The Evolution of Theology: An Anthropological Study | Page 6

an authentic narrative, or, at any rate, as a statement which is
perfectly veracious so far as the intention of the narrator goes--and, as I
have said, I see no reason for refusing it this character--it will be found,
on further consideration, to throw a flood of light, both directly and
indirectly, on the theology of Saul's countrymen--that is to say, upon
their beliefs respecting the nature and ways of spiritual beings.
Even without the confirmation of other abundant evidences to the same
effect, it leaves no doubt as to the existence, among them, of the
fundamental doctrine that man consists of a body and of a spirit, which
last, after the death of the body, continues to exist as a ghost. At the
time of Saul's visit to Endor, Samuel was dead and buried; but that his
spirit would be believed to continue to exist in Sheol may be concluded
from the well-known passage in the song attributed to Hannah, his
mother:--
Jahveh killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to Sheol
and bringeth up. (1 Sam. ii. 6.)
And it is obvious that this Sheol was thought to be a place underground
in which Samuel's spirit had been disturbed by the necromancer's
summons, and in which, after his return thither, he would be joined by
the spirits of Saul and his sons when they had met with their bodily
death on the hill of Gilboa. It is further to be observed that the spirit, or
ghost, of the dead man presents itself as the image of the man
himself--it is the man, not merely in his ordinary corporeal presentment
(even down to the prophet's mantle) but in his moral and intellectual
characteristics. Samuel, who had begun as Saul's friend and ended as
his bitter enemy, gives it to be understood that he is annoyed at Saul's

presumption in disturbing him; and that, in Sheol, he is as much the
devoted servant of Jahveh and as much empowered to speak in Jahveh's
name as he was during his sojourn in the upper air.
It appears now to be universally admitted that, before the exile, the
Israelites had no belief in rewards and punishments after death, nor in
anything similar to the Christian heaven and hell; but our story proves
that it would be an error to suppose that they did not believe in the
continuance of individual existence after death by a ghostly
simulacrum of life. Nay, I think it would be very hard to produce
conclusive evidence that they disbelieved in immortality; for I am not
aware that there is anything to show that they thought the existence of
the souls of the dead in Sheol ever came to an end. But they do not
seem to have conceived that the condition of the souls in Sheol was in
any way affected by their conduct in life. If there was immortality,
there was no state of retribution in their theology. Samuel expects Saul
and his sons to come to him in Sheol.
The next circumstance to be remarked is that the name of
Elohim is applied to the spirit which the woman sees "coming
up out of the earth," that is to say, from Sheol. The Authorised Version
translates this in its literal sense "gods." The Revised Version gives
"god" with "gods" in the margin. Reuss renders the word by "spectre,"
remarking in a note that it is not quite exact; but that the word Elohim
expresses "something divine, that is to say, superhuman, commanding
respect and terror" ("Histoire des Israelites," p. 321). Tuch, in his
commentary on Genesis, and Thenius, in his commentary on Samuel,
express substantially the same opinion. Dr. Alexander (in Kitto's
"Cyclopaedia" s. v. "God") has the following instructive remarks:--
[Elohim is] sometimes used vaguely to describe
unseen powers or superhuman beings that are not properly thought of
as divine. Thus the witch of Endor saw "Elohim ascending out of the
earth" (1 Sam. xxviii. 13), meaning thereby some beings of an
unearthly, superhuman character. So also in Zechariah xii. 8, it is said
"the house of David shall be as Elohim, as the angel of the Lord,"
where, as the transition from Elohim to the angel of the Lord is a
minori ad majus, we must regard the former as a vague designation of
supernatural powers.
Dr. Alexander speaks here of "beings"; but there is no reason to

suppose that the wise woman of Endor referred to anything but a
solitary spectre; and it is quite clear that Saul understood her in this
sense, for he asks "What form is HE of?"
This fact, that the name of Elohim is applied to a ghost, or disembodied
soul, conceived as the image of the body in which it once dwelt,