Chronicles and Social Memory

Doren G. Snoek translates current theory in memory studies to textual production in antiquity. Focusing on textual and material scribal processes that contribute to the formation of historical knowledge, especially for the biblical book Chronicles, he describes how scribes respond to social conditions and existing texts as they generate new "media offers," that is, new scrolls and the new narratives they contain. He argues that Chronicles creates new social, political, and religious possibilities and, in some cases, may have caused the loss of historical knowledge. The study contributes to scholarship by characterizing Chronicles as a literarily autonomous and materially independent national history for Yehud.