<P> 1 and 2 Samuel were originally (and, in some Jewish bibles, still are) a single book, but the first Greek translation, produced around the second century BCE, divided it into two; this was adopted by the Latin translations used in the early Christian church of the West, and finally introduced into Jewish bibles around the early 16th century . The modern Hebrew text, called the Masoretic text, differs considerably from the Greek, and scholars are still working at finding the best solutions to the many problems this presents . </P> <P> According to passages 14b and 15a of the Bava Basra tractate of the Talmud, the book was written by Samuel up until 1 Samuel 25, which notes the death of Samuel, and the remainder by the prophets Gad and Nathan . Critical scholars from the 19th century onward have rejected this idea . Martin Noth in 1943 theorized that Samuel was composed by a single author as part of a history of Israel: the Deuteronomistic history (made up of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings). Although Noth's belief that the entire history was composed by a single individual has been largely abandoned, his theory in its broad outline has been adopted by most scholars . </P> <P> The most common view today is that an early version of the history was composed in the time of king Hezekiah (8th century BC); the bulk of the first edition dates from his grandson Josiah at the end of the 7th BC, with further sections added during the Babylonian exile (6th century BC) and the work was substantially complete by about 550 BC . Further editing was apparently done even after then: for example, the silver quarter - shekel which Saul's servant offers to Samuel in 1 Samuel 9 almost certainly fixes the date of this story in the Persian or Hellenistic periods . </P> <P> The 6th century BC authors and editors responsible for the bulk of the history drew on many earlier sources, including (but not limited to) an "ark narrative" (1 Samuel 4: 1--7: 1 and perhaps part of 2 Samuel 6), a "Saul cycle" (parts of 1 Samuel 9--11 and 13--14), the "history of David's rise" (1 Samuel 16: 14 - 2 Samuel 5: 10), and the "succession narrative" (2 Samuel 9--20 and 1 Kings 1--2). The oldest of these, the "ark narrative," may even predate the Davidic era . </P>

When was the book of 1 samuel written
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