Darrell Smith
Aug 12, 20214 min
It’s worth noting that the stories of Samuel were edited into their present form roughly 400 years after the reign of King David by yet another generation of Israelites who had experienced death.
In fact, from the Assyrian exile in the 8th century BCE and continuing through the Babylonian exile into the Persian, Greek, and Roman Empires, the Israelites experienced centuries of their political dynasties and military monarchies being wiped out.
These people—these descendant Israelites—they, too, were connected to the stories of Moses and Joshua and Saul. They, too, had faced an ending and were now confronted by the questions that come “After the death.” Shared language, shared death, and shared questions invited them into these stories as they sought to move the specific events of their lives into the larger contexts of love and life and loss.
It’s as if there’s something more to these stories than just a recording of historical events—as if they carry experiences with which we can all identify—experiences of facing an ending—of coming through a death.
These stories do contain the particular, the specific, the historical. Yet, they also seem to contain the universal. They also seem to hold a space for those who are lost, hurting, and confused—those who are concerned for their future—painfully searching for solid ground on which to stand.
Are these stories specific or are they something more?
Is this about history or universality?
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