Since biblical narrative characteristically catches its protagonists only at the critical and revealing points in their lives, the biblical type-scene occurs not in the rituals of daily existence, but at the crucial junctures in the lives of the heroes, from conception and birth to betrothal to deathbed. Alter, Art, 51; see also Alter, Moses, 64 n.10; 11819 n.11; 315 n.16. Sternberg recognizes that biblical narratives are distinguished by the dynamic interplay of competing and complementary perspectives: Insofar as the Bible has a poetics as well as a genesis of composition, it establishes a set of norms by which we not only interpret the action but also evaluate the actors by reference to the narrators perspective as artist. Sternberg, Poetics, 155. Reflecting on this complex and somewhat foreign (to modern readers) convention, Sternberg recognizes the challenge: Reading a character becomes a process of discovery, attended by all the biblical hallmarks: progressive reconstruction, tentative closure of discontinuities, frequent and sometimes painful reshaping in the face of the unexpected, and intractable pockets of darkness to the very end. Sternberg, Poetics, 32324. The always busy Keke Palmer has added a new title to her long list of credits, and this one is much more important than all the others. Suddenly, a priest Eli came to her doorstep Information about Samuel is contained in The First Book of Samuel (called in the Roman Catholic canon The First Book of Kings). The present study relies on the LDS edition of the King James Translation of the Hebrew Bible. Leitwrter: know and lie with. This study claims that the significance of the story cannot be fully appre- 1. This story does not exhibit the same improbability. There are also two different accounts of the rejection of Saul by Samuel. Rather than contrast, the two Hebrew verbs complement each other in meaning. God, in turn, gives Hannah a man child according to her supplication, who then becomes a prophet unto all Israel. Thus, God manifests his goodness by fulfilling Hannahs vow in ways that she could not possibly have imagined beforehand or accomplished herself. David had been shuffled off to his fathers fields to work as a shepherd boy. WebThe boy Samuel grew up in the service of the LORD. Couplets are perhaps the most ubiquitous form of parallelism in the Hebrew Bible, considered to be as distinctive of Hebrew poetry as meter and rhyming are in Western poetic traditions. The related curses, gada and karath, both translated as cut off, signal the Lords severing his long-standing covenant with Elis lineage (2:31, 33).70. The narrative, as crafted, implies that Elkanah is either unaware or dismissive of Hannahs emotional needs and performs little or no nurturing role vis--vis their firstborn or any of their other children. Throughout this study, unless otherwise noted, I have relied on the following standard sources for the meaning of individual Hebrew words and phrases: James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Abington Press, 1890, 1973 printing); and Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, Mass. She is merely the barren co-wife of an obscure Ephraimite. and why is thy heart grieved? 30, 31; 158 n.1; 207 n.6. In the Samuel story, the narrator uses the verb amen, translated establish, in order to prefigure Samuels auspicious priestly career in the voice of his faithful fatheronly the Lord establish his word (1:23)and to launch Samuels public ministry at the storys climax: And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. The Hebrew verb has strong ritual, symbolic, and covenantal connotations, suggesting that: Establish in these contexts provides a categorical contrast with verbs repeated by the man of God in his condemnation of the house of Eli. Flashbacks of the WebIn his 40 years as ruler, between approximately 1010 and 970 B.C.E., he united the people of Israel, led them to victory in battle, conquered land and paved the way for his son, Solomon, to build the Holy Temple. Attempting to cover his error of judgment, Eli offers a hastily constructed blessing for her to receive her petition, to which she simply responds, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. The text then observes that Hannah went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.. . Although Polzin makes a strong case that the Samuel story is a parable on kingship in Israel, the present perspective suggests that particular social forms are not as central to the biblical narrative as what might be called the order of God. From Genesis through Kings, JHWH seems willing and ready to accept and work with a wide variety of religious and political leaderspatriarchs, priests, prophets, judges, and kingsprovided they remain faithful to his direction, counsel, and covenants. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? (2:110), Parallelism. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the Lord had shut up her womb. Please select which sections you would like to print: Professor of Theology, DePaul University, Chicago, 197078. Literary scholars generally recognize that biblical writers developed their characters in fundamentally different ways than most modern writers. Karath also connotes destruction but is more widely used in the Hebrew Bible with stronger and more explicit reference to breaking a covenant (for example, Genesis 9:11; Exodus 4:25; 12:15, 19; Leviticus 17:414; 20:318; Numbers 15:3031). See Alter, Art, 6387. This subtle literary convention repeatedly brings attentive readers back to the central focus of the larger narrative. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Elis house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever. His greatest distinction was his role in the establishment of the monarchy in Israel. Key words and word pairs contain covenant connotations and implications, thereby coloring actions, personalities, relationships, and other narrative details in powerful and unmistakable ways. In short, while Elkanahs invitation is intended to strengthen his preferred wifes status within his family, her own priority is to guarantee the survival of her firstborn, which eventually benefits all Israel., Leitwrter: give and lend. While Samuel ministered to the Lord (1 Samuel 2:18). When Samuel finally invites the Lord to speak, the text uses the contrasting verb yatsab, translated stood, meaning that the Lord appears to Samuel in the dominant, authoritative position while Samuel takes the subordinate, receptive one. However, Sternberg, Poetics, 32528, eloquently qualifies Alters perspective. The most crucial literary features frequently appear as patterns in the text such as sequences and interruptions, parallels and contrasts, redundancies and gaps, and nuances and connotations of meaning. He was a faithful young servant who had God's favor. One night God spoke to Samuel while he was sleeping, and the boy mistook the Lord's voice for Eli's. This happened three times until the old priest realized God was speaking to Samuel. Samuel grew in wisdom and became a prophet. By faithfully filling the crucial roles of prophet, priest, and judge, Samuel helped to transform the House of Israel from a collection of weak and often warring tribes to a relatively permanent and somewhat stable nation in the contentious ancient Middle East. Direct speech is made the chief instrument for revealing the varied and at times nuanced relations of the personages to the actions in which they are implicated. Alter, Art, 66. By contrast, the story includes an extended verbatim recitation of the entire message that the Lord personally entrusts to Samuel, beginning with the authoritative declaration, Behold I will do a thing in Israel (3:1114).62 This scene is structured so that we are witnesses of Samuels encounter with the Lord. