Gatekeepers as Spatial Agents: Sacred Space, Community Boundaries, and Imperial Power in 1 Chronicles 26

This article argues that 1 Chronicles 26 is not an administrative appendix but a theologically charged representation of sacred space. Focusing on the Levitical gatekeepers in 1 Chronicles 26:1–19, it shows how genealogical naming, casting lots, and directional deployment of personnel construct a disciplined regime of access around the temple. Drawing on Lefebvre’s spatial triad and de Certeau’s distinction between strategies and tactics, the study reads gatekeepers as spatial agents who materialise a political theology of guarded holiness under Persian imperial power. Cross-textual comparison with 1 Chronicles 9, Nehemiah, 2 Kings 25, Ezekiel 44, and selected Psalms demonstrates that the Chronicler offers a distinctively positive and programmatic construal of gatekeeping within the Hebrew Bible.