Narrative
A tale of 2 kingdoms: Empire v. Shalom
- Exodus: Rescue, Marriage, Tabernacle
- Leviticus: Atonement ( we are right with God ), Priesthood in Israel and Israel as the priesthood
- Numbers: Honeymoon in the desert
- Deuteronomy: Remember where we came from, recall Isarel's humble beginnings and partner with God to bring other nations into redemption
- Joshua: Crossroads of the Earth/Canaan given to Israel
- Judges: Redemption cycle of Israel's faulting but Yahweh's rescue
- Ruth: Love story between righteous parties
TaNaKh
Jesus often refers to the "law" and "prophets" which are the Torah (law) and Nevi'im ( prophets ). The Ketuvim (writings) was still being canonized in Jesus' day.
Christian canon has the OT in a different order than the Tanakh is... many reasons probably. One is genre and Western groupings of books, which makes sense. Another might be some anti-semitism. Tanakh ends with Chronicles however the Christian OT ends with Malacai (ends with a curse) which might be that way to setup Jesus in the NT?
2 Sources for 1 Story
1 Source is Samuel and Kings (In the Jewish Nevi'im). The other source is Chronicles (In the Jewish Ketuvim). These sources tell the same story but different versions of the same stories.
Scholars debate authorship and time of writing all the time - Marty generalizes this a bit, doesn't want to get into the weeds and instead stay at a level we can enter into more easily.
Perspectives
Samuel/Kings can be read from Northern Israel's perspective. It reads more like headlines of events rather than reflective writing of historical events.
Eastern history is not as concerned with getting every fact correct as we are in the West - rather the Easterner is more concerned with telling details in a way that spurs action and sends a message.
Chronicles was written more from the perspective of Judah. Chronicles is much less "agenda-driven headlines" and instead is much more a "documentary perspective" from Judah.
Both sources are talking about the same period of history - the stories of Saul, David, and Solomon down through the rest of the kings.