1 Samuel

Composition

The biblical Book of First Samuel, often abbreviated as “1 Samuel,” has historically been dated to approximately 960 BCE. Judeo-Christian tradition holds that the Jewish prophet Samuel composed both 1 Samuel and its companion book, the Book of Second Samuel (“2 Samuel”). The two works are collectively known as the Books of Samuel and were originally presented as a single book. They were first divided into two books in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament that became influential in early Christianity.

Evidence supporting Samuel’s authorship of the Books of Samuel largely derives from ancient Jewish scripture. The Babylonian Talmud, which is the foundational text of Rabbinical Judaism, explicitly identifies Samuel as the writer of the sacred books that bear his name. However, the contents of 1 Samuel make it unlikely that Samuel physically wrote both Books of Samuel, as Samuel’s death is described in chapter 25 of 1 Samuel. Conventional analysis therefore suggests that at most, Samuel could have written chapters 1–24 of 1 Samuel. This leaves a sizable gap, as the authorship of chapters 25–31 of 1 Samuel and the entirety of 2 Samuel are unaccounted for.

This conundrum has been obvious since the Books of Samuel first entered the Judeo-Christian canon. To attempt to explain it, religious scholars have accepted the likely influence of other sources and authors including the court prophets Nathan and Gad from the era of King David, as well as the Book of Jasher (Jashar). The Book of Jasher is a work frequently referenced in early Judeo-Christian scripture, which scholars believe to be a lost collection of religious poems and verses.

In Christianity, theologians generally contend that the Books of Samuel were divinely authored by the Holy Spirit and put into written form by human servants of God. Thus, while the actual identities of its human authors are not definitively known, the unresolved nature of the authorship does not impact the books’ origins as a holy work of God, according to this perspective.

Summary

The early phases of 1 Samuel describe Samuel’s birth to Hannah, a woman who had previously been unable to bear children. At the time, Israel’s chief priest was Eli, and Eli’s sons were defying the established laws of God. The young Samuel begins having visions from God, leading Eli to declare him a prophet. Samuel becomes destined to serve as an Israelite priest and judge, as Eli’s descendants have proven themselves unworthy. He matures into a well-known and revered prophet, delivering messages from God to the Israelite people.

Israel goes to war against the Philistines, a non-Semitic people who settled in the southern region of Canaan, which had been pledged to the Israelites by God as their “promised land” through a series of sacred covenants. Eli’s sons are killed in battle, after which the Philistines desecrate Israel by stealing the Ark of the Covenant, a sanctified golden relic of the Israelite people and an all-important symbol of their devotion to God. Eli dies of shock upon learning of the slaying of his sons and the theft of the Ark, but the Israelites recover the Ark after terrible diseases befall its Philistine thieves. Celebrating the Ark’s recovery, Samuel refocuses the attention of the Israelite people on their commitments to God, convincing the holdouts among them to cease their continued worship of pagan gods. As a reward, God aids the Israelites in their ongoing battles with the Philistines, preventing Philistine tyranny over the Israelite people.

Wanting Israel’s governance to conform to that of the surrounding nations, the Israelites petition Samuel to appoint a king as their earthly ruler. Samuel asks God’s permission, which God grants with reservations. An unusually tall man named Saul soon presents himself to Samuel, who in turn receives a series of signs from God that Saul is meant to be the Israelite king. Samuel anoints Saul as the king of the Israelites, and King Saul soon leads them to a series of stirring military triumphs.

However, King Saul displays a lack of loyalty to God’s will on multiple occasions, performing improper rituals and disobeying the commands given to him by God through Samuel. Samuel tells King Saul that his irreverence will result in the loss of his position as king, prompting King Saul to grasp at Samuel’s cloak as he begs forgiveness. Samuel’s cloak rips, which Samuel characterizes as a metaphorical sign of King Saul’s broken rulership.

God guides Samuel to Bethlehem—notably, the future birthplace of Jesus Christ—and instructs Samuel to choose a new leader to replace King Saul from the family of a local farmer named Jesse (Isai). Samuel selects David, the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons, as the new Israelite king. God removes divine power from King Saul and grants it to David, prompting King Saul to suffer a highly public psychological and emotional breakdown characterized to the public as the work of an evil spirit. David, meanwhile, becomes a harpist in the court of King Saul, waiting until King Saul’s downfall is complete.

