Origen delivered this homily, perhaps around 240, most likely at Jerusalem. 1 Samuel 28 was controversial among both Jewish and Christian interpreters throughout Antiquity. At issue was whether the necromancer actually raised Samuel’s soul from the dead or if what Saul saw was a demonic apparition. Eustathius of Antioch would later write an extensive treatise to refute Origen’s interpretation in this homily. Although he finds it problematic for a great prophet to be at the beck and call of a necromancer and, by implication, of a petty demon, Origen concludes that the narrative indicates that Samuel did appear to Saul. He then justifies Samuel’s presence in Hades as a continuation of his earthly ministry, preparing departed souls for the coming of Christ, whose soul also descended into Hades at his crucifixion.
The translation is from Origène, Homélies sur Samuel, ed. Pierre et Marie-Thérèse Nautin = SC 328, Paris, Cerf, 1986, pp. 174–208.
Text
A very long passage has been read, consisting of four pericopes, which I must summarize. First was read the rest of the story of Nabal the Carmelite (1 Sam. 25). There followed the story about David’s hiding himself among the men of Ziph and being betrayed by them. After this, Saul came with the intention of taking David, but, once arrived, lost the opportunity, but David came to Saul while he and his guards slept and took his sword and a gourd of water and, after giving this proof, he reproached the guards who were entrusted with guarding him but slept (1 Sam. 26). After this, the third story is about how David fled to Achish, son of Maoch, the king of Gath and how David found favor with him after numerous exploits, so that he said: “I shall make you the head of my guards” (1 Sam. 27:1–28:2). Then there is the famous story of the necromancer and Samuel, where it appears that the necromancer brought Samuel back up and that Samuel prophesied to Saul (1 Sam. 28:3–25).
Since there are four pericopes, each one of which contains no small number of events, which, for persons able to expound the passage, could occupy hours and not just one but several gatherings, will the bishop please choose one of the four, so that we may occupy ourselves with that one?
“Expound the one on the necromancer,” he says.
There are stories that do not touch us, and there are others that are a necessary basis for our hope. I say “stories,” because we have not yet arrived at elevated interpretations useful to every person who knows how to make them or who hears them. Among stories there are some that are useful to everyone, some not to everyone. Take, for example, the story of Lot and his daughters (Gen. 19:30–8): if it teaches something useful in an elevated sense, God knows, as does that person who has received the gift of grace to expound these matters. As for the usefulness of the story itself, it would take quite a search to find it! Indeed, what profit can I find from the story of Lot and his daughters? In the same way, what profit could I gain from simply reading the story of Judah and Tamar and what happened to her (Gen. 38:1–30)? But, nonetheless, because the story of Saul and the necromancer touches all of us, it contains necessary truths at the level of the story. Who, after departing from this life, would care to be under the control of a demon? This would seem to be our situation if a necromancer could summon up, not just any believer, but the prophet Samuel. Concerning him, God said through Jeremiah: “Even if Moses and Samuel were before my face, I would not heed them” (Jer. 15:1–2); concerning him the prophet says in the hymns: “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name, they called upon the Lord and he heeded them, in the column of cloud he spoke to them” (Ps. 98:6–7 [99:6–7]); and elsewhere: “If Moses and Samuel appeared before me and besought me,” and so on (Jer. 15:1)? What, then, if such a person was under the earth and the necromancer summoned him, did a demon have authority over a prophet’s soul? What is there to say? Are these things in Scripture? Is it true or is it not? To say that it is not true encourages faithlessness, and it will come back to haunt those who said so, but if it is true, it is a problem that requires investigation.
We know very well that some of our brothers look askance at the Scripture and say: “I do not believe the medium; when the medium says that she had seen Samuel, she lies. Samuel was not summoned. Samuel does not speak. Just as there are false prophets who say ‘Thus says the Lord’ and the Lord has not spoken, so this petty demon is lying when it promises to bring up the man Saul asked for, saying, ‘Whom shall I summon for you?’ when he says, ‘Summon Samuel for me’ (1 Sam. 28:11).” This is what is said by those who say that this story is not true: “Samuel in hell? Summoned by a necromancer? Samuel, the exceptional prophet, who was devoted to God from birth (see 1 Sam. 1:11); who from before his birth was destined to be in the Temple; who had worn the ephod since he was weaned and had been invested with the double mantle as a priest of the Lord (1 Sam. 1:22–3; 2:18–19); to whom, even as an infant, the Lord spoke oracularly (1 Sam 3:4–14)? Samuel in hell, Samuel in the underworld, the one who succeeded to Eli when he was condemned by Providence on account of the sins and lawless acts of his children (1 Sam. 2:31–6)? Samuel in hell, the one whom God heeded in the time of grain harvest when he granted rain coming from heaven (1 Sam. 12:17–18)? Samuel in hell, who could have asked freely for whatever he wanted, if covetousness overtook him? He did not take a calf, he did not take a cow, he judged and condemned the people while staying poor himself, and never coveted taking anything from such a people (see 1 Sam. 12:1–5). Why should Samuel be in hell? Look at what follows if Samuel is in hell; Samuel is in hell, why not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in hell? Samuel in hell, why not Moses, who is linked with him in the saying, ‘Even if Moses and Samuel were before my face, I would not heed them’? Samuel in hell, why not Jeremiah in hell, who was told: ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of your mother, I sanctified you’ (Jer. 15:1)? Why not Isaiah in hell along with Jeremiah, and all of the prophets in hell?”
