Encyclopedia > Witch of Endor

  Article Content

Witch of Endor

The Witch of Endor, according to the Hebrew Bible, was a witch, a woman with a familiar spirit, who called up the ghost of Samuel the prophet at the demand of King Saul of Israel. Saul chose to do so after he received no answer from God from dreams, prophets, or the Urim and Thummim[?]. The prophet's ghost angrily predicted Saul's downfall as king. The story is told in the book of 1 Samuel XXVIII.

Saul sinned further in consulting this woman; the practice of necromancy was forbidden by the Torah. Christian fundamentalists have debated the theological issues raised by this text, however. If you take the Bible literally, it would appear to affirm that it is or was possible for humans to summon the spirits of the blessed dead by magic. Some suggest that what the witch actually summoned was not the ghost of Samuel, but a demon taking his shape. Nothing in the Biblical text of the story suggests this interpretation, however.

External link:

Saul and the Witch of Endor (http://www.biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?passage=1+Samuel+28&search=&version=KJV&language=english&optional.x=13&optional.y=13) (KJV)



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Bugatti

... date of September 15, 1991. The car had a quad turbo V12 3500cc engine of 611bhp, powering all four wheels through a six speed gear box, and was capable of 212 mph. At a ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 27.7 ms