Samuel the Savior

The first chapters of I Samuel chronicle the transition of the Israelites from the period of charismatic heroes and anarchic behavior to the first monarch. As the priests of Israel steal from pilgrims and sexually accost women at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in Shilo, Samuel the prophet anoints Saul, who will lead Israel to many military triumphs. The well-known story as told in the Book of I Samuel was, however, not the first version of the tale. In the first version-the...
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The first chapters of I Samuel chronicle the transition of the Israelites from the period of charismatic heroes and anarchic behavior to the first monarch. As the priests of Israel steal from pilgrims and sexually accost women at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting in Shilo, Samuel the prophet anoints Saul, who will lead Israel to many military triumphs. The well-known story as told in the Book of I Samuel was, however, not the first version of the tale. In the first version-the kernel, if you will-the priests are not evil degenerates and the reigns of Samuel and Saul are not preceded by anarchy. The Book of I Samuel as we know it developed through the accretive additions of four authors to this kernel, all of whom had very different ideas than this first author. Samuel the Savior traces the development of this story of transition from its divergent beginnings into the canonical text of I Samuel.