Bede: On First Samuel

The Old Testamentbook 1 Samuel (known as 1 Kings in modern Bibles) contains one of the mostdramatic stories in the Old Testament, with its tense narrative about Israel’sfirst attempts to govern itself by kingship, and a cast of famous characters whodrive the story — the priest and prophet Samuel, the tragic figure of KingSaul, and chiefly David himself, the youngest son of Jesse, who slays thePhilistine’s champion, Goliath, and gains God’s favour in replacement for Saul.

The Venerable Bede (672-735 AD),Anglo-Saxon England’s foremost interpreter of the Bible, wrote manycommentaries on the Old Testament, but his treatment of 1 Samuel stands out inparticular:  it is one of his longestcommentaries, one of his first sustained attempts to deal with the OldTestament without support from an earlier commentary, and one of the fewcommentaries he wrote that can be dated precisely.  Bede sets out to read the story of 1 Samuel asfull of details which demonstrate the prophetic nature of Old Testamenthistory, an attempt that is boldly experimental in its application of theallegorical method of interpretation.

Historically, the commentary is of special interest for its detailed reference to the departure of Abbot Ceolfrith from Wearmouth-Jarrow in June 716 AD, which has allowed scholarship to firmly date the work and explore some potential links to the turbulent political scene in Northumbria that marked that decade. This English translation is the first rendering of the Latin into another language. The translation is preceded by a substantial introduction that places the work in the context of Bede’s oeuvre, discusses his sources and exegetical methods, and offers a reading of the work’s contemporary context in the light of current scholarly debate.