Necromancer of Endor
Gabriel Ehinger, Städelsches Kunstinstitut
The Necromancer or Witch of Endor is a character in the 1st book of Samuel of the Bible . The word witch does not appear in the Calw Bible Concordance ; the term witch for the "woman with divination spirit" is thus popular. The Elberfeld Bible translation speaks of the "owner of a spirit of the dead".
Biblical narration
According to the biblical narrative ( 1 Sam 28 EU ), Saul , the first king of Israel , waged war against the Philistines and believed that he was in a hopeless situation. Since Yahweh gave him no answer to his questions, he looked for a "woman who has a spirit of fortune" and found this in the necromancer of Endor .
Saul disguised himself and went to this woman with two of his men that night. She made him promise not to be persecuted because of Saul himself previously forbidden fortune-telling, and at his request she conjured up the prophet Samuel, who had died some time earlier . When she saw it, she knew who her client was and believed she had been cheated, but continued to conjure up his reassurance.
Now the necromancer reported what she saw: An old man wrapped in a cloak (text: "Eternal God" (Hebrew: elohim olim )) rose from the earth, whom Saul recognized as Samuel. From him Saul learned that he, whom God had forsaken, would lose his kingship to David and his life in battle and that Israel would succumb to the Philistines. The reason why God moved away from Saul was that Saul had previously not completely destroyed them and their property ( 1 Sam 15 EU ) in the war against the Amalekites , as Samuel had proclaimed as God's will during his lifetime, but instead captured the enemy king and brought the best cattle home to sacrifice in Gilgal .
After this message from Samuel, Saul lay defeated on the ground, but was forced by the woman and his companions to sit down and eat. It is generally taken for granted that Saul went into battle and death the next day, but if the following three chapters ( 1 Sam 29–31 EU ) are in chronological order, then Saul lived another three days.
Theological Aspects
What is striking about the necromancy is that the deceased Samuel is "seen" as an old man as if alive, which is presented in the NT ( Mt 17.3 EU and parallel passages of the Synoptic Gospels ) with reference to Moses and Elijah. Thus it becomes clear here that in a certain tradition there was a consensus that death does not end with everything.
There is no comparable text in the entire Bible that deals in a similar manner with occult practices. In the older Christian interpretation of this narrative there are two opposing approaches: Many church fathers believed that Saul did not see the spirit of Samuel, but rather a demon ( Shedim ) acting with God's permission , who took on his form. Other interpreters were of the opinion that it was not possible for the “witch” to conjure up the spirit of Samuel on her own, but God had decided to actually make him appear in order to prepare Saul for his death. The question arises: did the witch really see Samuel? The Septuagint transmits “a woman who has a necromancer spirit ” ( Hebrew בַּֽעֲלַת־אֹוב; ba'alat 'ob ) with “a ventriloquist ” ( Greek ζητήσατέ μοι γυναῖκα ἐγγαστρίμυθον; gyne engastrimos ). Origen and Eustathius of Antioch take it for granted that she was a ventriloquist. According to this view, the séance was only a fraud. In contrast, the Scriptures say literally: "And Samuel spoke to Saul" ( 1 Sam 28 : 15-16 EU ). Gregory of Nyssa pointed out, however, that the experience of Saul and not the real thing is described here.
In the Latin Vulgate and the English King James Bible , she screams at the sight of Samuel, which can be interpreted to mean that she is surprised by his appearance in itself (which casts doubt on her role in the incantation), or she screams how already mentioned, derives from this who your client is.
In the Bible, Saul's visit to Endor is rated as disloyalty to God, who in the end let him perish because of it. However, this does not happen in the context of the text of the narrative in the 1st book of Samuel , but in the alternative report on Saul's end in the 1st book of the Chronicles (10.13-14 EU ). This passage has long shaped the theological view of Saul. More recently - among other things by feminist theology - the necromancer has been rated more positively as a "wise woman" and the king as a "tragic hero".
Artistic processing
The Israeli composer Josef Tal used the Old Testament text (1 Sam. 28, 3-25) of King Saul's visit to the necromancer of Endor as a libretto for his opera Saul at Ein Dor from 1955 .
literature
- Klaus Koenen : wife of En-Dor. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
- Michael Kleiner: Saul in En-Dor - Divination or Necromancy? A synchronous and diachronic examination on 1 Sam 28 . Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 1995. ISBN 3-7462-1116-6 (= Erfurt theological studies 66)
- Eleonore Reuter : Whoever gets involved with the dead pays with their life. Saul at the En-Dor Necromancer . In: Bibel und Kirche 61.2006, H. 1, S. 16-20. ISSN 0006-0623
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hoffmann-Krayer, Eduard / Bächtold-Stäubli, Hanns Concise Dictionary of German Superstition 10 Vols. 1927–1942, Volume 3, Freen - Hexenschuß p. 312
- ↑ E. Klostermann (ed.), Orígenes, Eustathius von Antioch and Gregor von Nyssa on the witch of Endor , Bonn 1912
- ↑ Alexander Philip S. in Creation and Re-Creation in Jewish Thought. Festschrift in Honor of Joseph Dan on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday, Tübingen 2005, p. 18 “The idea that the witch of Endor was a ventriloquist was taken up by Christian commentators. It is assumed by both Origen and Eustathius "
- ^ Lacon, RS Gladney The Devil in America: A Dramatic Satire 1867, pp. 185-186 “a critical examination of the whole account will show that the whole affair was a gross imposition. Saul saw nothing. He perceived it was Samuel from the description of the witch. Her prediction was nothing more than all the circumstances led her to expect. "
- ^ Murray MA The God of the witches London: Faber. 1934 p. 157 "it is clear that Saul saw nothing and the witch's description might have fitted any important person, but Saul having wanted Samuel believed it was Samuel."
- ↑ Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa: A Letter concerning the Sorceress to Bishop Theodoxios ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( German )
- ↑ 1 Samuel 28 www.bibelwissenschaft.de
- ^ 1 Samuel 28
- ^ Josef Tal - List of operas. Retrieved May 14, 2018 .
