On the one hand, the two books of Samuel were originally one composition and show signs of being designed as a single literary unit. On the other hand, they are also clearly a part of a much larger composition, tracing the history of Israel from creation to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile (Genesis–2 Kings). At the turn of the third century A.D., Origen records that for the Jews, these two books were one book, “Samouel, that is, ‘The called
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