Wednesday Bible Study: The literally true and inerrant word of God

We ' re now starting 2 Samuel, which may seem an odd title for the book since Samuel is dead and we aren ' t going to see him resurrected a second time. The protagonist of 2 Samuel is actually David. It was originally one book and the monks cut it in half, so that ' s the explanation. That makes it all the more ridiculous that the story of Saul ' s death told in 2 Samuel 1 is completely different from the story in the previous chapter, which was originally in the same book. Chapter 1 also features one of the thrice-exterminated Amalekites -- who of course gets whacked -- and a very surprising attitude of David toward Saul, who lost the Lord ' s favor years ago and spent the time since then trying to kill David. So again, this is not a composed, coherent narrative and is not intended to be read as such. It ' s a compilation of stories from various sources, probably originating in oral tradition, arranged in a semblance of chronological order but not even trying to be consistent. I should also reiterate that there is no archaeological or written evidence for the existence of King David apart from the book we are now reading; and that at the time these events supposedly occurred Israel, including Jerusalem, was at most a collection of small villages, and could not possibly have raised armies as depicted here. Anyway, here goes.1 After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.2 On the third day a man arrived ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs