Narrative Conjuring or the Tales of Two Sisters? The Representations of Hannah and the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel

Abstract

The narrative of 1 Samuel opens graphically with the story of Hannah and also closes with the striking story of another woman, the ‘witch’ of Endor. These two women appear to occupy a significant place in the characterizations of 1 Samuel through the strategic locations of Hannah at the birth of Samuel, and the ‘witch’ at the death of Samuel. While past scholarship has described the individual importance of these two stories, the present study engages the intertextual connections between the two stories and the narrative importance of these two stories in the story world of 1 Samuel. Taking account of this intertextuality, the study underscores the hidden polemics inherent in their representations, especially in the staging of these two women in the same narrative space through the different literary echoes in the two stories that intertextually bind these women together as ‘literary sisters’ and mirrors of each other.

Keywords

Saul Witch of Endor Hannah intertextuality witchcraft Deuteronomistic History narrative

Introduction

Recent studies have underscored the pivotal character of Hannah in the reading of 1 Samuel and her overall importance in the studies of the Deuteronomistic History.¹ While these studies have generally reiterated her importance and have rightly brought her personality from the obscurity of past scholarship into the limelight, they have still generally failed to underscore the importance of Hannah for the opening of 1 Samuel, and the relationship of her characterization to other important characters in 1 Samuel.² Within these studies, there has been a neglect of the representation of Hannah and its relationship to the Witch of Endor at the end of 1 Samuel.³ However, Hannah and the Witch of Endor are the only two female characters strategically situated at the opening and closing of the book of 1 Samuel. The story of Hannah opens the stories in 1 Samuel, and the story of the witch at Endor sets in motion events which directly bring the stories of 1 Samuel to an end. In addition, these are the only two women explicitly mentioned in the life of Samuel with the former giving birth to Samuel, and the latter bringing him back from the dead.⁴ Considering several intertextual links between the two stories, the present study underscores the narrative significance of this characterization, and asserts the intertextual connections between these two important women in the rhetoric of 1 Samuel.⁵

Dominant Intertextual Studies in 1 Samuel

There are several defining studies in 1 Samuel which have generally emphasized the importance of intertextual frameworks in the thought and composition of 1 Samuel.⁶ These studies point to the artistry and brilliance of 1 Samuel in spite of the variable character of the sources used.⁷ These intertextual studies may be grouped into two broad perspectives/classes. The first set of studies seeks to show the intertextual connection between characters within the book of 1 Samuel.⁸ For example, Robert Polzin has drawn attention to the parabolic significance of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel. He has persuasively shown the representation of Hannah to be a preview of Israel's kingship; thus Polzin suggests that the character Hannah has internal significance within the book of 1 Samuel, and also within the larger Deuteronomistic History. For Polzin, just as Israel later asked for a king, so Hannah is represented as asking for a son.⁹ He describes the intertextual relationships between Israel's request for a king and Hannah's plea to have a son.¹⁰ According to Polzin, the quest of Hannah to have children like Peninah mirrors and foreshadows Israel's desire to be like other nations. In this way, Polzin shows the parabolic significance of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel.

Within this type of intertextual studies of 1 Samuel, Gerald Janzen has described the intertextual connection between Yahweh's closing of Hannah's womb, and the scarcity of visions (3.1, 7, 15, 21) and the figurative act of Samuel opening the doors to the temple in 1 Sam. 3.15.¹¹ According to Janzen, just as the womb of Hannah was opened by Yahweh to facilitate the birth of Samuel, so the doors of Yahweh's house were also opened by Samuel, thus signalling a new epoch in Yahweh's relationship with Israel.¹² In addition, Barbara Green has suggested the reading of the Hannah's story as a ‘riddle’ which describes the birth of a ‘new son’ that is expected to displace the children of Peninah, and by extension the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas.¹³ In its displacing role, Samuel, the son of Hannah, signals the fall of the priestly family of Eli. For Green, the story of Hannah is positioned at the beginning of 1 Samuel to mirror other stories in the book of Samuel which subtly or explicitly describe the fall of the mighty.¹⁴ Similarly, since Hannah is the ‘first main character of the books of Samuel (and Kings)’, one expects her prefiguring presence to extend throughout the books of Samuel.¹⁵ In this regard, Graeme Auld has shown the intertextual relationships between the representations of Hannah and Saul in 1 Samuel.¹⁶ According to him, ‘[t]he introductions to Samuel (1:1–2) and Saul (9:1–3) both start in similar terms’.¹⁷ In both stories, ‘[w]e are presented with the family tree of their fathers and told of a problem to be solved…’ thus ‘Saul's arrival on the scene (9:1–3) may have been drafted first and in turn provided a model for Samuel's appearance (1:1–2)’.¹⁸ In addition, Auld has connected the story of Hannah to some webs of intertextual connections to Yahweh, David, and even Solomon.¹⁹ For example, Hannah's prayer in the temple (1.10, 12, 26, 27) was a significant religious act in the Hebrew Bible which was closely associated with the characterizations of ‘David and Solomon’.²⁰ Considering these connections, Auld observes, ‘[w]e have to conclude that Hannah is not simply Samuel's mother-to-be’ but ‘as a key figure in her own right, she already prefigures royal, prophetic, and even divine experience’.²¹ Thus, Hannah incarnates, in the narrative world of 1 Samuel, a ‘heavy freight of expectation and interconnection…’²²

In this intertextual reading, David Jobling has described the strategic importance of the women in 1 Samuel, and has suggested in passing the important placement of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel, and the Witch of Endor at the end of the book. As he observes, the Witch of Endor ‘is the last major woman character to be introduced, as Hannah is the first, and I now think of them as the two stout bookends of 1 Samuel rather than seeing Hannah in solitary splendour’.²³ While he suggests the strategic importance of the placement of these women at the beginning and end of 1 Samuel, Jobling only draws the ideological importance of this placement on the general representations of women in 1 Samuel.²⁴ In particular, he suggests the ‘structural importance’ of the Witch of Endor in 1 Samuel, but he fails to show the literary connection between the two characters.²⁵ Jobling merely notes these two female representations without identifying the corresponding literary links between them, or stressing the importance of their intertextual connections.²⁶

On the other hand, Brueggemann has drawn attention to the connection between the characters of Hannah and David. He observes:

