Ghosts, Witches, and Vampires – it’s not Halloween, it’s the Old Testament
- richieeparsons
- Oct 30, 2023
- 7 min read
With Halloween being celebrated this week, I thought it’d be a nice opportunity to write about some of the weirdest stuff we encounter in the Old Testament. While this isn’t exhaustive of all the weird, dark, and demented parts of the Old Testament and ancient Jewish culture, it’s a way for those unfamiliar to dip their toe into this material without being overwhelmed…too much.
The truth is there’s a bunch of weird stuff in the Bible relative to spiritual beings (good and bad) and the supernatural world around us. The vast majority of it is written off as fringe or too complex to explain. Also, most Christians’ interaction with the Old Testament is done with the absence of any familiarity with how these people viewed the supernatural world around them. We're mostly clueless about this aspect of their culture and typically pastors don't get into it on Sundays.
Today, you will get a very small glimpse into that world and just how weird it can be. I will start with a story most of us are likely familiar with at a very basic level, then move on to something truly bizarre and frightening, but given credibility by Scripture, nonetheless. Of course, there are scholars on both sides of these issues, so I have done my best to review the arguments surrounding these topics and present the most notable and reasonable comments and conclusions. Happy Halloween!
A King, A Ghost, and a Witch walk into a séance…
“A lot of people think that the Bible really has nothing to say at all about ghosts, but that’s actually mistaken.” – Mike Heiser
In 1 Samuel, we find Saul seeking the counsel of a known witch in Endor. Ancient cuneiform tablets indicate she may have looked like this:
Just kidding, she was not an ewok on the forest moon, this is a different Endor.
So King Saul asks the witch to bring up Samuel to speak with him. Pause here – King Saul wants to speak with a human who has already died? We call this a ghost. So, Saul is trying to contact a ghost, and not just any ghost, the ghost of the prophet Samuel. Now, it is important to note that witchcraft was outlawed in Israel at this time.
“The Bible prohibits contacting the dead not because doing so was impossible, but because it was possible.” – Mike Heiser
Makes sense, right? If speaking with ghosts isn’t possible, then why would God outlaw it? So, the first idea we must accept at face value here is that it is possible to speak with ghosts, right? Well, not exactly. The idea that this was actually Samuel’s ghost doesn’t stand uncontested. There are scholars who would argue that this wasn’t a ghost at all. Rather, it might have been a demon or in a case of following the “nothing weird to see here” philosophy, some argue that it is not a demon or a ghost, but simply the witch making stuff up. So, who is right?
The real question is whether or not this was actually Samuel. Because if it was Samuel, then it had to be his ghost as Samuel was definitely dead by this point. If not really Samuel, then we could be dealing with a demon or a convincing rouse by a fake witch.
In his thorough analysis on this passage in 1 Samuel, Michael Lee concludes that “The most clear answer that the bible provides is that it was Samuel and the biblical evidence supports it far more.”6 Feel free to click the link and check out what all he has to say about it, just know that while seemingly well-studied, he is not someone I have thoroughly vetted and I cannot generally endorse his viewpoints beyond this specific article.
Could it have been a demon instead? I’ll let Heiser explain why this is unlikely:
One “who inquires of the human dead” (dōrēš el-hammētım̂ )…refers to necromancy, contacting the human dead. The fact that this wording diverges from…. where non-human entities are contacted, illustrates that, as in the wider ancient Near Eastern world, the Old Testament distinguishes ghosts (spirits of human dead) from demonic spirits.5
To provide some balance and acknowledge the complexity of the issue, I’m linking an article by David Tatum, where he puts forth quite a bit of effort to eliminate the ghostly nature of this encounter and directly calls out Heiser for a supposed contradiction with the use of the Hebrew word “elohim” in this passage by categorizing Heiser’s conclusion an “illogical leap.” 7
After researching Heiser’s views on the matter, I believe the following statement helps clear up any confusion and eliminates any contradictions by Heiser on this matter:
“The parallel account of this story where a person observes a freakish moment and tells an audience what they saw is Daniel 3:24-5
Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God [a son of the gods].”
