January 2, 2025 • 18 mins
In this podcast I deal with the first part of verse 1 of 1 Samuel 4 (the so-called verse 1b). Translators and commentators place this verse as the final verse of 1 Samuel 3. This is because we are told that the word of Samuel came to all Israel, but Samuel says not a word. Plus, he does not even appear in the next story. I argue that is a rhetorical device to have us read the story of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4—6) as a “prophet’s pregnant pause” hovers over the narrative. That strategy intensifies the fact that God had raised up a prophet for Israel, but Israel neglected prophetic ministry for twenty years. Twenty years later (according to 1 Samuel 7) the prophet Samuel finally spoke!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Bible is full of stories that we all know
and love, but how well do we know? That the
answer might surprise you. The Bible You Thought You Knew
is going to dive deep into the exquisite details of
the Biblical stories that make them fascinating and transforming. This
(00:25):
week's podcast is number two hundred and ten. I can
hardly believe that I have done that many, but that
is the case. In a few podcasts I have either
interviewed someone or discussed a topic with other scholars, But
most of the time I have simply shared my takes
(00:46):
on randomly selected Biblical texts, most of them from the
Old Testament, and I have immensely enjoyed this activity. However,
it is time for me to take a break. Therefore,
this will be my last podcast, at least for a while.
I may resurrect the practice in the future. We'll see.
(01:11):
Of course, I have argued throughout these presentations that the
textual details make all the difference in the world. This
is the primary reason why I have entitled my podcast
as quote the Bible You Thought You Knew. My contention
is that people generally do not take sufficiently seriously textual
(01:36):
details that constitute a biblical passage, whether that passage is
prose or poetry. Given this reisondetche for these last two
hundred and ten podcasts, it seems fitting to conclude with
a narrative in which a particular detail has been regularly ignored.
(02:00):
The detail I have in mind is found in First Samuel,
chapter four, verse one. At first First Samuel, for one,
seems unremarkable. It reads, quote, now, the word of Samuel
came to all Israel, end of quote. What could be
(02:22):
more straight straightforward than that uncontroversial statement. But here's the problem.
Even though this is a formula typically introducing prophetic speech,
in this case, Samuel the prophet, does not say a thing.
In fact, he does not even appear in the succeeding story.
(02:47):
The reason that this is so startling is the previous
three chapters have told a story narrating how it was
that Samuel became a prophet in the first place. That
story begins when a man named Elkanah and his two wives,
Hannah and Panina, traveled to Shiloh to worship the Israelite God.
(03:13):
You'll find that in the first three verses of chapter
one a First Samuel. It turns out, though that Panina
had children while Hannah had no children. This caused tension
between the two wives, in that the one who had
children disdained the one who had none for this reason.
(03:39):
While at Shiloh, Hannah was praying desperately to become pregnant.
You'll see that part in verses four to eleven of
Chapter one a First Samuel. In fact, Hannah was so
distressed about her situation that she promised that should she
get a son as a result of her prayer, she
(04:01):
would dedicate that son to the Lord's service. It is
important to know that this took place when Eli was
the presiding priest at Shiloh. Eventually, Hannah's prayer was answered,
and she gave birth to a son, who was named Samuel,
(04:22):
just as she had promised. After her son was weaned,
she brought him to Eli to serve as an apprentice.
Little Samuel would learn how to be a priest under
Eli's tutelage. In time, though Samuel became a prophet instead
of a priest. Indeed, a primary reason for this story
(04:48):
is to explain how it was that Israel would soon
be led by prophets rather than priests. Eli was not evil,
but his two sons who were also priests, were extremely corrupt.
This prompted God to denounce the priestly house of Eli.
(05:11):
You'll find that in those references to verse three in
chapter one that tells you about the suns, and then
the denunciation happens in chapter two, verses twenty seven to
thirty six. God would not eliminate the priestly office in Israel,
but Eli's house would not continue in that leadership role.
(05:36):
In the meantime, Samuel was called to be a prophet.
That famous account is narrated in First Samuel, Chapter three.
