The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as ...

THE BOOK OF SAMUEL
ideological structure, while suggesting a more balanced method to
evaluate its historical information.
THE BOOK’S COMPOSITION IN EARLY EXEGESIS AND
MEDIEVAL COMMENTARIES
In the book of Samuel itself, there is no explicit statement regarding
the book’s authorship and the way it was composed. 2 The earliest
apparent reference to this issue appears in 1 Chr 29:29, where it
concludes the history of David and his reign: “The acts of King
David, early and late, are recorded in the history of Samuel the seer,
the history of Nathan the prophet, and the history of Gad the seer,
together with all the mighty deeds of his kingship and the events
that befell him and Israel and all the kingdoms of the earth.” Are
these references to the traditional book of Samuel? Obviously not,
for the following reasons: (a) The book of Samuel was well known
to the author of Chronicles and his audience. From it the author of
Chronicles took blocks of material integrating them in his new
book, at times making just tiny changes and at other times making
long and meaningful changes. There is no point, then, in a reference
to the book of Samuel, which was already well known to his
public. (b) This reference speaks about the first and the last acts of
David. The latter presumably include the stories about David’s old
age, the struggle between Solomon and Adonijah, David’s will and
its execution. Yet these topics are not part of the traditional book
of Samuel, but rather are included in the first two chapters of the
first book of Kings. Furthermore, the book of Samuel does not
deal with “the events that befell … all the kingdoms of the earth,”
except for the few events where the leaders of Israel fought against
their neighboring countries or made peace with them. It seems that
the book of Chronicles refers to ancient writings that had a much
wider scope than that of the traditional book of Samuel. (c) Chronicles
refers to three ancient prophetical books that treated the early
and late times of David. This description does not fit the traditional
book of Samuel that opens with stories about Eli and his sons,
Samuel’s birth and how he became a national leader, and continues
with the kingdom of Saul, and only then moves on to David’s early
and late deeds. (d) It is clear that Chronicles refers to three different
ancient writings attributed to three different prophets: Samuel,
Nathan and Gad. These ancient sources included more material
than that in the book of Samuel. On the other hand, the passage in
2 There are, however, some vague references in the book of Samuel to
ancient writings—1 Sam 10:25: Samuel wrote the rules of the monarchy in
“a book” and laid it before the Lord, that is in the shrine of Mizpah; in 2
Sam 1:18, there is a reference to “the book of Yashar.” The latter is also
referred to in Josh 10:13. In LXX to 1 Kgs 8:13 the version is: “Book of
ha-Shir.”
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