Against this backdrop, the famous encounter between David and Goliath occurs. Goliath, a gigantic Philistine said to be more than 9 feet (2.75 meters) tall, terrorizes the Israelites, and David volunteers to fight the behemoth. Refusing armor and with the favor of God, David kills Goliath with a slingshot, felling him with a single stone. The Israelites go on the offensive as the stunned Philistines scramble in retreat, and David is hailed as a hero.

The final chapters of the book document King Saul’s rivalry with David, in which David spares King Saul’s life on multiple occasions despite having to flee King Saul’s repeated attempts to kill him. David takes temporary refuge with the Philistines, who show him deference and respect as the warrior who felled the mighty Goliath. Samuel dies, and King Saul uses blasphemous occult channels to summon and consult Samuel’s ghost. Samuel’s irate spirit foretells King Saul’s impending death. David, now leading an army of Israelites opposed to King Saul’s rule, defeats another of Israel’s longtime enemies, the Amalekites, while King Saul leads his Israelite faction into a losing battle with the Philistines. With King Saul’s own sons dead as the result of the ill-fated confrontation, the embattled king commits suicide by falling on his own sword.

Themes

Major themes of 1 Samuel include leadership, the divine providence of God, and the influence of divine providence on human fortune as dramatized through a series of reversals of expectation. The leadership theme develops against the backdrop of Israel’s maturation from a nation of people into a formal state ruled by a divinely chosen king. Prior to the events of 1 Samuel, the Israelites largely functioned as a collective of tribes loosely unified by a class of religious priests and leaders. In 1 Samuel, the Israelites evolve beyond this rudimentary theocracy into a formalized kingdom under a human sovereign.

Analysts note that this transformation takes place across three main stages, each imbued with symbolic significance. In the first stage, Samuel liaises between God and the Israelites as the Israelites endeavor to choose a king. This represents the established Israelite “old order” of rule by religious judges, of which Samuel is a leading figure. The second stage represents the first, corrupted attempt at establishing a “new order” under the rule of a human king, which is embodied by King Saul’s doomed turn as sovereign of the Israelites. The third and final stage chronicles David’s rise through the ranks of the Israelites as King Saul’s reign reaches its tragic end, which codifies God’s standards for ideal kingship as embodied by David. This progression follows the “thesis, antithesis, synthesis” dialectic common in classical literature that was later modeled in iconic fashion by German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831).

In 1 Samuel, God repeatedly enacts divine providence by intervening in human affairs including intercessions into seemingly mundane and nondescript events. Two key examples include Saul’s initial arrival before Samuel, and David’s famous encounter with Goliath. In the first case, Saul’s simple and innocuous search for his lost donkeys ultimately resulted in his anointing as king of the Israelites, marking a dramatic turn in Saul’s fortunes and advancing God’s supreme plan for the Israelite leadership. In the second case, David is engaged in the simple task of bringing food to his brothers when he hears of Goliath’s impending attack. The seemingly chance event ultimately results in David achieving and cementing elevated standing among the Israelites, defining his future path to the Israelite nation’s kingship.

The divine providence theme also manifests through a series of reversals that contradict typical expectations and therefore reveal the potency and supremacy of God’s dominion. Examples include David’s birth to Hannah, a woman who was previously believed to suffer from infertility, as well as Saul’s elevation to the position of king despite his birth into a modest family of agricultural laborers. The same trope defines David’s elevation to the Israelite kingship, but with a variation—David was not only from a poor and unassuming family of meager means, but also the youngest of eight sons at a time when tradition would normally dictate that a family’s eldest son receives or inherits any such honors.

Bibliography

Gilmour, Rachelle. Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2021.

Long, V. Philips. 1 and 2 Samuel: An Introduction and Commentary. Westmont, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020.

Swindoll, Chuck. “First Samuel.” Insight for Living Ministries, 2022, insight.org/resources/bible/the-historical-books/first-samuel. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.

Wheeler, J.T. An Analysis and Summary of Old Testament History and the Laws of Moses (with a Connection between the Old and New Testaments). Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2020, pp. 163–199.

Zavada, Jack. “Introduction to Book of 1 Samuel.” Learn Religions, 15 Feb. 2019, www.learnreligions.com/book-of-1-samuel-701121. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.

Zavada, Jack. “Who Was Samuel in the Bible?” Learn Religions, 9 Nov. 2020, www.learnreligions.com/samuel-last-of-the-judges-701161. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.