These things are what they say, those who do not want to accept the struggle of explaining how Samuel was summoned. But since one must remain faithful in heeding the Scriptures, since the matter has been bruited about and can really annoy and disturb us, let us see whether or not the person who does not accept the Scripture ever understood it or whether, undertaking his interpretation with good intentions, he speaks the opposite of what is written.
What is written? “And the woman said, ‘Whom shall I summon for you?’ (1 Sam. 28:11)” Whose persona says “And the woman said”? Is it, in fact, the persona of the Holy Spirit, by whom Scripture is believed to be recorded, or is it the persona of someone else? For the narrative persona everywhere, as they know who study any kind of discourse, is the persona of the author, but the author of these discourses is not believed to be a man, but the Holy Spirit is the author who has moved men.
Does not then the Holy Spirit say “And the woman said, ‘Whom shall I summon for you?’ and he said ‘Summon Samuel for me’ ”? Who says, “And the woman saw Samuel and cried out with a loud voice, saying …” (1 Sam. 28:12)? We respond to those who have been bruiting it about and saying that Samuel was not actually in hell: “ ‘The woman saw Samuel,’ the narrative voice says this.”
And the woman cried with a loud voice and said to Saul: “Why have you tricked me? You are Saul!” and the king said: “What is wrong? Do not be afraid, whom have you seen?” And the woman said to Saul: “I have seen gods ascending from the earth.” And he said to her: “What form do they have?” And she said to him: “An old man is ascending, and he is wearing a double mantle.”
(1 Sam. 28:12–14)
It says that she had seen the priestly vestment. I know that the Scripture says, to the contrary: “Do not be surprised, I myself have seen Satan transformed into an angel of light. It is not therefore a great thing, if his ministers are transformed into ministers of justice” (2 Cor. 11:14–15). But what is it that the woman saw? Samuel. Why did it not say: “The woman saw a demon who was taking on the appearance of Samuel”?
But it is written: “Saul knew that it was Samuel” (1 Sam. 28:14). If it was not Samuel, it ought to have been written: “Saul thought that it was Samuel.” But what actually was written was “Saul knew,” and no one knows something that does not exist.
“Saul knew,” therefore, “that it was Samuel and he fell on his face to the ground and worshipped” (1 Sam. 28:14) and again the persona of Scripture says: “And Samuel said to Saul ‘Why have you troubled me by summoning me?’ ” (1 Sam. 28:15).‘Scripture says “said” and we ought to believe that Samuel said to Saul: “Why have you troubled me by summoning me?” Saul answers: “I am in great anguish. Foreigners make war on me, and God has abandoned me and has not answered by the hand of the prophets or in dreams to tell me what I should do” (1 Sam. 28:15), and again Scripture gives no indication but that Samuel himself said: “And why should you inquire of me, when even the Lord himself has abandoned you?” (1 Sam. 28:16). Does it speak the truth or does it lie in saying this?
“The Lord has abandoned you and has come to be against you and he has made himself another, as he spoke through my hand, and he will tear the kingdom from your hand” (1 Sam. 28:17). And does a demon prophesy about the kingdom of Israel? What does the opposing argument say? See, what a great struggle there is in the word of God, a struggle requiring hearers capable of hearing holy doctrines, namely the great and ineffable ones concerning our departure from this place, since at the place where we are now in our discussion, objections have arisen against the first interpretation [that Samuel did not actually appear to Saul], but the second [that Samuel did appear] is by no means clear. But the text is still to be expounded, 5 even though I say that the story and its interpretation are necessary if we are to see what awaits us after our departure.
