1 Samuel.

• Author: Brettler, Marc Z.
• Position: Book Review

1 Samuel. By ANTHONY F. CAMPBELL, S.J. The Forms of the Old Testament Literature, vol. 7. Grand Rapids, Mich.: WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING Co., 2003. Pp. xviii + 350. $55 (paper).

The Forms of the Old Testament Literature (FOTL) is a series begun in 1981 that applies form-critical methods and insights to texts from the Hebrew Bible. Like all series, it is uneven; this is due not only to the different abilities of various authors, but because different biblical books lend themselves more or less well to form-critical analysis. Psalms and prophetic books, which combine a variety of short units, and often contain significant hints about the Sitz im Leben or social settings of the constituent pieces, are most suitable for form-critical analysis. (Legal material is also especially well suited, but the FOTL volumes on Exodus-Deuteronomy have not yet been published.) Some historiographical texts, that is, texts that present a past (see my The Creation of History in Ancient Israel [London: Routledge, 1995], 10-12), are especially difficult to analyze in this fashion, and of these, Samuel might be the most difficult. This is because the constituent texts or sources found within Samuel are very long (contrast, e.g., Kings, treated very successfully by Burke Long in the FOTL series), the text of Samuel has gone through a long and complicated history, and there are few internal clues to the Sitz im Leben of individual texts. Given the difficulties inherent in writing this volume, Campbell has produced a very interesting and worthwhile book.

Campbell's expertise on Samuel and good judgment are well known from earlier projects on Samuel and the Deuteronomistic History, especially the recent Unfolding the Deuteronomistic History, a source-critical work co-authored with Mark O'Brien. Thus, to the extent that the works in the FOTL series typically serve as a minicommentary, this is a very useful one, showing sober judgment. The manner in which Campbell often admits that he is uncertain...