myBibleHistory

Journey of a Passage

1 Chronicles 2:13–15

David the seventh son, or the eighth?

Chronicles names seven sons of Jesse, with David the seventh. 1 Samuel 16:10–11 and 17:12 say Jesse had eight sons, David the youngest. A difference between parallel books, not between copies of Chronicles.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. 1 Samuel 16:10–11; 17:12 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)Samuel
  2. Original ChroniclesComposed c. 4th century BC (debated)
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Chronicles
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 1 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of Chronicles
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. Samuel

    1 Samuel 16:10–11; 17:12 (parallel account, Masoretic Text)

    ✓ Contains this passage

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex, quoted here in English.

    Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel… There remaineth yet the youngest

    Eight sons in all; 17:12, "he had eight sons."

  2. Composed c. 4th century BC (debated)

    Original Chronicles

    – No copy survives

    No original survives; no certain Qumran copy of 1 Chronicles.

  3. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 1 Paraleipomena (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of Chronicles

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Azam le sixième, et David le septième.

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical Greek edition.

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    sextum Asom, septimum David.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Chronicles

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    אֹצֶם הַשִּׁשִּׁי דָּוִיד הַשְּׁבִעִי

    Ozem the sixth, David the seventh

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    Ozem the sixth, David the seventh

What changed, and why

Proposals: one son died young and is not counted; Elihu (27:18, "of the brethren of David") was the missing son; or Chronicles placed David seventh for its symbolic value. The Syriac is reported to add an eighth son (Elihu).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedAll library texts of Chronicles read "seventh."
  • Independently documented1 Samuel gives Jesse eight sons.

Sources

  • E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (2012)

Related lessons

  • Judah's Families: Tamar to David →Israel's twelve sons are named, and Judah comes first. The line runs through Tamar and Perez to Boaz, Obed and Jesse, whose seven sons end with David; his sisters Zeruiah and Abigail and their sons are named. Then come the clans of Caleb and Jerahmeel, with towns, wives, concubines and daughters, and the families of scribes and Kenites.
  • Investigation: Family Names and Historical Geography →Ancient genealogies did more than record ancestry: they expressed land claims, alliances, priestly rights and identity. 1 Chronicles 1–9 combines lists from Genesis and Numbers with clan and town lists of uncertain date. Some scholars find in them the geography of Persian- or Hellenistic-period Judah; others see older tribal memories.