How 2 Samuel Came to Us

In Hebrew tradition, Samuel is one book; its division into two follows the Greek "1 and 2 Kingdoms" (Reigns), and the Latin "1 and 2 Kings." The Talmud attributes the book to Samuel, with Gad and Nathan completing it; 2 Samuel takes place entirely after Samuel's death.

The Court History

Since Leonhard Rost (1926), scholars have spoken of a "Succession Narrative" or "Court History" in 2 Samuel 9–20 and 1 Kings 1–2, telling who would succeed David. Its frank portrayal of the king's sins has led some to date it early, close to the events; others think it was written later, even as a critique of the monarchy. Its extent and purpose are debated.

The appendix

Chapters 21–24 are arranged in a ring: a story (famine, 21:1–14), a list of warriors (21:15–22), a poem (22), a poem (23:1–7), a list of warriors (23:8–39), a story (plague, 24). Their events come from different points in David's reign.

The witnesses

The kaige problem

Dominique Barthélemy showed in 1963 that parts of Samuel–Kings in Codex Vaticanus are not the Old Greek but a 1st-century revision toward the Hebrew, called kaige after its habit of translating Hebrew gam ("also") as kaige. In 2 Samuel the kaige section begins at 11:2. In that section, the library's Greek (Giguet, a Vaticanus-type text) often agrees with the Masoretic Text for that reason, while the older Greek may survive in the Lucianic manuscripts. A French translation of one Greek manuscript type cannot stand for "the Greek" here.