I need a disclaimer! As always, any dates quoted are estimates, approximations and guesses only!!
Why do we need an introduction here?
So far it has been possible to follow these studies starting in Genesis all the way to 1 Samuel.
But the steady flow of narrative has been interrupted by a new book. Why is that?
Originally 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles were each only one book in the Hebrew Bible.
The story goes that in around 150BC Ptolomy II of Egypt employed seventy scribes, and they were each charged with translating the Hebrew bible into Greek.
This became known as the Septuagint (latin 'septuaginta' = 'seventy'), and for convenience these fairly long books were arbitrarily divided in two.
Why was this translation necessary? At the time of the first Jewish exile under the Assyrians, Aramean was becoming the common language spoken across the Middle-Eastern world.
By the time of the exile of the Jewish nation to Babylon, and their return seventy years later, spoken Hebrew had largely been forgotten and it was not long before they were again overrun by the Greek army led by Alexander in 332BC.
From then on, Aramaic was generally spoken by the common people, with Greek being favoured by the 'intelligensia'. The written Hebrew language was only used for religious worship and education. When the Hebrew scriptures were read aloud, the preacher would translate it into Aramaic and add his own comments, much like a sermon.
This spoken translation was called the Targum, and writing it down was prohibited. The only written version of the Scriptures understandable by the vast majority of the population was the Septuagint, and so it was this that was in common use during New Testament times.
Back to Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. No-one can be sure of the original writers of these books but it is widely accepted that they were all based on other histories available at the time. Roughly, 1 Chronicles covers the same material as 2 Samuel, and 2 Chronicles covers 1 & 2 Kings.
Each of these books were writtten at different times, and for different purposes.
Samuel and Kings were probably written sometime around 600BC, during the exile in Babylon. The main themes of these books are the Covenant Promises of God, The apostasy of his people, and their inevitable punishment.
Chronicles was probably written around 350-300BC, well after the return of the exiles to Judea. Perhaps the aim of this book was to demonstrate that God is still the same, and his people are still his chosen people. But also now to look forward to the coming Messiah.
So as we continue in 2 Samuel, and then into 1 Kings, I will also be referring to the similar passages in 1 & 2 Chronicles, and using this as source material where Samuel or Kings is silent.
Following this, the narrative continues in Ezra and Nehemiah. In fact the first verses of Ezra mirror the last verses of 2 Chronicles.
For completeness, the prophetic books Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah were probably written during the times of the kings that followed Solomon and before the overthrow of 'Israel' (the northern tribes), by Assyria;
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel from then and during Babylonian exile;
and then Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi would have been written following the return from exile. (But other views differ!)
If you have been following the 1 Samuel studies, you will have already looked at 2 Samuel 1&2. If you are simply starting in 2 Samuel you may want to look at the first two chapters by clicking the 'Previous study' button below.
