The Problem of David's Census and Three Days Pestilence

The Problem of David's Census and Three Days of Pestilence

Craig HO

This paper consists of two parts. The first part is a new attempt to settle the problem of priority between the parallel episodes of 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 through intertextual criticism; the second part offers an explanation for the intertextual links between the two parallel episodes with the narratives of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Job. It is found that, contrary to both the generally received view since WML de Wetter of Chronicles' dependence on Samuel and A. Graeme Auld's theory of independent supplementation to a common source ( his hypothetical Book of the Two Houses), the textual differences between 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 are best explained by the dependence of the former on the latter. It is also found that the pericopes of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Job that have strong thematic connections with 1 Chronicles 21 were very likely generated out of 1 Chronicles 21 for the making of these pericopes and for shedding interpretive light on 1 Chronicles 21.