7. Form

7. FORM.

7. As to the FORM, I suggest that the chief model which the author set before himself was the Biblical Book of Chronicles. He begins abruptly, as that does, with genealogies and with Adam: he introduces from time to time short pieces of narrative, which rapidly increase in importance until they occupy the whole field: he devotes much space to speeches and prayers, and is fond of statements of numbers. His aim is to supplement existing narratives, and he wholly passes over large tracts of the history, occasionally referring to the Biblical books in which further details are to be found: and it is to be noted that he seems to place his own work on a level with them. "Are not these things written in the book of" the Judges, or the Kings, is his formula, and it is that of the Bible also. In all these respects he follows the Chronicler: only, as has been said, we miss in him the liturgical and priestly interest of that writer. Like the Chronicler, too, he is, and I believe was from the first, anonymous; I can find no trace of an attempt to personate any individual prophet, priest or scribe.