‘There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of  Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.” From the first line of Samuel, the reader is hooked. “There was a certain man” could be the opening of an O Henry short story or  a Raymond Chandler novel. With the ment- ion of the hill country and then the list of exotic names going back to Elkanah’s great-grandfather, it is impossible not to read on. How long can it be, this being the Bible, before sex and violence raise their heads?