Understanding the Middle Eastern Mind Set

Understanding the Middle Eastern Mind Set (Part 1) (Copyright 2009) by Samuel S. Martin (Jerusalem, Israel)
Comment: I am going to be attending a wedding on April 26 and I got to thinking about the issue of marriage and how some of the customs that still dominate the culture here have some application to what was taking place in the Biblical period. Hope you find this short article interesting. Samuel the prophet’s children One of the most interesting figures in all of the Old Testament is the prophet Samuel (not because I was named after him either). Samuel was an exceedingly important pivotal figure in the development of the nation of Israel. He was a priest and a prophet, and he functioned in many ways also as the main leader of the country in his time up until the time that King Saul became Israel’s first king. We do not know too much about Samuel’s life details. We know a bit about his lifestyle and his mode of life, but his personal details of his life are not really revealed too much. One thing we do know, however, is that he was married and had at least two sons. These sons were named “Joel” (the first born) and “Abiah” (the second born) (I Samuel 8:1-2). According to the Bible, “when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel … (I Sam. 8:1) So they assumed the role that he had, but we note that “the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel in Ramah, and said unto him, ‘Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways …” (I Samuel 8:5) after which these elders demanded that Samuel “make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” (ibid.) Now in this story, we have to note that the sons of Samuel had to have been old enough to have assumed the office of judges, developed a corrupt reputation, displayed that corruption to such an extent that the leadership of the people came to Samuel and demanded a secular king. The interesting thing about this story is that you never hear anything about Samuel’s wife. No doubt he was legally married to have been able to have produced at least two children who were legally accepted by the leadership of the country to legitimately have been installed to be judges in the country, but not a word about his wife. Why? This is interesting because we find some attention given to the wives of people associated with him. Note that his father, Elkanah, had two wives. (I Samuel 1:2) King David had at least six wives and other concubines (I Samuel 30:5; II Samuel 5:13). King Saul’s wife is also mentioned (I Samuel 14:50), but we have no mention of Samuel’s wife. When we look at the life of Samuel, we note that his mother Hannah was an exceedingly righteous and godly woman. The prayer that is attributed to Hannah in I Samuel 2 is the first instance in the Bible of such a prayer given in the psalmodic style. We note in the first chapters of I Samuel instances of her going up and praying, fasting, and pouring her heart out to God and note that she promised that if she were to have a child that “no razor shall come upon his head.” (I Samuel 1:11) Certainly, the LORD blessed Hannah and gave her Samuel (which means, God hears), who became an exceedingly righteous person. He engaged in a reformation of ancient Israel after the transgressions of the house of Eli and the sins of his sons (I Samuel 2:12). We also note in I Samuel 2:27-36 quite an indictment against Eli for the behavior of himself and his family and God’s judgement against him. Now, here is where a bit of understanding of the Middle Eastern mind set can help us to better understand the circumstances of Samuel, his family life and of what happened to him. While the Bible does not tell us, here is where we can put on our cultural caps and think this whole thing through a bit. Obviously, the behavior of Eli’s sons was not pleasing to God and even He spoke about that prophetically. In fact, not only was the behavior of Eli’s sons inappropriate, we find a very strong indictment against the whole house of Eli found in I Samuel 2:22-36. We can note in this section just quoted that God intended “to raise up a faithful priest …” (v. 35) Of course, when we read the context, we can see that this faithful priest to be raised up was Samuel the prophet, but in fact, if one reads this passage, we can note a very strong messianic tendency here because when we look at the life of Samuel the prophet, we see that he does not really fulfill this description. This is because his children were also evil and were not faithful as was their father. Why is this? Clearly, these priestly children of Samuel did not favor the behavior of their father’s family. In fact, their behavior resembled quite similarly that undertaken by the children of Eli! Now in understanding the Middle Eastern mindset a little, we might be able to learn what had happened. When we look at what the prophet who came to Eli said in I Samuel 2:22:36 no doubt Eli was disquieted about that statement. Certainly, no one wishes to be told by one of God’s spokesmen, no matter how bad their children might be that they will die and that the power of the high priesthood will be taken from them and their family. The natural approach to such a circumstance clearly is to resist and could this have been what Eli did and could this have affected the life of Samuel and his children? It could very well be. Understanding the power of the High Priesthood I think that all of us who read the Bible understand the power that the High priest had in ancient Israel. This is especially the case prior to the time when Israel had no king. The High Priest was the highest religious official in the country. He was the singular highest-ranking personality in Israel’s relationship with