The two accounts of Hannah at the beginning and David at the end go together. Hannah's story is one of a voiceless, marginal woman being given a voice to cause history. David's story concerns a powerful ruthless monarch, led to the point of yielding, not able to assert, but only to trust, wait, and receive.²⁷

For Brueggemann, the characterization of David at the end of 2 Samuel subtly mirrors the character of Hannah. He ties the song of Hannah to the song of David (2 Sam. 22.1–51; 23.1–5), and he notes the convergence of the two songs in the theme of the fall and the rise of characters on the margin which was embodied in the story of Hannah.²⁸ Similarly, David Silber has described the connection of Hannah to Saul via the coat that she gave to her son, Samuel (2.19). Surprisingly, the tearing of the coat of Samuel with its echo of the first gift of Hannah to young Samuel signalled the demise of Saul's dynasty (1 Sam. 15.22–24).²⁹ Seen from these different perspectives, Hannah is not merely a character which we call a ‘mother’; rather, ‘she is indeed’, according to Brueggemann, ‘the mother of the entire narrative’ in the books of Samuel.³⁰ Thus, Hannah's character appears to exert a formidable influence on the narrative landscape of Samuel because her strategic positioning at the opening of 1 Samuel subtly shapes the different characterizations within 1 and 2 Samuel.³¹

A second group of intertextual studies in 1 Samuel describe the literary relationships between a character or characters in 1 Samuel and other characters outside of this book. For example, Yitzhak Berger has described the intertextual connection between the representation of David and Abigail and the representation of Ruth.³² Similarly, Mark Biddle has described the intertextual relationship between the characters of David and Abigail and the ancestral motifs within the stories of Rebekah, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau in Genesis.³³ On the other hand, Cynthia R. Chapman has discerned an intertextual connection between the Hannah story and the representation of Samson in the book of Judges, especially in the subtle echoes of the Nazirite motifs (Num. 6.1–5) in both of the two stories.³⁴ According to her, the words of Hannah in 1 Sam. 1.11 directly echo the story of Samson when she asked Yahweh for a son by praying that ‘no razor shall touch his head’.³⁵ Chapman observes, ‘Hannah's vow, even in its sparest MT form, signals that her child will be set apart as a Nazirite from birth. In order to understand the significance of an infant being set aside as a ‘Nazirite from birth’, we need to read Hannah's story together with the story of Samson's mother’.³⁶ More telling, the narrator echoes the motif of drinking wine or strong drink—one of the basic requirements of the Nazirite vow—in the confrontation between Hannah and Eli, the priest.³⁷ Here, Hannah like the mother of Samson before her, denies the charge of drinking wine or any strong drink, which bears resemblances to the mother of Samson, who before the birth of Samson is commanded by Yahweh not to drink wine or any strong drink.³⁸ Similarly, Auld has drawn attention to the intertextual connection between the story of Hannah and the stories of Ruth, Samson and even Jonah.³⁹ In this same class of intertextuality is my earlier work on Saul, where I described the intertextual link between the representation of Saul in 1 Samuel 14–15 and the story of Achan.⁴⁰ There, I underscored the subtle polemics in the use of the Achan traditions to dismiss the dynastic claims of the Saulides through the close connection of Saul to Achan. Polzin likewise connects his intertextual studies on 1 Samuel to a broad spectrum of texts from the Deuteronomistic History.⁴¹

Taken together, these studies firstly underscore the skillful artistry of biblical stories and the aesthetic engagement of biblical author and narrator within the world of biblical narrative. These contemporary studies suggest the literary and artistic character of biblical stories, particularly the effort of the biblical narrator to fulfill an aesthetic function in the telling of his stories. Secondly, the preceding studies also suggest that the perceived superficial simplicity of biblical stories may mask an intriguing complexity. There is a growing recognition in these works that a complex web of relationships exists in the telling and composition of the biblical narrative, particularly seen in the obsessive quest of the narrator of 1 Samuel to connect his characters with other characters within and outside the book of 1 Samuel. Lastly, this web of intertextual relationships points to the complex cultural and ideological relationships which exist within and outside 1 Samuel.

Hannah and the Witch of Endor: An Intertextual Relationship

There are several subtle intertextual links between the representation of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel and the characterization of the witch at the end of the book. Even though one would have to concede that some of these intertextual links are stronger than others, the totality of the evidence suggests the important connection that the narrator draws between the two stories. In noting the allusions between the two pericopes, ‘the probability that one text alludes to another will generally depend on the distinctiveness and frequency of their common features’.⁴² Here are some of the intertextual links:

Hannah	The Witch of Endor
Hannah is the only important woman at the beginning of Samuel's life (chs. 1–2). She brings him to life and profoundly helps in the nursing and presentation of Samuel before Yahweh at Shiloh.⁴³	The witch of Endor is the only important woman at the end of Samuel's life (28.3–25). The witch and Hannah are the only two women in the life of Samuel within the book of 1 Samuel. She brings him back from the dead.⁴⁴
The first reference to death (‭תומ‬) occurs in the speech of Hannah (2.6). She also connects death to the idea of raising someone up from the dead.⁴⁵ She says, ‘Yahweh brings death (‭תומ‬) and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up (‭הלע‬)’.⁴⁶	The story of the Witch of Endor is the only place in the book of 1 Samuel where the elaborate image of death and afterlife is literally met with the raising up (‭הלע‬) of a dead character from death. The word ‭תומ‬ appears twice in this story (28.3, 9), while the Hebrew word ‭הלע‬ (‘raising up’) from the death with all its different shades of meaning occurs about seven times in the story of the witch (28.8, 11, 13, 14, 15).⁴⁷
The word ‭רזס‬ occurs for the first time in 1 Samuel in Hannah's story. Eli says to Hannah, ‘How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid (‭רזס‬) of your wine’ (1.14).	In the story of the witch at Endor, we read: ‘Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away (‭רזס‬) those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land’ (28.3; cf 15). This important word also describes the departing of God's Spirit from Saul in 28.15 (cf. 16.14). It occurs in 1 Samuel for the last time in the story of Endor.
Hannah's prayer emphasizes that man cannot prevailed by his own strength (‭חכ‬) m 2.9.⁴⁸	In 28.20 we find a reference to Saul being hungry and without strength (‭חכ‬).
The first important wordplay on the name of Saul in 1 Samuel occurs in the story of Hannah.⁴⁹ Eli says to Hannah, ‘Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked (‭לאש‬) of him’ (1.17).⁵⁰ In this same story, we read: ‘So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked (‭לאש‬) the Lord for him”’ (1.20 cf 1.27, 28; 2.20).⁵¹	The last important wordplay on the name of Saul in 1 Samuel occurs at Endor. In fact, while the wordplay starts in the story of Hannah, it seems the wordplay on Saul's name comes to an end at Endor. In the story of the witch, we read: ‘Saul inquired (‭לאש‬) of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets’ (28.6). The passage also reads: ‘Samuel said, “Why do you consult (‭לאש‬) me, now that the Lord has turned away from you and become your enemy?”’ (28.16).
Hannah brings Samuel up to the house of God at Shiloh.⁵² The narrative reads: ‘After he was weaned, she took the boy up (‭הלע‬) with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh’ (1.24; cf. 1.3, 7, 11, 21, 22; 2.6, 14, 19, 28).⁵³	The same way, the witch brings up Samuel to meet with Saul at Endor. The narrator reports, ‘Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up (‭הלע‬) for you?” “Bring up (‭הלע‬) Samuel”, he said’ (28.11; cf. vv. 8, 13, 14, 15).⁵⁴
The name Raman, the birthplace of Samuel, occurs first within the story of Hannah (1.19).⁵⁵	The town Ramah occurs for the last in the book of 1 Samuel within the story of the witch (28.3).
The three consonants of the town ‘Ramah’ are ‭המר‬; the word occurs three times in the story of Hannah (1.1, 19; 2.11).	After the recognition of Saul, the witch cries out in 28.12 that Saul has deceived her (‭ינתימר‬). The root of the word ‭ינתימר‬ has the same consonants as Ramah (‭המר‬). It seems ‭ינתימר‬ serves as a homonym, and possibly a hidden reference to Ramah (‭המר‬), the hometown of Samuel.
The three radicals behind the name of Hannah are ‭הנח‬ (1.15, 19, 20, 22; and 2.1, 21).	The homonym of the name Hannah (‭הנח‬) appears in the word ‭הנח‬ (‘to encamp’). This word shares the same three radicals as the name Hannah, and occurs twice in 28.4 to describe the encampment of the Philistine army. It is this particular threat that leads to the consultation of the witch by Saul.
The story of Hannah describes the robe which Hannah makes for Samuel. The text reads: ‘Each year his mother made him a little robe (‭ליעמ‬) and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice’ (2.19).⁵⁶	The witch identifies Samuel by this same robe at Endor. Here the passage reads: ‘What does he look like?’, he asked. ‘An old man wearing a robe (‭ליעמ‬) is coming up’, she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground’ (28.14). There appears to be a direct connection between the clothing of a younger Samuel in the Hannah's story and the clothing of an older Samuel in the story of the witch at Endor.⁵⁷
Hannah refuses to eat food given to her by her husband. The text reads: ‘This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat (‭לבא אל‬)’ (1.7, 8, 9, 18).⁵⁸	Saul is hungry and initially refuses the offer of food by the witch. After some persuasion by the witch, Saul later eats. This passage reads: ‘He refused and said, “I will not eat” (‭לבא אל‬)’. But his men joined the woman in urging Mm, and he listened to them. He got up from the ground and sat on the couch’ (28:23). These are the only two characters that originally refused to eat food and later ate food in 1 Samuel.
Elkanah enjoins Hannah to eat (1.8, 9).	The witch enjoins Saul to eat (28.22–24).
The first of just two references to ‘flour’ (‭חמק‬) in the entire book of 1 Samuel occurs in 1.24. Flour is listed among the items brought by Hannah after weaning Samuel.	The second reference to ‘flour’ (‭חמק‬) in 1 Samuel occurs when the witch bakes bread for Saul in 28.24.
1 Samuel opens with the picture of Elkanah and his family eating a meal at Shiloh (1.7–18).⁵⁹	Endor provides the final reference to eating in 1 Samuel. In 28.25 we are told that Saul eats in the company of his servants and the witch.
Elkanah and his family worshipped (‭הוח‬) at Shiloh (1.3, 19, 28; 2.36).⁶⁰ The first occurrence of this word in the book of 1 Samuel is 1.3	The reference to Saul worshipping (or prostrating himself in awe at the appearance of Samuel) (‭הוח‬) at Endor (28.14) is the last appearance of this verb in the book of 1 Samuel.
There are many references to sacrifice (‭חבז‬) (including Elkanah's for his family) in the opening of 1 Samuel (1.3, 4, 21, cf. 2.13, 15, 19, 29; 3.14).	Concerning the witch in 28.14, the narrator reports, ‘The woman had a fattened calf at the house, which she butchered (‭חבז‬) at once. She took some flour, kneaded it and baked bread without yeast.’⁶¹ The first and last occurrences of ‭חבז‬ in the book of 1 Samuel occur in these two places.⁶²

There are other secondary intertextual connections which underscore the relationship between Hannah and the representation of the witch at Endor. Here are some of the secondary intertextualities between these two women:

