SAMUEL, BOOKS OF. The two books of Samuel originally formed one book. The original work was divided by the authors of the Septuagint into the First and Second Book of Kingdoms. Afterwards Jerome gave the books the title, The First and Second Book of Kings. Samuel gave his name to the work in the Hebrew Canon, not because he was its author. but because he plays a large and prominent part in the narrative. The history covered extends from the birth of the prophet Samuel to the close of the life of King David. The contents of the books have been divided as follows : (1) Eli and Samuel (I. Sam. L-vii.); (2) Samuel and Saul (I. Sam. viii.-xiv.); (3) Saul and David (I. Sam. xv. xxxi.); (4) David (II. Sam. i.-xx.); (5) Appendix of mis cellaneous matter (II. Sam. xxi.-xxiv.). These narratives are composite, having clearly been compiled from a number of sources. There are different and divergent accounts of the same events : for instance, in the origin of the monarchy and the appointment of Saul as king; and of the introduction of David to Saul (cp. I. Sam. ix. 1-x. 16 with x. 17-27, and I. Sam. xvi. 14-23 with I.
Sam. xvii. 1-xviii. '5). There are marked differences in the style of different sections. The compilers of the Books of Samuel would in fact seem to have drawn upon several different cycles of stories. C. F. Kent dis tinguishes early Judean Saul narratives, early Judean David narratives, later Ephraim-Re Samuel narratives, very late Popular Prophetic Traditions, and Popular Judean David stories. The early Judean Saul narra tives, which present sympathetically and appreciatively the character and work of Israel's first king, include chaps. ix. 1-x. 16, xi. 1-11, 15 b, xiii. 1-xiv. 46. The early Judean David narratives comprise : I. Sam. xvi. 14-xvii. 11, 32-40, 42-49, 51-54, xviii. 6-S, 12-16, 20-29a, six. 1-17, xx. 1-39, xxi. 1-9, xxii. 1-xxiii. 14a, xxv. 2-xxviii. 2, xxix.-xxxi.: II. Sam. i. 1-4, 11, 12, 17-iii. 1, 7-v. 13, 17-24, vi., viii. 7-10, ix. 1-xxi. 14, xxiii. S-39, xxiv. Kent thinks that " viewed either as literature or as historical sources, the early Judean David narratives are unsurpassed by any others in the Old Testament. The pictures which they give of the actors and events in this epoch-making period in Israel's history are not only interesting and full of life and local colour, but they may be accepted as substantially true, even in detail, to the historical facts. They and the related Saul stories probably repre sent the first extensive Hebrew writings." Kent assigns the early Judean Saul and David stories to the reign of Jehoshaphat (870-851 B.C.). No use is made in the Books of Samuel of the Early Ephraimite prophetic narratives. But later Ephraimite Samuel narratives,
in which the interest is religious and the purpose didactic, are found in I. Sam. i. 1-v. 1, vii. 2b-viii. 22, x. 17-25, xii. and xv. These, according to Kent, were committed to writing some time after the days of the prophet Hosea and before the reformation of King Josiah (621 B.C.). Examples of very late Prophetic Traditions, which are rather of the nature of Jewish midrashim (see MID RASH), are found in I. Sam. xv. 35 b-xvi. 13, xix. 18-xx. la. Finally, Popular Judean David Stories are found in I. Sam. xvii. 12-31, 41, 50, 55-58, xviii. 1-5, 10, 11, 17 19, 29b, 30, xxi. 10-15, xxiii. 10-xxiv. 22, II. Sam. i. 5 10. According to Kent, most of these were committed to writing " before the late prophetic editor compiled his history of the period—that is before the first capture of Jerusalem in 597 B.C." H. P. Smith and W. R. Harper distinguish in like manner between an early and a later history of the times of Saul and David. To these additions were made by a first and a second Deuteronomist redactor. To the first are due I. Sam. x. 25 b-27, xi. 12-14; to the second I. Sam. ii. 1-11, xiii. 1, xx. 1-xxi. 1; II. Sara. xxi 15-21, xxii. 1-23, xxix. Accord ing to Harper, the contemporary literary sources may include : the Song of Hannah (I. Sam. if. 1-10; according to Whitehouse and others, on the other hand, a post exilic production); David's Elegy on Saul and Jonathan (H. Sam. i. 19-27); David's Lament over Abner (II. Sam. iii. 33, 34); Nathan's parable of the ewe Iamb (II. Sam. xii. 1-15); the " last words of David " in a more original form: Psalm xviii. (II. Sam. xxii.). The prophet Samuel, who has given his name to these books, was probably the founder of certain prophetic schools. " In his days, it appears that the prophets had united together to make a common cause against the Canaanitish influences. Bands of ecstatic men—looking like madmen—went through the land preaching a holy war, and sweeping away everything that hindered their progress. . . . Samuel gathered them together and took them Into his service, and so began to refine their innate passionate and unruly natures and to guide their energies to new paths" (R. Kittel, The Scientific Study of the 0.T., 1910). See Encyci. Bibl.; H. P. Smith, The Books of Samuel in the LO.C., 1899; A. R. S. Kennedy, I. and II. Samuel in the " Century Bible "; W. R. Harper, The Prophetic Element in the Old Testament, 1905; C. F. Kent, Israel's Historical and Biographical Narratives, 1905; G. H. Box, Intr.; 0. C. Whitehouse.