Meaning, he is not human. Whatever this is, it ain't human. Bar elahin is "son of God" in Aramaic and is equivalent to bene elohim. I just think it means it ain't human. And so what the woman saw was something that she had no vocabulary for except to say, "I saw nonhumans." They were spirits of some kind.8
So while there are diverging opinions on this passage, it seems like the most likely conclusion is that the witch did, in fact, conjure up the actual ghost of Samuel and it communicated a message to King Saul from beyond the grave. Crazy , right? Now on to something even crazier…
LILITH the Vampire
Who in the underworld is Lilith? Many people only became aware of this name recently, when The Chosen used this name for the demon that inhabited Mary Magdalene. While there is no evidence that Lilith was the spirit that tormented Mary (and also, Lilith is not technically a demon and wouldn’t operate in this way), the writers of The Chosen didn’t completely make her up for the sake of the show.
Although brief, Lilith does actually appear in the Bible, specifically in Isaiah 34:14, when a sword-yielding Yahweh seeks the destruction of the infidel Edomites, long-time enemies of the ancient Israelites. The place where he finds himself is a chaotic desert of purgatorial disdain, where goat-demons and wildcats wander without purpose, and the nefarious she-devil Lilith is known to reside. She does not receive much more description than this in the Bible, perhaps because she didn’t need one—people of that era already knew Lilith from her extensive oral history and artistic depictions.2
Connections between the demon in Isaiah, lîlîtu (Lilith) and the Akkadian demon Lamashtu include both being female sexual predator spirits that would enter homes to lie with men at night, though were unable to become pregnant, They would also be accused of stealing children away in the night. Both were said to drink the blood of the living and eat their flesh, leading some to believe that Lilith is the first vampire to enter written history3 and in the recent centuries, she has become one of the most notable figures in the vampire lore.9 She has also been worshiped by some followers of the pagan Wicca religion, which was created in the 1950s.2 Many Christians may be surprised to learn that the author of ''The Chronicles of Narnia'', C.S. Lewis, was inspired by the legend about Lilith in the creation of the White Witch. She was beautiful, but dangerous and cruel. He mentioned that she was Lilith’s daughter and that she was determined to kill Adam and Eve’s children.2 Elsewhere, Lilith is called the mother of all demons.
So, all in all, this is a bad lady. Not someone you’d want to bump into in a dark alley. So now that we’ve laid some groundwork for how to think about her, let’s jump to the text in Isaiah where she’s mentioned. Here is Isaiah 34:14-15 in several translations so you can see the various ways they identify her:
The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. (KJV)
And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yea, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest. There shall the dart-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, every one with her mate. (ASV)
The creatures of the desert will encounter jackals And the hairy goat will call to its kind; Indeed, Lilith (night demon) will settle there And find herself a place of rest. There the arrow snake will make her nest and lay her eggs, And hatch them and gather her young under her protection; Indeed, the birds of prey will be gathered there [to breed], Every one with its own kind. (Amplified Bible)
The desert creatures will meet with the wolves, The goat also will cry to its kind. Yes, the night-bird will settle there And will find herself a resting place. The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there, And it will hatch and gather them under its protection. Yes, the hawks will be gathered there, Every one with its kind. (NASB)
So, you can see from these verses that Lilith embodies this idea of a night monster or bird and the animal associated with Lilith was actually the owl, which explains the King James usage of “screech owl” for the word lîlît (Lilith).3
The snake mentioned in verse 15 would match Lilith with the snake in the roots making its nest. You can see that some translations interchange snake and owl in this verse. The correlation is too close to deny that this is another Biblical reference to a popular mythic creature that the Bible writers refer to in demonic terms.1
One cannot write about Lilith without at least mentioning the ancient tradition that she was Adam’s first wife (meaning before Eve). While it does appear in many ancient texts and this myth has survived until present-day, there is absolutely zero textual support for this in the Bible. If you’re curious to learn more about this idea, here is a link to a video by Michael Heiser where he pretty thoroughly debunks this tradition.4
Well, now you’ve had a glimpse into some of the flat-out strange content in the Old Testament that we typically overlook as casual readers. But, if you believe the Apostle Paul that all scripture is profitable to us, then you can’t simply wave off verses like Isaiah 34:14-15 as insignificant or unnecessary. They are in the Bible for a reason, and it is up to us to do our best to learn about them and understand what they tell us about the supernatural world that surrounds us.
2https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/lilith-ancient-demon-dark-deity-or-sex-goddess-005908
5https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Heiser-OT-Response-to-Pagan-Divination.pdf
6https://harshlybiblical.wordpress.com/2020/10/29/the-myth-of-endor-1-samuel-28/
7https://www.afterlife.co.nz/2019/11/the-witch-of-endor/
8https://nakedbiblepodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NB-477-Transcript.pdf
9http://www.vampirefacts.net/famous-vampires/lilith/
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