Beginning at the Ending

New beginnings are birth out of the death of what came before, as the memory of the dead past sets the stage for everything that comes afterward. The Chronicler begins the story of 1 and 2 Chronicles interestingly with the death of Saul, the first King of Judah and sets the stage for a reform of the Hebrew nation upon its return from Babylonian exile. The reform is structured on the revisioned communal memory of the Kings of Judah.