He narrates so naturally, and at the
same time so graphically, carries us back so vividly to the period
whose history he describes, is so free from anachronisms, and



INTRODUCTION. 33

has so little which transcends the ordinary course of nature,
that even our opponents, from Eichhorn to Studer and Ber-
theau, cannot help conceding a high degree of credibility to liis
narrative. The author of the books of Samuel does not indeed
expressly quote his sources, but we may infer that they were
contemporaneous from the fact that Chronicles cite as their
source for this period a historical work begun by Samuel, and
Gontinued by the prophets Gad and Nathan. That the author
of the books of Samuel made the same contemporaneous source
the basis of his work, follows from the almost verbal agreement
between the sections which both writers have in common. In
the books of Kings, the annals of the kings of Judah and the
annals of the kings of Israel are generally quoted at the end of
each reign, as the sources employed. We gain nearer infor-
mation concerning the nature of this source from the books of
Chronicles. It is always quoted there, but together with it
special sources, descriptions of the lives of the separate kings,
written by contemporaneous prophets. That these must stand
in some relation to the annals of Judah and Israel, the common
source, follows from the fact that the books of Chronicles are
in the closest verbal agreement with the books of Kings, where
they quote these special sources. In reference to two of the
adduced special sources we have also the express statement of
the Chronicles that they were incorporated in the annals of
the kingdom, 2 Chron. xx. 34, xxxii. 32. Thus the credi-
bility of the historical books is supported throughout by the
fact of their antiquity. Accordingly the writers of the books
of Kings and Chronicles must generally have made use of
contemporaneous sources. 