the LORD. He was “God’s High Priest.” Note how this is referenced in the following text. We can see that even one whose knowledge of the Jewish faith is equaled by few throughout the whole of the Bible (in this case we are speaking about St. Paul), his respect and precise deference to the office of the High Priest is clear, immediate, and grounded in Scripture: “¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” ²At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” ⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?” ⁵Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people. (Acts 23:1-5) Here we can see the power invested in this office. It is pretty much unquestioned. Eli – the High Priest of Israel We can see that this is the environment that Samuel the prophet found himself amongst. It was one of tremendous power invested in an individual. Of course, this was magnified by the fact that there was not at that time a king of Israel. Eli the High Priest saw three things happening in front of him that portended badly for the future of his family. These things were: The behavior of his two sons, whose reputations were exceedingly wicked. The pronouncement of the prophet against him, his sons, and his dynasty. The rise of Samuel to being recognized as a prophet and one who was in close communication with All Mighty God. In this environment, can we now speculate how it was considering that Samuel was a priest who had such a close relationship with the LORD and that he came from a seemingly righteous family background, that his two sons became so evil and followed in the footsteps of the house of Eli rather than in the footsteps of Samuel? Here is where a little bit of understanding that Middle Eastern culture can offer us an answer. With the rather bleak situation facing Eli, he may have undertaken some actions which he felt could be a way to counteract some of the pronouncements against him. Considering the influence that he had in the life of Samuel, there is no doubt that he had a strong sway in who Samuel married. After all, Samuel had been left in the custody of Eli and dedicated to the service of the LORD, so it would only be natural that the person who he spent most of his time with and under the responsibility of, would have significant influence over him. Naturally, Eli would have been threatened by Samuel, especially after Samuel was selected by the LORD to be a prophet. In a sense, with the state of the Levitical priesthood in such disarray, Samuel’s rise to power and to becoming a singularly powerful individual in Israel came at the destruction of the house of Eli. However, we can note though that Samuel’s power seems to have died with him and was not passed on as after that time Israel began to be ruled by kings, the first of which was King Saul. Samuel in a sense was the last of the Judges period and his life is a demarcation to a new phase of Israel’s relationship with God and development as a nation. But when we review the situation, it seems clear that the influence of Eli on Samuel’s life affected him deeply and when you look at the circumstances, it seems quite plausible that Eli was involved in the selection of Samuel’s wife and that that partner for Samuel was not the best for him or for his progeny. Certainly, we can say that his children did not follow in his footsteps in upholding God’s Law or having a reputation as honest and righteous personalities. So, with Eli seeing what was happening around him to his family and to see God’s favor on Samuel, it seems quite possible that he would have tried to influence the situation by keeping his family in power. This could have very easily been done by arranging a marriage of Samuel to a daughter of his! This could very well be what happened. Other examples of this during the same period This is, of course, healthy speculation, but it is not without some foundation. The first thing to understand was that marriages in this period were arranged quite commonly. Look at the example of David and his relationship with his father-in-law, King Saul. Read I Samuel 18:17-20. Here we have the account of marriages being arranged by the parents of the bride. Note in this example the unequal power structure. Here we have the newly crowned king of the country arranging a marriage for one of his daughters with a former shepherd boy who became a military hero. Of course, we can see that David’s family had very little say in the matter. After all, who is going to go against the king of the country? We can also say the same thing about the wishes of a High priest in this context. The power dynamics in this example are quite similar in fact to those which governed the relationship between Eli and Samuel. In addition, note that King Saul’s motivation for marrying off his daughter, Michal, to David were not in any way noble and friendly. Note what he said: “I will give her that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” (I Samuel 18:20-21) This arrangement of a marriage is still very much a Middle Eastern phenomenon. Today, its influence has lessened compared even to recent times as many marriages now take place for love, but arranged marriages are still very prevalent here in the Middle East. Could it be that what happened with Samuel relates very much to what happened in the above-mentioned example to David? Could the wife of Samuel have been given to him by Eli similar to the above example with David, Saul, and Michal? It could very well be. ———————————————————————————————————— See Samuel S. Martin’s other articles at: Martin, Samuel S. – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) Reprinted with permission from: Samuel S. Martin http://www.biblechild.com ————————————————————————————————————

