Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Dear Ron,

Thank you for your interesting comments.

What do you make of Daniel chapter 12, especially verses 2 and 13? 
This is part of the Hebrew Bible, even if it is perhaps the very 
latest part.

I have trouble with your interpretation of 1 Samuel 28, even if it is 
very ancient. The text clearly says that the speaker in verses 15-19 
was Samuel; we also read that "the woman saw Samuel" (v.12), "Saul 
knew that it was Samuel" (v.14) and "the words of Samuel" (v.20). It 
is clear that the author of the text, as well as Samuel and the 
medium, believed that Samuel really appeared, and in bodily form 
(v.14). (But what does the ):ELOHIYM in v.13 mean? NIV "spirit" 
suggests something like a ghost - surely it cannot mean that!) No 
mention of what happened to Samuel afterwards - presumably he went 
back down into the ground. It is also worth noting that Samuel's words 
ended with a specific prophecy which was fulfilled, which is hardly 
compatible with the idea that this was a demonic manifestation.

I agree that the best understanding of the Hebrew belief is that the 
dead did in general simply die and that the "Sheol" to which they went 
was simply a collective term for graves. The spirit departing from a 
person simply means that they stop breathing, which means that they 
are dead, and they go to Sheol simply by being buried. But I see in 
the medium of Endor incident a belief that the grave was more than a 
place of destruction, rather a place of continued existence perhaps in 
a state like sleep, from which God could bring back the dead by 
specific intervention. God did this in at Endor; also, we read in 1 
Kings 17 that the breath [N:$FMFH] had departed from a boy (v.17) and 
then YHWH returned to him his life [NEPE$] (v.22) - though this boy 
had not been buried, had not gone to Sheol. Similarly presumably in 2 
Kings 4. Psalm 104:29-30 is also interesting (though the parallel is 
hidden in NIV): taking away spirit = death, sending spirit = new life, 
apparently even for these non-human creatures who have "returned to 
dust". This understanding later developed into the belief that God 
actually will bring back all of the dead, reflected in Daniel 12 and 
in later Judaism and Christianity.

Peter Kirk