It is needless to enlarge on the importance with wliiih these incidents invest the appearance of Samuel. He there becomes the spiritual father of the Psahnisc king. He is also the founder of the first regular institutions of religious instruction, and communities for the pur- poses of education. The schools of Greece were not yet in existence. From these Jewish institutions were de- veloped, by a natural order, the universities of Christen- dom. It "may be added that with this view the whole life of Samuel is in accordance. He is tlie proiihct — the only prophet till the time of Isaiah— of whom we
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know that he was such from liis earliest years. It is this continuity of his own life and character that makes him so fit an instrument for conducting his nation through so great a change.
Accordingly, Samuel is called emphatically " the Prophet" (Acts iii, 24; xiii, 20). To a certain extent this was in consequence of the gift which he shared in common with others of his time. He was especially known in his own age as "Samuel the Seer" (1 Chron. ix. 22 ; xxvi, 28 ; xxix, 29). " I am the seer," was his answer to those who asked "Where is the seer?" "Where is the seer's house?" (I Sam. ix, 11, 18, 19). " Seer," the ancient name, was not yet superseded by "Prophet" (ch. ix). By this name, Samuel Viclens and Samuel o j3Xiirioi', he is called in the Acta Sanctona)!. . Of the three modes by which divine communications were then made, " by dreams, Urim and Thummim, and prophets," the first was that by which the divine will was made known to Samuel (iii, 1, 2; Josephus, Ant.r, 10, 4). " The Lord uncovered his ear" to whisper into it in the stillness of the night the messages that were to be delivered. It is the first distinct intimation of the idea of " Iievelalio)i" to a human being (see Gesenius, in roc. nbj). He was consulted far and near on the small affairs of life ; loaves of " bread," or " the fourth part of a shekel of silver," were gratuities offered for the an- s'vers (1 Sara, ix, 7, 8). See Present.
From this facidty, combined with his office of ruler, an awful reverence grew up round him. No sacrificial feast was thought complete without his blessing (1 Sara. ix, 13). When he appeared suddenly else\vhere for the same purpose, the villagers " trembled" at his approach (xvi, 4, 5). A peculiar virtue was believed to reside in his intercession. He was conspicuous in later times among those that "call upon the name of the Lord" (Psa. xcix, 6 ; 1 Sam. xii, 18), and was placed with ]\Io- ses as " standing" for prayer, in a special sense, " before the Lord" (Jer. xv, 1). It was the last consolation he left in his parting address that he would " pray to the Lord" for the people (1 Sara, xii, 19, 23). There was something peculiar in the long-sustained cry or shout of supplication, which seemed to draw down as by force the divine answer (vii, 8, 9). All night long, in agi- tated moments, " he cried unto the Lord" (xv, 11). The power of Samuel with God, as an intercessor for the people, is compared to that of Moses (Jer. xv, 1 ; Psa. xcix, 6). See Plumtre, Life of Samuel (Loud. 1842, 18mo) ; Anon. Li/e and Times of Samuel (ibid. 1863, r2mo).
SAMUEL, First and Second Books of. These two liistorical portions of Scripture, in all the editions of the original and versions, immediately precede the books of Kings, and are intimately connected with them. (In the present article we freely use the dictionaries of Kitto, Smith, and Fairbairn, particularly the last.)
1. Name and Division. — The books so called received this name (wiiich is now customarily attached to them in Hebrew printed texts) subsc(iuently to the comple- tion of the Sept., in which their present name is Bafft- \tiwv Tipoj-)], HarnXfuov AevTfpa (Fiist and Second of Kiiif/s) ; and similarly in the Vulg. Hence they are entitled in the English version "Tlie First [or Sec- ond] Book of Samuel, otherwise called the First [or Second] Book of the Kings." The name may in some measure be explained and justified on the ground that the early part of the first book is chiitly concerned about Samuel, and that the two kings Saul and David, whose reigns occupy all the rest of the books, were both anointed by Samuel to their oftice.
In Ilelirew MSS. the work is one, and not two. The present division was first made in tlie Se))!., and was thence adopted into the Vulg. But Origen, as (piotod by Euscbius (flist. Kccles. vi, 2.')), expressly states that they formed only one book among Hie Hebrews. Je- rome (J'ripjh/io in Lihros Samuel et Malachim) imiilies the same statement : and in the Talmud {/Jabu Biit/ira.
fol. 14, c. 2), wherein the authorship is attributed to Samuel, they are designated by the name of his book, in the singular number (TIED -rS bsi'^T). After the invention of printing they were published as one book in the first edition of the whole Bible printed at Soncino in A.D. 1488, and likewise in the Compluten- sian Polyglot printed at Alcald, A.D. 1502-1517 ; and it was not till the year 1518 that the division of the Sept. was adopted in Hebrew, in the edition of the Bible printed by the Bombergs at Venice. The work consti- tutes a separate and independent whole, and is not to be joined either with the book of Judges or with that of Kings, from which it differs by many important characteristics.