Hannah	The Witch of Endor
The first reference to the office of the prophet in 1 Samuel occurs in 3.20, within the vicinity of the Hannah's story.	The last reference to the office of the prophet occurs in the scene at Endor, where Saul complains that Yahweh has refused to answer him by dreams and prophetic means (28.6, 15).
There is a reference in 3.19 to the notion that the words of Samuel do not fall to the ground (‭ץרא‬).	After hearing the words of Samuel, Saul ironically falls to the ground (‭ץרא‬, 28.20).
The phrase ‭דרח ובל‬ (‘his heart trembled’) appears in 1 Sam. 4.13 to describe the fears of Eli over the ark.	The phrase occurs in 28.5 to describe the fears of Saul at the sight of the Philistines.
With regard to the priestly family of Eli, Yahweh uses the word ‭תרכ‬ to describe the termination of the priestly line (2.33).	The witch complains that Saul has removed or cut off witchcraft from the land in 28.9.⁶³
Samuel speaks to Eli, announcing to him the end of his priestly dynasty (3.10–15).	At Endor, Samuel speaks from beyond the grave, announcing to Saul the end of his royal dynasty (28.15–19).
There is the stringent declaration of punishment for the priestly family of Eli. The word ‭ןוע‬ is used in 3.13, 14 to describe this punishment by Yahweh.	The word ‭ןוע‬ (‘punishment’) appears for the last time in 1 Samuel at Endor (28.10)⁶⁴
The priestly house of Eli is, by means of words of prophecy, cursed to beg for bread and go hungry (2.36).	The royal family, personified by the famished Saul, is the last image of a hungry person offered by 1 Samuel (28.20, 22, 23, 25).
A young Samuel tells Eli that he and his sons will be punished (3.13, 14; cf. 2.27–36).	The ghost of Samuel reiterates that Saul and his children will be punished (28.19).
Hannah's soul is bitter (1.10, 15, 26; 2.16, 33, 35).	The witch is afraid that Saul is seeking to ensnare her soul (28.9, 21).
Hannah makes a vow before Yahweh at Shiloh (1.11).⁶⁵	Saul swears before the witch in the name of Yahweh at Endor (28.10).
Yahweh is represented as expressly speaking to Samuel in 3.1–21.	Saul declares that God has refused to speak to him, either through dreams or prophecy (28.15).
Samuel is represented as a young man speaking to Eli, the Priest (3.1–21).	The witch describes Samuel as an old man (28.14).
The word ‭ץרפ‬ (‘to break away’ or ‘to compel’) appears only in 3.1, where it describes the rareness of revelation in the early days of Samuel. (Cf also its appearance in 25.10.)	This word occurs in 28.23 to describe the compelling of Saul to eat at Endor by the witch and his servants.⁶⁶
In 1.9 we have the image of the priest Eli sitting on his seat (1.9). Later, he falls off his seat to the ground, breaking his neck in the process (4.18).	Saul sits on the ground, then later sits on the bed of the witch (28.23)⁶⁷
There is a picture of a Benjamite who ran away from the battle with torn clothes (4.12). The Hebrew word ‭ערק‬ (‘to tear’) is used to describe the tearing of the clothes of this anonymous Benjamite.	At Endor, Yahweh declares the tearing away of the kingdom from Saul, the Benjamite par excellence (28.17).⁶⁸
Hannah is a prophet-like figure whose words anticipate kingship in Israel (2.1–10).	The witch is a divinatory figure whose consultation predicts the demise of Israel's first king.
1 Samuel opens with a discussion/ consultation between Hannah and the High priest.	1 Samuel ends with the story of a consultation between Saul and the witch at Endor.
Hannah is considered a ‘drunk’ and a ‘woman of Belial’.	This woman is described as a ‘witch’ and a ‘medium’.⁶⁹
Hannah was vexed by her rival Peninah.	The witch also described her vexation with the policy of Saul which was against her. The witch is vexed by Saul's treatment of witchcraft. The witch originally describes Saul as her arch-enemy.
The Israelite community goes to Shiloh to consult with Samuel (3.19–21)	Saul is represented as consulting the Witch of Endor (28.3–25). Endor provides the last scene of supernatural consultation in 1 Samuel.

While these secondary intertextualities may not count for very much, they nonetheless underscore the dominant perception of this present study that the narrator and redactor of 1 Samuel understood the representation of Hannah at the beginning of 1 Samuel as integrally connected to the end of 1 Samuel, and especially the characterization of the witch at Endor. Having demonstrated this intertextual relationship between these two characters, we now turn to describe the ideological and literary significance of these representations in the crafting of the book of 1 Samuel.

The Significance of the Hannah/Witch Intertextualities

Based on the intertextual relationships that appear to exist between the two pericopes examined here, it is now appropriate to explore the significance of this literary connection in the ideological matrix and rhetoric of 1 Samuel. There are at least four points of significance that these literary connections raise for the reading and studying of 1 Samuel. First, they underscore the representations of these women in 1 Samuel as powerful polemics for and against kingship.⁷⁰ In the representation of Hannah, there is the obvious connection of her characterization to Israel's kingship. If Polzin is right that the representation of Hannah in the opening of 1 Samuel symbolizes kingship in ancient Israel, by the same token the Witch of Endor at the end of the book symbolizes the demise of the same institution. In fact, the Witch of Endor represents a forbidden cultic institution which from the Deuteronomist's point of view caused the subsequent downfall of Israel's monarchy and sped up the apostasy of the covenant people. Within this polemic, Hannah, like the witch, possesses an important ideological significance. This is because, in the account of Hannah, Israel's kingship is nursed and projected; in the representation of the witch, the compromise of Israel's first king is underscored.⁷¹ Consequently, the representation of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel contrasts with the picture of the witch at Endor at the end of 1 Samuel. In Hannah, there is the picture of a mother who nursed her son for Yahweh; in the witch, we find a woman who turns Saul away from Yahweh, thus casting an ominous shadow on Israel's kingship. Premised on this polemic, one may also note that Saul's dynasty receives a deadly blow here thanks to his association with witchcraft because the Deuteronomist frowns on this forbidden cultic institution.⁷² Significantly, Saul is negatively represented at Endor, and there appears to be an intention to highlight this contrast with the birth and nursing of Samuel to occupy Israel's priestly and prophetic offices. Understanding this polemic at another level, Samuel is closely connected to Hannah in the same way that Saul is connected to the witch. Seen from this perspective, the representation of Hannah also mirrors the representation of the witch and thereby suggests a subtle association of Saul with witchcraft with the same motherly tone employed in the representation of Samuel's relationship to his mother Hannah. If Hannah's motherhood of Samuel has this cultic overtone, Saul becomes the illegitimate child of witchcraft itself.⁷³ If so, the dynasty of Saul is hereby demonized by its association with witchcraft in the same way that the motherhood of Hannah is projected onto Samuel at the opening of 1 Samuel. Through this subtle association, the legitimacy of Saul's royal dynasty is questioned, and like Eli and his dynasty who vacated the priesthood for Samuel, Saul is also commanded to vacate his royal position for David. In Hannah, we see the demise of a house and its replacement with another; similarly, at Endor, we see the demise of a house and its replacement with another one. Like a mother taking care of her baby in the representation of Hannah and Samuel, Saul is also represented as being cared for by a witch. Considered in this way, the story of Hannah anticipates the story of the witch, and the story of the witch appears to bring the story of Samuel to a climax. Consequently, the significance of the two pericopes lies also in their complementing and completion of each other because the picture of Hannah naturally coheres with the mothering representation of the witch in relation to Saul. Beyond this polemic, the Deuteronomist describes witchcraft as the raison d’être for the exile, and blames Israel's monarchy for leading Israel into this forbidden cultic practice.⁷⁴ In relation to this, the association of witchcraft with Saul not only delegitimizes Saulide claims to kingship, but also further underscores the Deuteronomist's polemics against kingship which suggested that in Israel's first king the forbidden practice that caused the exile has already been engaged in. In this way, the representation of Saul at Endor has a cumulative effect in the rhetoric of the Deuteronomist because the cultic infringement that led to the exile is directly attributed to the first Israelite king.