That chapter starts with a notation that when Samuel was
ministering to the Lord under Eli's care, the word of
the Lord was rare in those days. Indeed, it was
(05:59):
a time when there there was no frequent vision. In
this context, this refers to prophetic vision that's in verse
one of chapter three. Correspondingly, the deficiency in the priestly
office was suggested by Eli's eyesight, which was difficult as
(06:21):
he was aging. But physical eyesight and spiritual insight are
connected in this narrative. For example, when Hannah was praying
in the Shiloh sanctuary, Eli was watching her. Hannah prayed silently,
but moved her lips in the process. Eli observed this
(06:42):
behavior and concluded that Hannah was drunk. The priest called
the woman to task, at which point she protested that
she was not drunk but praying fervently. That's in verses
twelve through eighteen ofter. In this situation, Eli is depicted
(07:05):
as a priest who could not distinguish between a woman
who was praying and a woman who was drunk. That
did not speak well for religious leadership in Israel, to
say the least. Eli's spiritual sensitivity is also called into
question in the vignette when God calls Samuel. It was
(07:28):
at night when Samuel was sleeping. God called him, naming
him twice Samuel Samuel. Samuel immediately responded by running to Eli,
whom he figured was the one calling him. Eli told
Samuel to go back to sleep since he had not
called him. Then God called for a second time, again
(07:51):
using Samuel's name twice. Once more, Samuel ran to Eli
and again was told to go back to bed since
elaw Eli had not summoned him. God called for a
third time with the same results. However, this time it
dawned on Eli that it was God's voice that Samuel
(08:15):
was hearing. The priest told Samuel to go back to bed,
but should he hear the voice again, he should invite
God to speak to him at length. That it took
three times for Eli to discern that the Lord was
trying to address Samuel is a damning illustration of the
(08:38):
priest's impoverished spiritual insight. In any case, when God addresses
Samuel again, he responds. God informs Samuel that Eli's priestly
house is under divine sanction. This priestly house will not continue. Eventually,
(08:59):
another priestly house will be chosen. As a way of
expressing Samuel's new status as Israel's religious leader. When he
got up in the morning, quote he opened the doors
of the House of the Lord. End of quote. That
simple gesture indicated that access to God would be facilitated
(09:22):
by a prophet rather than a priest. Also that same morning,
Samuel had the uninevinub un enviable task of relaying God's
tribe dietribe to Eli. That's in verses fifteen through eighteen
of chapter three. This episode concludes by letting us know
(09:48):
that all Israel henceforth knew that Samuel had been established
as an Israelite prophet. That's in verse twenty of chapter three.
This has this had happened because God had appeared and
revealed the Divine Self to Samuel in Shiloh. That's in
(10:09):
verse twenty one three. Once a new prophet has been
called and commissioned, as it were, one expects that prophet
to deliver an oracle. That is why first Samuel, for one,
does not disappoint. Instead, that chapter begins just as we
(10:29):
might have expected, by telling us that quote, the word
of Samuel came to all Israel. End of quote. Now
that is something that the narrator tells us. A narrator
is always omniscient and always tells the truth. A character
in a story may prevaricate, but literature is possible only
(10:54):
with an omniscient and truth telling narrator. That is the
case not only for biblical material, but for literature in general.
To repeat, then, the Word of Samuel came to all Israel. However,
though a prophetic oracle is being introduced, no oracle is forthcoming.
(11:20):
Samuel is poised to speak, so to say, but there
is only silence. In fact, Samuel does not appear in
the next story at all. This is why translators and
commentators typically criticize the versification. Surely, for Samuel four, verse
(11:43):
one a is the final statement of chapter three rather
than the beginning statement of chapter four. I submit, though,
that the editors responsible for this versification knew precisely what
they were doing. Right after verse four one a announces
(12:06):
that the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Verse
four one B states that Israel and Felicitia were about
to engage in battle. Israel lost the first battle, that's
in verse two of chapter four. Israel reacted by trying
to make sure that would not happen again. Before the
(12:29):
second battle took place, the Israelites deployed the Ark of
the Covenant. God was believed to inhabit the Ark, which
meant that bringing the Ark into battle would insure divine
presence and therefore divine help and therefore Israel's victory. Eli's
(12:49):
sons helped in this endeavor, that's in verses three and
four of chapter four. Impossible to imagine, though, things got worse. Granted,
when the Philistines saw the Ark, they were worried, declaring
that quote unquote, a god has entered the fray. Nevertheless,
(13:12):
the Philistines won the second battle, during which not only
were Eli's sons killed, thus fulfilling the previous prophetic denunciation,
but the Ark of God was captured and carted off
to Philistine territory. Eli's reaction to these events tell us
(13:33):
everything we need to know about the gravity of what
had just transpired. As Eli was watching for the Ark,
a dubious statement given Eli's failing eyesight, a messenger came
with news about the battle. In succession. The messenger told
(13:55):
Eli that one Israel lost the battle, two that the
losses were substantial, three that Eli's sons had been killed,
and four that Philistia had captured the Ark of the Covenant.
