Driver intended this volume to provide insight toward the philology and textual criticism of the Old Testament. He regarded Samuel as an excellent field for training the intermediate Hebrew student in the uses of Hebrew idiom. Driver also regarded the books of Samuel as filled with transcriptional corruption, thus quite appropriate for introduction to the grounds and principles of textual criticism.
S.R. Driver (1846-1914) was Fellow of New College until his appointment as Regius Professor of Hebrew and Canon of Christ Church in 1893. A founding Fellow of the British Academy, Driver is known for his various Biblical commentaries and his substantial work in Hebrew and is generally considered the greatest British Old Testament scholar of his time.
This volume does not purport to be a full commentary, but is the finest example in English of the close examination of Hebrew syntax and text criticism.
Brevard Childs