| Summary: | The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the relationship between Samuel and Chronicles in a single synoptic story: David’s transfer of Israel’s sacred ark to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13, 15-16. <i>Chapter one </i>surveys areas of research related to Samuel and Chronicles. First, the writer summarises research and perspectives on these books and their stories of David’s ark transfer. The review highlights competing approaches to Samuel which centre on either sources or composition and on either a diachronic or synchronic methodology. The literary history of Samuel is inadequate in conventional perspective, and must be freshly unfolded, and consequently the relationship of Samuel and Chronicles must also be re-evaluated. Second, the writer reviews the textual evidence for both books, focusing on the received versions, the Greek translations, and in the case of Samuel, on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The witnesses to Chronicles are relatively uniform, and the writer proposes that the pluriformity among witnesses to Samuel, and the character of the MT of this book, are related to Samuel’s editorial history. In particular, revisers reshaped the story of David’s ark transfer in Chronicles <i>and </i>Samuel. <i>Chapter two</i> surveys issues related to synchronic and diachronic approaches to Samuel and Chronicles. The writer proposes that the impasse between these competing approaches may be resolved by the textual-exegetical approach, that is, by using text-critical controls on redactional arguments. The versional evidence substantiates the validity of the diachronic approach - <i>there are</i> earlier and later forms of biblical texts and editions of biblical stories - and scholars can use this evidence to discern literary origins and developments - developments in the versions whose special features, and the reasons for them, may be perceived and appreciated through holistic or final-form readings. Related to this, the writer points out that the issues of text, language (grammar, vocabulary, style) and story are interconnected.
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