(B) The character of Chronicles has already been referred to, but in a different connection (§ 2, pp. xvi f.). Here the point to notice is that _throughout the entire work_ the whole system of law and ritual found in the Pentateuch is presupposed as existing in its final form. This system, which may conveniently be described as Priestly (P) in distinction from the earlier system to which the name Deuteronomic (D) is applied, and the still earlier standpoint represented by the Jahvistic and Elohistic writers (J and E), may have been of slow growth, and no doubt embodies features of law and ritual which are of relatively high antiquity. But there is overwhelming evidence to prove that, as an organised and completed _system_, it cannot be dated earlier than the period of Nehemiah (_circa_ 425 B.C.). Now in Chronicles not only is this final code in force; it has evidently been so long and so firmly established that the Chronicler did not know, or at least did not believe, that any other earlier system had once ruled the practice of Israel. He belonged to a period when the development of the Pentateuch was no more remembered, and when its origin――in all completeness――had come to be ascribed with absolute confidence to the remote past, in accordance with that religious instinct which we have described above on p. xiv. Manifestly, a considerable lapse of time after Nehemiah’s period must be allowed for that conviction to have become established. Another consideration is found in the attitude of the Chronicler towards the kingdom of Israel. For the apostate Northern Kingdom the Chronicler has only contempt and hatred and displays no interest whatever in its fortunes, except that he takes pains occasionally to indicate the corruption of the North, thus emphasising by contrast the virtue of the Judeans. His absorption in the affairs of Jerusalem and his bitter antagonism to the North in all likelihood reflect the anger felt by the post-exilic Jews of Jerusalem against the Samaritans after the famous schism between the two communities. Indeed it is possible, § 6 (1), that his work was directly inspired by the necessity of combating the religious pretensions of the Samaritans with their Temple on Mt Gerizim, rivalling Jerusalem. The Samaritan schism is generally supposed to date from 432 B.C., but there are grounds for thinking that it was not so early, and _possibly_ the Temple on Mt Gerizim may have been built, not in 432, but in 332 B.C. If the later date be correct, we have strong evidence for dating Chronicles not earlier than the last half of the fourth century B.C.