar II (587 B.C.E.), the destruction of the templeThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged... More, the end of Davidic rule, and deportation to Babylon. Chronicles, however, speaks to the postexilic restoration community that had returned from Babylon to worship in the rebuilt Jerusalem temple as a result of the Persian defeat of the Babylonians in 539 B.C.E. Whereas Samuel and Kings tried to explain why the exile had taken place, Chronicles tried to explain what it means to be part of the restored community instituted by David and Solomon. This was especially necessary because the community now lived under the political auspices of the Persian Empire, not the united monarchy of David and Solomon.