“[H]e has spoken through my hand, and the Lord will tear the kingdom from your hand and will give it to your neighbor, David” (1 Sam. 28:17) – a demon would not be able to know that David had been consecrated king by the Lord (1 Sam. 16:1–13) – “because you have not heeded the voice of the Lord, you have not executed his wrath against Amalek” (1 Sam. 25:18). Are not these God’s words? Saul really did not do the will of the Lord, but he honored King Amalek by letting him live (1 Sam. 15:9), so that Samuel reproached Saul before his own sleep and when Saul was about to depart (1 Sam. 15:16–23, 28:16–19).
“And for this reason the Lord has made this sentence against you in this day, and the Lord will even give Israel over into the hands of foreigners” (1 Sam. 28:18–19). Could a demon prophesy about the whole people of God and say that the Lord was going to hand over Israel?
“Indeed, the Lord will give the camp of Israel into the hands of foreigners. Hasten, Saul, tomorrow you and your sons will be with me” (1 Sam. 28:19). Is this something that a demon would be able to know, that David had been consecrated with prophetic oil and that the following day Saul would depart life and his sons with him – “Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me”?
These things clarify that what is recorded is not false and that Samuel is the one who was summoned. What, then, is the necromancer doing here? What does the necromancer do to summon the soul of a just person? This is what the earlier argument sought to avoid. For, so as not to experience the struggle concerning so many other matters that might be investigated in this place, it says: “It is not Samuel, the demon is lying, since Scripture cannot lie.” But these are the words of Scripture, they are not from the persona of the demon itself, but from Scripture’s persona: “And the woman saw Samuel” and “Samuel said” what was said by Samuel.
How, then, can we present a real solution to the necromancer’s behavior in this place? I ask the person mentioned earlier who upheld the argument “Samuel in hell?” and so on that he answer this question: Who is better, Samuel or Jesus Christ? Who is better, the prophets or Jesus Christ? Who is better, Abraham or Jesus Christ? Here no one who has once come to know that Jesus Christ is the Lord previously prophesied by the prophets will dare to say that Christ is not better than the prophets. Therefore when you confess that Jesus Christ is better, did Christ come to be in hell or did he not? Is it not true what was said in the Psalms, interpreted by the apostles in their Acts as referring to the Savior’s descent into hell? For it is written that he is the one referred to in Psalm 15: “For you did not leave his soul in hell, nor did you give your holy one to see corruption” (Ps. 15:10 [16:10] in Acts 2:27–31). Then Jesus Christ was in hell and you are afraid to say that he descended there for the very purpose of prophesying and to go to the other souls?
If, then, you answer that Christ did descend into hell, I ask, when Christ descended into hell, what did he do: did he go to defeat death or to be defeated by it? And he descended into those places not as a servant of those there, but as a lord going to fight, as we have just said in explaining Psalm 21: “Many calves have encircled me, fat bulls have surrounded me, they have opened their mouths against me, like a rapacious, roaring lion, they have put my bones out of joint” (Ps. 21:13–15 [22:12–14]). Let us remember, if we do remember the Holy Scriptures, I remember these things spoken about Psalm 21.
The Savior descended, then, in order to save. Did he descend there after being announced beforehand by the prophets, or not? But here he was announced beforehand by the prophets. Did he descend to some other place without making use of prophets? Even Moses announced his advent to the human race, so that it is justly said by our Lord and Savior: “If you believed Moses, believe me, because he wrote about me, but if you do not believe his writings, how can you believe my sayings?” (Jn 5:46–7, referring to Deut. 18:15–18). Christ made his advent in this life, and it was announced beforehand that he was to make his advent in this life, but if Moses announced him here, why do you not want him to descend there also – so that he might prophesy Christ’s coming? Why then? Moses, yes, but the rest of the prophets, no? But Samuel, no? Why is it absurd for physicians to descend to the ill? Why is it absurd for even the chief physician to descend to the ill? They are many physicians (see Mk. 5:26), but my Lord and Savior is the chief physician. For inward desire, which cannot be cured by others, he cures. She could not be cured by any of the physicians (see Lk. 8:43), but Jesus Christ himself cured her. Do not fear (see Mk. 5:36), do not be amazed.
Jesus came to be in hell, and the prophets were before him and they announced in advance the Christ’s advent. 7 Then I want to speak about something else from the Scripture itself. Samuel ascends, but, see, the woman does not say that she has seen Samuel, she does not say that she has seen a soul, she does not say that she has seen a man. What does she see? “I have seen gods,” she says, “ascending from the earth” (1 Sam. 28:13). And perhaps Samuel had not ascended alone and prophesied to Saul, but, possibly, as here on earth,“one sanctifies oneself with a holy man, one becomes innocent with an innocent man, and one becomes chosen with a chosen man” (see Ps. 17:26–7, LXX [18:25–6]), it is possible here to see holy persons associating with the holy, but not the holy with sinners, unless indeed the holy are associating with sinners in order to save the sinners. So doubtless you will also investigate if, when Samuel ascended, some holy souls of other prophets ascended with him. Or doubtless you will investigate if they were angels set over their spirits – a prophet says: “The angel speaking in me” (Zech. 1:9) – or they were angels who had ascended with the spirits? The universe is full of those needing salvation and they are all ministering spirits sent for service because of those who are going to inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14).
