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The Darker Side of Samuel, Saul and David

Posted Friday, January 18, 2008 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: Old Testament; 1 Samuel
One of the benefits of going to ETS/SBL is to be able to hear famous authors and then to be able to know more about them when you read their books. It is even better when you can know someone personally and then read their book. I have had this opportunity as I read through a book by Dr. Jerry Vreeland, who was my own professor at Northwest Baptist Seminary. He is familiar to many readers, as he has contributed several posts to this blog over the years (see in particular his post on scratology ). This work has been many years in coming, as I heard an early form of it in a class Brian Beers and I took on 1 and 2 Samuel several years ago. The key characteristic of this book which makes it different from most other books in this area is that is has a relatively negative view of Samuel, Saul and David. This feature of itself is not unusual, as a variety of works have gone this direction recently, but what is unusual is that this is the only work I know of written by a theological conservative who takes a darker view of the three. If you want to be challenged in your thinking of David, then this is the place to turn. The book is filled with great insights as well as much practical application. For just one random example, he points out how the Philistine lords are presented as bumbling idiots in the Ark Narrative (1 Samuel 4-6). But these same idiotic lords are the ones who eventually bring Saul down. The implications about Saul are patent. Another interesting feature of this work is that Vreeland is textually conservative: he follows the MT where very few others do (Samuel is known for being textually corrupt). He even tenatively takes the MT reading at 1 Samuel 13:1 (Saul was one year old when he began to reign and reigned for two years), viewing the one year as the first year of his reign being the good year and then after the second year the doom was written on the wall. Overall, this is an excellent work and well worth your study, either devotionally or as part of a wider study of 1 and 2 Samuel (although this volume only covers 1 Samuel). While you won't agree with everything Vreeland writes (and he probably wouldn't want you to agree with him in everything!), you will certainly be challenged and encouraged. And at the very least it is a nice change from the usual sugar-coated hagiographic evangelical devotional literature on David. Buy this book and enjoy it!

Series: Book Reviews
The Gods of the Nations, by Daniel Block
Hebrew Poetry and Robert Alter
Creation According to Sailhamer
The Rise of Evangelicalism	Random book reviews from Charlie
Old Testament Theology Devotionals
The Dominance of Evangelicalism: The Age of Spurgeon and Moody
Rethinking Missions with Steve Saint
Neither Poverty nor Riches
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind II
Going Places with God
A God Entranced Vision of All Things
The Meaning of Jesus: Borg versus Wright
Military History and Christianity: Do they mix?
Wright and Borg, Part 3
The Mosaic of Christian Belief
Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology
The Problem of War in the Old Testament
God is a Warrior
Holy War in Ancient Israel, by Gerhard von Rad
Yahweh is a Warrior
Is There A Meaning in This Text
Faithful Intepretation: Reading the Bible in a Postmodern World
Engaging Scripture
Does the Bible Justify Violence?
Reading Scripture with the Church
A History of Christian Thought, Volume 1
The Darker Side of Samuel, Saul and David
War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence
Golden Compass Trilogy
Israelite Religions, Richard Hess
The Mission of God
Biblical Interpretation: Then and Now
Life in Biblical Israel
Biblical Theology
Reading and Preaching the Bible in the Worship of the Church 3
Theological Introduction to the Psalms
The Tree of Life: An Exploration of Biblical Wisdom Literature