Samuel - ein Prophet?
Samuel - a Prophet?

Summary/Abstract: Was Samuel a prophet? The answer seems to be clear: Yes, of course. But the biblical picture of this figure is rather complicated. It contains, in several passages of the first Book of Samuel, no less than seven facets. Samuel is told to have been not only a prophet, but also a priest, a judge, a military liberator, a tribal leader, a kingmaker, an advisor of kings, an opponent to kings, even to the monarchy. It is quite impossible that one person could have been all of this. Historically, Samuel may have been educated as a priest. Than as a judge and tribal leader of Benjamin, he promoted Saul, who became the first king of Israel. Therefore, Samuel has not been a prophet. The contemporary reception of the Samuel, in a modern oratory and in a novel, in the view of a psychoanalyst and of a literature aesthete, shows a considerable decline of Samuel’s valuation: he turns from a high-esteemed person into a sinister and even a malicious character.

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