Abstract
The Story of God Commentary Series works from the New International Version (NIV) with a double aim: to interpret the text as the original author intended, and to ‘read the text in the light of the death and resurrection of Jesus’. Each section works from three angles: Listen to the Story, Explain the Story, Live the Story. Faithful to these parameters, Paul Evans demonstrates a sensitive and thoroughly-briefed critical reading as he listens to and explains 1–2 Samuel. He is candid about the blind spots of Samuel himself (p. 134). Textual issues are well attended to, such as the ‘extra’ paragraph between 1 Sam 10 and 11 in an important manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QSama)—included in several modern translations, though not NIV—and whether to read ‘ark’ or ‘ephod’ in 1 Sam 14:18. The story is then ‘lived’ in a North American evangelical environment, yet not ‘spiritualised’. Evans rightly refuses to equate the work of Yahweh’s spirit in changing Saul (1 Sam 9–10) with the work of the Holy Spirit in believers today or view that as normative: ‘All the occasions of Yahweh’s spirit coming on individuals in the Old Testament are exceptional rather than normative.’ (pp. 122–123)