Understanding the Middle Eastern Mind Set (Part 1)
(Copyright 2009) by Samuel S. Martin (Jerusalem, Israel)

Comment: I am going to be attending a wedding on April 26 and I got to thinking about the issue of marriage and how some of the customs that still dominate the culture here have some application to what was taking place in the Biblical period. Hope you find this short article interesting.

Samuel the prophet’s children
One of the most interesting figures in all of the Old Testament is the prophet Samuel (not because I was named after him either). Samuel was an exceedingly important pivotal figure in the development of the nation of Israel. He was a priest and a prophet, and he functioned in many ways also as the main leader of the country in his time up until the time that King Saul became Israel’s first king.

We do not know too much about Samuel’s life details. We know a bit about his lifestyle and his mode of life, but his personal details of his life are not really revealed too much. One thing we do know, however, is that he was married and had at least two sons. These sons were named “Joel” (the first born) and “Abiah” (the second born) (I Samuel 8:1-2).

According to the Bible, “when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel … (I Sam. 8:1) So they assumed the role that he had, but we note that “the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel in Ramah, and said unto him, ‘Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways …” (I Samuel 8:5) after which these elders demanded that Samuel “make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” (ibid.)

Now in this story, we have to note that the sons of Samuel had to have been old enough to have assumed the office of judges, developed a corrupt reputation, displayed that corruption to such an extent that the leadership of the people came to Samuel and demanded a secular king.

The interesting thing about this story is that you never hear anything about Samuel’s wife. No doubt he was legally married to have been able to have produced at least two children who were legally accepted by the leadership of the country to legitimately have been installed to be judges in the country, but not a word about his wife. Why?

This is interesting because we find some attention given to the wives of people associated with him. Note that his father, Elkanah, had two wives. (I Samuel 1:2) King David had at least six wives and other concubines (I Samuel 30:5; II Samuel 5:13). King Saul’s wife is also mentioned (I Samuel 14:50), but we have no mention of Samuel’s wife.

When we look at the life of Samuel, we note that his mother Hannah was an exceedingly righteous and godly woman. The prayer that is attributed to Hannah in I Samuel 2 is the first instance in the Bible of such a prayer given in the psalmodic style. We note in the first chapters of I Samuel instances of her going up and praying, fasting, and pouring her heart out to God and note that she promised that if she were to have a child that “no razor shall come upon his head.” (I Samuel 1:11)

Certainly, the LORD blessed Hannah and gave her Samuel (which means, God hears), who became an exceedingly righteous person. He engaged in a reformation of ancient Israel after the transgressions of the house of Eli and the sins of his sons (I Samuel 2:12). We also note in I Samuel 2:27-36 quite an indictment against Eli for the behavior of himself and his family and God’s judgement against him.

Now, here is where a bit of understanding of the Middle Eastern mind set can help us to better understand the circumstances of Samuel, his family life and of what happened to him. While the Bible does not tell us, here is where we can put on our cultural caps and think this whole thing through a bit.

Obviously, the behavior of Eli’s sons was not pleasing to God and even He spoke about that prophetically. In fact, not only was the behavior of Eli’s sons inappropriate, we find a very strong indictment against the whole house of Eli found in I Samuel 2:22-36.

We can note in this section just quoted that God intended “to raise up a faithful priest …” (v. 35) Of course, when we read the context, we can see that this faithful priest to be raised up was Samuel the prophet, but in fact, if one reads this passage, we can note a very strong messianic tendency here because when we look at the life of Samuel the prophet, we see that he does not really fulfill this description. This is because his children were also evil and were not faithful as was their father.

Why is this? Clearly, these priestly children of Samuel did not favor the behavior of their father’s family. In fact, their behavior resembled quite similarly that undertaken by the children of Eli!

Now in understanding the Middle Eastern mindset a little, we might be able to learn what had happened.

