Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT cox.net>]

On the basis of I Sam 28, I find the following assertion odd: "[that] the
ancient israelites believed in some sort of existence of the soul beyond
this life in sheol (and that is, after all, where this discussion began),
seems irrefutable on the evidence."  After all, the woman with such
perspicacity was not even capable of recognizing the man who was taller than
anyone else in the entire nation from the shoulders up!  I think I would
recognize Shaquille O'Neal no matter what he was wearing [and I have seen
him numerous times on the LSU campus when he was a student here].  And I
doubt Yao Ming could disguise himself any more successfully.  No, this woman
is a fake, and the narrator tells us that in no uncertain terms. And if she
is a fake, surely her profession is bogus as well.  What else could be
implied from the fact that Saul turned to her only AFTER failing to receive
any response from YHWH, the Urim, or the prophets?  In addition, let us
please remember, we are told in this very same pericope that her profession
had been explicitly banned.

How much clearer could it be that the author has gone out of his way to
demonstrate the implausibility of the whole sorry affair? That some ancient
Israelites may have believed in such foolishness is no more instructive than
that many Americans spent money on the psychic Madame Cleo with the fake
Jamaican accent.

This passage does not reflect mainstream Israelite faith and praxis, but is
the official condemnation of such tripe.  The passage dismisses the )oB
profession with a wave of the hand, and underlines the message given
elsewhere:  Saul is out, having lost the backing of Samuel, YHWH, priests
and prophets.  The trappings of the foolish medium whose profession is
illegal serve as a foil to point to the desperation of Saul and the absolute
nature of his rejection.

To base a key theological precept upon such a passage by taking seriously
what is a masterful bit of sarcasm, seems to me an indefensible methodology,
apart from the NT, Greek philosophy or the combined wisdom of all the
falafel vendors in Jerusalem.

Shalom,
Charles David Isbell