The Schematic Development of Old Testament Chronography: Towards an Integrated Model

The chronological figures in the Old Testament have been of considerable interest to early and modern scholars, but there has been little success in developing an overarching model to account for their historical development. Through a synthesis of past approaches and new insights, an attempt is made in this article to develop a model that explains the emergence of Old Testament chronology and accounts for the divergences that exist in the figures found in different Old Testament textual traditions. The position taken is that Old Testament chronology was, from its very beginnings, largely schematic in form. Further, it is argued that subsequent adjustments to the chronology were motivated mainly by changing schematic interests rather than ‘rational’ concerns such as the resolution of internal anachronisms or ‘secret’ systems of calendar reckoning (as some scholars have proposed). These schematic considerations are viewed in terms of the changing political, theological and sectarian interests of Palestine and the diaspora between the sixth century BCE and the second century BCE.