101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

xxiv 101 Myths of the Bible
period? Was it a historical work or just a collection of poems? Since we have yet to find
a copy of this work, we can’t even be sure that Joshua and David actually appeared in
the original text; the author(s) of the two references to Jasher may have replaced the
original characters with the two biblical heroes.
The Acts of David
The story of David appears primarily in 1 and 2 Samuel, with some additional
material in 1 Chronicles, much of which is repetitive and some of which adds to the
Davidic history. The 1 Chronicles author, however, cites three sources for the acts of
David: the books of Samuel the Seer, Nathan the Prophet, and Gad the Seer.
Samuel the Seer is certainly the Samuel for whom the Book of Samuel is named,
and Nathan the Prophet most likely is the Nathan from King David’s court who
tripped up David for lying about having Bathsheba’s husband murdered to cover up
David’s affair with her. And Gad the Seer should be the same Gad the Seer that
advised King David on a variety of matters.
Together, these three references suggest that what has become the current Book of
Samuel was an amalgam of several earlier books, three of which are cited here and which
survived until the time of the Chronicles author, probably fourth century B.C. or later.
The first source mentioned is the book of Samuel the Seer. In Samuel, the title
character appears to be based on two separate individuals. One is Samuel the Judge,
who carries on the tradition of judging Israel and providing military and religious guidance.
This Samuel is against the institution of monarchy. The other Samuel is a
prophet or seer, who supports the monarchy and serves to validate the royal
authority of David of Judah against Saul of Benjamin. The two images of this one
individual are inconsistent.
The reference to the book of Samuel the Seer may be to the entire corpus of
Samuel as it has come down to us or it may refer to a source work that inspired that
portion of Samuel that supports the monarchy. That the author of Chronicles cites
two other sources about David suggests the latter.
Nathan the Prophet is an important character in the story of David and plays a key
role in bringing Solomon to the throne as David’s successor. While Samuel contains