Why are you afraid to admit that every place has need of Jesus Christ? Someone who needs Christ needs the prophets. For it is not possible that he needs Christ, but he has no need for those who prepare the coming and advent of Christ. And concerning John, than whom no one was greater among those born of women, according to our Savior’s own testimony, when he said: “No one among those born of women is greater than John” the Baptist (Lk. 7:28), do not be afraid to admit that he descended into hell in order to announce my Lord in advance, in order to say in advance that he was coming down. That is why, when he was in prison and knew that his departure was imminent, he sent two of his disciples and asked, not “Are you the one who is to come?” – indeed he knew that – but “Are you the one who is to come, or do we await another?” (Lk. 7:20). He had seen his glory (Jn 1:15); he had spoken many things concerning his marvelous character; he had first borne witness to him (Lk. 9:32; Jn 1:14; Acts 7:55): “He who is coming after me, was before me” (Jn 1:15, 30); he saw his glory, the glory as of the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:14); after seeing such things concerning Christ, he hesitated to believe, he doubted but did not say: “Say to him, ‘Are you the Christ?’ ” (Mk. 14:61).
Now there are some who, not understanding what had been spoken, say: “John, as great as he was, did not know the Christ; the Holy Spirit had abandoned him”. And he did know him, to whom he bore witness before his birth by leaping when Mary came to him, as his mother bore witness, saying: “For, see, as the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the baby leapt out of joy in my womb” (Lk. 1:44). This John, then, who had leapt before he was born, is the one who said: “This is he of whom I spoke, ‘He who is coming after me, was before me’ ” (Jn 1:4) and “He who sent me said to me ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, that one is the Son of God’ ” (Jn 1:33). He, do they say, did not know that Jesus was the Christ? Indeed he knew him already in the womb.
But through his consummate glory Christ did something similar to what he did with Peter. Which was? Peter knew something great about Christ: “Who am I? Who do men say that I am?” and he said this and that, “But you, what? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” in which he was blessed “because flesh and blood had not revealed” it to him “but the Father in heaven” (Mt. 16:13–17). Because he had heard great things about Christ and comprehended them, but had not accepted the divine exclamation to him: “See, I am ascending to Jerusalem, and it will be completed” (Lk. 18:31) and “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the chief priests and elders and die and on the third day rise again” (Lk. 9:22), he said: “Not for you, Lord” (Mt. 16:22). He knew great things about Christ, but he did not want to accept the humbler things about him. It seems to me that John was in a similar situation. He was in prison knowing great things about Christ – he knew about the heavens opening (Mt. 3:16), he knew the Holy Spirit descending on the Savior and remaining on him (Mt. 3:16), he had seen such a great glory (Jn 1:14) – but he doubted and perhaps disbelieved that one so glorious would descend to hell and to the abyss (see Rom. 10:7). Therefore he asked: “Are you the one who is to come, or do we await another?”
I have not made a digression, nor have I forgotten our subject, but we want to establish that, if all the prophets descended into hell before Christ as forerunners of Christ, Samuel also descended there, not in the ordinary way, but as a holy person. Wherever a holy person is, he is holy. Is Christ no longer Christ because he was once in hell? Was he no longer the Son of God because he was in an underground place so that every knee might bow at the name of Jesus Christ, things above the earth, on the earth, and under the earth (Phil. 2:10)? Just as Christ was Christ even when he was below, so that, in a manner of speaking, while he was in the place below, he was above with respect to self-determination. In the same way the prophets as well, including Samuel, when they descended where the souls are below, could be below with respect to place, but not below with respect to self-determination. But I ask: “Did they prophesy supercelestial things?” For my part, I cannot allow a demon such great power as to prophesy concerning Saul and the people of God, and to prophesy about David’s kingship that he was about to reign. Those who say such things [i.e. that a petty demon could prophecy concerning God’s plan] will come to recognize the truth about the passage by finding no way to explain how a physician should come for the salvation of those who are ill to the place where the ill are. Let physicians go to the places where soldiers suffer and enter the place of their stench and wounds; this is what medical benevolence inspires. So the Word has inspired the Savior and the prophets to come here and to descend into hell.
