Saul and the Witch of Endor
“Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor” (1 Samuel 28:7).
Some religious people refer to the account known as “Saul and the witch of Endor” to support their belief in immortality of the soul — the belief that humans in a spirit form survive the death of their bodies and live on in another realm.
To refresh the memory, we here refer to the Scriptural account of the meeting between King Saul and a spirit medium as found in 1 Samuel, chapter 28. We are informed that the prophet Samuel had died, and that Saul had expelled the mediums and necromancers (those who contact the dead) out of the land (verse 3). At this time the Philistines were preparing to attack, and Saul assembled his troops at Mount Gilboa. Saul attempted to inquire of the Lord about what course to take, but God would not answer him. We are specifically told that God would not answer “by prophets” (verse 6). Saul now wanted to inquire of one of the spirit mediums that had been outlawed, and was told “there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor” (verse 7). It should be noted that, while the woman is commonly referred to as a “witch,” in the Hebrew text, she is referred to as esha ba-alet ob, “a woman in whom is a soothsaying daemon” (Gesenius).
King Saul, troubled of mind
“And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee” (verse 8). The woman reminded him that such practices had been outlawed in Israel by the king himself. “And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? For thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods [a god, ASV] ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself” (verses 10-14).
At this point “Samuel” (the impersonating evil spirit) asked why he had been called up from the dead. Saul explained that the Philistines were warring against him, that God had turned away from him and would not answer him by prophets or by dreams. “Samuel” replied that it was pointless to inquire of him (a dead prophet) because “the LORD has departed from thee and become thine enemy” (verse 16). The kingdom would be given to David. The final words of the message were: “Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines” (verse 19).
BIBLE TEACHING, THE STATE OF DEATH
The question we must ask is: Did Saul really talk to Samuel after his death, thereby indicating that Samuel had some kind of existence after death? To accept this understanding would fly in the face of what the Bible in its entirety has to say about the state of the dead. The Bible teaching is that the dead are unconscious, and that they will remain so until called forth from the tomb by the resurrection power of God. Note the following Scripture texts: “Do not put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalms 146:3-4).
“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:19-20).
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave [Sheol], whither thou goest” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). “There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust” (Acts 24:15). “The hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29 ASV).
A SATISFYING EXPLANATION
With what, or with whom, did the woman and Saul get in touch? The Hebrew word translated “familiar spirit” is ob (Strong’s H178). According to Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon of the Old Testament, this word refers to “a soothsaying daemon, of which these men [the spirit mediums] were thought to be possessed.” A soothsayer was one who was supposed to be able to forecast the future. The word ob could also refer to the spirit mediums themselves, as Gesenius puts it: “a soothsayer, who evokes the [shades, ghosts] of the dead by the power of incantations and magical songs, in order to give answers as to future or doubtful things.”
But of note here is that when ob refers to the spirit entity itself, Gesenius identifies this one as being “a daemon,” or demon. In the older translations, such as the King James, this word is translated as “familiar spirit.” A “familiar spirit” is defined as “a demon supposedly attending and obeying a witch.” While it is true that the “familiar spirit” which is clearly identified in the account is the one that had already attached itself to the woman, and was the means for bring up the dead “Samuel,” it is our thesis that the “Samuel” entity itself was also a demon (or perhaps the same demon impersonating Samuel). Saul had said to the woman, “I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee” (1 Samuel 28:8).
With the mention of demons, then, we need to review briefly what the Bible has to say on this subject. That demons exist, there can be no doubt. Jesus frequently expelled demons who were in possession of unfortunate people (see Matthew 9:32-33, Luke 9:42, 11:14). In one of these accounts (Luke 9:42), the demon or “devil” is specifically referred to as an “unclean spirit.” Thus, the demons must be spirit beings. Peter referred to the demons as “the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:19-20). These spirits, then, were disobedient in the days of Noah. This brings to mind the account in Genesis that says certain sons of God married the daughters of men, and wreaked havoc on the earth prior to the Great Flood.
The Genesis account says: “It came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Genesis 6:1-4).
The “sons of God,” in contrast to the “daughters of men,” must have been some of those angelic “sons of God” who occupy the heavenly court and who shouted for joy at earth’s creation (see Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7). But now they made demons of themselves by materializing human bodies and cohabiting with human women. When the Flood arrived, these fallen angels dematerialized, but remained close to mankind to cause all manner of trouble.
Thus it was that Paul and Silas, in the course of a missionary journey, were confronted by a girl who was possessed by an evil demon. We are told: “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying” (Acts 16:16). Paul and Silas cast the demon out of her, and were thrown into prison for their pains. The demon operated much the same way as the one which was attached to the witch of Endor, with the exception that this demon apparently did not impersonate the dead.
Paul and Silas, in prison for casting a spirit out of a damsel
We are getting closer now to our answer, that the entity which appeared to be the dead Samuel was actually a demonic impersonator. Are there any other indications that this could not have been Samuel, other than the general tenor of the Scriptures regarding the actual condition of the dead? Let us see.
THE APPARITION COULD NOT HAVE BEEN SAMUEL
There were specific prohibitions in the law of Moses against consulting spirit mediums. A few of these are: “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:31). “The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people” (Leviticus 20:6). “A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:27). It was due to these prohibitions that King Saul had initially attempted to expel the spirit mediums from the land.
If God had refused to communicate with Saul by means of living prophets, why would he send the dead prophet Samuel with a message for him? It does not make sense. The last time Saul saw Samuel alive, he had been disobedient and was rebuked by Samuel. When Saul then asked Samuel to accompany him to a public sacrifice, Samuel said: “I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:26). Although Saul persuaded Samuel to reluctantly accompany him on that occasion, the account concludes: “And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:35). Rather, a clever demon, who knew how Samuel denounced Saul prior to his death, imitated the kind of message the prophet would deliver if he had the opportunity. This was in order to practice deception.
As it turned out, Saul and those of his sons who accompanied him to the battle were killed at Mount Gilboa — Saul falling on his own sword to avoid being abused and killed by the Philistines. The parallel account by the chronicler gives the following reason for Saul’s downfall: “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD, even against the word of the LORD, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the LORD: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse” (1 Chronicles 10:13-14). Notice that by inquiring of the apparition (or familiar spirit) through the spirit medium, Saul was not inquiring of God through Samuel.
Landscape at Mount Gilboa, where Saul fell
Furthermore, there is God’s counsel delivered through the prophet Isaiah, which seems to imply that by attempting to contact the dead, people are really coming in contact with familiar spirits or demons: “And when they shall say unto you, ‘Inquire of those that have familiar spirits, and of the wizards, that whisper, and that mutter:’ should not a people inquire of their God? (should we then) in behalf of the living (inquire) of the dead?” (Isaiah 8:19, Leeser).
This understanding, that Saul through the witch was really put in touch with a demon rather than the dead prophet Samuel, is not new. It was advocated by Pastor Charles Taze Russell back in 1897 in the booklet, “What Say the Scriptures about Spiritism?” He wrote: “The methods used by the evil spirits through the medium at Endor were similar to those in use today. They caused to pass before the medium’s mental vision the familiar likeness of the aged prophet, Samuel, wearing as was his custom a long mantle. … The fallen spirits are not only well informed in respect to all the affairs of the earth, but they are adepts in deceit. … One remarkable thing in connection with the manifestation of these fallen angels, or ‘demons,’ is that people of ordinary common sense are so easily deceived by them” (Reprints, pages 2172-73).
In conclusion, it was not the prophet Samuel who was called up by the witch of Endor, but a demonic impersonator.
— Br. Robert Virgil