Thirdly, the representation of Hannah and the witch with the same literary template suggests an intriguing characterization of gender in 1 Samuel. The narrator of 1 Samuel place these two women in the life of Samuel on one hand, and in the life of Saul on the other. Significantly, he confers a degree of ideological importance upon these different representations of the female gender. Using the feminine, the narrator projects a narrative universe where the motherhood of Hannah becomes a lens through which we may view the ambiguous care of Saul by the witch at the point of his death. Accordingly, the two female characters form an important ideological inclusio in the representation of gender in 1 Samuel. In this representation we are offered a literary window into the gender dynamics at work in the composition of the stories of 1 Samuel. From this literary perspective, these two women of 1 Samuel could be said to be sisters.⁷⁵ Indeed, in talking about Hannah and other female characters in 1 Samuel, Jobling aptly titled this section of his study, ‘Hannah and her sisters’. In this particular sense, the life of the first woman appears to mirror dimly the life of the second woman.⁷⁶

Lastly, the representations of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel and the Witch of Endor at the end of 1 Samuel have a characterizing function. While modern scholarship has in the past dismissed the profound artistry of biblical narrative, there is now a recognition of the artistic inclination and orientation of the biblical narrator. This artistic undertaking is clearly seen in the placement of two women in 1 Samuel and the investment of ideological significance conferred on each of these women. Importantly, the narrator places literary clues within these stories which echo, reflect and bridge between the literary motifs within the two stories. In this intertextual reading of these two stories, the many stories of 1 Samuel acquire an added importance when the story of Hannah is read in the light of these intertextual relationships with the story of the witch, thereby offering new insights into the intricate and intriguing relationships between the characters of 1 Samuel and even beyond.

Conclusion

In recent studies, the intertextual connections between several characters and events in 1 Samuel have been closely studied. However, the intertextual connection between the story of Hannah and the Witch of Endor has not been independently studied. This neglect may have arisen from the failure to study adequately the literary clues and intertextual elements which the narrator left behind in his crafting of these two stories in 1 Samuel. The present study has described and noted the literary connections between the two stories, particularly by underscoring the semantic importance of reading the story of Hannah in light of the literary and ideological mapping of the story of the witch. While not all the intertextual relationships within the two pericopes are equally obvious, the present intertextual reading describes the two pericopes as a form of representational inclusio whereby the character of Hannah at the beginning of 1 Samuel subtly anticipates, complements and also contrasts with the character of the witch at the end of the book. By means of this representation, the rhetoric of 1 Samuel places Samuel in the mothering care of Hannah, and Israel's first king in the mothering care of the witch. Consequently, these associations naturally delegitimize the royal claims of Saul and his dynasty and indirectly call for their replacements. Against this background, the two important women in the book of 1 Samuel open a window onto these invested polemics and ideological structures behind the representations within the book. To paraphrase Jobling, the Witch of Endor, from this perspective, has become the literary sister of Hannah because she subtly mirrors Hannah, and also shares a close intertextual relationship with her.

Footnotes

1.

Concerning the crucial importance of Hannah's representation in 1 Samuel, David T. Tsumura has said, ‘[t]he story’ of Hannah ‘is not just about a devout woman whose prayer was heard…’ but it describes how Yahweh ‘directed Hannah's life so she played a crucial role as mother of the kingmaker. The one who was to be born to her was not only a prophet of Israel but the one who would establish kingship in Israel, appointing first Saul, then David.’ Consequently, the story of Hannah occupies a ‘decisive role’ in the ‘transition from the days of the judges to the monarchical era…’ (see David T. Tsumura, The Book of Samuel [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007], p. 104). David Jobling says that ‘[t]he character Hannah is central’ to 1 Samuel: ‘She is the first major character in 1 Samuel and her actions are of key importance in the way the story develops…’ See David Jobling, 1 Samuel (Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative & Poetry; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), pp. 129, 130–94. Robert Polzin has further underscored the importance of Hannah in the Deuteronomistic History. See Robert Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), pp. 18–54. Ruth Fidler has described the ‘story of Hannah…as a pearl of Hebrew narrative art…’ See Fidler, ‘A Wife's Vow-The Husband's Woe? The Case of Hannah and Elkannah (I Samuel 1, 21.23)’, ZAW 118 (2006), pp. 374–88 (374).

2.

Walter Brueggemann describes the ‘subtle and shrewd way’ by which the story of Hannah ‘initiate us into subsequent public questions’ of Israel's kingship. See Walter Brueggemann, ‘1 Samuel: A Sense of a Beginning’, ZAW 102 (2009), pp. 33–48 (34).

3.

In recent times, feminist, postcolonial and liberational hermeneutics have used the representation of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel to underscore a variety of ideological interests. However, these various studies have not engaged the intertextual significance of Hannah's location at the beginning of 1 Samuel for the Witch of Endor at the end of the book. For a description of these various interests, see Yung S. Kim, ‘The Story of Hannah (1 Sam 1:1–2:11) from a Perspective of Han’, The Bible and Critical Theory 4.2 (2008), pp. 1–9.

4.

The character of Hannah has also been related to the Greek tradition. For this trend in the study of Hannah see Courtney J.P. Friesen, ‘Hannah's “Hard Day” and Hesiod's ‘Two Roads”: Poetic Wisdom in Philo's De ebrietate’, JSJ 46 (2015), pp. 44–64; Scott D. Mackie, ‘The Passion of Eve and the Ecstasy of Hannah: Sense Perception, Passion, Mysticism, and Misogyny in Philo of Alexandria, De ebrietate’, JBL 133 (2014), pp. 141–63.

5.

