Excerpt from An Old Testament Commentary for English Readers, Vol. 3 In the LX followed in this by the Vulgate, the Books Of Samuel are called the First and Second Books of the Kings, and our Books of Kings are made the Third and Fourth. It has been supposed that this ancient alteration of the Hebrew titles is intended to point to a common autliorshi Some have gone so far as to make the Whole history fli'om Judges to Kings one unbroken compilation, in which the present divisions are but acci dental; and in confirmation Of this view it has been no ticed that all the successive books Open with the simple conjunction And (in our version, that the various books contain common phrases and terms Of ex pression, and that even in the Book Of Judges (chaps. Xvii. B', xviii. 1, xix. 1) we find allusions to the future monarchy of Israel. N OW these indications certainly show that the successive books were regarded as forming part of one history, and that the compilers had probably much the same ancient sources of information before them. Pos siblyithey may also imply the agency of what we should call an editor, at the time Of the inclusion of the books in the Canon. But the cannot argue anything as to contemporaneous comp' tion. The connection in par ticular Of the Books of Samuel and Kings is easily accounted for without any such supposition, b the con sideration that, in actual fact, these books 0 include the whole history Of the Israelitish monarchy. Against the notion Of common authorshi we must set the marked difierence Of language anti) character, which can hardly escape the most careless reader. Even in respect of the e of the books, there seems little doubt that the obrew. Of the Books of Samuel belongs to an earlier and purer age. But looking to the whole style and narrative, we Observe that-the Books of Kings have far more of an Official and annalistic character; they mark dates and epochs, and quote authorities. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.