1 Samuel
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Samuel is the name of the books in the ancient Hebrew text,
because he was the author and the main character in the early
portions in the first book, and because of his role as a
prophet of God known from Dan to Beersheba, who had anointed
and had the biggest influence on the lives of King Saul and
King David. The Lord raised up the prophet Samuel at a time in
the history of Israel when they were disunited as a people and
very determined to have a king reign over them. God made
Samuel a great man, he was a Judge (1 Samuel 7:6, 15-17), and
a Prophet (1 Samuel 3:20) and became God's chosen link
between the periods of the Judges and the United Kingdom.
According to Jewish tradition the books were written by Samuel
himself. They deal with the period in Jewish history from the
time of Othniel the Judge through the reign of King David in
the 11th and 10th centuries BC. This is of course one of the
most important and significant times in the history of Israel,
because their government changed from a system of tribes and
judges to a kingdom by which the king would rule according to
God's laws.
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Quick Overview of 1 Samuel. – –1-4 – –The problems and the
high priesthood of Eli, The birth of Samuel, Samuels calling
as a prophet, the corruption of Eli's sons, The death of Eli.
– – 5-12 – – the history of Samuel – – 13-31 – – the history
of Saul.
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Hebrew Name - Shemuel "asked of God". The original ancient
Hebrew manuscripts recorded the books of Samuel as only one
book. The first time these books were divided was in the
Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures, and
they were referred to as the First and Second Books of
Kingdoms. 1 and 2 Kings were referred to as the Third and
Fourth Books of Kingdoms. When looking closely at the King
James version of the Bible the titles are still arranged in
this way.
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Greek Name - Samoeul (Greek form of the Hebrew)
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Author - Samuel (According to Tradition)
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Author - Samuel (According to Tradition)
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Date - From 1171-1015 BC Approximately
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Main Theme of 1 Samuel - The beginning of the kingdom
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Types and Shadows - In Samuel Jesus is God's anointed King
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The Books of Samuel (Hebrew: Sefer Sh'muel ספר שמואל) are part
of the Hebrew Bible. The work was originally written in
Hebrew, and the Book(s) of Samuel originally formed a single
text, as they are often considered today in Jewish bibles.
Together with what is now referred to as the Book(s) of Kings,
the translators who created the Greek Septuagint divided the
text into four books, which they named the Books of the
Kingdoms. In the Latin Vulgate version, these then became the
Books of the Kings, thus 1 and 2 Samuel were referred to as 1
and 2 Kings, with 3 and 4 Kings being what are called 1 and 2
Kings by the King James Bible and its successors...
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LITERATURE
I. Place of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Canon.
In the Hebrew Canon and enumeration of the sacred books of
the Old Testament, the two Books of Samuel were reckoned as
one, and formed the third division of the Earlier Prophets
(nebhi'im ri'shonim). The one book bore the title "Samuel"
(shemu'el), not because Samuel was believed to be the
author, but because his life and acts formed the main theme
of the book, or at least of its earlier part. Nor was the
Book of Samuel separated by any real division in subject-
matter or continuity of style from the Book of Kings, which
in the original formed a single book, not two as in the
English and other modern versions. The history was carried
forward without interruption; and the record of the life of
David, begun in Samuel, was completed in Kings. This
continuity in the narrative of Israelite history was made
more prominent in the Septuagint, where the four books were
comprised under one title and were known as the four "Books
of the Kingdoms" (bibloi basileion). This name was probably
due to the translators or scholars of Alexandria. The
division into four books, but not the Greek title, was then
adopted in the Latin translation, where, however, the
influence of Jerome secured the restoration of the Hebrew
names, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings (Regum). Jerome's
example was universally followed, and the fourfold division
with the Hebrew titles found a place in all subsequent
versions of the Old Testament Scriptures. Ultimately, the
distinction of Samuel and Kings each into two books was
received also into printed editions of the Hebrew Bible.
This was done for the first time in the editio princeps of
the Rabbinic Bible, printed at Venice in 1516-17 AD.
II. Contents of the Books and Period of Time Covered by the
History.
The narrative of the two Books of Samuel covers a period of
about a hundred years, from the close of the unsettled era
of the Judges to the establishment and consolidation of the
kingdom under David. It is therefore a record of the
changes, national and constitutional, which accompanied this
growth and development of the national life, at the close of
which the Israelites found themselves a united people under
the rule of a king to whom all owed allegiance, controlled
and guided by more or less definitely established
institutions and laws. This may be described as the general
purpose and main theme of the books, to trace the advance of
the people under divine guidance to a state of settled
prosperity and union in the promised land, and to give
prominence to theocratic rule which was the essential
condition of Israel's life as the people of God under all
the changing forms of early government. The narrative
therefore centers itself around the lives of the three men,
Samuel, Saul and David, who were chiefly instrumental in the
establishment of the monarchy, and to whom it was due more
than to any others that Israel emerged from the depressed
and disunited state in which the tribes had remained during
the period of the rule of the Judges, and came into
possession of a combined and effective national life. If the
formal separation therefore into two books be disregarded,
the history of Israel as it is narrated in "Samuel" is most
naturally divided into three parts, which are followed by an
appendix recording words and incidents which for some reason
had not found a place in the general narrative:
A. The life and rule of Samuel (1 Sam 1 through 15) (death 1
Sam 25:1)...
