Question:  Dear Greg,

            I am doing research to answer alleged Bible contradictions.  Maybe you are familiar with these parallel passages: 2 Samuel 5, 6; 1 Chronicles 13, 14, 15.

            My question is, which comes first—the defeat of the Philistines or the death of Uzzah?

            Thanks and God bless,

            Lito

Answer:  Dear Lito,

            Most scholars and commentators note that there is no need to try to specifically “fit” the accounts in the passages in Chronicles and Samuel that you mention.  In some ways they are apples and oranges.  Samuel is giving a more accurate chronology, while the Chronicles is not going from year to year in exact order (note 1 Chronicles 14—the Chronicler here is not giving an exact chronology, but contrasting David’s and Saul’s reigns).

            Your question is rooted in the goal of the Chronicler, which is not at all the same as we read in Samuel and Kings.  The Chronicler adds information not given in Samuel and Kings, but when Chronicles and Kings/Samuel tell the same story, they often tell it from a different perspective (which is not the same as telling two different stories, of course).  Chronicles not only covers the same events in Kings/Samuel, but also covers the entire Old Testament story from Adam.

            We cover a great deal of this background and the intent of each of these books in our series, “Experiencing the Word—A Daily Devotional Journey Through the Bible”—Volume 18.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht