1 Samuel 16 & 31: Is the Bible Accurate Historically?

Parker and Julie were sitting together at lunch when Parker asked Julie, "So what did you think of last Sunday's sermon on 1 Samuel 16?"

"Boring as usual. If the Pastor would talk about the book of Revelation and all its hidden references to nuclear bombs he might get my attention. The book of 1 Samuel just isn't doing it for me," said Julie.

"But didn't you find it weird that an evil spirit from the Lord was tormenting Saul? I thought God was holy. So how can He send an evil spirit on somebody?" Parker said trying to get a conversation rolling.

"Well maybe God sent one of Satan's demons to possess Saul. I don't know," Julie remarked unenthusiastically.

Parker gave the conversation one more try by rebutting, "But the evil spirit is from the Lord. Are God and demons hanging out together now?"

Sky a classmate who had been listening in on the conversation decided to make an unsolicited comment, "In my opinion, God gives Saul an evil spirit because it makes for good fiction. I just think the whole Bible thing is a hoax. It has so many historical discrepancies. Why would anyone trust it?"

"Are there any discrepancies in particular you're thinking of?" Asked Parker refusing to let Sky win at her game of skeptic.

"Well, since we're talking about the book of Samuel haven't you noticed that in 1 Samuel 31 Saul dies by falling on his sword but in 2 Samuel 1 Saul dies at the hands of a foreigner? Is that a good enough example for you? This is why I don't take the Bible very seriously."

How would you contribute to this conversation?
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"I understand where you're coming from Sky. Our pastor told us this past week that reading narrative history in general can be tricky. You can't always take people in the story at their word. The only person you can really trust is the person telling the story (the narrator). He is kind of like the gatekeeper of THE objective point of view. And so the reader really needs to be dialed in to his point of view to get the point of the story," said Parker.

"Are you just trying to confuse me? How does this change anything about the Bible's contradictions?" Sky seemed confused.

"Take the book of Job for instance. We learn at the beginning of the story that God views Job as a righteous man. This is what the narrator tells us. But then when bad things start happening to Job, his older, 'wiser' friends tell him that these unfortunate things must be happening to him because he has somehow sinned against God. These guys are simply regurgitating the conventional wisdom at that time. But the reader knows from the narrator that these guys are totally on the wrong track in their analysis. Their version of wisdom is not to be trusted even though they are older and supposedly wiser."

"Okay...So how does this relate to the contradictory accounts of Saul's death?" Sky asked.

"Well, in 1 Samuel 31 the narrator (the objective gatekeeper) provides the TRUE account of Saul's death. But in 2 Samuel 1 some random Amalekite is spinning a tale about how he courageously killed Saul. I wonder why? Might he have wanted to impress the king to get some favorable treatment? But the joke was on him," Said Parker.

"That's right...off with his head." Julie chimed in.

"That makes some sense...but the narrator does tell us that an evil spirit from the Lord tormented Saul. I still don't get that," said Sky.

Parker was glad this question resurfaced, "I actually asked my pastor about this after his sermon. That's why I brought it up originally. He said that the Hebrew word for 'evil' (ra) is a very generic word. It can mean 'bad', 'unpleasant', 'uncomfortable'...you get the point. And like any word, it gains its meaning from the context in which it is being used. This is why many people prefer to call 'The Tree of the Knowledge of good and EVIL' 'The Tree of the Knowledge of good and BAD.' The story tells us that the 'ra' that came from the tree was PAIN. And childbirth pain is hardly morally evil. It's just outright BAD."

"Brevity is not your strong suit Parker. So let me help you. What you mean is that God sent some type of unpleasant spirit to Saul NOT an evil, demonic spirit?" said Sky.

"Correct. This is why some versions of the Bible call it a 'tormenting' or 'harmful' spirit."

"I feel like I'm in English class. Are we going to have a quiz on this?" said Julie jokingly.