The image of David ecstatically dancing before the Lord as the ark was brought back to Israel in 2 Samuel 6 inspired me to read 1 & 2 Samuel in order to get some context on the whole story. You have to go back to 1 Samuel. If you start at 2 Samuel 1 you get these words, “Now Saul was dead.” Hmmm, who is Saul? Well, you have to go back to 1 Samuel to find out.
And why are these two books called “Samuel?” Far better to call them 1 & 2 David! It is worth mentioning that Samuel at least unites the first book from before his birth until his appearance as a ghost after his death.
And why do we have two books instead of one? The simplistic answer is that the story recounted in these two books wouldn’t fit on a single scroll and so the single story is divided into two parts at an arbitrary point. But reading the two books, I have been struck by how balanced they are. For example, the loss of the ark in 1 Samuel 4 is paralleled by the restoration of the ark in 2 Samuel 6. For some reason, I was struck by a similarity between the Samuels and Luke/Acts. Can anyone tell me how long a standard scroll was? My kids would really like to know!
1 Samuel is a seamless narrative to a point. It is very exciting to read. The characters are vividly depicted and the plots are gripping. But then it all goes wrong. There is an awkward transition between chapters 16 and 17 that in my uneducated view gives evidence of the joining of two unrelated narratives. David’s anointing by Samuel and his promotion to court musician fit naturally into the story to this point. But then in chapter 17, the story of Goliath shows Saul as not knowing David and promising his daughter Michal in marriage to whoever defeats Goliath. Next, in chapter 18, Saul is promising his daughter Merab to David even though Michal is in love with David (and not married to him).
This turbulence in my opinion points to the work of an editor who stitched several narratives together to recount the story of David. Why, then, are these books not called 1 & 2 David?
Well, I’m approaching this not as a Biblical scholar but simply as a reader. You can feel the power of these stories as you read them but the turbulence at chapter 17 certainly derails the overall narrative for a while.
Ever since I was a child I have skipped right to 1 Samuel 17 to get to the story of David and Goliath. It is one of the greatest stories in world literature. Now that I am an old man (well, my kids think I’m old), I am beginning to appreciate the stories of unfortunate men like Saul and David who suffer for their bad decisions.
Do Christians need these books? Granted these books are a vivid snapshot of a key time in Israel’s history. But does that have anything to do with those of us living in the New Kingdom? For Nyungwe believers, no decision is necessary since these books will probably not be translated for a long time, if ever. The next Old Testament book scheduled to be translated is Exodus. It might be another five or ten years before 1 & 2 Samuel are translated. More about the Nyungwe Bible translation project and how you can get involved.
Well, enough writing about 1 & 2 Samuel. I’m going to sign off and go do some reading.
