Books of the Kingdoms

{{Short description|Four books of the Septuagint}} The '''Books of the Kingdoms''', '''Books of Kingdoms''', or '''Books of Reigns''' ({{langx|grc-x-koine|Βíβλοι Βασιλειῶν}}) are the names that four books of the Hebrew Bible are given in the Septuagint. 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.<ref name=":1" />

These books are known in the Vulgate version as the four Books of the Kingdoms ({{lang|la|Libri Regnum}} or {{lang|la|Regnorum}}),<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Lange|first=John Peter|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/CommentaryOnTheHolyScripturesCriticalDoctrinalAndHomilectical.Lange/05.ComHScrip.CritDocHom.OT.v5.Sam.I.II.Lange.Schaff.1877.#page/n13/mode/2up|title=Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal and Homilectical.|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1877|editor-last=Schaff|editor-first=Philip|volume=5: The books of Samuel.|publication-place=New York|pages=1–2|chapter=Introduction.; §2. Division.|quote=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, {{lang|he|מְלָכִים}}, under the common name "Books of the Kingdoms," {{lang|grc-x-koine|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 {{lang|grc-x-koine|Βíβλοι Βασιλειῶν}}, {{lang|la|libri regnum}} or {{lang|la|regnorum}}. This way of combining, dividing, and naming, in which our "Books of Samuel" are numbered as {{lang|grc-x-koine|Βασιλειῶν πρώτη}}, {{lang|grc-x-koine|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.|author-link=Johann Peter Lange}}</ref> or the Book of Kings ({{lang|la|Liber Regum}}) as Jerome disagreed with the expression ''Books of the Kingdoms'' ({{lang|la|Libri Regnorum}}) of the LXX.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Canellis|first=Aline|title=Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible|date=2017|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|isbn=978-2-204-12618-2|series=Sources Chrétiennes|location=Abbeville|page=126, 322, 328-329|language=fr|chapter=Préfaces : Préface de saint Jérôme sur le livre des Rois|issue=592}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=A letter from Jerome (390-404) {{!}} Epistolae|url=https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/287.html|access-date=2020-10-16|website=epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu}}</ref> Jerome says: {{quote|Third comes Samuel, which we call the first and second Kings. Fourth Malachim, that is contained in the third and fourth books of Kings. It is much better to say Malachim, of kings, than Malachoth, of kingdoms. For it does not describe the kingdoms of many peoples but of one Israelite people which included twelve tribes.<ref name=":0" />}}

Those books are known as the ''Books of Reigns'' in the New English Translation of the Septuagint.<ref>{{Cite book|title=New English Translation of the Septuagint|page=244|translator-last=Taylor|translator-first=Bernard A.|chapter=The Old Greek Text of Reigns|chapter-url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/09-1reigns-nets.pdf}}</ref>

==Names and numbering==

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left;" |+ Names of the four Books of the Kingdoms across textual traditions ! Septuagint book<ref>"Reigns" is the rendering used in the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS); the Septuagint grouped Samuel and Kings as four "Books of the Kingdoms" ({{lang|grc|Βασιλειῶν}}). See {{cite book |last=Tsumura |first=David |title=The First Book of Samuel |series=The New International Commentary on the Old Testament |location=Grand Rapids, MI |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. |year=2007 |pages=1–2}}.</ref> ! Greek ! Hebrew Bible<ref>Samuel and Kings were each originally a single book in the Hebrew canon; the division into two appears in Hebrew manuscripts only from the fifteenth century and was popularized through Daniel Bomberg's Rabbinic Bibles of 1516–17 and 1524–25. See {{cite book |last=McCarter |first=P. Kyle Jr. |title=I Samuel: A New Translation with Introduction, Notes and Commentary |series=Anchor Yale Bible |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2008 |page=3}}.</ref> ! Latin Vulgate<ref>The four-book division using "Kings" (Regum) naming was canonized by the Council of Trent in 1546 ("quatuor Regum") and carried forward in the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate of 1592; the Nova Vulgata (1979) returned to the Hebrew naming, splitting Samuelis from Regum. See {{cite book |last=Cogan |first=Mordechai |title=I Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary |series=Anchor Yale Bible |location=New Haven; London |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2008 |page=84}}.</ref> ! Douay–Rheims Bible (1610) ! Modern English Bibles (Protestant and Catholic) |- | 1 Kingdoms (1 Reigns) | {{lang|grc|Βασιλειῶν Αʹ}} | 1 Samuel ({{lang|hbo|שְׁמוּאֵל א}}) | 1 Regum (Clementine); 1 Samuelis (Nova Vulgata) | 1 Kings | 1 Samuel |- | 2 Kingdoms (2 Reigns) | {{lang|grc|Βασιλειῶν Βʹ}} | 2 Samuel ({{lang|hbo|שְׁמוּאֵל ב}}) | 2 Regum (Clementine); 2 Samuelis (Nova Vulgata) | 2 Kings | 2 Samuel |- | 3 Kingdoms (3 Reigns) | {{lang|grc|Βασιλειῶν Γʹ}} | 1 Kings ({{lang|hbo|מְלָכִים א}}) | 3 Regum (Clementine); 1 Regum (Nova Vulgata) | 3 Kings | 1 Kings |- | 4 Kingdoms (4 Reigns) | {{lang|grc|Βασιλειῶν Δʹ}} | 2 Kings ({{lang|hbo|מְלָכִים ב}}) | 4 Regum (Clementine); 2 Regum (Nova Vulgata) | 4 Kings | 2 Kings |}

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * [http://www.beblia.com/pages/main.aspx?Language=GreekModernFPB&Book=9&Chapter=1 Full text of the Books of the Kingdoms in modern Greek]

Category:Books of Kings Category:Books of Samuel