When Were 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles Written?

The internal evidence of the books of the Chronicles suggests that they were written sometime between 450 and 430 BC. The decree of Cyrus, King of Persia noted in 2Ch 36:22 was made in 538 BC, and the decree was carried out soon after that. In 1Ch 3, the genealogy of David’s family is traced through Zerubbabel, the leader of those who first returned to Jerusalem (Ezr 2:2) around 520 BC. After Zerubbabel the Chronicler identified several more generations. If each generation is calculated to be 15 to 20 years, the dates for composition would be, as suggested, sometime in the second half of the fifth century BC. Furthermore, if we accept the view that 1Ch 9 is a genealogy of “the first who lived in their cities” after the exile (1Ch 9:2) and we compare this list to the lists in Nehemiah chaps. 11 and 12, we may legitimately presume that the books were written after the third generation of returnees, again in the range of 450–400 BC. While further precision in dating the book is probably unattainable, it seems that the Chronicles were written to the postexilic community of Jewish people living in the land promised by God to Abraham (see Gn 12:1-3; 15:18-21) near or in the city of Jerusalem.

The dating of the kings of Israel and Judah has been a source of frustration for the readers of the narrative and of scholarly debate for centuries. Many fine and detailed studies have attempted to unravel the complexities of the chronology of the Hebrew kings, and the reader is urged to consult them (cf. esp. Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, new rev. ed. [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1983]). No attempt will be made in this commentary to date the reigns of the kings or to correlate the narrative to other secular histories.