Books of Samuel in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

One book in Hebrew; the Septuagint divided it into two. The Talmud (A.D. 500) is the earliest authority that ascribes the book to Samuel (Baba Bathra 14:2). The Hebrew give it his name because its first part treats of his birth, life, and work. His death recorded in 1 Samuel 25 proves he did not write it all. The Talmud's view, adopted by learned Christian fathers, may be true of the first 24 chapters. That Samuel wrote memoirs, which Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer supplemented, appears from 1 Chronicles 29:29; "now the acts ("history": dibrei) of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book ("history": dibrei) of Samuel the seer, and in the book ("history") of Nathan the prophet, and in the book ("history") of Gad the seer." Nehemiah is said in 2 Maccabees 2:13 to have "gathered together the acts in the kings and the prophets." The internal notices favor a date of the memoirs used in compiling 1 and 2 Samuel before the due organization of the temple and Mosaic ritual. For sacrifices are mentioned with tacit approval, or at least without apology, at other places (Mizpeh, Ramah, Bethel, and Araunah's threshing floor) than before the door of the tabernacle or temple, the only place permitted by the law (1 Samuel 7:9-10; 1 Samuel 7:17; 1 Samuel 9:13; 1 Samuel 10:3; 1 Samuel 14:35; 2 Samuel 24:18-25). On the contrary the writer of 1 and 2 Kings stigmatizes the high places to Jehovah and blames the kings who sanctioned or connived at them (1 Kings 15:14; 1 Kings 22:43; 2 Kings 12:3; 2 Kings 14:4; 2 Kings 15:4; 2 Kings 15:35; 2 Kings 16:4; 2 Kings 21:3). In the disestablishment of the Mosaic ritual consequent on the Philistine capture of the ark, and in the unsettled times that followed, even the godly followed Moses less strictly. Hence he is but twice mentioned in all Samuel, and then only as joined with Aaron in delivering Israel out of Egypt; the law is never mentioned (1 Samuel 12:6; 1 Samuel 12:8). In Joshua "Moses" occurs 56 times; in Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, after the captivity, when a return to the Mosaic standard, was the watchword of the civil and religious restoration, 31 times; in Kings, ten times; in the unsettled era of Judges, three times. Its early date is also implied by its purity of Hebrew as compared with the so- called Chaldaisms of Kings and the still more alloyed language of Chronicles. The passage (1 Samuel 27:6) "Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day" implies the division between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, but this is probably the comment of the last reviser. If it be the compiler's, then the compilation was made subsequently to the division. Though it does not record David's death it certainly takes it for granted (2 Samuel 5:5). This passage favors the view that the composition was shortly after his death...