Bede : Therefore, taking Samuel, Saul, and his servant, he brought them into the dining hall, etc. The dining hall in Greek is called the coenaculum. It is called the dining hall from the three couches of those reclining thus named. For in Greek, they call a couch or bed klini. Indeed, among the ancients, in the place where the banquet was prepared, three couches were spread, on which those reclining feasted. Therefore, John, by preaching, called many to the feasts of virtues, preferring to all these Christ and His apostles, even those coming later; and rightly, because only through His baptism, which began to be given by their ministry, could the hall of the heavenly kingdom be opened. For those whom he taught would fulfill the Decalogue of the law through the recognition of the Holy Trinity with a strong and tireless mind. — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : There follows: So Samuel, taking Saul and his servant, brought them into the dining hall, and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited. For there were about thirty men. Samuel takes up Saul when the preacher of holy Church opens the heights of his preaching to a chosen hearer. For a subject is taken up when he is elevated to the knowledge of heavenly things through the word of a teacher. And because he desires to know spiritual things not with carnal intention, he took up not only Saul himself but also his servant. For it was as though he had remained below without a servant, he who said: "My heart has forsaken me" (Ps. 37:11). For our heart forsakes us when we are so overcome by carnal desires that we place the intention of our heart on earthly, carnal, and bodily things, and not on heavenly and spiritual ones. He had found this lost servant, who said: "Your servant has found his heart" (2 Kings 7:27). For we find our heart when we seek spiritual things through the intention of the heart; when we tear it away from earthly things so that we may direct it toward heavenly ones. The chosen preacher, therefore, to those who are still carnal, neither commands difficult things nor reveals spiritual ones. For Paul also says to the Corinthians: "I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal ones, as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food" (1 Cor. 3:1). As if by these words he were saying: I therefore did not lead you to the heights, because you did not have a spiritual sense with you, as Saul did not have his servant. Wherefore, also indicating the reason, he says: "For you are still carnal." Rightly, therefore, Samuel is said to have taken up Saul and his servant, because the teachers of holy Church command difficult things and reveal lofty ones to those whom they consider to be spiritual. They are also led into a dining hall, because the breadth of charity is shown to them. For one is placed as it were in a dining hall who, through what he has learned on high, dwells in the breadth of charity. Or certainly our entrance into the dining hall is love; the dining hall is the beauty of the spiritual life. Whence John says: "He who does not love remains in death" (1 John 3:14). For if he who does not love remains in death, then he who loves remains in life. We are therefore led into the dining hall when we rise to the affection of heavenly conversation through the affection of charity. In this breadth of dwelling, holy preachers indeed hold the higher place, because blessed John the Evangelist says: "And around the throne were twenty-four seats, and upon the seats twenty-four elders" (Rev. 4:4). For the elders are holy preachers, mature in understanding, grave in character, who surround the throne of God with seats placed nearby, because those who love the Creator above all others rest closer to him through the loftiest manner of life. Rightly therefore Saul with his servant receives a place at the head of those who had been invited, because in them the type of pastors to be chosen is shown. The ruler is indeed placed at the head when, through the force of great love, he receives the singular resolve of the heavenly life; while he holds the catholic faith in common with the rest, he possesses a sublime virtue above the rest. Three times ten makes thirty. The number three suggests faith in the holy and undivided Trinity. The number ten, through the ten commandments of the law, signifies the perfection of good works. The number thirty, therefore, designates those who hold that faith which works through love. Saul is placed at the head of these, because through divine grace he who is to be the future shepherd of the Church is made more exalted in merit than those over whom he ought to be superior in dignity. Samuel bestows this exalted place upon him, because he who deserves such greatness of life advances to it through the instruction of his elders. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 4