The Books of Samuel reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Books of Samuel

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The Books of Samuel are two books in the Bible Old Testament and Hebrew Tanakh.

The Septuagint translators regarded the books of Samuel and the Kings as forming one continuous history, which they divided into four books, which they called "The Books of the Kingdom." The Vulgate version followed this division, but styled them "The 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 Books show a surprisingly balanced and psychologically believable view of the time they describe. Saul's and David's heroism and strength, their development and their friendships, but also their doubts, sins, and failures are described; this is unique and unprecedented in historiography at the time they were penned, a time when all-positive or all-negative portraits of rulers were the norm.

Traditionally, the authors of the books of Samuel have been held to be Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. Samuel is believed to have penned the first twenty-four chapters of the first book. Gad, the companion of David (1 Sam. 22:5), is believed to have continued the history thus commenced; and Nathan is believed to have completed it, probably arranging the whole in the form in which we now have it (1 Chronicles 29:29). Modern criticism regards this view as untenable, and the books are thought not to have reached their final written form until the 7th or 6th century BC, whereas the events they describe come from around the year 1000 BC. They do of course preserve a detailed older (oral or written) tradition to which the traditional authors may have contributed; it seems certain from the books' level of detail that that tradition did indeed originate during the time the books describe.

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. Samuel does not appear in it.
  1. David's reign over Judah (1-4), and
  2. David's reign over all Israel (5-24), mainly in its political aspects, and including his second temporary exile during Absaloms coup.

The last four chapters of Second Samuel may be regarded as a sort of appendix recording various events, but not chronologically. The death of David and enthronement of Solomon, while belonging to the Books of Samuel based on its narrative style, is found at the beginning of the First Book of the Kings.

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 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.

Initial text from Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897 -- Please update as needed

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