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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



tary capacity were required. David was not only 

 a great captain — he was a national hero, who 

 united in his own person the noblest parts of 

 Hebrew genius, and drew to himself by an unfail- 

 ing personal attraction the best valor, patriotism, 

 and piety of the nation ; while his political tact 

 and inborn talent for rule enabled him to master 

 the old tribal particularism, and to shape at Jeru- 

 salem a kingdom which, so long as he lived, rep- 

 resented the highest conception of national life 

 that was possible under the rude social condi- 

 tions then existing. The structure erected by 

 David was, in truth, too much in advance of the 

 times, and too wholly the creation of unique 

 genius to be permanent. Under a successor 

 whose wisdom lacked the qualities of personal 

 force and sympathy with popular feeling, the 

 kingdom of David began to decay, and in the next 

 generation it fell asunder, and lived only in the 

 hearts of the people as the proudest memory of 

 past history, and the prophetic ideal of future 

 glory. 



The books of Samuel, which are our principal 

 source for the history of David, show how deep 

 an impression the personality of the king, his 

 character, his genius, and the romantic story of 

 his early years, had left on the mind of the na- 

 tion. Of no hero of antiquity do we possess so 

 life-like a portrait. Minute details and traits of 

 character arc preserved with a fidelity which the 

 most skeptical critics have not ventured to ques- 

 tion, and with a vividness which bears all the 

 marks of contemporary narrative. But the 

 record is by no means all of one piece. The his- 

 tory, as we now have it, is extracted from various 

 sources of unequal value, which are fitted to- 

 gether in a way which offers considerable difficul- 

 ties to the historical critic. In the history of 

 David's early adventures the narrative is not sel- 

 dom disordered, and sometimes seems to repeat 

 itself with puzzling variations of detail, which 

 have led critics to the almost unanimous conclu- 

 sion that the first book of Samuel is drawn from 

 at least two parallel histories. It is indeed easy 

 to understand that the romantic incidents of this 

 period were much in the mouths of the people, 

 and in course of time were written down in vari- 

 ous forms which were not combined into perfect 

 harmony by later editors, who gave excerpts from 

 several sources rather than a new and indepen- 

 dent history. These excerpts, however, have 

 been so pieced together that it is often impos- 

 sible to separate them with precision, and to dis- 

 tinguish accurately between earlier and later ele- 

 ments. It even appears that some copies of the 



books of Samuel incorporated narratives which 

 other copies did not acknowledge. From the 

 story of Goliath, the Septuagint omits many 

 verses — 1 Samuel xvii. 12-31, xvii. 55-xviii. 5. 

 The omission makes the narrative consistent, and 

 obviates serious difficulties involved in the He- 

 brew text. Hence some have supposed that the 

 Greek translators arbitrarily removed passages 

 that puzzled them. But this hypothesis does not 

 meet the facts, and is inconsistent with what we 

 know of the manner of this part of the Sep- 

 tuagint. There can be little doubt that both 

 here and in other cases the shorter text is origi- 

 nal, and that the disturbing additions came in 

 later from some other document, and were awk- 

 wardly patched on to the older text. So, too, 

 the history of the gradual estrangement of Saul 

 from David is certainly discontinuous, and in the 

 opinion of most critics the two accounts of David 

 sparing Saul's life are duplicate narratives of one 

 event. Even in the earlier part of the history 

 these minor difficulties do not affect the essential 

 excellence of the narrative preserved to us ; and 

 for the period of David's kingship the accounts 

 are still better. All that relates to personal and 

 family matters at the court of Jerusalem (2 Sam. 

 uel xi.-xx.) seems to come from some writer who 

 had personal cognizance of the events recorded. 

 It does not appear that the plan of this author 

 included the history of David's foreign campaigns. 

 The scanty account of great wars in chapter 

 viii. is plainly from another source, and in gen- 

 eral our information is less adequate on public 

 affairs than on things that touched the personal 

 life of the king. The narrative is further en- 

 riched with poetical pieces, of which one at least 

 (2 Samuel i, 19-27) is known to be extracted 

 from an anthology entitled " The Book of the Up- 

 right." Several brief lists of names and events 

 seem also to have been taken from distinct sources, 

 and sometimes interrupt the original context (e. g., 

 2 Samuel iii. 2-5). Some important lists were 

 still accessible to the author of Chronicles in a 

 separate form. 1 Chronicles xi. 10-47 is fuller 

 at the end than the corresponding list in 2 Sam- 

 uel xxiii., and 1 Chronicles xii. contains valuable 

 matter altogether wanting in Samuel. See also 1 

 Chronicles xxvii. Besides the books of Samuel 

 (with 1 Kings i., ii.), and the parallel narrative of 

 the Chronicler, we have a few hints for the his- 

 tory of David in 1 Kings xi. and in the titles of 

 Psalms (especially Psalms vii. and lx.); and, of 

 course, such psalms as can be made out to be really 

 by David are invaluable additions to the Davidic 

 poems incorporated in the books of Samuel. 



