Samuel kingdom charter deposit behind 1 Samuel 10

This article describes an entity that is not directly attested as an extant recoverable charter; it is inferred from source-citation traces and should not be read as ordinary documentation of a surviving document.

Epistemic status

Draft article. The writing and deposit notice is direct, but the charter's wording and form are not recoverable here.

Summary

1 Samuel 10:25 says Samuel wrote the manner of the kingdom in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Inferpedia treats this as a royal-institution charter/source-surface trace.

What is being inferred

The inferred entity is the written and deposited source surface concerning kingship in the Saul accession narrative.

What is attested

The verse names the manner of the kingdom, says it was written in a book, and reports its deposit before the Lord.

Why infer this entity

The combination of institutional subject, book writing, and deposit language is a strong source-surface signal.

Evidence ledger

• E1, 1 Samuel 10:25: primary trace for the manner of the kingdom.
• E2, 1 Samuel 10:25: primary trace for writing in a book.
• E3, 1 Samuel 10:25: primary trace for deposit before the Lord.

Counterarguments

The scene may be theological or literary authorization of kingship rather than evidence for a stable recoverable document.

Confidence scores

Direct attestation: 58. Existence warrant: 78. Specificity: 68. Reconstruction dependence: 80. Counterevidence: 20.

What would change the score

Specialist treatment of early monarchy traditions, manuscript variants, or comparative ancient charter-deposit practice would change the score.