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Loading...In the previous post I began discussing the intriguing story of 1 Samuel 28, where the king of Israel, Saul, illicitly consults a medium in an attempt to communicate with his now-dead advisor and predecessor, the prophet Samuel. This is the only case of necromancy in the entire Bible. In this post I want to consider what the author of the passage seems to think about those who go to Sheol after death.
I have taken much of what follows from my book Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife (Simon and Schuster, 2020).
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In the account, King Saul learns of a medium in the town of Endor, near the front lines of the approaching battle. He goes to her and, for rather obvious reasons, does so in disguise: it would not help matters if she were to realize the illicit request for contact with the dead is coming from the sovereign ruler who made it illegal in the first place.
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Well, wait a second. As you note in the previous post, Saul has to ASK the medium what SHE sees, and get her to describe Samuel’s appearance to him. So this is surely not a “bodily” return in any ordinary sense. A physical body would be visible to both of them.
Then “Samuel” speaks to Saul, but it’s not clear to me in light of the previous exchange whether we should understand this as a direct interaction or one channelled through the medium. Either way, the conversation ends and “Samuel” is implied to just be abruptly gone.
Whatever is going on here, it does not sound like Samuel is being depicted as having come back “bodily” in the sense most of us would use that word.
Well, maybe, but Samuel speaks to Saul directly and he replies directly; I don’t think anything indicates the medium is speaking for either of them. And yup, it’s certainly bodily since he’s clothed!
I had come across that in Judaism, Sheol was also meant to be a state-of-being (or mind, rather). I.e, when David wrote the psalms (according to tradition at least), when he uses “sheol”, I had come across that he used it in a metaphorical sense – like a deep anguish could be “sheol”, a place mentally, where you feel very disconnected with god. This is according to the pshat reading / tradition. This is also in conjunction with it’s also used as the term for a resting place, a grave, if remembering correctly.
Another example is here: ויאמר קראתי מצרה לי אל ה’ ויענני מבטן שאול שועתי שמעת קולי :
“And he said, ‘I called from distress to me to the Lord,’ and He answered me. ‘From the belly of Sheol I cried out; You heard my voice.”
Here, I believe the interpretation is that in a time of deep distress, kind of when people are “in the deep end” of a poor mental state, Jonah is saying that god heard him even then.
I wonder why ‘sheol’ was translated as “hell”, if it’s a mental state of being OR a literal grave!
yes, “hell” is a very bad translation.
Dr. Ehrman, in addition to being a member here, I’m also an EVERYTIME listener to the MJ Podcast. I wonder if you’ve ever considered doing an episode where you sorta untangle the characters in the New Testament. Like, there are 3-5 Marys, 2-3 Jameses, a couple of Johns and a handful of Simons. There are even multiple guys called Judas, and a female apostle Junia who is sometimes renamed Junius. I’ve heard other scholars like Dr. Matt Baker give their opinion on who each of these people are, and I’m curious where exactly YOU land on this. Who are all these people and how do they fit into the narrative? If you don’t feel like addressing this question on your show, that’s fine, as I’m sure you have plenty of topics to carry the show. Either way, I’ll keep reading your work and adding more of your books to my shelf. Thanks Dr. Ehrman. I hope you’re doing well!
Good idea!
A great poem about Hell: Hell Is A Lonely Place by Charles Bukowski. There is an eternity in every moment.
Hi Bart:
When you state that “But either way, his death was not awful, terrible, and something to escape. It was pleasant. What was awful was being brought back to life.”, I don’t follow how this would suggest that Samuel was not conscious after he died.
Oblivion can’t be pleasant or awful. It can’t be anything at all.
What would be awful about being conscious a “blink of time” after ceasing to be conscious if death is a cessation of consciousness?
Also, doesn’t the word “elohim” sometimes refer to living and very mortal human beings?
That is, not always divinized. And not always already deceased.
Just wondering.
I think I was saying that the typical view that Sheol is a horrible place that no one wants to go to is not supported by this passage, by someone who came from there and was upset about being brought back.
Care to explicate the terminology used to describe the woman whom Saul consults? In Hebrew, אֵשֶׁת בַּעֲלַת־אֹוב בְּעֵין דֹּור. The Septuagint translates this as ἐγγαστρίμυθος ἐν Αενδωρ.
“Witch” is unsatisfactory and “medium” seems off, only because the implication of of being a medium is that the spirit of the departed speaks through you. I’ve seen “necromancer”. Robert Alter translates the Hebrew term as “ghostwife”. I take it this is one of those terms that has no precise or satisfactory equivalent in English although it would be interesting to know why the translators of the Septuagint picked the term they did.
It’s a weird term and debated; I don’t have an opinion on the meaning of theHebrew.
Thank you for this post. I find the evolution of the afterlife in Judaism and Christianity most interesting.
I struggled a bit looking at this passage, as it appears the verb for “ascending” used by the woman in verse 13 is in 3rd person male plural. This seems to not match up with referring either to just to Samuel or to “Elohim” as the deity. In verse 14 Saul asks “what form is he” using the singular form. Is this possible misreading on my part, textual error or possible that the woman was referring to seeing multiple entities, one of whom happened to be Samuel?
I think the “them” would be a nod to the plural, Elohim?
Hi, Bart,
1) Matthew 10:5-8
“These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not take a road leading to gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near. Cure the sick; raise the dead….”
Why does he tell them to avoid the gentiles and Samaria? What is the meaning of the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Did Jesus believe that at the end of times, every nation will be judged according to everyone’s actions/hearts, *BUT* his mission of proclamation of the good news was only for the nation of Israel?
In the story of the canaanite woman he tells something similar: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
2) Matthew 17:15-17
“And I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him. 17 Jesus answered, You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.”
Are the disciples whom he instructed the faithless and perverse generation? Do we see here his anger/exhaustion?
1. Matthew wants to emphasize that the message of salvation went first to Jews, and then only after they rejected him did it go to the gentiles.
2. Apparently they are part of that generation. Yup, he seems to be “at the end of his tether”
I have recently read this passage in your Heaven and Hell book. Thanks for sharing it again!