Customer Reviews

Samuel, Kings and Chronicles: A Harmony of Histories

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Serious students of Scripture know how valuable a harmony of the gospels can be, which allows Bible students to see parallel accounts of the same events in each gospel. Similarly, a harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles makes it easier to find additional information on the same events contained in other sections of the Bible.

Well-known and long used is the harmony by William Day Crockett, based on the Revised Version of 1884. While a useful classic harmony, the somewhat convoluted order in which he has placed some events seems unnatural at times and has been disputed by others. A second popular harmony is James D. Newsome's and is based on the Revised Standard Version of 1972. Newsome's harmony seems more logically laid out and easier to use than Crockett's. In addition, it contains related passages from Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezra which parallel portions of the historical books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

In 2005, Jason Snyder added this new harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles with a somewhat different approach. The text is based on the New American Standard Version of 1995, which some will appreciate. While both Newsome and Crockett attempt to place the narrative chronologically, Snyder's harmony attempts to keep the text of each individual book (Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles) intact as much as possible. Thus in one section, Kings will be the "host" text in the right column; in another section, Chronicles will be the host text in the right column with the "guest" text following the chronology of the host. This makes for a larger book (in size) and longer text than either Newsome's or Crockett's.

I think most Bible students--uncless they have a special need to follow Snyder's orientation--will find Newsome's chronologically-oriented harmony to be still the least confusing and most helpful.

This is the best resource for understanding the perspective of the writers of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles I've found to date. To my knowledge no other tool provides the full text of each book. Highly recommended.

For any student wanting a fresh and insightful tool for studying the relationship between Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, this is it! I highly reccomend it!!!