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are not separated from each other in the Hebrew MSS., and,
from a critical point of view, must be regarded as one book.
The present, division was first made in the Septuagint
translation, and was adopted in the Vulgate from the
Septuagint. The book was called by the Hebrews: "Samuel,"
probably because the birth and life of Samuel were the
subjects treated of in the beginning of the work. The books
of Samuel commence with the history of Eli and Samuel, and
contain all account of the establishment of the Hebrew
monarchy and of the reigns of Saul and David, with the
exception of the last days of the latter monarch which are
related in the beginning of the books of Kings, of which
those of Samuel form the previous portion. [KINGS, B00KS OF]
Authorship and date of the book,--
1. As to the authorship. In common with all the
historical books of the Old Testament, except the beginning
of Nehemiah, the book of Samuel contains no mention in the
text of the name of its author. It is indisputable that the
title "Samuel" does not imply that the prophet was the
author of the book of Samuel as a whole; for the death of
Samuel is recorded in the beginning of the 25th chapter. In
our own time the most prevalent idea in the Anglican Church
seems to have been that the first twenty-four chapters of
the book of Samuel were written by the prophet himself, and
the rest of the chapters by the prophets Nathan and Gad.
This, however, is doubtful.
2. But although the authorship cannot be ascertained
with certainty, it appears clear that, in its present form
it must have been composed subsequent to the secession of
the ten tribes, B.C. 975. This results from the passage in
1Sa 27:6 wherein it is said of David, "Then Achish gave him
Ziklag that day wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings
of Judah to this day:" for neither Saul, David nor Solomon
is in a single instance called king of Judah simply. On the
other hand, it could hardly have been written later than the
reformation of Josiah, since it seems to have been composed
at a time when the Pentateuch was not acted on as the rule
of religious observances, which received a special impetus
at the finding of the Book of the Law at the reformation of
Josiah. All, therefore, that can be asserted with any
certainty is that the book, as a whole, can scarcely have
been composed later than the reformation of Josiah, and that
it could not have existed in its present form earlier than
the reign of Rehoboam. The book of Samuel is one of the best
specimens of Hebrew prose in the golden age of Hebrew
literature. In prose it holds the same place which Joel and
the undisputed prophecies of Isaiah hold in poetical or
prophetical language.
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The LXX. translators regarded the books of Samuel and of
Kings
as forming one continuous history, which they
divided into four
books, which they called "Books of the Kingdom." The
Vulgate
version followed this division, but styled them
"Books of the
Kings." These books of Samuel they accordingly
called the
"First" and "Second" Books of Kings, and not, as in
the modern
Protestant versions, the "First" and "Second" Books
of Samuel.
The authors of the books of Samuel were probably
Samuel, Gad,
and Nathan. Samuel penned the first twenty-four
chapters of the
first book. Gad, the companion of David (1 Sam.
22:5), continued
the history thus commenced; and Nathan completed it,
probably
arranging the whole in the form in which we now have
it (1 Chr.
29:29).
The contents of the books. The first book comprises
a period
of about a hundred years, and nearly coincides with
the life of
Samuel. It contains (1) the history of Eli (1-4);
(2) the
history of Samuel (5-12); (3) the history of Saul,
and of David
in exile (13-31). The second book, comprising a
period of
perhaps fifty years, contains a history of the reign
of David
(1) over Judah (1-4), and (2) over all Israel (5-
24), mainly in
its political aspects. The last four chapters of
Second Samuel
may be regarded as a sort of appendix recording
various events,
but not chronologically. These books do not contain
complete
histories. Frequent gaps are met with in the record,
because
their object is to present a history of the kingdom
of God in
its gradual development, and not of the events of
the reigns of
the successive rulers. It is noticeable that the
section (2 Sam.
11:2-12: 29) containing an account of David's sin in
the matter
of Bathsheba is omitted in the corresponding passage
in 1 Chr.
20.
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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.
That the composer used various existing materials
appears from the distinct, but not irreconcilable, accounts
of Saul's first acquaintance with David (1 Samuel 16:14-23;
1 Samuel 17:55-58), also of Saul's death (1 Samuel 31:2-6; 1
Samuel 31:8-13; 2 Samuel 1:2-12), also of the origin of the
proverb "is Saul also among the prophets?" (1 Samuel 10:9-
12; 1 Samuel 19:22-24). (See DAVID.) Summaries or endings of
different memoirs incorporated by the composer appear in 1
Samuel 7:15-17; 1 Samuel 14:47-52; 2 Samuel 8:15-18. The
only book quoted is the Book of Jasher...
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