Samuel, prophet or priest from 1 Samuel: Good guy or bad?

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Aryania Disclaimer: The article is not meant to support any Abrahamic faith. The Aryan people should abandon all such superstition!

This is the third article in a three part series. If you haven’t yet read the preceding articles, I’ve provided links here.

Now it’s time to inspect Samuel’s story.

 

Samuel was not a legitimate priest

Encyclopedia Brittanica says the following of Samuel:

Samuel, Hebrew Shmuʾel, (flourished 11th century BC, Israel), religious hero in the history of Israel, represented in the Old Testament in every role of leadership open to a Jewish man of his day—seer, priest, judge, prophet, and military leader. 

Encyclopedia Brittanica

However, it has made a grave mistake in presuming the title of priest was open to just any Jewish (Israelite) man of his day, for the priesthood was explicitly limited to Aaron and his descendants:

“And you, bring near to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests – Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

Exodus 29:1

Exodus 29 then describes the priestly garments they are to wear, and ends with:

These must be on Aaron and his sons when they enter to the tent of meeting, or when they approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they bear no iniquity and die. It is to be a perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants after him.

Exodus 29:43

If we discover that Samuel is performing priestly duties such as sacrificial offerings, he is only legitimately doing so if he is a descendent of Aaron.

How can we be absolutely sure of this? Not only do we have the references above, among many others, that specifically state the priesthood belongs to Aaron and his sons–we also have a story in Numbers of a non-Aaronite seeking to be granted priestly duties:

Now Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth, who were Reubenites, took men and rebelled against Moses, along with some of the Israelites, 250 leaders of the community, chosen from the assembly, famous men. And they assembled against Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, seeing that the whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the community of the Lord?”

Numbers 16:1-3

Korah, a Levite but not a descendent of Aaron (rather of Kohath), complains that Moses and Aaron have taken on too many holy (which means “set apart”) duties (priestly duties) for themselves.

Moses response, in part, confirms this:

Moses said to Korah, “Listen now, you sons of Levi! Does it seem too small a thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you near to himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the community to minister to them? He has brought you near and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Do you now seek the priesthood also?

Numbers 16:8-10

Moses put Korah and his cohorts to the following test:

Then he said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him. Do this, Korah, you and all your company: Take censers, put fire in them, and set incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses will be holy. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!”

Numbers 16:5-7

Unfortunately for Korah, things don’t go his way:

When he had finished speaking all these words, the ground that was under them split open, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, along with their households, and all Korah’s men, and all their goods. They and all that they had went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community. … Then a fire went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.

Numbers 16:31-33, 35

And finally, the story is summed up in this manner, once the censors of the fallen men had been gathered up at the Lord’s behest and hammered into a covering for the altar:

It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority of Moses.

Numbers 16:40

As you can see, the Torah is crystal clear that the priesthood belongs to only Aaron and his sons. (See also Leviticus chapters 1 through 5 which detail the sacrificial regulations, where one repeatedly finds the phrase “the sons of Aaron, the priests”.)

Now that we’re clear about who is (and who is not) a priest, let us determine whether Samuel should be considered a priest.

First, did he perform priestly duties? Yes he did.

So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

1 Samuel 7:9

This is not the only example of Samuel sacrificing, but for the sake of brevity it’s enough to establish that he was.

Now, to confirm that Samuel was authorized to do so, let’s consult his lineage, which luckily we have:

There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; the name of the first was Hannah and the name of the second was Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless. … After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, “I asked the Lord for him.”

1 Samuel 1:1-2, 20

Here we see that Samuel’s father Elkanah is a man from the hill country of Ephraim. Some have taken this to mean that he is tribally Ephraimite, but that is not the case. An extended version of Samuel’s genealogy is found in 1 Chronicles, and the above shorter version matches it precisely despite the occasional variant name spelling:

These are the ones who served along with their sons: From the Kohathites: Heman the musician, son of Joel, son of Samuel, son of Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Eliel, son of Toah, son of Zuph, son of Elkanah, son of Mahath, son of Amasai, son of Elkanah, son of Joel, son of Azariah, son of Zephaniah, son of Tahath, son of Assir, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah,

1 Chronicles 6:33-37

Notice the last name: Korah! This is the same Korah, a Kohathite (descendent of Levi but not Aaron) who perished in Numbers 16 for seeking priestly duties, and now Samuel his descendent is making the exact same mistake!

This is far from being the only action to condemn Samuel, for the Torah demands that the Canaanite high places be destroyed, and sacrifice be conducted at only the chosen place:

You must by all means destroy all the places where the nations you are about to dispossess worship their gods – on the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. You must tear down their altars, shatter their sacred pillars, burn up their sacred Asherah poles, and cut down the images of their gods; you must eliminate their very memory from that place. You must not worship the Lord your God the way they worship. But you must seek only the place he chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, and you must go there. And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.

