Africa and Africans in the Books of Chronicles‪.‬

Pete Pero has been a pioneer among Lutherans of African descent in naming and claiming his spiritual and cultural heritage and in reminding us that the church transcends all cultures even as the gospel manifests itself in the particularities of every culture. Ancient Israel lived in the land bridge between Africa and Mesopotamia and was involved in a complex network of learning from its neighboring cultures and distinguishing itself from them. Its relationships with these other cultures affected its own self-understanding and the legacy it has left us in the Bible. For the last twenty years or so I have been immersed in studying and writing an extensive commentary on the Books of Chronicles, composed in the fourth century B.C.E. by a writer who focused on the past and future of worship at the temple at Jerusalem but who also knew that his tiny community in the Persian province called Yehud was only a prototype of an all-inclusive Israel. His empirical Israel was part of the Persian Empire, with no prospect for liberation from that ancient superpower. The Chronicler's Israel was chosen by Yahweh, but its life took place in the context of, and in interaction with, the whole world. This article cuts a cross section through the sixty-five chapters of Chronicles and asks particularly about the Chronicler's knowledge of Africa and Africans and how Africans related to and interacted with Israel in the Books of Chronicles. (1)