The Non-Wicked Witch of Endor
Detail of The Witch of Endor Summons the Shade of the Prophet Samuel, by Dmitry Nikiforovich Martynov, 1857.
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Somehow this week I ended up spending the majority of my non-working hours doing research on a little known side character in the story of Saul found in the Hebrew text of 1 Samuel 28. AS ONE DOES. I just found myself curious about this woman, the so-called Witch of Endor. Does anyone know her story? What was known about her? Was she really a witch?
The word “witch” brings up all sorts of images.
Crooked noses and hunched backs and claw-like hands.
Riding a broomstick through the night sky.
In a dark house stirring up a pot of something vile.
Coaxing children into her house to fatten them up and put them in said pot.
Magical and powerful but it comes at a price.
A danger to everyone around them but especially other women and their precious children.
Outside of the fairy tales, history tells us that this title was often placed on empathetic or powerful women as a way to silence them or make them smaller or to take away their agency. Being a good listener and being able to help people doesn’t make you evil. But I digress. All that to say, I didn’t want to assume anything about her that wasn’t right in the text.
(If you want to read the full story from the Bible, you can find it here: 1 Samuel 28.)
When I told my teenager that I was doing research to write about the Bible story of the Witch of Endor, she was like “wait what?! How did they never teach us about her? She sounds awesome!”
(yes we’re related)
If you have heard of this story at all, which is unlikely, you likely heard it told as a version of: Saul sought advice from a witch and it’s why he died. Witches are bad. Saul talked to a witch. Saul is bad. Saul dies. Therefore it’s the fault of the witch. Because witches are bad.
But that’s the Grimm/Disney version. Here’s what a biblical witch does.
All I could think as I read the story of Saul and this woman was that she is the only person who acts with integrity the entire time!
Saul makes talking to witches illegal. But then he is feeling some major anxiety about a coming battle and he remembers that Samuel (who has at this point died) told him some things about how this battle might not go great for him. He prays to God. He consults prophets. He also tries Urim, which is shorthand in this chapter for “Urim and Thummim,” mystical stones from the high priest’s chestplate that can be used to tell the future. (So a POUCH OF MAGIC STONES is fine but witches are bad, got it.)
When he can’t find the answers he is seeking, he asks his servants to find him someone who might offer him a way to talk to Samuel. They point him to this woman.
Saul shows up at Endor in disguise and asks her to raise up Samuel so they can have a little chat. She knows that the task he is asking of her is illegal, so she says no.
He offers her protection from the law and its repercussions so she relents, and gives him what he is asking.
I wonder if, as an empathic and intuitive woman, she could sense his desperation. Nowhere does the text imply that her actions are not malicious, she wants to help.
So she calls up the ghost or spirit of Samuel.
Fun Facts! In my research I learned that it was believed the person calling a spirit can see them but not hear them, and the person who asked for the spirit to be called can hear them but not see them.
I also learned that a spirit will rise feet first for everyone but a king. If a king calls them, they’ll rise head first, which is how the woman knows that the desperate man who has come to visit her is actually King Saul.
As Saul and Samuel get talking, it turns out that Samuel just repeats what he had said to Saul when he was still alive. This battle is not going to go well for you. Saul didn't want to hear it when Samuel was alive, and this time, Ghost Samuel makes it even more clear and says “you are going to die in this battle.” Saul falls to the ground out of fear - the direct translation says “fell straight away all along the earth” which I think is the nice way of saying he fully fainted flat out onto the ground.
Now the witch has a choice. She’s got the king breaking the law and then passed out in her home. Surely this is the time for a well placed evil cackle. Now she can make him regret banning witches and mediums from the land. She could keep him prisoner, chain him up in the human-sized iron cage hanging from her ceiling as all witches have. Put him under a spell and make him sign a glowing contract to make her queen in his stead.
But that’s the Grimm/Disney version. Here’s what a biblical witch does.
She’s not angry or afraid. Instead she acts with compassion and takes care of Saul. She helps him up, sees that he’s terrified now instead of desperate, and so she feeds him. And not just anything, she slaughters a fatted calf (celebration meat!) and also makes him some unleavened bread (bread for a journey). She feeds him so that he’ll have strength for what is ahead. She essentially makes him his last meal.
Is that what someone evil does? Is this what makes her bad?
I just can’t reconcile her actions with some evil crone somewhere.
I know the story is about Saul, and Israel, but I just love this woman who helps Saul at great risk to herself, and offers him compassion and care when he is facing the end of his life.
Maybe witches aren’t so bad after all then.
Or at least this one deserves a second look.
