KJB Textual Technology

 Essay 6-c

       No Contradiction of Numbers, Names, etc: Chronicles Amplification

                                                                        by Dr. L. Bednar

We illustrate a principle that we call amplification, and follow-up with some examples in the page links to show that what some call contradictions in scripture are really cases of additive or clarifying information. Amplification often involves numbers, but also refers to other matters. Chronicles offers the most frequent examples. and the Greek title for the Chronicles is, appropriately, things left out (in Samuel & Kings).

Amplification of Samuel & Kings in Chronicles

1. Chronicles often amplifies (expounds) Samuel/Kings, and a typical example is seen in 2 Sam.8:13-14 and 1 Chron.18:12-13. In 2 Samuel David smites 18,000 Syrians in the Valley of Salt, but in 1 Chronicles, David’s nephew Abishai is the one who smites these adversaries, and here the adversaries are called Edomites.

In Samuel and Chronicles the battle occurs in the Valley of Salt of Edom. In verse 14 of Samuel, David is said to establish garrisons in Edom where he has slain the Syrians, and in verse 13 of Chronicles, Abishai is the one noted as establishing the garrisons. Thus the text links Syria and Edom and also David and Abishai in this incident.

What we deduce is that amplification in Chronicles informs us David's adversaries in the Valley of Salt were ethnic Edomites, but were also Syrians, Edom being an ally of Syria by military conquest. Amplification also indicates that the slaying by David was figurative, being literally accomplished by his nephew Abishai to illustrate how God's servant David, a leader on the right side of a conflict, is inseparably identified with his helpers.

2.  2 Chronicles 7:14  Another type of amplification

KJV: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Here the immediate reference is to the people of Judah known as God's elect people, but God's Word of the Old Testament still applies in much of its basic teaching during the New Testament era. That is expected since sin is the breaking of God's law, and as long as sin is in the world, God's law is in the world. There is only a change in the New Testament era from emphasis on the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. In this sense Jesus Christ said not one jot or title of the law will pass away until all be ful- filled, meaning every aspect of the spirit of the law, to the degree of the smallest aspect of word spelling, will be fulfilled in God's eternal kingdom when sin vanishes forever.

Thus in 2 Chronicles 7:14, the expression called by my name refers more specifically to the future and to events & institutions unknown when Chronicles was written, but prophesied of in the sense of amplification that describes the future. Those who will be called by God's name as Christians will live in lands where immorality is rampant, and God's judgment will apply if the righteous don't pray for change in the behavior of the masses. This is a pattern that began in early Old Testament days when Abraham was told by God that Sodom & Gomorrah would be spared from destruction if there were at least 10 righteous souls there (Gen.18:20-32). Thus 2 Chronicles 7:14 contains a dual reference, and the main one applies many centuries after the original was given in the days of king Solomon of Judah. This is the most subtle form of amplification.

Pattern Amplification
3. This refers to clarification of variance from the usual patterns for describing certain well-established events in traditions of Israel, variance that has unique implications for interpretation. Seemingly-inexplicable terminology in one scripture book or seem- ingly-contradictory accounts in two directly linked books like 1 & 2 Samuel can be involved.