(14:17):
When Eli realized that the Ark had been captured, he fell,
broke his neck, and died. Amazingly, it was the report
about the theft of the Ark that did Eli in,
not the news about the battle or the death of
(14:38):
his two sons. Still, the presence of the Ark in
Philistine territory wreaked havoc. Its capture made it seem to
have been an empty box, But the Lord was somehow
in the ark. A Philistine God Gone was pulled over
(15:02):
and later lost both hands and head, indicating how ineffectual
that God was and how effective the so called God
that was not in the box was. Over several months,
wherever the ark was, it ruined Philistines and Philistine territory. Eventually,
(15:27):
the Philistines sent the ark back to Israel. That story
is narrated in chapters four through six of First Samuel.
In the narrative's chronology, twenty years passed before Samuel said
a thing. After these two decades, he called on Israel
(15:48):
to repent and stop worshiping foreign gods. Israel did repent
and watched as God saved them from another Philistine attack.
You'll read about that in chapter seven of First Samuel,
the first eleven verses. This suggests that between the time
(16:11):
when Samuel was poised to speak in for one A
and finally did speak in chapter seven, verse three, a
prophet's pregnant pause haunts the whole story. Of course, a
pregnant pause is a situation in which silence is more
(16:35):
effective than sound. Had Samuel been given an opportunity to
deliver an oracle after the announcement in for one A,
presumably Israel would not have suffered reversals and would not
have witnessed the arc being abducted because they would have
(16:58):
repented and God would have helped them out. The versification
of the received canonical text made that point enough said.
As noted, I have immensely enjoyed preparing these podcasts for
(17:20):
the last couple of years. I have greatly appreciated having
you as my listeners for a while. At least, this
will be the final podcast I wish for every one
of my listeners. Blessings galore. Keep in mind that on
(17:42):
my website faspoina dot com, all of these podcasts will
continue to be available as you get interested in hearing
them for a second time and sometimes for a first time.
God bless I want to thank you so very much
(18:04):
for listening to the Bible you thought you knew. I
have a question for you. Do you have a question
or topic that you'd like me to cover on the podcasts.
If so, all you need to do is head over
to Apple Podcasts and do two simple things. One, leave
a rating and review, telling me what you think of
(18:26):
the podcasts. Two, in that review, ask anything you want
related to the Bible. That's all you have to do.
Then listen in to hear your question answered On a
future episode. Join us next time on the Bible you
thought you knew when we discuss Jesus' personal Bible God
(18:49):
bless
The Bible is full of stories that we all know
and love, but how well do we know? That the
answer might surprise you. The Bible You Thought You Knew
is going to dive deep into the exquisite details of
the Biblical stories that make them fascinating and transforming. This
(00:25):
week's podcast is number two hundred and ten. I can
hardly believe that I have done that many, but that
is the case. In a few podcasts I have either
interviewed someone or discussed a topic with other scholars, But
most of the time I have simply shared my takes
(00:46):
on randomly selected Biblical texts, most of them from the
Old Testament, and I have immensely enjoyed this activity. However,
it is time for me to take a break. Therefore,
this will be my last podcast, at least for a while.
I may resurrect the practice in the future. We'll see.
(01:11):
Of course, I have argued throughout these presentations that the
textual details make all the difference in the world. This
is the primary reason why I have entitled my podcast
as quote the Bible You Thought You Knew. My contention
is that people generally do not take sufficiently seriously textual
(01:36):
details that constitute a biblical passage, whether that passage is
prose or poetry. Given this reisondetche for these last two
hundred and ten podcasts, it seems fitting to conclude with
a narrative in which a particular detail has been regularly ignored.
(02:00):
The detail I have in mind is found in First Samuel,
chapter four, verse one. At first First Samuel, for one,
seems unremarkable. It reads, quote, now, the word of Samuel
came to all Israel, end of quote. What could be
(02:22):
more straight straightforward than that uncontroversial statement. But here's the problem.
Even though this is a formula typically introducing prophetic speech,
in this case, Samuel the prophet, does not say a thing.
In fact, he does not even appear in the succeeding story.
(02:47):
The reason that this is so startling is the previous
three chapters have told a story narrating how it was
that Samuel became a prophet in the first place. That
story begins when a man named Elkanah and his two wives,
Hannah and Panina, traveled to Shiloh to worship the Israelite God.