When we look at what the prophet who came to Eli said in I Samuel 2:22:36 no doubt Eli was disquieted about that statement. Certainly, no one wishes to be told by one of God’s spokesmen, no matter how bad their children might be that they will die and that the power of the high priesthood will be taken from them and their family. The natural approach to such a circumstance clearly is to resist and could this have been what Eli did and could this have affected the life of Samuel and his children? It could very well be.

Understanding the power of the High Priesthood
I think that all of us who read the Bible understand the power that the High priest had in ancient Israel. This is especially the case prior to the time when Israel had no king. The High Priest was the highest religious official in the country. He was the singular highest-ranking personality in Israel’s relationship with the LORD. He was “God’s High Priest.” Note how this is referenced in the following text. We can see that even one whose knowledge of the Jewish faith is equaled by few throughout the whole of the Bible (in this case we are speaking about St. Paul), his respect and precise deference to the office of the High Priest is clear, immediate, and grounded in Scripture:

“¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” ²At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” ⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?” ⁵Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people. (Acts 23:1-5)

Here we can see the power invested in this office. It is pretty much unquestioned.

Eli – the High Priest of Israel
We can see that this is the environment that Samuel the prophet found himself amongst. It was one of tremendous power invested in an individual. Of course, this was magnified by the fact that there was not at that time a king of Israel.

Eli the High Priest saw three things happening in front of him that portended badly for the future of his family. These things were:

The behavior of his two sons, whose reputations were exceedingly wicked.
The pronouncement of the prophet against him, his sons, and his dynasty.
The rise of Samuel to being recognized as a prophet and one who was in close communication with All Mighty God.

In this environment, can we now speculate how it was considering that Samuel was a priest who had such a close relationship with the LORD and that he came from a seemingly righteous family background, that his two sons became so evil and followed in the footsteps of the house of Eli rather than in the footsteps of Samuel?

Here is where a little bit of understanding that Middle Eastern culture can offer us an answer.

With the rather bleak situation facing Eli, he may have undertaken some actions which he felt could be a way to counteract some of the pronouncements against him. Considering the influence that he had in the life of Samuel, there is no doubt that he had a strong sway in who Samuel married. After all, Samuel had been left in the custody of Eli and dedicated to the service of the LORD, so it would only be natural that the person who he spent most of his time with and under the responsibility of, would have significant influence over him. Naturally, Eli would have been threatened by Samuel, especially after Samuel was selected by the LORD to be a prophet. In a sense, with the state of the Levitical priesthood in such disarray, Samuel’s rise to power and to becoming a singularly powerful individual in Israel came at the destruction of the house of Eli. However, we can note though that Samuel’s power seems to have died with him and was not passed on as after that time Israel began to be ruled by kings, the first of which was King Saul. Samuel in a sense was the last of the Judges period and his life is a demarcation to a new phase of Israel’s relationship with God and development as a nation.

But when we review the situation, it seems clear that the influence of Eli on Samuel’s life affected him deeply and when you look at the circumstances, it seems quite plausible that Eli was involved in the selection of Samuel’s wife and that that partner for Samuel was not the best for him or for his progeny. Certainly, we can say that his children did not follow in his footsteps in upholding God’s Law or having a reputation as honest and righteous personalities.

So, with Eli seeing what was happening around him to his family and to see God’s favor on Samuel, it seems quite possible that he would have tried to influence the situation by keeping his family in power. This could have very easily been done by arranging a marriage of Samuel to a daughter of his! This could very well be what happened.

Other examples of this during the same period
This is, of course, healthy speculation, but it is not without some foundation. The first thing to understand was that marriages in this period were arranged quite commonly. Look at the example of David and his relationship with his father-in-law, King Saul. Read I Samuel 18:17-20. Here we have the account of marriages being arranged by the parents of the bride.

Note in this example the unequal power structure. Here we have the newly crowned king of the country arranging a marriage for one of his daughters with a former shepherd boy who became a military hero. Of course, we can see that David’s family had very little say in the matter. After all, who is going to go against the king of the country? We can also say the same thing about the wishes of a High priest in this context.

The power dynamics in this example are quite similar in fact to those which governed the relationship between Eli and Samuel.

