Books of the Kingdoms

The Books of the Kingdoms (Koine Greek: Βíβλοι Βασιλειῶν) are the names of four books of the Hebrew Bible given in the Septuagint version; 1 and 2 Kingdoms are equivalent to 1 and 2 Samuel, and 3 and 4 Kingdoms are equivalent to 1 and 2 Kings in most modern English versions. They are also known as the four Books of Kings (Libri Regnum) in the Vulgate version,[1] and occasionally as the Books of Reigns in English.

References

  1. Lange, John Peter (1877). "Introduction.; §2. Division.". In Schaff, Philip (ed.). Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal and Homilectical. 5: The books of Samuel. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 1–2. Our Hebrew editions of the Bible follow the Seventy in dividing the Hebrew book of Samuel into two parts; they (the LXX.) did not, however, name these two books after Samuel, but included them with the two books of Kings, מְלָכִים, under the common name "Books of the Kingdoms," Βíβλοι Βασιλειῶν. After the example of the Septuagint we find in the Greek Church-fathers and also in the Vulgate and the Latin Church-fathers, this division of the books of Samuel and Kings as one historical work into four books cited as the four Βíβλοι Βασιλειῶν, libri regnum or regnorum. This way of combining, dividing, and naming, in which our "Books of Samuel" are numbered as Βασιλειῶν πρώτη, δευτɛ́ρα "First, Second Kings" (comp. Origen in Euseb. H.E. 6. 25, and Jerome, Prol. Gal.) corresponds certainly to the general contents of these four, or more precisely two, books, so far as it consists chiefly of the history of the kingdom in the Old Testament covenant-people, and appears as a connected whole in the continuous narrative from Samuel's birth to the time of the Babylonian Exile.
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