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Journey of a Passage

1 Samuel 1:24

Three bulls, or one three-year-old bull?

Hannah brings Samuel to Shiloh with an offering. The Masoretic Text says "three bulls"; 4QSam-a and the Greek say "a three-year-old bull." The next verse, "they slew a bullock," fits one animal.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. Original SamuelUnknown (debated)
  2. 4QSam-a (4Q51)Mid-1st century BCDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
  3. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel
Greek
  1. Septuagint, 1 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)Translated c. 2nd century BCTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period
Latin
  1. Jerome's Vulgatec. AD 400Translated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

How the difference could arise

Same letters, different division
בפר משלש, "with a bull of three years," and בפרים שלשה, "with three bulls," differ mainly in where a mem falls and one letter.
Context
Verse 25 has one bull slaughtered, supporting the singular.
Modern Bibles
Many (NRSV, NIV, ESV) follow 4QSam-a and the Greek.

Every witness, in order

  1. Unknown (debated)

    Original Samuel

    – No copy survives

    No original survives.

  2. Translated c. 2nd century BC

    Septuagint, 1 Kingdoms (library text: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from a Hebrew text of the period

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    ils avaient un bœuf de trois ans, des pains, un éphi de fleur de farine et un nébel de vin

    they had a three-year-old ox, loaves, an ephah of fine flour and a skin of wine

    One Greek text (Vaticanus type) via Giguet's French; not checked against a critical edition.

  3. Mid-1st century BC

    4QSam-a (4Q51)

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel

    How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.

    Reported to read "a bull of three years" (בפר משלש), with bread, as published in DJD XVII. Letters not transcribed here.

    Source: F. M. Cross, D. W. Parry, R. J. Saley and E. Ulrich, Qumran Cave 4.XII: 1–2 Samuel (DJD XVII, 2005); Sefaria, 1 Samuel 1:24 with commentaries ↗

  4. c. AD 400

    Jerome's Vulgate

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from Hebrew texts of Jerome's day

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    in vitulis tribus, et tribus modiis farinæ

    with three calves and three measures of flour

    Follows the Hebrew.

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from Original Samuel

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    בְּפָרִים שְׁלֹשָׁה וְאֵיפָה אַחַת קֶמַח

    with three bulls and one ephah of flour

    1:25: "they slew the bull" (singular).

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour

    Follows the Hebrew.

What changed, and why

A real ancient variant with Hebrew support from Qumran. The site does not reconstruct the Qumran letters beyond what the published edition reports.

What the evidence shows

Sources

Related lessons

  • Hannah at Shiloh →Elkanah has two wives: Peninnah has children; Hannah has none and is taunted every year at the pilgrimage to Shiloh. Hannah prays silently at the sanctuary, vowing that a son would be given to the LORD. Eli the priest thinks she is drunk, then blesses her. Samuel is born, and when he is weaned she brings him to Shiloh.
  • How 1 Samuel Came to Us →Samuel was one book in the Hebrew Bible, divided in two by the Greek translators. Its Hebrew text is unusually difficult, and the Greek often reflects a different Hebrew. A Dead Sea Scroll, 4QSam-a, agrees with the Greek in many places, preserves a paragraph found nowhere else in the Bible, and changed how scholars study the text of the Old Testament.