In addition, note that King Saul’s motivation for marrying off his daughter, Michal, to David were not in any way noble and friendly. Note what he said:

“I will give her that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” (I Samuel 18:20-21)

This arrangement of a marriage is still very much a Middle Eastern phenomenon. Today, its influence has lessened compared even to recent times as many marriages now take place for love, but arranged marriages are still very prevalent here in the Middle East.

Could it be that what happened with Samuel relates very much to what happened in the above-mentioned example to David? Could the wife of Samuel have been given to him by Eli similar to the above example with David, Saul, and Michal? It could very well be.

————————————————————————————————————
See Samuel S. Martin’s other articles at:
Martin, Samuel S. – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org)

Reprinted with permission from: Samuel S. Martin
http://www.biblechild.com
————————————————————————————————————

Understanding the Middle Eastern Mind Set (Part 2) (Copyright 2009) by Samuel S. Martin (Jerusalem, Israel)
Obviously, the behavior of Eli’s sons was not pleasing to God and even He spoke about that prophetically. In fact, not only was the behavior of Eli’s sons inappropriate, we find a very strong indictment against the whole house of Eli found in I Samuel 2:22-36. We can note in this section just quoted that God intended “to raise up a faithful priest …” (v. 35) Of course, when we read the context, we can see that this faithful priest to be raised up was Samuel the prophet, but in fact, if one reads this passage, we can note a very strong messianic tendency here because when we look at the life of Samuel the prophet, we see that he does not really fulfill this description. This is because his children were also evil and were not faithful as was their father. Why is this? Clearly, these priestly children of Samuel did not favor the behavior of their father’s family. In fact, their behavior resembled quite similarly that undertaken by the children of Eli! Now in understanding the Middle Eastern mindset a little, we might be able to learn what had happened. When we look at what the prophet who came to Eli said in I Samuel 2:22:36 no doubt Eli was disquieted about that statement. Certainly, no one wishes to be told by one of God’s spokesmen, no matter how bad their children might be that they will die and that the power of the high priesthood will be taken from them and their family. The natural approach to such a circumstance clearly is to resist and could this have been what Eli did and could this have affected the life of Samuel and his children? It could very well be. Understanding the power of the High Priesthood I think that all of us who read the Bible understand the power that the High priest had in ancient Israel. This is especially the case prior to the time when Israel had no king. The High Priest was the highest religious official in the country. He was the singular highest-ranking personality in Israel’s relationship with the LORD. He was “God’s High Priest.” Note how this is referenced in the following text. We can see that even one whose knowledge of the Jewish faith is equaled by few throughout the whole of the Bible (in this case we are speaking about St. Paul), his respect and precise deference to the office of the High Priest is clear, immediate, and grounded in Scripture: “¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” ²At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” ⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?” ⁵Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people. (Acts 23:1-5) Here we can see the power invested in this office. It is pretty much unquestioned. Eli – the High Priest of Israel We can see that this is the environment that Samuel the prophet found himself amongst. It was one of tremendous power invested in an individual. Of course, this was magnified by the fact that there was not at that time a king of Israel. Eli the High Priest saw three things happening in front of him that portended badly for the future of his family. These things were: The behavior of his two sons, whose reputations were exceedingly wicked The pronouncement of the prophet against him, his sons and his dynasty The rise of Samuel to being recognized as a prophet and one who was in close communication with All Mighty God In this environment, can we now speculate how it was considering that Samuel was a priest who had such a close relationship with the LORD and that he came from a seemingly righteous family background, that his two sons became so evil and followed in the footsteps of the house of Eli rather than in the footsteps of Samuel? Here is where a little bit of understanding that Middle Eastern culture can offer us an answer. With the rather bleak situation facing Eli, he may have undertaken some actions which he felt could be a way to counteract some of the pronouncements against him. Considering the influence that he had in the life of Samuel, there is no doubt that he had a strong sway in who Samuel married. After all, Samuel had been left in the custody of Eli and dedicated to the service of the LORD, so it would only be natural that the person who he spent most of his time with and under the responsibility of, would have significant influence over him. Naturally, Eli would have been threatened by Samuel, especially after Samuel was selected by the LORD to be a prophet. In a sense, with the state of the Levitical priesthood in such disarray, Samuel’s rise to power and to becoming a singularly powerful individual in Israel came at the destruction of the house of Eli. However, we can note though that Samuel’s power seems to have died with him and was not passed on as after that time Israel began to be ruled by kings, the first of which was King Saul. Samuel in a sense was the last of the Judges period and his life is a demarcation to a new phase of Israel’s relationship with God and development as a nation. But when we review the situation, it seems clear that the influence of Eli on Samuel’s life affected him deeply and when you look at the circumstances, it seems quite plausible that Eli was involved in the selection of Samuel’s wife and that that partner for Samuel was not the best for him or for his progeny. Certainly, we can say that his children did not follow in his footsteps in upholding God’s Law or having a reputation as honest and righteous personalities. So, with Eli seeing what was happening around him to his family and to see God’s favor on Samuel, it seems quite possible that he would have tried to influence the situation by keeping his family in power. This could have very easily been done by arranging a marriage of Samuel to a daughter of his! This could very well be what happened. Other examples of this during the same period This is, of course, healthy speculation, but it is not without some foundation. The first thing to understand was that marriages in this period were arranged quite commonly. Look at the example of David and his relationship with his father-in-law, King Saul. Read I Samuel 18:17-20. Here we have the account of marriages being arranged by the parent of the bride. Note in this example the unequal power structure. Here we have the newly crowned king of the country arranging a marriage for one of his daughters with a former shepherd boy who became a military hero. Of course, we can see that David’s family had very little say in the matter. After all, who is going to go against the king of the country? We can also say the same thing about the wishes of a High priest in this context. The power dynamics in this example are quite similar in fact to those which governed the relationship between Eli and Samuel. In addition, note that King Saul’s motivation for marrying off his daughter, Michal, to David were not in any way noble and friendly. Note what he said: “I will give her that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” (I Samuel 18:20-21) This arrangement of a marriage is still very much a Middle Eastern phenomenon. Today, its influence has lessened compared even to recent times as many marriages now take place for love, but arranged marriages are still very prevalent here in the Middle East. Could it be that what happened with Samuel relates very much to what happened in the above mentioned example to David? Could the wife of Samuel have been given to him by Eli similar to the above example with David, Saul and Michal? It could very well be. ———————————————————————————————————— See Samuel S. Martin’s other articles at: Martin, Samuel S. – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) Reprinted with permission from: Samuel S. Martin http://www.biblechild.com ————————————————————————————————————

