1 Samuel 28 · a question people ask
Was it really Samuel who spoke to Saul at Endor?
The chapter tells what happened without saying how. Saul says, "Bring Samuel up for me" (28:11). "When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice" (28:12). She says, "I see a god coming up out of the earth" (28:13) and "An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe" (28:14), and "Saul perceived that it was Samuel" (28:14). Then "Samuel said to Saul" (28:15), "Samuel said" (28:16), and Saul fell "because of Samuel’s words" (28:20). So the chapter calls him Samuel in 28:12, 28:14, 28:15, 28:16 and 28:20. Christians read what stood behind those words in two main ways, each resting on verses, and the name alone doesn't settle it for either. Both agree on what the Bible says around it: the Law forbade it, "whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD" (Deuteronomy 18:12); Chronicles gives it as one reason Saul died, "because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire" (1 Chronicles 10:13); and Saul and his sons died on Mount Gilboa, as 28:19 had said (31:1-6).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Samuel himself
Those who hold this view read the one who spoke as Samuel, as the chapter names him, brought up because God allowed it rather than by the woman's power. They point to 28:12, "When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice", which they read as a cry at something she didn't expect; to the narrator's own words, "Samuel said to Saul" (28:15) and "Samuel said" (28:16); and to what he said, which was the LORD's word already spoken by Samuel: "The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me" (28:17), the words of 15:28, with the reason of 15:19 (28:18). And they point to how it came to pass: the Philistines killed Saul's sons (31:2), and "Saul died with his three sons" (31:6).
1 Samuel 28:12 · 1 Samuel 28:15-18 · 1 Samuel 15:19 · 1 Samuel 15:28 · 1 Samuel 31:2 · 1 Samuel 31:6
Not Samuel himself
Those who hold this view read the one who spoke as a deceiving spirit or an appearance, not Samuel himself, and read the chapter as naming him as he appeared to the woman and to Saul: "Saul perceived that it was Samuel" (28:14). They point to the Law, which names "someone who consults with a familiar spirit" (Deuteronomy 18:11) among those who are "an abomination to the LORD" (Deuteronomy 18:12), and to the LORD not answering Saul by the ways he had given (28:6), and they find it unlikely that he would then speak by the way he had forbidden. They point to Isaiah's question, "Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?" (Isaiah 8:19), and to Paul's words, "even Satan masquerades as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14).
1 Samuel 28:14 · Deuteronomy 18:11-12 · 1 Samuel 28:6 · Isaiah 8:19 · 2 Corinthians 11:14
The verses
“Then Saul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was terrified, because of Samuel’s words. There was no strength in him, for he had eaten no bread all day long or all night long.”
“There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who tells fortunes, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or someone who consults with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. Because of these abominations, the LORD your God drives them out from before you.”
“So Saul died for his trespass which he committed against the LORD, because of the LORD’s word, which he didn’t keep, and also because he asked counsel of one who had a familiar spirit, to inquire,”