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat. Chapters 13 of 1 Samuel1 describe the miraculous origins and auspicious upbringing of the first major Hebrew prophet since Joshua, who by all measures lived centuries before Samuel.2 The biblical account of Samuels beginnings forecasts the exceptional ministry of the man who served as Israels last complete sovereign. And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. Characterization: Husband and Wife. 12. (Read More) Topics and verses are auto-generated from user searches. The first specific action in the Samuel story has Elkanah sharing with Hannah a worthy portion of the offering. While this verb has several different connotations in biblical Hebrew, the most general is, extend the hand in order to place an object at a specific place or to give it over to another person, with or without compensation, as a possession. . That they were young and active gave Samuel a base of power that was physical as well as moral. The aim of this study is to assess, by means of a smartphone attached to a turntable, whether there is an alteration in the perception of verticality in children aged 7 to 10, with history of premature birth. 993 BC. Simon, Prophetic Narratives, 5161, makes the case that Samuels divine call is part of a literary genre in the Hebrew Bible by illustrating numerous structural parallels with those of other Israelite prophets. The story of Samuels birth and calling sheds significant light on the larger biblical narrative of covenant Israel. The reiterated and, then, plays an important role in creating the rhythm of the story, in phonetically punctuating the forward driving movement of the prose. The present study illustrates the extent to which the authors, editors, and redactors of 1Samuel13 employed in a systematic and complementary manner a variety of literary conventions for a central ideological endshowing Gods commitment to preserve his ancient covenant with Israel, even at inopportune times and through obscure persons. Zakhor carries strong connotations of spiritual identity and covenant commitment, not simply cognitive awareness.30 Thus, when Hannah pleads to the Lord, remember me, and the narrator acknowledges that the Lord indeed remembered her, the resulting blessing of a man child becomes not only the sign of a divine covenant with an individual Hebrew woman but also a source of spiritual development and deliverance for all Israel.31. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. She fasts, she prays, she bears and nurtures, she sacrifices and gives thanks, she serves, and she remains faithful to her divine calling without any desire for personal position, recognition, or recompense.27 As a result, the narrative portrays Hannah as worthy of becoming the mother of one of Israels greatest prophets and of serving as a paragon of holiness in the Hebrew Bible. Several difficulties in reconstructing the era of the Judges, including its chronology, during what archaeologists call Iron AgeI, are identified in Jo Ann Hackett, There Was No King in Israel: The Era of the Judges, in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. . David was young when Samuel found him. Sternberg, Poetics, 12952; and Alter, Art, 88113, provide insightful and detailed analyses of the strategies of repetition in the Hebrew Bible. The narrative does not indicate, however, that she takes offense at her husbands gesture. Characterization: Priest and Suppliant. In Portugal, the pan-European report noted a decline in January-February 2022, compared to the trend in previous years. By contrast, the text implies that Hannah herself worships at the temple only once and in bitterness of soul. The story implies that both types of devotion are effective. 2829; 54n; 60 nn. Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850 December 13, 1924) was a key American labor union leader who founded the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and served as its president for nearly four decades, from 1886 to 1894, and from 1895 until his death in 1924. While Elkanahs traditional devotion preserves the identity of an obscure nuclear family, Hannahs singular devotion eventually blesses all Israel. As crafted, the interpretive focus of the Samuel story is clearly the long-term effects of Hannahs spiritual initiative. He publishes widely in the fields of Mormon studies and museum studies and frequently presents at scholarly and professional conferences. Leitwrter: give and lend. Most commentators acknowledge that the account of the birth and calling of Samuel actually ends with the first sentence of the next chapter, And the word of Samuel came to all Israel (4:1a). And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord., Type Scene: Obedience to Gods Call. Hannahs song of exultation on an auspicious occasion elicits positive comparison with Moses, Miriam, and David in the Hebrew Bible (Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 3132, 2 Samuel 22) and Zacharias, Mary, and Simeon in the Christian Bible (Luke 12).50, And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. It is noteworthy that Gods first message to Samuel is a prophecy of doom. He appears at first as being hostile to the monarchy and then as being favourable to it. 15. 1 Samuel 28:3-7. Nevertheless, Hannah is not satisfied: she wants a son for herself, but not for selfish reasons. . 3) Hophni and Phinehas, Elis sons, refused to listen to the voice & rebuke of their father (1 Samuel 2:25) and it was the LORDs will to put them to death. Hence, references in this article to an author (singular) of the text are for heuristic, not documentary or analytical purposes. McCarter, I Samuel, 6061 n.11, points out the poetic qualities of Hannahs prayer. This issue carries significant economic, psychological, and social costs for the families affected. See Alter, Moses, 77 n.2; 131 nn. 1. 46. Regarding Sarah, the paragon in this set of related character types, Alter, Moses, 101 n.18, explicates the exquisite craftsmanship of the relevant passage in Genesis that immediately precedes Isaacs birth. A worthy portion of the story implies that Hannah went her way, and Charles A. Briggs, interpretive... Devotion eventually blesses all Israel Hebrew verbs complement each other in meaning weepest thou for..., 32528, eloquently qualifies Alters perspective biblical narrative of covenant Israel Translation the... Can not be fully appre- 1 in bitterness of soul recognize that biblical writers developed their characters in different... 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