But this consideration must be added to our discourse: if Samuel was a prophet and, when he departed, the Holy Spirit abandoned him and prophecy abandoned him, the Apostle would not have spoken the truth in saying, “Now I prophesy in part and I know in part, but when the perfect comes, then the partial will disappear” (see 1 Cor. 13:9–10). The perfect comes, in fact, after this life. Although even Isaiah, when he prophesied, prophesied with assurance (see Acts 4:29) “in part,” Samuel’s testimony here concerning David actually achieves “the perfect” in prophecy.
But Samuel did not reject the prophetic gift of grace. Since he did not abandon it, did he make use of it like those speaking with tongues, so as to say: “My spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful” (1 Cor. 14:14)? Now he who speaks in a tongue does not build up the church, even though Paul says that he who prophesies builds up the church, saying so in the phrase “the one prophesying builds up the church” (1 Cor. 14:4). But if the one prophesying builds up the church and Samuel had the prophetic gift of grace – for he had not lost it, not having sinned – for he alone loses the prophetic gift of grace who has done things unworthy of the Holy Spirit, so that it leaves him and deserts his governing faculty. This is what David feared when, after his sin, he said: “And do not take your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 50:13 [51:11]). But if the Holy Spirit prophesies and Samuel was a prophet who, in prophesying, builds up the church, whom was he to build up? Was he to prophesy in heaven? To whom? To the angels who do not need it, for those who are well do not have need of physicians, but those who are ill (see Mt. 9:12)? There are some who need his prophecy; indeed the prophetic gift of grace is not barren – no gift of grace remains barren in a holy person. The souls of those who have fallen asleep are, I dare say, those who need the prophetic gift of grace. Israel here needed the prophet, but also the Israel that had fallen asleep, having left this life, needed prophets, so that the prophets might again proclaim to that Israel Christ’s advent.
In addition, before the advent of my Lord Jesus Christ, it was impossible for anyone to pass to the place where the tree of life is, for it was impossible to pass by those posted to guard the way to the tree of life for he posted cherubim and a turning fiery sword to guard the way of the tree of life (see Gen. 3:34). Who could make a way? Who could make it possible for anyone to pass by the fiery sword? Just as no one could make a way in the sea except by God’s power and by the pillar of fire and the pillar of light that come from God (see Ex. 14:24), just as no one could make a way in the Jordan except Joshua [in Greek, Jesus] (for this Jesus was the type of the real Jesus) (Jos. 3:16), so Samuel could not pass by the fiery sword and Abraham could not pass. That is why Abraham was seen by the rich man who was being punished and, being in torments, the rich man lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham, even if he saw him from far off, and he saw also Lazarus in his bosom (Lk. 16:23). The patriarchs, the prophets, and all men therefore awaited Christ’s advent, so that he might open the way. “I am the way” (Jn 14:6). “I am the door” (Jn 10:9). He is the way to the tree of life, so that “If you pass through fire, the flame will not burn you” (Isa. 43:2) will come to pass. Of what fire? “He posted cherubim and a fiery sword turning to and fro to guard the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:34). This is why the blessed waited there, accomplishing a plan that prevents them from going where the tree of life is, where the paradise of God is, where God is the farmer, and where the blessed, the elect, and the holy ones of God eventually will be.
There is therefore no stumbling block in this passage, but everything is marvelously written and is understood by those to whom God reveals the interpretation (see 1 Cor. 2:10; Mt. 11:25–7). We have something in excess of this, we who have come to the completion of the ages (Heb. 9:26). What is in excess? If we depart from this life after having become fair and good, not bearing the burdens of sin, we ourselves shall pass by the fiery sword and shall not descend to that place where those waited who had fallen asleep before Christ’s coming; we shall pass by without being harmed by the fiery sword “for the work of each man, what sort it is, the fire shall prove. If anyone’s work is consumed, he will bear the loss, but he himself will be saved as if through fire” (1 Cor. 3:13,15). We therefore pass by [the sword] and we have something more (see Mt. 20:1) than they did, and, if we have lived well, we cannot depart from this life badly. The ancients, neither the patriarchs nor the prophets, could not say what we can say, if we live well: “It would be far better to be dissolved and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). Therefore we have something more and a great gain (see Phil. 1:21) in having come to the completion of the ages, the first to receive the denarius, for listen to the parable in which, beginning, he gave the denarius to those who were last, but the first supposed that they would receive something more (see Mt. 20:8–10). You therefore are the first, who came last, you receive wages from the master of the house, Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen (1 Pet. 4:11).