The notion of ‘intertextuality’ is problematic in literature because it could be used to describe observations by any reader in relation to written and non-written texts, such as works of art and film. This description of ‘intertextuality’ generally seeks to establish a ‘relationship between texts regardless of genetic dependence’ (see Mark Biddle, ‘Ancestral Motifs in 1 Samuel 25: Intertextuality and Characterization’, JBL 121 [2002], pp. 617–19 [619]). Against this usage, the present study approaches ‘intertextuality’ in readerly terms: understanding that readers will discover and make the needed connection in their readings of two or more stories. (For these two different uses of ‘intertextuality’ in the study of the Hebrew Bible, see Geoffrey D. Miller, ‘Intertextuality in Old Testament Research’, CBR 9.3 [2010], pp. 283–309; see also Cynthia Edenburg, ‘Intertextuality, Literary Competence, and the Question of Readership: Some Preliminary Observations’, JSOT 35 [2010], pp. 131–48.)

6.

See Philip F. Esler, ‘The Role of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1:1–2:21: Understanding a Biblical Narrative in its Ancient Context’, Kontexte der Schrift 60 (2005), pp. 15–36.

7.

See Marc Brettler, ‘The Composition of 1 Samuel 1–2’, JBL 116 (1997), pp. 601–12. On the diversity of sources in the composition of the books of Samuel, see John Van Seters, The Biblical Saga of King David (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraus, 2009), pp. 121–62.

8.

For the treatment of the entirety of 1 Samuel in terms of analogies and parallels, see Moshe Garsiel, First Book of Samuel: A Literary Study of Comparative Structures, Analogies and Parallels (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass, 1990).

9.

Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist, pp. 22–26.

10.

Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist, pp. 22, 25–26.

11.

J. Gerald Janzen, ‘“Yahweh Opened the Doors of the House of Yahweh” (1 Samuel 3.15)’, JSOT 26 (1983), pp. 89–96.

12.

Janzen,’ “Yahweh Opened the Doors”’, p. 91.

13.

Barbara Green describes the genre of the Hannah story in terms of a māšāl, or what she describes as hugged. She coined this term from nāgîd in its hophal conjugation—the infinitive absolute form. While nāgîd is translated ‘declare’, ‘tell’, ‘recite’, ‘announce’, ‘report’ or ‘inform’, in her use of hugged she primarily connotes a riddle or puzzle. According to her,’ [t]he hugged is a puzzle to be told and pondered, to be guessed at, teased out, and made useful’. See Barbara Green, How Are the Mighty Fallen? A Dialogical Study of King Saul in 1 Samuel (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2003), pp. 64–72.

14.

Green, How Are the Mighty Fallen?, pp. 110–15.

15.

See A. Graham Auld, I & II Samuel: A Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011), p. 29.

16.

Auld has shown the intertextual relationship between the representation of Saul at his anointing and his dis-anointing at the Witch of Endor (Auld, I & II Samuel, pp. 326–28). He has sought to demonstrate the link between the three signs given to Saul by Samuel at his anointing (10.1–13) and the tripartite message of the ghost of Samuel to him at Endor (28.17–19). On the other hand, I have also described several subtle connections between the representations of King Saul at Endor with the villains of Deuteronomistic History. See Matthew Michael, ‘The Prophet, the Witch and the Ghost: Understanding the Parody of Saul as a “Prophet” and the Purpose of Endor in the Deuteronomistic History’, JSOT 38 (2014), pp. 315–46; Grenville J.R. Kent, Say it Again, Sam: A Literary and Filmic Study of Narrative Repetition in 1 Samuel 28 (Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2012), pp. 148–52; Peter D. Miscall, 1 Samuel: A Literary Reading (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986), p. 170; Susan M. Pigott, ‘Wives, Witches and Wise Woman’, Review & Expositor 99 (2002), pp. 145–73 (154); Gnana Robinson, Let Us Be Like the Nations: A Commentary on the Books of 1 and 2 Samuel (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993), p. 144; J. Cheryl Exum, Tragedy and Biblical Narrative: Arrows of the Almighty (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1992), p. 24.

17.

Auld, I & II Samuel, p. 20.

18.

Auld has also described the subtle intertextual connections between the story of Hannah and Ruth, Samson, and even Jonah. See Auld, I & II Samuel, pp. 20, 30. On the other hand, Kent has in passing also drawn the subtle connection between the special ‘meat’ (‭הנמ‬) set aside by Samuel for Saul to the special ‘meat’ (‭הנמ‬) set aside by Elkanah for Hannah. See Kent, Say it Again, Sam, p. 152.

19.

Suggesting this connection, Auld observes, ‘Hannah is vexed by her rival (vv. [6], 7, 16), like Yahweh by wicked king Manasseh…and by almost every king of northern Israel in the rest of Kings. Hannah weeps (vv. 7, 8, 10), as the prophetess Huldah commends good king Josiah for having done (2 Kgs 22:19). And Hannah prays to Yahweh in his temple (vv. 10, 12, 26, 27), which only David and Solomon are reported in’ the stories ‘of Samuel–Kings…’ to have done. See Auld, I & II Samuel, p. 28.

20.

Auld, I & II Samuel, p. 28.

21.

Auld, I & II Samuel, p. 28.

22.

Auld, I & II Samuel, p. 30.

23.

Jobling, 1 Samuel, p. 130.

24.

Jobling, 1 Samuel, pp. 185–89.

25.

Jobling, 1 Samuel, p. 185.

26.

Jobling merely indicates the presence of these female characters at the beginning and ending of 1 Samuel, but fails to pursue the binding intertextual connection between these two characters. In fact, he treats them separately. For his separate treatments of Hannah and the Witch of Endor, see Jobling, 1 Samuel, pp. 129–75 and 185–89, respectively.

27.

Brueggemann, ‘1 Samuel’, pp. 45–46, adds: This David, not seen everywhere, but certainly seen here, is like Hannah. David has life only as a gift from Yahweh which he gratefully acknowledges. I suggest that the narrators have knowingly positioned this beginning narrative and this ending narrative as the frame for the long account of the emergent monarchy in Israel. That account is peopled with blood, intrigue, fear, and death… The narrators will insist at the beginning and at the end, that Israel's historical process is bonded by Yahweh who gives voice to a silent woman, who empties a full king, who hears and who answers certainly seen here, is like Hannah.’

28.

Brueggemann, ‘1 Samuel’, p. 46.

29.

