ABSTRACT
According to the Old Testament, God refused to advise King Saul, 1 the first king of the united kingdom of Israel, about how to deal with an impending Philistine attack. So the king desperately entreated the medium of Endor to raise the prophet Samuel from his grave. Saul had just driven necromancers and mediums from Israel, so it was ironic that he relied on an unsanctioned theophanic practice to elicit answers to his questions. 2 In any case, after invoking Samuel, the medium reported that “‘I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.’ ‘What does he look like?’” Saul asked. “‘An old man wearing a robe is coming up,’ she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground” (1 Samuel 28:13–14). 3
