The book of Samuel is a lot like an improvised explosive device: If you don't know just what you're doing, it will blow up and cause a tremendous amount of damage.

There are a lot of reasons for this. Part of it has to do with the fact that it seems to have many different sources -- an Ark of the Covenant source, a Samuel the Prophet source, a pro-Saul source, and anti-Saul source. These sources not only give slightly different accounts of events, they also have somewhat different theologies (as in their various attitudes toward kingship, e.g.). Great care must be taken not to get tangled up in this.

But the biggest reason why 1 Samuel is explosive is simply the Hebrew text. Most books of the Hebrew Bible seem to have been copied with great care. The Hebrew as we have it makes good sense. Not the Book of Samuel. It is clear that the canonical text had suffered badly at the hands of copyists. Much was lost or garbled, resulting in a text that is very hard to understand and needs substantial repair.

Some translations just take wild guesses and let it go at that. Not this translation. P. Kyle McCarter takes all the available sources -- the standard Hebrew text, the early Greek translation known as the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls of Samuel -- and combines them with skill to produce one of the best Hebrew base texts available. He then translates and interprets with equal skill.

The result, it should be noted, is not much like the King James Bible. It's rather different even from the translations of the early twentieth century. It's closer to translations like the New Revised Standard Version. Those who want everything cut-and-dried-and-the-way-great-grandma-knew-it will hate this translation, from the Hebrew text to the historical speculations. But if you want to see a true reconstruction of a text, this volume is close to a tour de force. ( )