(03:13):
You'll find that in the first three verses of chapter
one a First Samuel. It turns out, though that Panina
had children while Hannah had no children. This caused tension
between the two wives, in that the one who had
children disdained the one who had none for this reason.
(03:39):
While at Shiloh, Hannah was praying desperately to become pregnant.
You'll see that part in verses four to eleven of
Chapter one a First Samuel. In fact, Hannah was so
distressed about her situation that she promised that should she
get a son as a result of her prayer, she
(04:01):
would dedicate that son to the Lord's service. It is
important to know that this took place when Eli was
the presiding priest at Shiloh. Eventually, Hannah's prayer was answered,
and she gave birth to a son, who was named Samuel,
(04:22):
just as she had promised. After her son was weaned,
she brought him to Eli to serve as an apprentice.
Little Samuel would learn how to be a priest under
Eli's tutelage. In time, though Samuel became a prophet instead
of a priest. Indeed, a primary reason for this story
(04:48):
is to explain how it was that Israel would soon
be led by prophets rather than priests. Eli was not evil,
but his two sons who were also priests, were extremely corrupt.
This prompted God to denounce the priestly house of Eli.
(05:11):
You'll find that in those references to verse three in
chapter one that tells you about the suns, and then
the denunciation happens in chapter two, verses twenty seven to
thirty six. God would not eliminate the priestly office in Israel,
but Eli's house would not continue in that leadership role.
(05:36):
In the meantime, Samuel was called to be a prophet.
That famous account is narrated in First Samuel, Chapter three.
That chapter starts with a notation that when Samuel was
ministering to the Lord under Eli's care, the word of
the Lord was rare in those days. Indeed, it was
(05:59):
a time when there there was no frequent vision. In
this context, this refers to prophetic vision that's in verse
one of chapter three. Correspondingly, the deficiency in the priestly
office was suggested by Eli's eyesight, which was difficult as
(06:21):
he was aging. But physical eyesight and spiritual insight are
connected in this narrative. For example, when Hannah was praying
in the Shiloh sanctuary, Eli was watching her. Hannah prayed silently,
but moved her lips in the process. Eli observed this
(06:42):
behavior and concluded that Hannah was drunk. The priest called
the woman to task, at which point she protested that
she was not drunk but praying fervently. That's in verses
twelve through eighteen ofter. In this situation, Eli is depicted
(07:05):
as a priest who could not distinguish between a woman
who was praying and a woman who was drunk. That
did not speak well for religious leadership in Israel, to
say the least. Eli's spiritual sensitivity is also called into
question in the vignette when God calls Samuel. It was
(07:28):
at night when Samuel was sleeping. God called him, naming
him twice Samuel Samuel. Samuel immediately responded by running to Eli,
whom he figured was the one calling him. Eli told
Samuel to go back to sleep since he had not
called him. Then God called for a second time, again
(07:51):
using Samuel's name twice. Once more, Samuel ran to Eli
and again was told to go back to bed since
elaw Eli had not summoned him. God called for a
third time with the same results. However, this time it
dawned on Eli that it was God's voice that Samuel
(08:15):
was hearing. The priest told Samuel to go back to bed,
but should he hear the voice again, he should invite
God to speak to him at length. That it took
three times for Eli to discern that the Lord was
trying to address Samuel is a damning illustration of the
(08:38):
priest's impoverished spiritual insight. In any case, when God addresses
Samuel again, he responds. God informs Samuel that Eli's priestly
house is under divine sanction. This priestly house will not continue. Eventually,
(08:59):
another priestly house will be chosen. As a way of
expressing Samuel's new status as Israel's religious leader. When he
got up in the morning, quote he opened the doors
of the House of the Lord. End of quote. That
simple gesture indicated that access to God would be facilitated
(09:22):
by a prophet rather than a priest. Also that same morning,
Samuel had the uninevinub un enviable task of relaying God's
tribe dietribe to Eli. That's in verses fifteen through eighteen
of chapter three. This episode concludes by letting us know
(09:48):
that all Israel henceforth knew that Samuel had been established
as an Israelite prophet. That's in verse twenty of chapter three.
This has this had happened because God had appeared and
revealed the Divine Self to Samuel in Shiloh. That's in
(10:09):
verse twenty one three. Once a new prophet has been
called and commissioned, as it were, one expects that prophet
to deliver an oracle. That is why first Samuel, for one,
does not disappoint. Instead, that chapter begins just as we
(10:29):
might have expected, by telling us that quote, the word
of Samuel came to all Israel. End of quote. Now
that is something that the narrator tells us. A narrator
is always omniscient and always tells the truth. A character
in a story may prevaricate, but literature is possible only
(10:54):
with an omniscient and truth telling narrator. That is the
case not only for biblical material, but for literature in general.
