But there are two other points which more especial- ly placed him at the head of the prophetic order as it afterwards appeared. The lirst is brought out in his relation with Saul, the second in his relation witli Da- vid.
2. He represents the independence of the moral law, of the Divine Will, as distinct from regal or sacerdotal enactments, which is so remarkable a characteristic of all the later prophets. As we have seen, he was, if a Levite, yet certainly not a priest; and all the attempts to identify his opposition to Saul with a hierarchical in- terest are founded on a complete misconception of the facts of the case. From the time of the overthrow of iShiloh, he never appears in the remotest connection with the priestly order. Among all the places included in his personal or administrative visits, neither Shiloh, nor Nob, nor Gibeon (the seats of the sacerdotal caste) is ever mentioned. When he counsels Saul, it is not as the priest, but as the prophet ; when he sacrifices or blesses the sacrifice, it is not as the priest, but either as an individual Israelite of eminence, or as a ruler, like Saul himself. Saul's sin in both cases where he came into collision with Samuel was not simply that of in- truding into sacerdotal functions, but of disobedience to the prophetic voice. The first was that of not waiting for Samuel's arrival, according to the sign given by Samuel at his original meeting at l^amah (1 Sam. x, 8 ; xiii, S) ; the second was that of not carrying out the stern prophetic injunction for the destruction of the Amalekites. When, on that occasion, the aged prophet called the captive prince before him, and with his own liands hacked him limb from limb in retribution for the desolation he had brought into the liomes of Israel, and thus offered up his mangled remains almost as a human sacrifice ("before the Lord in Gilgal"), we see the representative of the older part of the Jewish his- tory. Uut it is the true prophetic utterance such as breathes through the psalmists and prophets when he says to Saul in words which, from their poetical form, must have become fixed in the national memory, '• To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."
3. Samuel is the first of the regular s\iccession of prophets: "All the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after" (Acts iii, 2-1) ; "Ex quo sanctus Sam- uel proplieta ctcpit. et deinceps donee populus Israel in Babyloniara captivus veherefur, . . . totum est tempus prophetarum" (Augustine, C/r. /to', xvii, 1). Moses, Mir- iam, and Deborah, perhaps Ehud, had been prophets. But it was only from Samuel that the continuous succes- sion was unbroken. This may have been merely from the coincidence of his appearance with the beginning of the new order of things, of which the prophetical otfica was the chief expression. Some predisposing causes there may have been in his own family and birthplace. llis mother, as we have seen, though not expressly so called, was, in fact, a prophetess; the word Zophim, as the affix of Kamathaim, lias been explained, not unrea- sonably, to mean "seers;" and Elkanah, his father, is, by the Chaklee paraphrast on 1 Sam.i, 1, said to be "a
IX.— X
disciple of the prophets." But the connection of the continuity of the oflice with Samuel appears to be still more direct. It is in his lifetime, long after lie had been "established as a prophet" (1 Sam. iii, 20), that we hear of the companies of disciples, called in the Old Test. " the sons of the prophets," by modern writers " the schools of the prophets." All the peculiarities of their education are implied or expressed — the sacred dance, the sacred music, the solemn procession (x, 5, 10; 1 Chron. xxv, 1, 0). At the head of this congre- gation, or "church, as it were, within a cliurch" (Sept. 7-»;v lKK\i](yiav, I Sam. x, 5, 10), Samuel is expressly de- scribed as "standing appointed over them" (xix, 20). Their chief residence at this time (though afterwards, as the institution spread, it struck root in other i)laces) was at Samuel's own abode, Kamah, where they lived in habitations {Naioih, xix, 19, etc.) apparently of a rus- tic kind, like the leafy huts Avhich Elisha's disciples af- terwards occupied by the Jordan (A'aio^/t = " liabita- tions," but more specifically used for "pastures"). See Naioth.
In those schools, and learning to cultivate the pro- phetic gifts, were some whom we know for certain, others whom we may almost certainly conjecture, to have been so trained or influenced. Two eminent in- dividuals had a casual or remote connection witli them. One was Saul. Twice at least he is described as hav- ing been in the company of Samuel's disciples, and as having caught from them the prophetic fervor to such a degree as to have "prophesied among them" (1 Sam. X, 10, 11) and on one occasion to have thrown off his clothes, and to have passed the night in a state of pro- phetic trance (xix, 2-1) ; and even in his palace the prophesying mingled with his madness on ordinary oc- casions (xviii, '■)). Another was David. The first ac- quaintance of Samuel with David was when he pri- vately anointed him at the house of Jesse. See David. But the connection thus begun with the shepherd boy must have been continued afterwards. David, at first, fled to " Naioth in Ramah," as to his second home (xix, 19), and the gifts of music, of song, and of proiihecy, here developed on so large a scale, were exactly such as we find in the notices of those who looked up to Samuel as their father. It is, further, hardly possible to escape the conclusion tliat David there first met his fast friends and companions in after-life, projihetslike himself — Gad and Natlian. In the prospect of a regal form of gov- ernment he seems to have made the prophetic ofiice a formal institute in the Jewish nation. Tliese academies were famous for the cultivation of poetry and music, and from among their members God might select his special servants (Gramberg, Reliyions-Id. ii, 2G-1; Vir tringa, Synaf/. Vet. i, 2, 7; Werenfels, Z'ws. de Scholis Propheta?: ; De Wette, Comm. iib. d. Psalm, p.. 9).. For a different view of the schools, see Tholuck, Literal: Anzeiger, 1831, i, 38. We are informed (1 Chron. ix, 22) that the allocation of the Levites for the Temple- service was made by David and Samuel the soer; i. e. tliat David followed some plan or suggestion, of the de- ceased projihet. It is stated also (xxvi, 28) that the prophet had made some munificent donations to the tabernacle, which seems to have been erected at Nub, and afterwards at Gibeon, though the ark was in Kir- jath-jearim. Lastly (xxix, 29), the acts of David the king are said to be written in the book of Samuel the seer. See Prophets, Schools ok.