Understanding the Middle Eastern Mind Set (Part 2)
(Copyright 2009) by Samuel S. Martin (Jerusalem, Israel)

Obviously, the behavior of Eli’s sons was not pleasing to God and even He spoke about that prophetically. In fact, not only was the behavior of Eli’s sons inappropriate, we find a very strong indictment against the whole house of Eli found in I Samuel 2:22-36.

We can note in this section just quoted that God intended “to raise up a faithful priest …” (v. 35) Of course, when we read the context, we can see that this faithful priest to be raised up was Samuel the prophet, but in fact, if one reads this passage, we can note a very strong messianic tendency here because when we look at the life of Samuel the prophet, we see that he does not really fulfill this description. This is because his children were also evil and were not faithful as was their father.

Why is this? Clearly, these priestly children of Samuel did not favor the behavior of their father’s family. In fact, their behavior resembled quite similarly that undertaken by the children of Eli!

Now in understanding the Middle Eastern mindset a little, we might be able to learn what had happened.

When we look at what the prophet who came to Eli said in I Samuel 2:22:36 no doubt Eli was disquieted about that statement. Certainly, no one wishes to be told by one of God’s spokesmen, no matter how bad their children might be that they will die and that the power of the high priesthood will be taken from them and their family. The natural approach to such a circumstance clearly is to resist and could this have been what Eli did and could this have affected the life of Samuel and his children? It could very well be.

Understanding the power of the High Priesthood
I think that all of us who read the Bible understand the power that the High priest had in ancient Israel. This is especially the case prior to the time when Israel had no king. The High Priest was the highest religious official in the country. He was the singular highest-ranking personality in Israel’s relationship with the LORD. He was “God’s High Priest.” Note how this is referenced in the following text. We can see that even one whose knowledge of the Jewish faith is equaled by few throughout the whole of the Bible (in this case we are speaking about St. Paul), his respect and precise deference to the office of the High Priest is clear, immediate, and grounded in Scripture:

“¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” ²At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!”

⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?”

⁵Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people. (Acts 23:1-5)

Here we can see the power invested in this office. It is pretty much unquestioned.

Eli – the High Priest of Israel
We can see that this is the environment that Samuel the prophet found himself amongst. It was one of tremendous power invested in an individual. Of course, this was magnified by the fact that there was not at that time a king of Israel.

Eli the High Priest saw three things happening in front of him that portended badly for the future of his family. These things were:

The behavior of his two sons, whose reputations were exceedingly wicked
The pronouncement of the prophet against him, his sons and his dynasty
The rise of Samuel to being recognized as a prophet and one who was in close communication with All Mighty God

In this environment, can we now speculate how it was considering that Samuel was a priest who had such a close relationship with the LORD and that he came from a seemingly righteous family background, that his two sons became so evil and followed in the footsteps of the house of Eli rather than in the footsteps of Samuel?

Here is where a little bit of understanding that Middle Eastern culture can offer us an answer.

With the rather bleak situation facing Eli, he may have undertaken some actions which he felt could be a way to counteract some of the pronouncements against him. Considering the influence that he had in the life of Samuel, there is no doubt that he had a strong sway in who Samuel married. After all, Samuel had been left in the custody of Eli and dedicated to the service of the LORD, so it would only be natural that the person who he spent most of his time with and under the responsibility of, would have significant influence over him. Naturally, Eli would have been threatened by Samuel, especially after Samuel was selected by the LORD to be a prophet. In a sense, with the state of the Levitical priesthood in such disarray, Samuel’s rise to power and to becoming a singularly powerful individual in Israel came at the destruction of the house of Eli. However, we can note though that Samuel’s power seems to have died with him and was not passed on as after that time Israel began to be ruled by kings, the first of which was King Saul. Samuel in a sense was the last of the Judges period and his life is a demarcation to a new phase of Israel’s relationship with God and development as a nation.

But when we review the situation, it seems clear that the influence of Eli on Samuel’s life affected him deeply and when you look at the circumstances, it seems quite plausible that Eli was involved in the selection of Samuel’s wife and that that partner for Samuel was not the best for him or for his progeny. Certainly, we can say that his children did not follow in his footsteps in upholding God’s Law or having a reputation as honest and righteous personalities.

So, with Eli seeing what was happening around him to his family and to see God’s favor on Samuel, it seems quite possible that he would have tried to influence the situation by keeping his family in power. This could have very easily been done by arranging a marriage of Samuel to a daughter of his! This could very well be what happened.

Other examples of this during the same period
This is, of course, healthy speculation, but it is not without some foundation. The first thing to understand was that marriages in this period were arranged quite commonly. Look at the example of David and his relationship with his father-in-law, King Saul. Read I Samuel 18:17-20. Here we have the account of marriages being arranged by the parent of the bride.

Note in this example the unequal power structure. Here we have the newly crowned king of the country arranging a marriage for one of his daughters with a former shepherd boy who became a military hero. Of course, we can see that David’s family had very little say in the matter. After all, who is going to go against the king of the country? We can also say the same thing about the wishes of a High priest in this context.

The power dynamics in this example are quite similar in fact to those which governed the relationship between Eli and Samuel.

In addition, note that King Saul’s motivation for marrying off his daughter, Michal, to David were not in any way noble and friendly. Note what he said:

“I will give her that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” (I Samuel 18:20-21)

This arrangement of a marriage is still very much a Middle Eastern phenomenon. Today, its influence has lessened compared even to recent times as many marriages now take place for love, but arranged marriages are still very prevalent here in the Middle East.

Could it be that what happened with Samuel relates very much to what happened in the above mentioned example to David? Could the wife of Samuel have been given to him by Eli similar to the above example with David, Saul and Michal? It could very well be.

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See Samuel S. Martin’s other articles at:
Martin, Samuel S. – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org)

Reprinted with permission from: Samuel S. Martin
http://www.biblechild.com
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