To repeat, then, the Word of Samuel came to all Israel. However,
though a prophetic oracle is being introduced, no oracle is forthcoming.
(11:20):
Samuel is poised to speak, so to say, but there
is only silence. In fact, Samuel does not appear in
the next story at all. This is why translators and
commentators typically criticize the versification. Surely, for Samuel four, verse
(11:43):
one a is the final statement of chapter three rather
than the beginning statement of chapter four. I submit, though,
that the editors responsible for this versification knew precisely what
they were doing. Right after verse four one a announces
(12:06):
that the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Verse
four one B states that Israel and Felicitia were about
to engage in battle. Israel lost the first battle, that's
in verse two of chapter four. Israel reacted by trying
to make sure that would not happen again. Before the
(12:29):
second battle took place, the Israelites deployed the Ark of
the Covenant. God was believed to inhabit the Ark, which
meant that bringing the Ark into battle would insure divine
presence and therefore divine help and therefore Israel's victory. Eli's
(12:49):
sons helped in this endeavor, that's in verses three and
four of chapter four. Impossible to imagine, though, things got worse. Granted,
when the Philistines saw the Ark, they were worried, declaring
that quote unquote, a god has entered the fray. Nevertheless,
(13:12):
the Philistines won the second battle, during which not only
were Eli's sons killed, thus fulfilling the previous prophetic denunciation,
but the Ark of God was captured and carted off
to Philistine territory. Eli's reaction to these events tell us
(13:33):
everything we need to know about the gravity of what
had just transpired. As Eli was watching for the Ark,
a dubious statement given Eli's failing eyesight, a messenger came
with news about the battle. In succession. The messenger told
(13:55):
Eli that one Israel lost the battle, two that the
losses were substantial, three that Eli's sons had been killed,
and four that Philistia had captured the Ark of the Covenant.
(14:17):
When Eli realized that the Ark had been captured, he fell,
broke his neck, and died. Amazingly, it was the report
about the theft of the Ark that did Eli in,
not the news about the battle or the death of
(14:38):
his two sons. Still, the presence of the Ark in
Philistine territory wreaked havoc. Its capture made it seem to
have been an empty box, But the Lord was somehow
in the ark. A Philistine God Gone was pulled over
(15:02):
and later lost both hands and head, indicating how ineffectual
that God was and how effective the so called God
that was not in the box was. Over several months,
wherever the ark was, it ruined Philistines and Philistine territory. Eventually,
(15:27):
the Philistines sent the ark back to Israel. That story
is narrated in chapters four through six of First Samuel.
In the narrative's chronology, twenty years passed before Samuel said
a thing. After these two decades, he called on Israel
(15:48):
to repent and stop worshiping foreign gods. Israel did repent
and watched as God saved them from another Philistine attack.
You'll read about that in chapter seven of First Samuel,
the first eleven verses. This suggests that between the time
(16:11):
when Samuel was poised to speak in for one A
and finally did speak in chapter seven, verse three, a
prophet's pregnant pause haunts the whole story. Of course, a
pregnant pause is a situation in which silence is more
(16:35):
effective than sound. Had Samuel been given an opportunity to
deliver an oracle after the announcement in for one A,
presumably Israel would not have suffered reversals and would not
have witnessed the arc being abducted because they would have
(16:58):
repented and God would have helped them out. The versification
of the received canonical text made that point enough said.
As noted, I have immensely enjoyed preparing these podcasts for
(17:20):
the last couple of years. I have greatly appreciated having
you as my listeners for a while. At least, this
will be the final podcast I wish for every one
of my listeners. Blessings galore. Keep in mind that on
(17:42):
my website faspoina dot com, all of these podcasts will
continue to be available as you get interested in hearing
them for a second time and sometimes for a first time.
God bless I want to thank you so very much
(18:04):
for listening to the Bible you thought you knew. I
have a question for you. Do you have a question
or topic that you'd like me to cover on the podcasts.
If so, all you need to do is head over
to Apple Podcasts and do two simple things. One, leave
a rating and review, telling me what you think of
(18:26):
the podcasts. Two, in that review, ask anything you want
related to the Bible. That's all you have to do.
Then listen in to hear your question answered On a
future episode. Join us next time on the Bible you
thought you knew when we discuss Jesus' personal Bible God
(18:49):
bless
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