Exegesis of 1 Samuel 2:27-36.

Between the judges of Israel and its kings stood two families that contrasted the two ways of receiving God's word. Elkanah's family is faithful to the commands of God to yearly visit Him at his sanctuary in Shiloh. Eli and his family, the priests at Shiloh, are faithless to the commands of God, for while Eli discharges the duties of a priest well enough, he utterly fails to discharge his duties as a parent, so that his sons who are to be priests after him violate Levitical commands (cf. 1 Sam. 2:12-17 with Lev. 3:3-5,16, 7:29-34, 17:10-14).

The historical context of the first few chapters of 1 Samuel is the period of the judges, when (Judges 21:25) everyone did what he wanted. Although Eli's children Hophni and Phinehas are compelling the women to "lay with them" much as cult prostitutes of other pagan temples, few or none are refusing them and no one demands that these two boys be stoned to death (Deut. 22:13-30). Elkanah's family seems unique in Godliness, but Elkanah has another wife, which bigamy was never sanctioned by God.

Into these contrasting families walks an unknown prophet. The reader is not even told whether Eli the hi

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outcome of their own free choice to disobey God. The Bible sees no conflict between God's sovereignty and man's free will" (232). The idea behind form critical analysis is that there are fixed forms which themselves have meaning, irrespective of the words. Lohfink quotes AndrT Jolles' categorizing "legend, saga, riddle, saying, fairy tale, and joke" (35). The use of form criticism would note that a saga form would be historical, while a fairy tale would be allegorical at best, if not simply entertaining. Thus, when form criticism encounters the Bible, one often thinks like the cartoon Lohfink uses: a group of animals coming off of Noah's ark bearing signs: "song," "fable," "testimonial," proverb." They are all marching toward a meat grinder, coming out in sausage links which fall into boxes labeled "Bible history" (65). However, Lohfink acknowledges the difficulty: "Once a linguistic form has been discovered, it should be described as minutely as possible. That is often not as easy as it appears at first glance" (39). If, then, an unnamed prophet walks onto the pages of Scripture and prophecies doom upon Eli, his sons, and his descendants, is his prophecy in the "form" of prophecy? Actually, it's in the form usually used by som
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Some common words found in the essay are:
AndrT Jolles', Similarly Pharaoh, Phinehas Num, Keil Delitzsch, God Eli, , Bible Dictionary, Compare Gen, Abiathar Zadok, John Baptist's, keil delitzsch, 1 sam, critical analysis, eli sons, elkanah's family, grand rapids mi, rapids mi, historical criticism, form critical, historical context, god eli, form critical analysis, repent avoid judgment, source critical analysis, 2 sam 227-36,
Approximate Word count = 3223
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)