"[Polzin's] book... will profoundly affect biblical scholarship for at least a generation." -- Frank Kermode "[A] suggestive and rich book, written in a clear and witty style." -- Marc Z. Brettler, The Journal of Religion "Literary commentary at its best." -- Adele Berlin

The book of Samuel tells the story of the origins of kingship in Israel in what seems to be an artistically structured, flowing narrative. Yet it is also marked by an inconsistent outlook, divergent styles, and breaks in the narrative. According to Noth’s Deuteronomistic History hypothesis, the Deuteronomistic historian constructed the narrative by piecing together early sources and generally refrained from commenting in his own voice. Recent studies have called into question the extent of Samuel’s sources and their redaction history, as well as the textual growth of the book as a whole. The essays in this book, representing the latest scholarship on this subject, reexamine whether the book of Samuel was ever part of a Deuteronomistic History. The contributors are A. Graeme Auld, Hannes Bezzel, Philip R. Davies, Walter Dietrich, Cynthia Edenburg, Jeremy M. Hutton, Jürg Hutzli, Ernst Axel Knauf, Reinhard Müller, Richard D. Nelson, Christophe Nihan, K. L. Noll, Juha Pakkala, and Jacques Vermeylen.

"A masterpiece of contemporary Bible translation and commentary."—Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books of 1999 Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

Peterson engages the identities and provenances of the authors of the various “editions” of the Deteronomistic History. Peterson asks where we might locate a figure with both motive and opportunity to draw up a proto-narrative including elements of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the first part of 1 Kings. Peterson identifies a particular candidate in the time of David qualified to write the first edition. He then identifies the particular circle of custodians of the Deuteronomistic narrative and supplies successive redactions down to the time of Jeremiah.