The Skeptics' Overrated Bible on 1 Chronicles as analyzed by Sheila Rangslinger

• 1-9 The first nine chapters of First Chronicles are good examples of the "endless genealogies" that Paul tells us to avoid (see 1 Tim.1:4 and Tit.3:9). Leave it to the bigoted SAB to grossly decontextualize this admonition by Paul. See here. Wearisome as these chapters are, the rest of the book isn't much better. Consequently, First Chronicles is probably the most boring book in the Bible -- maybe the most boring book in all of literature. Poor SAB, we feel so sorry for him. The ancients placed great value on these genealogies -- see here, second paragraph -- and SAB's personal, bigoted boredom is a worthless yardstick.
• 1:32 In this verse we are told that Keturah was Abraham's concubine, but Gen.25:1 says that she was his wife. See here.
• 2:3 God killed Er for being "evil in the sight of the Lord." And the problem, other than personal outrage without rationale, is what?
• 2:13-15 Here we are told that Jesse had seven sons, but according to 1 Sam.16:10 he had eight. See here.
• 2:17 Who was Amasa's father? See here.
• 2:18, 50 Who was Caleb's father? See entry below linked one above.
• 3:5-8 This list of David's sons is given in two other places (2 Sam.5:14-16, 1 Chr.14:3-7), but none of them give the same set of names. In this list, for example, Nogah is missing, but it is included in the other two lists. It's called a "copyist error" -- an accretion error, specifically, where items are omitted from lists.
• 3:11-12, 15-16 The gospel of Mathew Mt.1:6-11gives the same genealogy as is given here except Matthew, in an attempt to preserve the magical number 14, leaves out four generations (Joash, Amaziah, Azariah, and Jehoiakim). So what? It's a pedantic structure common in ancient genealogies. See here.
• 3:17-18 Did Jeconiah have any sons? See here.
• 3:19 Who was Zerubbabel's father? Same old song. The words here mean any male descendant -- son, grandson, father, grandfather.
• 3:20 Seven sons of Zerubbabel are listed, not five as is said in verse 20. Numerical copyist error -- see link above. Example as well:
• 3:22 Five sons of Shemiah are listed, not six as is said in this verse. See here.
• 6:1, 16 Was Mahli the son of Levi? See above.
• 6:27 Was Samuel an Ephraimite or a Levite Where does SAB get this out of this verse?
• 6:28 Who was Samuel's firstborn son? Vashni or Joel (1 Sam.8:2)? See above on sons/fathers.
• 6:66,69 What tribe was Aijalon from? Ephraim or Dan (Jos.21:23-24)? See here.
• 7:6, 8:1 There are four lists of Benjamin's sons in the Bible. None of them agree and only one name (Bela) is found in all four lists. See again above -- on genealogies and on sons/fathers. SAB just doesn't have a grip on how they did these things.
• 8:33, 9:39 Was Ner or Abiel the father of Kish? See again above.
• 10:4, 14 How did Saul die? See here.
• 10:6 Did all of Saul's family die with him? This verse says that they did, but 2 Sam.2:7-9 says that one of his sons survived. Ditto.
• 10:13 Did Saul inquire of the Lord? Ditto.
• 12:8 The Gadites had faces like lions and could run as fast as deer on the mountains. SAB has a brain as dense as a brick. Especially the part that deals with figurative language.
• 13:9-10 God, who has a tough time expressing his gratitude, kills Uzza for trying to keep the ark from falling. But where did God kill him? See here.
• 14:3 "And David took more wives..." with the apparent approval of God. Apparent approval? Let's have that apparent cite showing it is so.
• 14:4-7 This list of David's sons is given in two other places, but none list the same set of names. See above.
• 16:30 In this verse we are told that the earth is stable and does not move. If so, then it must not spin on its axis or travel about the sun. See here.
• 16:34 "For his mercy endures forever." Why then is the Bible so full of cruelties that he committed or commanded? Try defining mercy in less modern terms.
• 18:4 When David "smote Hadarezer" did he take 7000 horsemen as it says here or 700 as is said in 2 Sam.8:7? Copyist issue -- see link above for principles.
• 18:16 Was Abiathar the son or the father of Abimelch? See above -- though some hold that Abby had a grandfather and a son with the same name, which was common in this era.
• 19:4 David's servants had their buttocks exposed. Yes, this was a normal way for an enemy to shame you. Meanwhile SAB decontextualizes it into a Beavis and Butthead routine.
• 19:18 On what must have been a particularly good day for killing but not so good for counting, David kills 7000 (2 Sam.10:18 says 700) men in chariots and 40,000 footmen (2 Sam.10:18 says they were horsemen). See here.
• 20:3 David tortures all the inhabitants of several cities "with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes." This must have been an example of the "sure mercies of David" that are praised in Acts 13:34. More like an example of a KJV foul up. The verb means they were put to work with those items.
• 21:1 Was it Satan or God who "provoked David to number Israel"? See here.
• 21:5 According to this verse David's army had 1,100,000 men from Israel and 470,000 men from Judah, but 2 Sam.24:9 says the numbers were 800,000 and 500,000, respectively. Of course, either of these numbers is ridiculously high for a battle between two tribal armies in 1000 BCE. (The United States had about 1.37 million active duty soldiers in 2001.) See here. As for the latter, we are an all-volunteer and specially-trained force, unlike in the ancient world, where every man that could walk and talk was counted as a soldier.
• 21:7, 10-15, 17 God gets angry with David for counting the people (maybe he was upset because 2 Sam. and 1 Chr. disagree on the results) and, for a punishment, offers him three choices: Three (2 Sam.24:13 says seven) years of famine, three months to be destroyed by enemies, or three days of pestilence. When David can't make up his mind, God decides for him and sends a pestilence that kills 70,000 men. (Presumably women and children were also killed. If so, the total must have been more than 200,000.) In the middle of the slaughter, God "repents of the evil" that he was doing and tells the angel to stop the killing. One wonders what God had in mind in the first place, since it was David who was supposed to have sinned by taking the census -- not the people. Even David was confused by this, and asked God, "these sheep, what have they done?" See link above on census.
• 21:25 David buys the threshingfloor for 600 shekels of gold, but in 2 Sam.24:24 he gets a much better deal and pays only 50 shekels of silver. See here.
• 22:14 David provides Solomon with a fantastically large amount of gold and silver with which to build the temple: 100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver. Since a talent was about 60 pounds, this would be about 3,000 tons of gold and 30,000 tons of silver. This would be about 96 million ounces of gold, which nearly as much as is currently in the United States depository in Fort Knox. Not bad for a small tribe in 1000 BCE. Not bad for a bigot with no knowledge of ancient economics. Fort Knox is but a smidgen of the gold we have in this entire country. See here.
• 23:6 Was Mahli the son of Levi? See above on sons/fathers and genealogies.
• 24:6 Was Abiathar the son or the father of Abemelech? See above.
• 25:3 "The sons of Jeduthun; Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six." But only five are listed. See above, re accretion errors.
• 29:7 King David collects ten thousand drams (or darics) for the construction of the temple in Jerusalem. This is especially interesting since darics were coins named after King Darius I who lived some five hundred years after David. See here.
• 29:29 The acts of David are said to be found in the books of Samuel the seer, Nathan the prophet, and Gad the seer. Were these long-lost books supposed to be in the Bible? If so, how could God allow them to be lost? If not, why does God tell us about books that no longer exist (if they ever did)? See here. As if SAB the egotist thinks he's the only one ever being spoken to here. The books existed at the time of the people the book was written to.