Leuchter explores the biblical texts revolving around the figure of Samuel, and considers how the authors utilize him as a symbol to address the cultural memories and contemporary politics of their audiences. Samuel's role as a priest, a prophet, a judge, a warrior, a lawgiver and a kingmaker are examined in light of the origins of ancient Israel.
Power comprises one of the key topics of the book of Samuel. This theme encompasses tribal contentions, power differentials between religious authorities and kings, fathers and sons, men and women. The articles assembled here explore Israel's search for political identity and Samuel's critique of monarchy, the book's constructions of power and powerlessness, and the editors' and early audiences' postmonarchic reflections. Historical and social-scientific approaches to the book of Samuel find ancient Near Eastern parallels for the political organization of Israel and describe the social conditions under authoritarian regimes. Redactional approaches examine the diachronic development of Samuel's varying perceptions of monarchy, from that institution's inception through its entrenchment in Israelite and Judahite society, until it underwent a sudden, cataclysmic failure. And literary and theological approaches advocate for contemporary reconsideration and application of the book's more noble principles.
David and Goliath, the call of Samuel, the witch of Endor, David and Bathsheba — such biblical stories are well known. But the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, where they are recorded, are among the most difficult books in the Bible. The Hebrew text is widely considered corrupt and sometimes even unintelligible. The social and religious customs are strange and seem to diverge from the tradition of Moses. In this first part of an ambitious two-volume commentary on the books of Samuel, David Toshio Tsumura sheds considerable light on the background of 1 Samuel, looking carefully at the Philistine and Canaanite cultures, as he untangles the difficult Hebrew text.
Considering the literary dimension of the earliest text history of Samuel, this volume asks the question if the comparative analysis of the textual witnesses permit proving the existence of distinct literary editions and identifying the ideological motives that governed the possible modification of the text.
In this theological commentary on 1 Samuel, Stephen Chapman probes the tension between religious conviction and political power through the characters of Saul and David. Saul, Chapman argues, embodies civil religion, a form of belief that is ultimately captive to the needs of the state. David, on the other hand, stands for a vital religious faith that can support the state while still maintaining a theocentric freedom. Chapman offers a robustly theological and explicitly Christian reading of 1 Samuel, carefully studying the received Hebrew text to reveal its internal logic. He shows how the book's artful narrative explores the theological challenge presented by the emergence of the monarchy in ancient Israel. Chapman also illuminates the reception of the David tradition, both in the Bible and in later history: even while David as king becomes a potent symbol for state power, his biblical portrait continues to destabilize civil religion.
First and Second Samuel tell the story of the beginnings of monarchy in ancient Israel. These two powerful narratives present many great figures of biblical history—Samuel, Saul, and David—and explore the complex interaction of historical developments and human fidelity under God. In the books of Samuel, characters interact to influence and persuade, to express motivation and desire, and to shape the reader's understanding of the issues that faced the Israelites as they responded to God's invitation to covenant. Through the medium of story, the reader shares in the perennial struggle to discover, in the midst of personal and political conflict, God's ways for humanity.
The Cornerstone Biblical Commentary series provides students, pastors, and laypeople with up-to-date, accessible evangelical scholarship on the Old and New Testaments. Presenting the message for each passage, as well as an overview of other issues relevant to the text, each volume equips pastors and Christian leaders with exegetical and theological knowledge so they can better understand and apply God’s Word. This volume includes the entire NLT text of 1 and 2 Samuel. J. Robert Vannoy, Th.D., Free University of Amsterdam, is Professor Emeritus and Allan A. MacRae Chair of Biblical Studies at Biblical Theological Seminary. He has over 40 years of experience in teaching and has served as a translation consultant for the NIV, TNIV, and NLT. He has also contributed articles to various publications including reference works (such as the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology), scholarly journals, and magazines. He and his wife are blessed with four children and over 10 grandchildren. Outside of Old Testament studies, Robert enjoys family, gardening, photography, hiking, and exploring islands on the Maine coast.
As with archaeology, traditio-historical research of Old Testament literature proceeds backwards from the received text, travelling through the earlier stages of compositions to the probable origins. The canonical structure of the Hebrew Bible has therefore been taken as the point of departure in the traditio-historical study of the Nathan Narrative in 2 Samuel 7:1-17. By progressing backwards from the Canonical Prophets, the stages in the composition of the Joshua-Kings corpus, and of 2 Samuel 7:1-17, have been recovered through the application of redactio-critical and literary critical methods. A pre-history of the Narrative has also been retraced in the traditions that were preserved in the oral stages, in the typical forms and settings of transmission. Notwithstanding the valuable insights that have accrued from Martin Noth's hypothesis of a "Deuteronomistic History," both the hypothesis itself and analyses deriving from it have failed to account satisfactorily for the place of 2 Samuel 7:1-17 in the Joshua-Kings composition. That failure is due to a methodological flaw of taking a non-canonical configuration--namely the Deuteronomy-Kings corpus--as the point of departure and the interpretative key. This study tries to remedy that flaw.
This collection of essays by noted philosopher Samuel Scheffler combines discussion of abstract questions in moral and political theory with attention to the normative dimension of current social and political controversies. In addition to chapters on more abstract issues such as the nature of human valuing, the role of partiality in ethics, and the significance of the distinction between doing and allowing, the volume also includes essays on immigration, terrorism, toleration, political equality, and the normative significance of tradition. Uniting the essays is a shared preoccupation with questions about human value and values. The volume opens with an essay that considers the general question of what it is to value something - as opposed, say, to wanting it, wanting to want it, or thinking that it is valuable. Other essays explore particular values, such as equality, whose meaning and content are contested. Still others consider the tensions that arise, both within and among individuals, in consequence of the diversity of human values. One of the overarching aims of the book is to illuminate the different ways in which liberal political theory attempts to resolve conflicts of both of these kinds.
