{"id":5344,"date":"2014-05-15T00:05:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-15T07:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5344"},"modified":"2014-05-15T00:25:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-15T07:25:18","slug":"peculiar-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/05\/15\/peculiar-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Things That Go Bump in the Night"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>1 Samuel 28 is an odd biblical story in so many ways.  See my previous postings: <a href=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/04\/17\/transfiguration\/\" target=\"_blank\">Transfiguration<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2012\/04\/19\/snarks\/\" target=\"_blank\">Snarks<\/a>  where I\u2019ve referenced the passage before.  The first and largest question usually relates to Samuel\u2019s ghostly appearance, when Saul consults a medium (or necromancer; KJV: witch).  The Bible elsewhere forbids calling up the dead (see Leviticus 19:31, for instance)&#8211;which would, perhaps, imply that it is something that can be done&#8211;as it was done in Samuel&#8217;s case.  Of course, many Christians wonder if Samuel was really called up.  Which raises a spectrum of questions:  Is this really Samuel?  Or is it a demon?  Did the medium actually call him up, or did God send him? Are ghosts real?  Can mediums actually communicate with the dead?<\/p>\n<p>There is a tendency in Christian theology to wave one\u2019s hands about and simply explain it all away\u2014sort of like when the Wizard of Oz says \u201cpay no attention to that man behind the curtain\u201d.  <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ubIpoPjBUds?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lots of good that does, of course.  The reality is, most readers of the story would prefer just to turn away from it and pretend as if it\u2019s not there. It\u2019s not the only passage in the Bible that doesn\u2019t quite fit prevailing theology.  Of course, what this passage (and other uncomfortable bits of the Bible) fundamentally means from a practical point of view is simply that our theology is obviously woefully inadequate.  As Shakespeare points out, <\/p>\n<p>There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, <br \/>\nThan are dreamt of in your philosophy. <br \/>\n&#8211; Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio<\/p>\n<p>My take on this is that we might want to hold off on an utter rejection of the possibility of ghosts, and posit the slim possibility that mediums just might, on rare occasions when they aren&#8217;t just charletons, contact the dead and not demons.  It seems the most natural reading of the biblical text in this case is that Samuel actually comes  back from the dead and talks to Saul.  If you accept the Bible as God&#8217;s word, you can&#8217;t just ignore what it&#8217;s saying, after all.  <\/p>\n<p>But the weirdness of the passage does not begin and end with Samuel as a ghost.  This chapter just keeps on giving.  Look at 1 Samuel 28:13:<\/p>\n<p>The king said to her, \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid. What do you see?\u201d <br \/>\nThe woman said, \u201cI see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Focus on the phrase \u201cghostly figure\u201d (NIV 2011).  If you look at other translations you\u2019ll find \u201ca divine being\u201d (NRSV, NASB) and \u201ca spirit\u201d (NIV 1984, CEV).  The LXX&#8211;the ancient Greek translation&#8211;has \u0398\u03b5\u03bf\u1f7a\u03c2 (theos) \u201ca god\u201d.   The KJV has \u201cgods\u201d and in this instance, the KJV most literally translates the underlying Hebrew, since the Hebrew word appearing in 1 Samuel 28:13 is indeed the word \u05d0\u05b1\u05dc\u05b9\u05d4\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd (&#8216;elohim), and the verb translated \u201crising\u201d is a masculine plural participle, so it is indeed to be rendered as the plural \u201cgods\u201d rather than as most commonly in the OT, \u201cGod\u201d in the sense of Yahweh.  But when Saul demands to know about what she sees, \u201cgods\u201d becomes singular: an old man.  Given the range of translation, it is obvious that the translators find the wording of the passage problematical, since obviously Samuel is not a god, let alone a group of them.<\/p>\n<p>Bear in mind though that polytheism is rampant in the Israel of this time.  Saul\u2019s daughter Michal had an idol handy that she used to help David escape from Saul (see 1 Samuel 19:13).  Most Israelites worshiped other gods in addition to Yahweh, having a much less than firm grasp on the whole concept of monotheism.  Ashera (a female deity somewhat equivalent to Venus or Aphrodite\u2014a goddess of love\u2014mentioned regularly in the OT in relation to the Ashera poles\u2014phallic symbols\u2014that various kings would occasionally cut down) was widely believed by the Israelites to be Yahweh\u2019s wife.  Thus, the medium\u2019s initial description of what she saw\u2014\u201cgods\u201d\u2014would fit the commonly held world view of the average Israelite.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for us, we are still left with the appearance of a ghost, raised by the actions of a medium.  The only real problem for us, of course, is that it is simply not something we want to believe in.  Perhaps we need to adjust what we think is so; after all, the Bible, for Christians, is our authority for faith and practice, not those things that comfortably fit our pre-existing notions of how things are.<\/p>\n<div class='kindleWidget kindleLight' ><img src=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/plugins\/send-to-kindle\/media\/white-15.png\" \/><span>Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Samuel 28 is an odd biblical story in so many ways. See my previous postings: Transfiguration and Snarks where I\u2019ve referenced the passage before. The first and largest question usually relates to Samuel\u2019s ghostly appearance, when Saul consults a &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/05\/15\/peculiar-things\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5344"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5344"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5354,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5344\/revisions\/5354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}