Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
This sense is common and convenient; but it seems tropological rather than literal. For as the two years in which Saul is said to have reigned are to be taken simply for years properly so called, so also that one year of which immediately before it is said: “Saul was a child of one year.”
Third, therefore, some explain thus, as if to say: “Saul elected king rested one year, and led a private life at home, but this year being completed he began to reign.” So Eucherius: “For one year,” he says, “after he was elected king by Samuel, sitting in his domestic house, he dissembled that he was king: in the remaining two years he publicly judged all Israel, holding obedience with humility.” And Bede: “After Saul was elected,” he says, “and anointed king with holy oil, the whole first year he remained humble and like a private man, nor took care to be clothed in royal dress and the other insignia of the kingdom.” So also Gen. in the Chronology. But this does not seem true; for soon after his election Saul, as king, waged war against Naas, king of Ammon, as we heard in the preceding chapter. Add that Josephus asserts that Saul, elected king, abstained from the royal office only one month. Finally it is one thing to be a child of one year, another to lead a private life.
Fourth, therefore, and most plainly, the sense is, as if to say: Saul, victory having been won over Naas, and authority and favor of the people thereby gained for himself, anointed king again by Samuel, chap. 11, last verse, was passing, and perhaps completing, the first year of his reign, and was beginning the second; which being completed he chose three thousand soldiers as a garrison, as follows. So R. David, Vatablus, Brixianus, Serarius and others.
The Hebrew phrase demands this sense, which word for word reads thus: Son of one year Saul in his reigning, as if to say: Saul was already reigning one year; he was already passing the first year of his reign. Second, from the fact that Naas in the seventh month after the creation of Saul invaded the Galaadites, and then Saul, meeting him, cut him down, and confirmed and renewed his kingdom, as is clear from what was said chap. 11. Whence all these things were done in the first year of the reign of Saul.
It is a Hebraism; for the Hebrews give to time, day, month and year the name son, so that he is called son of this year, day or time who was born in this year, day or time. For time, year and day are called as it were fathers, to generate those who are born in that time, year and day: because, namely, the year and the day bring the secondary causes, such as the parents, who generate this son. It is a metonymy. So Jonas 4:10, the ivy in the Hebrew is called daughter of the night, because it had arisen and been born that night. So “son of the morning” is Lucifer, or the star of Venus, who is born in the dawn, Isaias 14:12. So “sons of the burning coal” are sparks, which are struck from coals, Job 5:7. So “sons of the East” are called those born in the East, Judges 6:3. So “sons of the earth” are called earth-born. So “sons of the bow” are arrows, Job 41:19, because they are violently sent forth from the bow, and as it were brought forth. So “sons of the threshing-floor” is grain, or chaff, Isaias 21:10. So, Exodus 12:5, it is ordained that the paschal lamb be “of a year,” in Hebrew ben shanah, that is, son of a year. So as often as in Leviticus and Numbers a sheep or lamb of a year is ordered to be sacrificed, it is ben shanah, that is, son of a year. By a like trope truth is called the daughter of time, because time gradually leads forth and opens truth that lies hidden.
AND HE REIGNED TWO YEARS OVER ISRAEL.—Besides the expositions already recounted, some think from these words that Saul was king for two years only, and at the end of the two years fell in battle: so the Hebrews in Seder Olam, chap. 13, Arias in Lorinus, chap. 13 of Acts, Adrichomius, and Gerard Mercator in his Chronology; but it is hard to believe that Saul in two years did all the things which are narrated thenceforward to the end of the book, and especially chap. 14, near the end; for these require several years. Add that St. Paul asserts that Saul reigned 40 years, Acts 13:21.
Second, others explain thus, as if they said: “Saul after the death of Samuel reigned only two years.” That this is true is clear from Josephus, book 6 of the Antiquities last chap., and Clement of Alexandria, book 1 of the Stromata, Abulensis and others everywhere. But why does Scripture mention only this biennium here, when through the several following chapters it recounts the acts of Saul while Samuel was still living?
