Nor need much be said of the relation of the chronicler to the later Jewish literature of the Apocalypses and Wisdom. If the spirit of this literature were already stirring in some Jewish circles, the chronicler himself was not moved by it. Ecclesiastes, as far as he could have understood it, would have pained and shocked him. But his work lay in that direct line of subtle rabbinic teaching which, beginning with Ezra, reached its climax in the Talmud. Chronicles is really an anthology gleaned from ancient historic sources and supplemented by early specimens of Midrash and Hagada. In order to understand the book of Chronicles, we have to keep two or three simple facts constantly and clearly in mind. In the first place, the chronicler was separated from the monarchy by an aggregate of changes which involved a complete breach of continuity between the old and the new order: instead of a nation there was a Church; instead of a king there were a high-priest and a foreign governor. Secondly, the effects of these changes had been at work for two or three hundred years, effacing all trustworthy recollection of the ancient order and schooling men to regard the Levitical dispensation as their one original and antique ecclesiastical system. Lastly, the chronicler himself belonged to the Temple community, which was the very incarnation of the spirit of the new order. With such antecedents and surroundings, he set to work to revise the national history recorded in Samuel and Kings. A monk in a Norman monastery would have worked under similar but less serious disadvantages if he had undertaken to rewrite the _Ecclesiastical History_ of the Venerable Bede. Chapter III. Sources And Mode Of Composition. Our impressions as to the sources of Chronicles are derived from the general character of its contents, from a comparison with other books of the Old Testament, and from the actual statements of Chronicles itself. To take the last first: there are numerous references to authorities in Chronicles which at first sight seem to indicate a dependence on rich and varied sources. To begin with, there are “The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel,”(4) “The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah,”(5) and “The Acts of the Kings of Israel.”(6) These, however, are obviously different forms of the title of the same work. Other titles furnish us with an imposing array of prophetic authorities. There are “The _Words_” of Samuel the Seer(7), of Nathan the Prophet,(8) of Gad the Seer,(9) of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer,(10) of Jehu the son of Hanani,(11) and of the Seers(12); “The _Vision_” of Iddo the Seer(13) and of Isaiah the Prophet(14); “The _Midrash_” of the Book of Kings(15) and of the Prophet Iddo(16); “The _Acts_ of Uzziah,” written by Isaiah the Prophet(17); and “The _Prophecy_” of Ahijah the Shilonite.(18) There are also less formal allusions to other works.