Commenting
on the differences between the MT and LXX version of 1 Sam 10:1, Reinhard
Müller, Juha Pakkala, and Bas ter Haar Romeny, three experts in Old Testament
textual criticism wrote:
1 Sam 10:1 MT
ויקח שמואל את־פך השמן ויצק על־ראשו וישקהו
ויאמר הלוא כי־משחך
יהוה על־נחלתו לנגיד
And Samuel took the flask of oil, and poured
it upon his head, and kissed him, and said: “Is it not that Yhwh has anointed
you over his inheritance as a leader?”
1 Sam 10:1 LXX
καὶ ἔλαβεν Σαμουηλ τὸν
φακὸν τοῦ ἐλαίου καὶ ἐπέχεεν ἐπὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐφίλησεν αὐτὸν καὶ εἶπεν
αὐτῷ οὐχὶ κέχρικέν σε κύριος εἰς ἄρχοντα ἐπὶ τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ Ισραηλ καὶ σὺ
ἄρξεις ἐν λαῷ κυρίου καὶ σὺ σώσεις αὐτὸν ἐκ χειρὸς ἐχθρῶν αὐτοῦ κυκλόθεν καὶ τοῦτό
σοι τὸ σημεῖον ὅτι ἔχρισέν σε κύριος ἐπὶ κληρονομίαν αὐτοῦ εἰς ἄρχοντα
And Samuel took the
vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said; “Did the Lord not anointed
you as a leader over his people, over Israel? And you shall rule over the
people of the Lord, and you shall save them from the hand of their enemies all
around. And this shall be the sign for you that the Lord has anointed you
over his inheritance as a leader.”
The plus resembles phrases in 1 Sam 9:16-17,
a passage that describes how Yhwh commissioned Samuel to anoint Saul as king. (Reinhard
Müller, Juha Pakkala, and Bas ter Haar Romeny, Evidence of Editing: Growth and Change of Texts in the Hebrew Bible [Atlanta:
Society of Biblical Literature, 2014], 70)
The authors
offer possible reasons for this change on pp. 74f. For them, the best explanation
is that the text in the MT
was intentionally shortened due to considerations
related to the content of the passage. This is suggested by the positive view
of Saul’s kingdom that is contained in the longer text. Here the prophet
Samuel, in the name of Yhweh, commissions Saul to rule over the Israelites and
to save them from their enemies. This call does not fit with Saul’s rejection
by Yhweh in the following chapters (see 1 Sam 13:13-14; 15:23, 26). In many
texts that follow, Saul is depicted as a rather bad ruler over Yhweh’s people.
This tension between the positive view of Saul’s kingdom in 1 Sam 10:1 and the negative
description in the ensuing narrative could easily have caused an editor to omit
the references to Saul’s political leadership over Israel within Samuel’s
speech to Saul (1 Sam 10:1-8). To be sure, such a revision would not seem very
systematic, since the parallel passage in 1 Sam 9:16-17 was left intact.
However, one should not overlook that the two passages are not completely identical.
According to 1 Sam 9:16 Saul has the task of saving Israel from the
Philistines, while the long text of 1 Sam 10:1 speaks about Israel’s “enemies
all around,” referring to a totality of enemies. The latter is, strictly
speaking, a contradiction to Yhweh’s speech in 1 Sam 9:16. This contradiction
and the totality of the perspective in the longer text of 1 Sam 10:1 that does
not fit with Saul’s soon-following rejection might have triggered the omission.
In addition, there are also cases in 1 Samuel where rather isolated
anti-Saulide changes in the proto-MT have probably taken place. Consequently,
it is possible to explain the shorter MT reading of 1 Sam 10:1 as a result of
an isolated editorial alternation of the text . . .this theory is the most
probable. (Ibid., 75-76).