Third, others explain thus, as if to say: “Saul reigned only two years, because after two years, deposed by Samuel, his royal rule passed into a tyrannical one.” So Lyranus, Hugo, Abulensis, Vatablus and Pineda, book 8 in the Proem of Solomon chap. 3. But that more than two years intervened here is clear from what follows, and Mendoza demonstrates it.
Fourth, therefore, genuinely, join “he reigned two years” with what follows, “and he chose three thousand,” as if to say, as Genebrard says, in the year of the world 3106: “When Saul had reigned two years, he chose for himself three thousand: namely in the first two years of his reign, he was content to avoid envy, and to defend himself against malignant tongues by the modesty and authority of Samuel. Afterwards, when he had sufficiently confirmed himself, he began in royal fashion to surround himself with guards. Not that otherwise he reigned only two years.” So also Tornielli, Baradas, Abulensis, Hugo, Dionysius and Mendoza.
You will ask, how many years did Saul reign? Some answer, 40 years; for Paul seems to assert this, Acts chap. 13, verse 21. So the Author in St. Jerome in the Hebrew Questions, Serarius in book 3 Kings chap. 6, proposit. 2, and Melchior Canus, in the place cited above. But all the rest think that Paul, in those 40 years which he assigns to Saul, includes also the years of Samuel, in which he himself presided. So Eusebius, Josephus, Severus Sulpicius, Bede, Freculphus, Tornielli, Bellarmine, Gordon, Genebrard, Gerard Mercator and others in their Chronicles, Lyranus and Abulensis here, St. Augustine, book 17 On the City of God chap. 7; Ribera, book 1 On the Temple, chap. 1; Pineda, book 8 On the Affairs of Solomon chap. 2, num. 2; Lorinus on chap. 13 of Acts. Furthermore these 40 years various authors divide variously between Saul and Samuel. For Clement of Alexandria, book 1 of the Stromata chap. 21, assigns to Saul with Samuel 27 years; then, Samuel being dead, to Saul alone another twenty; so in all there would be 47 years, whereas the Apostle assigns only 40. Again Josephus, book 6 of the Antiquities chap. 14, says “that Samuel alone presided over the Commonwealth 19 years; then with Saul 18 years; and Saul after the death of Samuel 20 years,” as the same Josephus has at the end of the same book 6, and again book 10, chap. 8. In the Greek text of the sixth book, however, he has twenty-two years, as also Zonaras, who follows Josephus as usual. But thus there would be 59 years, whereas there were only 40, as I said. Others give Samuel 30 years, Saul 10. Others otherwise. More truly Salianus and others think that Samuel alone presided over Israel for 22 years; then, Saul being made king, he presided with him sixteen years; and Samuel being dead, Saul alone reigned only two years. For join these years, and you will find 40. This computation is confirmed by the fact that the ark, taken by the Philistines at the death of Heli, and thence brought back after seven months to Cariathiarim, remained there for 20 years, during which, Heli being now dead, his successor Samuel presided, as is clear from chap. 7, verse 2, and then some acts of Samuel and his sons are recounted up to the creation of king Saul, which easily require two years.
Add that Scripture, chap. 8, says that Samuel, very old, appointed his sons Judges in his stead. But Samuel was born, some say, when Heli was judging, about his fourth year; Heli, however, judged 40 years. Add the 20 years of Samuel, in which the ark was in Cariathiarim, and take away the 4 years of Heli before Samuel was born, you will have 40 years of Samuel, which is not so great an old age as is attributed by Scripture to Samuel. Therefore Samuel judged many more years; and he was easily sixty years old when for old age he appointed his sons Judges. Wherefore he then seems to have completed 22 years in the headship, and to have been born in the second year of Heli; for thus these four years being added, there will be made up 60 years of Samuel, which is his just old age. So Salianus.