Deuteronomy 12:2-6

Also:

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, and demolish their high places.

Numbers 33:51-52

And yet, we find in 1 Samuel that not only is Samuel performing duties that are not his to perform, but he is doing them at the high places!

As they were going up the ascent to the town, they met some girls coming out to draw water. They said to them, “Is this where the seer is?” They replied, “Yes, straight ahead! But hurry now, for he came to the town today, and the people are making a sacrifice at the high place. When you enter the town, you can find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people won’t eat until he arrives, for he must bless the sacrifice. Once that happens, those who have been invited will eat. Now go on up, for this is the time when you can find him!” So they went up to the town. As they were heading for the middle of the town, Samuel was coming in their direction to go up to the high place. … Samuel replied to Saul, “I am the seer! Go up in front of me to the high place! Today you will eat with me and in the morning I will send you away. I will tell you everything that you are thinking.

1 Samuel 9:11-14

If that isn’t enough, the story in 1 Samuel 16 has the jewish god commanding Samuel to offer a sacrifice in Bethlehem. If the story is to be believed, it features the jewish god directly contradicting His own commandments!

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.” Samuel replied, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” But the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you should do. You will anoint for me the one I point out to you.”

1 Samuel 16:1-3

At this point we are well into the realm of the absurd, and it should be clear to any reasonable person that something is not quite right.

How is it that Korah and his cohorts were prevented by the jewish god from usurping the role of priest, but Samuel his descendent breaks the jewish god's Torah without consequence?

The answer to both this conundrum as well as that posed by the evil behavior of Eli's sons is simple: Eli's tabernacle at Shiloh was not the original, neither Eli or Samuel were legitimate priests, and the jewish god was not present among the people of Israel by their time.

The Judaean writings would have you believe that the jewish god was present and active with them well into first temple times, blessing the selection of David as King, agreeing to David’s desire to build a stone temple, and blessing said temple with his presence after it was built by David’s son Solomon.

However, we are fortunate to have these Judaean writings today, for they have also recorded the simple truth that proves these claims false.

Consider this promise made to Moses:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “You are about to die, and then these people will begin to prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land into which they are going. They will reject me and break my covenant that I have made with them. At that time my anger will erupt against them and I will abandon them and hide my face from them until they are devoured. Many disasters and distresses will overcome them so that they will say at that time, ‘Have not these disasters overcome us because our God is not among us?‘ But I will certainly hide myself at that time because of all the wickedness they will have done by turning to other gods.

Deuteronomy 31:16-18

The jewish god indicates that worship of the Canaanite gods will cause him to abandon them and hide his face from them.

Now consider what was happening as early as the time of the judges:

The Israelites did evil before the Lord by worshiping the Baals. They abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods – the gods of the nations who lived around them. They worshiped them and made the Lord angry. They abandoned the Lord and worshiped Baal and the Ashtars. the Lord was furious with Israel and handed them over to robbers who plundered them. He turned them over to their enemies who lived around them. They could not withstand their enemies’ attacks.

Judges 2:11-14

Given the promise made to Moses, if one takes the jewish god seriously, one must conclude that this is the point in Israel’s history when His presence was removed–not centuries later after an unauthorized temple was built in Jerusalem.

This is something that even Gideon, from the same time period, admits:

Gideon said to him, “Pardon me, but if the Lord is with us, why has such disaster overtaken us? Where are all his miraculous deeds our ancestors told us about? They said, ‘Did the Lord not bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.”

Judges 6:13

Notice how similar this statement is to what the jewish god promised would be said in Deuteronomy 31: Have not these disasters overcome us because our God is not among us?

There you have it–conclusive proof that should satisfy the most reticent among us that Samuel was not a godly man, but rather a man in direct rebellion against the jewish god’s commandments. He was not in contact with the jewish god because the jewish god had long before removed his presence. Samuel selected neither Saul nor David at the jewish god’s direction, but for his own political purposes. In his days, the schism that began with Eli was accelerating and would soon result in the formation of the Judaean kingdom.

If David was not chosen by the jewish god, and was not a legitimate king (stay tuned for an in-depth post about this), then there is no messiah that will arise from his descendants, and thus Jesus is no messiah.

In fact, the prophets who foretold a "messiah" also accepted the demonstrably false chosen place, further calling into question their legitimacy.

Remember, in order to believe the Hebrew or Greek scriptures to be true, you must first believe the earliest writings (the Torah) to be true, and the Torah spells out exactly how things were to be done. Any divergence is simply rebellion and falsehood.

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