The Age and Reign of King Saul

The Bible appears to present contradictory information regarding Saul's age when he became king, his age when he died, and the duration of his reign.

The NASB contains this:

Saul was ¹thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned ²forty two years over Israel. (1SA 13:1)

With these footnotes:

¹As in some mss of the LXX; Heb omits thirty
²See Acts 31:21; Heb omits forty

The Hebrew of 1SA 13:1 is this: בֶּן־שָׁנָ֖ה שָׁא֣וּל בְּמָלְכ֑וֹ וּשְׁתֵּ֣י שָׁנִ֔ים מָלַ֖ךְ עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃

Translated literally, it reads, "Son of [one] year [was] Saul in [his] reigning, and two years he reigned over Israel."

So, was Saul only one year old when he began to reign or thirty?

The book of 1 Samuel says Saul reigned for two years, but in Acts we find something different:

"Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years." (Acts 13:21)

So, did Saul reign for two years or forty?

As the NASB mentions in the first footnote (above), some very late manuscripts of the LXX (Septuagint) include "thirty" for Saul's age; however, the earliest manuscripts do not.  The "thirty" appears to be a later amendation, which (as we will see) does not fit with other elements of Scripture.

As per the second footnote, modern English translations have added "forty" to match Paul's statement in Acts, although the Hebrew only states "two."

In my view, neither of these changes is necessary.  Let's start with the first question.

How old was Saul when he began to reign?

1 Samuel 9:2 indicates that Saul is an adult when he meets Samuel, not an infant.  "From his shoulders and up, he was taller than any of the people."  Saul's father had sent him to search for lost donkeys (verse 3) when he encountered Samuel in Zuph and Samuel anointed him.

James B. Jordan explains the meaning of "A son of one year was Saul in his reigning."

Saul was adopted by Samuel as his son when Samuel anointed him king (1 Samuel 10:9).  Thus, Saul was said to be in the company of the prophets, "and who is their father?" (1 Samuel 10:12).  Their father was Samuel, and so at this point Saul was adopted by Samuel.

After this adoption, Saul was made a judge, and he defeated Nahash ("serpent"), the Ammonite.  After that victory, Saul was proclaimed king (1 Samuel 11).¹

This was not a literal adoption as we might consider the practice today.  Saul was an adult with a living father, but because Saul prophesied (1SA 10:10), he was considered the spiritual son of Samuel.  It was in the first year of Saul's "adoption" that he became king.

Now that we know Scripture presents no contradiction on this question, I want to move on to the next question, but I will come back to find an answer.

How long was Saul's reign?

1 Samuel says two years, and Acts says forty.  Which is it?

Likely neither.

1 Samuel simply indicates that Saul had reigned for two years when the events in the subsequent sentences occurred: he chose 3,000 men for his army.

In Acts 13, Paul summarized huge swathes of Israel's history and was not being precise.  He may have rounded up (or down) in his synopsis.

So what is the correct answer?

Let's see if we can work it out.

Calculating Saul's age and reign- Take 1

What firm Scriptural facts can we leverage to calculate information about Saul?

• The year of Saul's death, David became king when he was 30 years old (2SA 5:4).
  (Click the chart below for a larger view.)

• Doing some basic math, we find that David was born 30 years before Saul's death.

• David's reign is divided into two time periods:
  • his 7.5-year reign over Judah (2SA 5:5)
  • his 33-year reign over Israel and Judah (2SA 5:5)

• David's reign over a combined Israel and Judah begins at the end of Ish-bosheth's (Saul's son) two-year reign (2SA 2:10).

• Ish-bosheth is 40 years old when he begins to reign (2SA 2:10).

• Math: Ish-bosheth was born 35 years before Saul's death.

• Ish-bosheth had five older siblings, assuming he was born after the account in 1SA 14:49 was written.
  For the latest date possible, let's also include the assumption the siblings were only born a year apart.
  If so, this means Jonathan was born 40 years before Saul died.

• This approach also means Jonathan is only 10 years older than David.  This difference seems reasonable for two individuals to be friends.

• 1SA 13:2 tells us Jonathan was in charge of a third of Israel's army.
  This means he was at least 20 years old, according to NUM 1:3.

• If we're right so far, Jonathan was 20 years old, twenty years before Saul's death.
  This point is the latest date Saul's reign could have begun.

• Assuming Saul was about 20 years old (ish) when Jonathan was born, Saul was born about 60 years before his death.
  With a little math, we find he would have been about 40 years old when he began to reign. 

• A bit more math tells us Saul reigned for 20 years and was 60 when he died.
   Going into battle at age 60 does not seem entirely unreasonable.

Using this approach, we find that Saul was forty years old when he began to reign, reigned twenty years, and died at the age of sixty.

This is just one possible answer that uses the details found in Scripture plus a few assumptions.  Here is something else to consider. 

Although it is not Scripture, Josephus' book, Antiquities of the Jews, accurately follows the dates given in Scripture for most events.  In this case, Josephus tells us:

Now Saul, when he had reigned eighteen years while Samuel was alive, and after his death two, ended his life in this manner.  (Antiquities Book 6, Chapter 14, paragraph 9b) [bold text mine]

Josephus, a witness from outside Scripture, also accounts Saul with a twenty-year reign.

I did not want to ignore Paul's statement from Acts 13, so I asked, "What would it take to fit Paul's declaration that Saul reigned for forty years?"  Let's take a look...

Calculating Saul's age and reign- Take 2

The timeline below includes all the details required for a 40-year reign of Saul:

If this is accurate, we find a few questionable details:

• Jonathan is born 25 years before Ish-bosheth.  This does not seem unreasonable, given other accounts in Scripture.
• Jonathan is 30 years older than David, which seems a bit... unusual for an age difference between such close friends.
• Saul is 80 years old when he goes into his final battle and dies.  This seems rather odd (excessive?) as an age for a king to go into battle.

Calculating Saul's age and reign- Take 3

There is one more item to consider as we address the challenge of the age and reign of King Saul: the period of time the ark is at Kiriath-jearim.

The author at TheBiblicalTimeline.org notes this passage from 1 Samuel:

From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. (1SA 7:2)

The ark of the covenant was in Kiriath-jearim for twenty years until David had it brought to Jerusalem at the beginning of his reign there (2SA 6:2).  It was only after the Philistines returned the ark (1SA 7:2) that the Israelites demanded a king (1SA 8:5), and Saul was anointed king (1SA 10:1).  This constrains the period of time Saul could have been King to only twelve years.  Here is the calculation:

20 years for the ark to be at Kiriath-jearim (1SA 7:2) - 7.5 years of David's reign over Judah in Hebron (2SA 2:11) = 12.5 years. 

If we allow half a year for Samuel's sons' dishonesty and bribery (1SA 8:3) to drive the Israelites to clamor for a king, it leaves Saul with only twelve years for his reign.

This approach seems the most likely and fits best with the overall period of time of the judges. 

Conclusion

Whichever approach seems most reasonable to you, we find a twenty-year window during which Saul's reign could have begun: up to ten years before David was born or ten years after.

• 1 Samuel
• 2 Samuel
• Acts