myBibleHistory

Echoes Across Civilizations

Calling up the dead

Did other ancient peoples try to consult the dead, and how?

What the relationship labels mean
  • Possible historical contact: The cultures were in contact, so one tradition could have known the other.
  • Shared literary world: The stories appear to share older roots or a common cultural setting.
  • Similar human experience: Different peoples responding to similar realities, such as river floods.
  • Resemblance only: A real similarity worth noticing; no historical connection has been established.
  • Modern speculative theory: A modern interpretation, not an ancient source. Not supported by authenticated evidence.

Mesopotamian · Babylonia and Assyria

Ghost-raising rituals and Gilgamesh XII

Shared literary world
Composed
2nd–1st millennium BC
Earliest surviving copy
Neo-Assyrian tablets from Nineveh

Ritual texts describe making a ghost appear to answer questions; in Gilgamesh XII Enkidu's spirit rises "like a breath" from the underworld.

Similar

  • The dead brought up from below the earth
  • Questions about fate

Different

  • Practiced by specialists as accepted ritual

Greek · The edge of the world

The Odyssey, book 11 (the Nekyia)

Resemblance only
Composed
c. 8th–7th century BC
Earliest surviving copy
Papyri from the 3rd century BC; medieval manuscripts

Odysseus digs a pit, pours blood, and the prophet Tiresias rises to foretell his fate.

Similar

  • A dead prophet consulted about the future
  • A pit in the earth

Different

  • Instructed by a goddess; heroic epic

Israelite · Judah

Isaiah against necromancers

Possible historical contact
Composed
8th century BC
Earliest surviving copy
The Great Isaiah Scroll (Qumran, c. 125 BC)

"Should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?"

Similar

  • Necromancy practiced in Israel

Different

  • Condemned

Modern speculative theory · not an ancient source

A hologram at En-dor?

The claim
Some modern writers suggest the apparition was a technological projection or alien contact.
What the ancient texts actually say
No ancient source describes anything of the kind.
Historical assessment
Speculation with no evidence.

Full investigations

Back to the story

  • The Medium at En-dor →The Philistines gather at Shunem. Samuel is dead, and God does not answer Saul by dreams, Urim or prophets. Saul, who had expelled mediums, disguises himself and goes by night to a woman at En-dor who consults the dead. She sees "a god" rising from the earth: an old man in a robe. Samuel announces that tomorrow Saul and his sons will be with him. The woman feeds the broken king.
  • Investigation: Holy War, Prophecy and the Medium at En-dor →1 Samuel includes a command to annihilate Amalek, the execution of Agag, a royal massacre of priests, David's killing of whole communities to hide his deceptions, and a king consulting the dead. This investigation brings the questions together without softening them.
  • Isaiah 8: Speed the Spoil, Hasten the Plunder →God tells Isaiah to write on a large tablet "Maher-shalal-hash-baz" ("swift is the spoil, speedy the prey") before witnesses; Isaiah's wife, "the prophetess," bears a son of that name; before he can say "my father" and "my mother," Damascus and Samaria will be plundered by Assyria (8:1–4). Because the people refused "the waters of Shiloah that go softly," the River (Assyria) will flood Judah up to the neck: "O Immanuel" (vv. 5–8). Nations may plot, "for God is with us" (vv. 9–10). Do not fear what this people fears; "Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself"; he will be a sanctuary, and a stone of stumbling to both houses of Israel (vv. 11–15). "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples"; Isaiah and his children are signs (vv. 16–18). Do not consult mediums: "To the law and to the testimony"; those who do will see only darkness (vv. 19–22).
  • Isaiah 29: Woe to Ariel →Woe to Ariel, the city where David camped: God himself will besiege it until its voice whispers from the dust like a ghost's; then suddenly the attacking nations vanish like a dream (29:1–8). The people are stupefied; the vision is like a sealed book that the literate cannot read and the illiterate cannot read either (vv. 9–12). "This people draw near me with their mouth… but have removed their heart far from me" (vv. 13–14). Woe to those who hide plans from God, as if clay could say to the potter, "He made me not" (vv. 15–16). Soon Lebanon will be a garden, the deaf will hear the book, the blind see, the poor rejoice (vv. 17–24).
  • Isaiah 65: New Heavens and a New Earth →God answers: "I am sought of them that asked not for me… I said, Behold me, behold me"; all day he spread out his hands to a rebellious people who sacrifice in gardens, burn incense on bricks, sit among graves, lodge in secret places, eat swine's flesh, and say "Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou" (65:1–7). "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it": God will not destroy all, but will bring forth a seed from Jacob, his chosen and his servants (vv. 8–10). Those who forsake the LORD and set a table for Gad (Fortune) and fill drink for Meni (Destiny) are destined for the sword; "my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry… my servants shall sing… but ye shall cry" (vv. 11–16). "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth"; Jerusalem a rejoicing; no more weeping; no infant who lives a few days, "for the child shall die an hundred years old"; they will build houses and live in them, plant vineyards and eat their fruit; "as the days of a tree are the days of my people"; before they call, God will answer; "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together… and dust shall be the serpent's meat" (vv. 17–25).