The Authorship of 1-2 Samuel

The earliest view concerning the authorship of the Book of Samuel is expressed in Baba Bathra, part of the Babylonian Talmud:

Baba Bathra 14b: “Samuel wrote the book which bears his name and the Book of Judges and Ruth.”

Baba Bathra 15a: “[You say that] Samuel wrote the book that bears his name. But is it not written in it, Now Samuel was dead?–It was completed by Gad the seer and Nathan the prophet.”

In other words, Baba Bathra states that Samuel was the author of 1 Samuel 1-24, while Nathan and Gad authored 1 Samuel 25-2 Samuel 24.

Since early times, 1 Chronicles 29:29 has been cited as support of this view: Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer, in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet and in the chronicles of Gad the seer.