How many Books of Samuel in the Bible?

Answer 1

There are 2 books of Samuel

Answer:

In my old King James Bible, it states on the title page that it is:

"conformable to the edition of 1611, commonly known as the authorized or King James Version." --

In this printing of this "1611 conformable" version of the KJV, the title of "I Samuel" reads: "The First Book of Samuel otherwise called The First Book of Kings".

The title of "II Samuel" reads: "The Second Book of Samuel otherwise called The Second Book of Kings".

The title of "I Kings" reads: "The First Book of the Kings commonly called The Third Book of the Kings".

And as you may have guessed by now, the title of "II Kings" reads: "The Second Book of the Kings commonly called The Fourth Book of the Kings".

The history of the "translations" of the different Bibles and how they came into existence is interesting, to say the least.

The two books of Samuel in the KJV form "one" text in the Hebrew Bible. In the course of time the Greek Septuagint translation took the text of Samuel together with the Books of Kings... divided them into four and called them the "Books of the Kingdoms."

From there... the Latin Vulgate translation made them into the four "Books of the Kings" as my old KJV references in its book titles.

Then King James and his translators came along. And as the title page of the KJV mentioned above states:

"Translated out of the original tongues; and with the former translations diligently compared [emphasis, mine] and revised by His Majesty's special command" --

The two "separate" books of first and second Samuel were born in the KJV, basically, from the Latin Vulgate "comparison" of the "Books of the Kings."

So, there is "one" Book of Samuel in the original Hebrew Bible. And following a translation hiatus or two... it returned divided into "two" Books of Samuel in the King James Version.