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Bible Dictionaries
Samuel
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (Σαμουήλ)
Samuel is named in the roll of the OT heroes who lived and died in faith (Hebrews 11:32). His unique position in the history of Israel is indicated by two phrases in Acts-‘all the prophets from Samuel’ (Acts 3:24), and God ‘gave them judges until Samuel the prophet’ Acts 13:20). He is regarded as the last of the Judges and the first of the Prophets. In one stratum-the earliest-of the two books which bear his name he is the ‘seer’ of a small town; in another he is the ‘judge’ who rules over the whole people; in a third he is the ‘prophet’ who speaks like an Amos or a Hosea. But the difficult critical problems raised by the composite story of his life and achievements (see articles ‘Samuel’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) and Encyclopaedia Biblica ) have no bearing upon the NT passages in which he is mentioned. That he played a highly important rôle, religious and political, as representative of Jahweh and as king-maker, at a turning-point in Hebrew history is a fact which criticism leaves unshaken.
James Strahan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Samuel'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/samuel.html. 1906-1918.
