Abstract

The rejection of the first king of Israel, Saul, has been understood in many different and even contradictory ways. Linda D. Buchanan offers a new translation using a Macro Syntactical Analysis as elaborated by Alvierro Niccacci, to offer insight on the question of Saul’s fault in 1 Samuel 13. Through Source and Redaction criticism she argues for 3 tiered work; beginning with the oldest literary stratum which includes the conflict between the Israelites and the Philistines. The first redactional layer belongs to the work of a northern prophetic agenda and includes the rejection account of Saul. The final pieces were added by the Deuteronomistic Historiographer, and include Saul’s regnal formula and the inclusion of his son Jonathan. The combination of Source Criticism and a Macro Syntactic reading bring to light the problem of suggesting David as the man after God’s heart, instead Buchanan argues that this is not meant as a title and should be viewed within the ideology of the prophetic work. ‘A man after [God’s] own heart’ is the one who listens to God’s commands, as given by his prophet. The methodologies used are Historical Critical in order to better understand the reason for Saul’s rejection from kingship, by the prophet in 1 Samuel 13.