According to David Silber,’ [t]he symbol of Saul's downfall is the torn coat. The coat is the coat of Samuel, Hanna's coat. Hanna had rejected the sacrificial order of Shilo and prayed devoutly to God. She had dedicated her son to God's service and prayed for a king who would be God's instrument… Her coat is the appropriate symbol of Saul's demise.’ See David Silber, ‘Kingship, Samuel and the Story of Hanna’, Tradition 23.2 (1988), pp. 64–75 (73).

30.

Brueggemann, ‘1 Samuel’, p. 48, observes: ‘Hannah did not begin as a mother, however. She began in a muted voice of despair. In the hidden presence of Yahweh Hannah fought for and gained her voice. She sang Israel to power, and she sang David to the throne. Even now, the singing of Hannah keeps birthing the new history of Israel, battling against silent despair, and against autonomous arrogance that forgets how to voice and yield.’

31.

See Marti J. Steussy, Samuel and His God (Columbia, SC: The University of South Carolina Press, 2010), p. 54.

32.

Yitzhak Berger, ‘Ruth and Inner-Biblical Allusion: The Case of 1 Samuel 25’, JBL 128 (2008), pp. 253–72.

33.

Mark E. Biddle, ‘Ancestral Motifs in 1 Samuel 25: Intertextuality and Characterization’, JBL 121 (2002), pp. 617–38.

34.

The primary interest of Cynthia Chapman is to show the connection between the nursing of Samson and Samuel and particularly the use of breast-milk as a kinship-forging substance. See Cynthia R. Chapman, ‘“Oh that you were like a brother to me; one who had nursed at my mother's breasts”: Breast Milk as a Kinship-Forging Substance’, JHS 12.1 (2012), pp. 21–26. The connection between Samson and Samuel was earlier made by James S. Ackerman, ‘Who Can Stand Before YHWH, this Holy God? A Reading of 1 Samuel 1–15’, Prooftexts 11.1 (1991), pp. 1–25 (2–4).

35.

See Chapman, ‘Breast Milk as a Kinship-Forging Substance’, p. 22.

36.

See Chapman, ‘Breast Milk as a Kinship-Forging Substance’, p. 22.

37.

See Chapman, ‘Breast Milk as a Kinship-Forging Substance’, pp. 23–24.

38.

See Chapman, ‘Breast Milk as a Kinship-Forging Substance’, p. 25.

39.

Auld, I & II Samuel, p. 25.

40.

See Matthew Michael, ‘The Achan/Achor Traditions: The Parody of Saul as “Achan” in 1 Samuel 14:24–15:35’, OTE 26.3 (2013), pp. 730–60. Also Jacques Vermeylen, ‘The Book of Samuel within the Deuteronomistic History’, in Cynthia Edenburg and Julia Pakkala (eds.), Is Samuel among the Deuteronomists? Current Views on the Place of Samuel in a Deuteronomistic History (Atlanta: SBL, 2013), pp. 67–92 (78).

41.

See Polzin, Samuel and the Deuteronomist, pp. 18–54.

42.

Berger, ‘Ruth and Inner-Allusion’, p. 254.

43.

See Jobling, 1 Samuel, p. 129.

44.

These two women appear to have been strategically located at very important places in the life of Samuel. Hannah nursed Samuel and brought him to the house of God, and the Witch of Endor brought him back from the netherworld to once again speak to the world of the living. Thus, the two women are clearly positioned at the beginning and the end of Samuel's life. Chapman, ‘Breast Milk as a Kinship-Forging Substance’, describes the importance of Hannah in the nursing and breast feeding of Samuel.

45.

The motif of resurrection or coming back from the afterlife is implied in this description of Yahweh by Hannah. See Leila L. Bronner, ‘The Resurrection Motif in the Hebrew Bible: Allusions or Illusions?’, JBQ 30.3 (2002), pp. 143–54.

46.

Tsumura considers this sentence as a ‘merismus’ which describes Yahweh's authority ‘over life and death and the entire course of a human life…’ He connects this statement to the Ugarit funerary cult where ‘the newly dead king Niqmaddu was sent to the netherworld with the assistance of the sun goddess Shapshu…’ However, Tsumura fails to connect this statement with the partial presence of the netherworld in the narrative space of 1 Samuel. See Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, pp. 146–47.

47.

It appears Hannah's reference to Yahweh's ability to bring a character back from the dead is displayed just once, with its perfect realization, in the story of Samuel's coming back to life (28.3–25). Eli mistakenly calls Hannah a ‘daughter of Belial’ (1.16). According to Tsumura, the term ‘is an archaic phrase’ which ‘refers to the Queen of the underworld, like Eresh-ki-gal of the Mesopotamian tradition’ (see Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, p. 124; see also P. Kyle McCarter, II Samuel: A New Translation with Introduction, Notes and Commentary [AB, 9; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984], p. 373). Similarly, the witch is called a ‭בוא־תלעב‬ (28.7). The word is commonly translated as ‘medium’, but it has the connotation of a ‘ghostwife’ or a ‘bottle-mistress’. The word is also associated with the underworld (P. Kyle McCarter Jr, I Samuel: A New Translation with Introduction, Notes and Commentary [AB, 8; New York: Doubleday, 1980], pp. 420, 422–23; Graeme Auld, I & II Samuel: A Commentary [Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011], pp. 326–27). According to Tsumura, the word describes ‘a woman who serves the Lady of the netherworld and communicates with spirits of the dead’ (Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, p. 621). Hannah and the Witch of Endor are the only two women in 1 Samuel connected to the underworld (the children of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, are described as ‘sons of Belial’ in 2.12; see Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, pp. 154–55).

48.

Hannah's prayer is the only recorded prayer of a woman in the Hebrew Bible. On the treatment of this prayer within rabbinic circles, see Leila L. Bronner, ‘Hannah's Prayer: Rabbinic Ambivalence’, Shofar 17.2 (1999), pp. 36–48. See also Rodney A. Werline, ‘Prayer, Politics and Power in the Hebrew Bible’, Int 68 (2014), pp. 5–16; Michael Chan and Joshua C. Miller, ‘Prayer that Prevails’, Word & World 35.1 (2015), pp. 31–39.

49.

Hannah, according to Ackerman, appears to claim that Samuel is the ‘real Saul’ by associating him with the root ‭לאש‬. Thus it seems the narrator juxtaposes the characterization of Samuel with that of Saul. See Ackerman, ‘Who Can Stand before Yhwh’, pp. 3–4.

