Asa: The Chronicler dedicates the next narrative episode to the reign of King Asa of Judah (ca. 911/910–900 B.C.). As in the Abijah narrative, the Chronicler introduces a significant portion of his own material, creatively restructuring the Asa narrative in the source text (1 Kgs. 15:9–24) within a coherent theological framework.

The Deuteronomistic version communicates a positive image of Asa as a king who ensured religious-cultic purity (1 Kgs. 15:11–15), and it narrates an unrelated episode of successful military strategy and diplomacy (15:16–22). One could say that the Deuteronomistic narrative presents religious-cultic and political information about Asa’s reign. The Chronicler’s account, however, reformulated the two sections into two theological alternatives. It contrasts a clear cha…