"Our own time has revived a group of beliefs and practices which
have their roots deep in the very stratum of early philosophy, where
witchcraft makes its first appearance. This group of beliefs and
practices constitutes what is now commonly known as Spiritualism."--Dr.
E. B. Tylor, "Primitive Culture" vol. i., p. 128.
The oldest portion of the Old Testament scriptures are imbedded in the
Book of Judges and the Books of Samuel. Few indeed of these narratives
throw more light on the early belief of the Jews than the story of Saul
and the witch of Endor. It is hardly necessary to recount the story,
which is told with a vigor and simplicity showing its antiquity and
genuineness. Saul, who had incurred Samuel's enmity by refusing to slay
the king Agag, after the death of the prophet, found troubles come
upon him. Alarmed at the strength of his enemies, the Philistines, he
"inquired of the Lord." But the Lord was not at home. At any rate, he
"answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets."
The legitimate modes of learning one's fortune being thus shut up, Saul
sought in disguise and by night a woman who had an _ob_. or familiar
spirit. Now Saul had done his best to suppress witchcraft, having "put
away those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards out of the land."
So when he said to the witch, "I pray thee divine unto me by the
familiar spirit and bring him up whom I shall name unto thee," the woman
was afraid, and asked if he laid a snare for her. Saul swore hard and
fast he would not hurt her, and it is evident from his question he
believed in her powers of necromancy by the aid of the familiar spirit.
This alone shows that the Jews, like all uncivilised people, and many
who call themselves civilised, believed in ghosts and the possibility of
their return, but, as we shall see, it does not imply that they
believed in future rewards and punishments. Saul's expectations were
not disappointed. He asked to see Samuel, and _up_ Samuel came. He asked
what she saw, and she said _Elohirn_, or as we have it, "gods ascending
out of the earth." In this fact that the same word in Hebrew is used
for _ghosts_ and for _gods_, we have the most important light upon the
origin of all theology.
The modern Christian of course believes that Samuel as a holy prophet
dwells in heaven above, and may wonder, if he thinks of the narrative at
all, why he should be recalled from his abode of bliss and placed under
the magic control of this weird, not to say scandalous, female. But
Samuel came up, not down from heaven, in accordance, of course, with the
old belief that Sheol, or the underworld, was beneath the earth.
Christian commentators have resorted to a deal of shuffling and
wriggling to escape the difficulties of this story, and its endorsement
of the superstition of witchcraft. The _Speakers' Commentary_ suggests
that the Witch of Endor was a female ventriloquist, but, disingenuously,
does not explain that ventriloquists in ancient times were really
supposed to have a spirit rumbling or talking inside their bodies.
As Dr. E. B. Tylor says in that great storehouse of savage beliefs,
_Primitive Culture_, "To this day in China one may get an oracular
response from a spirit apparently talking out of a medium's stomach, for
a fee of about twopence-halfpenny."
Some make out, because Saul at first asked the woman what she saw, that,
as at many modern seances, it was only the medium, who saw the ghost,
and Saul only knew who it was through her, else why should he have asked
her what form Samuel had?--which elicited the not very detailed reply
of "an old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle"--that is,
we suppose, with the ghost of a mantle. She did the seeing and he the
hearing. But it says "Saul perceived it was Samuel," and prostrated
himself, which he would hardly have done at a description. Indeed, the
whole narrative is inconsistent with the modern theory of imposture on
the part of the witch. Had this been the explanation, the writer should
have said so plainly. He should have said her terror was pretended, that
the apparition was unreal, and that Saul trembled at the woman's words,
whereas it is plainly declared that "he was sore afraid because of the
words of Samuel." Moreover, and this is decisive, the spirit utters
a prophecy--not an encouraging, but a gloomy one--which was exactly
fulfilled.
All this shows the writer was saturated in supernaturalism. He never
uses an expression indicating a shadow of a ghost of a doubt of the
ghost. He might easily have said the whole thing was deceit. He does
not, for he believed in witchcraft like the priests who ordered "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live." One little circumstance shows his
sympathy. Samuel says: "Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?"
This is quite in consonance with savage belief that spirits should not
be disturbed. Here was Samuel quietly buried in Ramah, some fifty miles
off, taking his comfortable nap, may be for millenniums in Sheol, when
the old woman's incantations bustle him out of his grave and transport
him to Endor. No wonder he felt disquieted and prophesied vengeance to
Saul and to his sons, "because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord
nor executedest his fierce wrath upon Amalek."
Matthew Henry and other commentators think that the person who presented
himself to Saul was not Samuel, but Satan assuming his appearance. Those
who believe in Satan, and that he can transform himself into an angel of
light (2 Cor. xi. 14), cannot refuse to credit the possibility of this.
Folks with that comfortable belief can credit anything. To sensible
people it is scarcely necessary to say there is nothing about Satan in
the narrative, nor any conceivable reason why he should be credited
with a true prophecy. The words uttered are declared to be the words of
Samuel.*
* The seventeenth verse stupidly reads, "The Lord hath done
to him as he spake by me." The LXX and Vulgate more sensibly
reads to thee.
Much is said of Saul's wickedness, but the only wickedness attributed to
him is his mercy in not executing God's fierce wrath. If it was wicked
to seek the old woman, it is curious God should grant the object he was
seeking, by raising up one of his own holy servants. Why did the Lord
employ such an agency? It looks very much like sanctioning necromancy.
And further, if a spirit returned from the dead to tell Saul he should
die and go to Sheol--where Samuel was, for he says "to-morrow shalt thou
and thy sons be _with me_"--why should not spirits now return to tell
us we are immortal? If the witch of Endor could raise spirits, why not
Lottie Fowler or Mr. Eglinton? Such are the arguments of the spiritists.
We venture to think they cannot be answered by the orthodox. To
us, however, the fact that the beliefs of the spiritists find their
countenance in the beliefs of savages like the early Jews is their
sufficient refutation. Spiritism, as Dr. Tylor says, is but a revival of
old savage animism.