1 and 2 Samuel

Abstract

This replacement volume in the Tyndale commentary series by V. Philips Long offers a much lengthier (by nearly 200 pages) and more advanced scholarly treatment of 1–2 Samuel replacing Joyce Baldwin’s 1988 320-page earlier contribution, which was an excellent volume itself, albeit perhaps overly brief as per the previous approach of the Tyndale series. Long shows his penchant for close readings of the narrative texts of Samuel throughout this volume, including his approach to characters and characterizations as is seen in his treatments, for example, of characters such as Samuel, Saul, David, and Yahweh. While Long provides only transliterations of the Hebrew text (along with translations of such), these are far more extensive than the previous edition and could challenge readers not trained in Hebrew, even in transliterated form. The use of transliterations is a curious feature of many OT commentaries seeking a mediating position between usability and critical discussions.One of the helpful features that Long provides in his reading of 1–2 Samuel is tracing his proposed central theological theme across the books of Samuel: kbd “glory, weightiness, honor” (pp. 27–29). This thematic element helps to stitch together the many stories in the ways they are told, extending and integrating the lexical range of kbd. While there may be quibbles about potential theological themes that are in focus across these books, this approach still takes seriously the ways in which the final form of the text makes use of this element without suggesting it is the only one (p. 23). It provides a helpful, fresh reading of the texts as Long notes ways it informs the shape of the stories.Further, Long’s careful attention to notions of character and characterization assists his readings of these texts beginning with an introduction to some of the issues in the introduction (pp. 13–23). This approach allows for a contrastive reading against and benefiting from other such readings that may, for instance, depict Saul as either undone by Samuel despite his best efforts or a witless buffoon who can never seem to do anything correctly according to the editor. Long sees such readings as “revisionist” (pp. 16–17) and proposes a more complex characterization, suggesting the text is “at best, ambivalent” about the character of Saul through many of the early stories of Saul (pp. 127–28).Various critical discussions are offered throughout the commentary that have likely contributed to this much longer replacement volume. While the primary base text for the commentary is the Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT), Long follows many other commentators in allowing for each individual text critical issue to be dealt with on its own basis of external and internal criteria for evaluation and proposed reading (see pp. 23–25 for his brief explanation of this.) As part of these processes, Long proposes and engages a number of textual emendations to the MT, which is not surprising given the state of the MT for 1–2 Samuel (e.g., pp. 45, 126–27, 152–53, 158–59, 176–78, 274).Another of his contributions to critical discussions of 1–2 Samuel pertains to attenuation to proposed literary structures and cues as a means of hearing the texts in relation to one another. While he notes ways, for instance, that Mephibosheth’s claims in support of David seem more likely than the counterclaims of Ziba (2 Sam 19:24–30), Long seems to miss the canonical shaping which allows the reader to hear this incident backward in light of the revealing decision of Solomon’s wisdom (1 Kgs 3), though only the later narrative voice indicates the right choice, and the Samuel narrative voice does not (pp. 425–28).This contribution to the Tyndale series points in a more nuanced and critical direction than the earlier volumes of the Tyndale series. Long provides depth of engagement in numerous critical examinations of the text and the history relative to the text of 1–2 Samuel. This work may move some parts beyond usefulness for the less educated pastor and layperson but will certainly help students and more academically geared ministers and laypersons toward understanding the text and its many nuanced complications. But this volume is still a welcome update as a potential replacement volume for the earlier Baldwin contribution. The expanded nature of Long’s contribution and the constructive and critical readings throughout provide the interpreter a welcome hearing overall of the texts of 1–2 Samuel that will provide useful tools for a more advanced study of the texts in preaching, teaching, and writing.