50.

Ackerman analyzes the sevenfold repetition of the root ‭לאש‬ in the story of Hannah. See Ackerman, ‘Who Can Stand before YHWH?’, pp. 3, 9. See also Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, p. 122.

51.

Concerning the convergence of wordplay between the names of Saul and Samuel, see Michael Carasik, ‘Why Did Hannah Ask for “Seed of Men”?’, JBL 129 (2010), pp. 433–36.

52.

David Silber has described the representation of Hannah at the beginning of 1 Samuel as a critique of the corrupt leadership of the Eliade family in Shiloh. For this perspective to Hannah, see Silber,’ Kingship, Samuel, and the Story of Hanna’, pp. 64–75.

53.

See Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, pp. 129–32.

54.

These are the only two times in 1 Samuel where female characters brought up Samuel to have a very important meeting.

55.

See Tsumura, The Book of Samuel, pp. 124–25.

56.

See R. P. Gordon, 1 & 2 Samuel: A Commentary (Exeter: Paternoster Press, 1986), p. 82.

57.

Both stories make reference to the same cloth, and while the first appearance of Samuel's clothing occurs at the opening of 1 Samuel, the reference to this cloth at Endor is the last occurrence in the book of 1 Samuel.

58.

Hannah later ate after she was assured that God had answered her prayers (1.7, 8, 9, 18).

59.

There is also an interesting parallel between the representation of Saul eating at Endor and his initial banquet at the beginning of his story. As Angert-Quilter and Wall note: ‘She prepares a feast for Saul and his entire company. Her power is seen not only in her special ability to call upon the dead but also in her banquet. This banquet marks the end of Saul's career just as a banquet marked the beginning of his career as the anointed one (see 1 Sam. 9.22–25). He is without the anointing of God at both banquets and on both occasions, Samuel is present, women are the guide or medium and Saul is the guest of honour.’ See Theresa Angert-Quilter and Lynne Wall, ‘The “Spirit Wife” at Endor’, JSOT 92 (2001), pp. 55–72 (61).

60.

Brueggemann notes the transition ‘from barrenness to worship’. Concerning this subtle introduction of ‘worship’ into Hannah's story, see Brueggemann, ‘1 Samuel’, pp. 33–48.

61.

See Angert-Quilter and Wall, ‘The ‘ Spirit Wife’ at Endor’, p. 64.

62.

See the references to the abuses of Eli's sons for sacrifice at the house of God at Shiloh (2.13, 15, 19, 29; 3.14) and the last reference to the witch offering sacrifice or slaughtering a calf for Saul.

63.

These are the only places in Samuel where the word ‭תרכ‬ is used to describe the termination of cultic institutions—namely, the priestly office of Eli's family and the practice of witchcraft in the land.

64.

Ironically, Saul assured the witch that she will not be punished in 28.10.

65.

For the study on Hannah's vow and its relationship to other vows in the Hebrew Bible, see Ronald T. Hyman, ‘Four Acts of Vowing in the Bible’, JBQ 37.4 (2009), pp. 231–38.

66.

The connection here is possibly to compare the scarcity of divine revelation in the days of Saul and the scarcity of the same in the days before the arrival of Samuel on the stage as a prophet.

67.

Here are the two great institutions in ancient Israel—priesthood and kingship—brought literally to the ground.

68.

Interestingly, apart from the two occurrences of the word in the rejection of Saul in 15.27 and 15.28, the word ‭ערק‬ only occurred in these two other places in 1 Samuel.

69.

Both characterizations placed these two women at the fringe of the society.

70.

Jobling, 1 Samuel, pp. 129–94.

71.

This reading goes against the positive reading of the witch by Jobling. See Jobling, 1 Samuel, pp. 303–307.

72.

The books of 1 and 2 Samuel have been described as the ‘weak’ link in the composition of the Deuteronomistic History; see Cynthia Edenburg and Julia Pakkala, ‘Introducion’, in Is Samuel among the Deuteronomists? (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2013), pp. 1–15 (13). Since the Deuteronomist generally frowns on witchcraft and divination, the seemingly favorable representation of the witch at Endor in contemporary scholarship is often taken as proof that the books of 1 and 2 Samuel are non-Deuteronomistic in character (see John Van Seters, ‘Prophecy and Prediction in Biblical Historiography’, in Mark J. Boda and Lissa M. Wray Beal [eds.]. Prophets, Prophecy, and Ancient Israelite Historiography [Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbraus, 2013], pp. 93–103 [96]). However, this seemingly favorable representation of the witch hides a polemical intent when placed against or juxtaposed with the representation of Hannah at the opening of 1 Samuel.

73.

Unfortunately, misreading these webs of intertextualities, John Van Seters has suggested that the representation of the Witch of Endor undermines the ideological agenda of the Deuteronomist. He mistakenly read the story of Endor as a story that is sympathetic towards King Saul. Van Seters, ‘Prophecy as Prediction in Biblical Historiography’, p. 97, notes: ‘After Saul receives the sentence of impending disaster for himself, Ms sons, and the whole of Israel, he is completely devastated. Saul, of course, receives no sympathy from Samuel. Instead, it is the medium who shows him compassion and prepares a lavish feast of fatted calf and freshly baked bread for him and his servants and forces him to eat. In this touching scene of kindness by the outlawed medium who has risked her own life to help him, the author elicits from the reader a feeling of sympathy for the condemned king. This again is hardly what one expects from Dtr.’

74.

See Michael, The Prophet, the Witch and the Ghost’, pp. 337–45.

75.

Gregory T.K. Wong observes that within Hebrew Scripture there are cases of two wholly unrelated biblical characters’ which ‘seem to bear an uncanny resemblance to each other’. He described this ‘uncanny resemblance’ as characters ‘separated at Birth’. Concerning the background of his use of this phrase, Wong notes: ‘Within contemporary tabloid culture and in magazines that aim at satire, an occasional diversion is something called “Separated at Birth”. It usually features photographs of famous but unrelated people being juxtaposed to each other. From the particular angles of these photographs, the individuals in question appear to bear uncanny resemblances with each other, hence justifying the title “Separated at Birth”.’ See Gregory T.K. Wong, ‘Ehud and Joab: Separated at Birth?’, VT 56 (2006), pp. 399–412 (399).

76.

Jobling, 1 Samuel, p. 127.