J Bible Recept 2017; 4(1): 43–70 Christopher James Blythe* The Prophetess of Endor: Reception of 1 Samuel 28 in Nineteenth Century Mormon History DOI 10.1515/jbr-2017-2002 Abstract: This article documents one strain of Mormon thought concerning the Woman of Endor narrative in 1 Samuel 28, in which the woman was interpreted as a prophetess enabled to raise the dead through her spiritual gifts. Church leaders eventually condemned this narrative because of its similarities with Spiritualist exegesis and American Christianity’s use of the narrative to condemn Spiritualism as necromancy. Through establishing an orthodox reading of the passage, leaders strengthened the boundaries separating the two faiths – boundaries that many Spiritualists had argued were at best blurry and overlapping. Keywords: Witch; Endor; Spiritualism; Mormonism; Saul; Samuel. 1 Introduction After the death of the prophet Samuel, King Saul no longer had a supernatural edge over his enemies. Faced with an encroaching army of Philistines, he sought divine guidance; yet, “the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets” (1Sam 28:6). When these culturally approved means of revelation failed, the frustrated Saul turned to illegitimate revelators – “those that had familiar spirits” – who he had earlier banished from the kingdom. Saul’s servants pointed him towards Endor where they knew of a “woman that hath a familiar spirit” (1Sam 28:7). Approaching her in disguise, Saul assured her that she could trust him and the woman conjured the spirit of Samuel at his request. Seeing the apparition, she “cried with a loud voice,” as she realized that her client was the king (1Sam 28:12). He calmed her and asked what she saw, to which the medium told him “I saw gods ascending out of the earth,” and proceeded to describe the deceased Samuel (1Sam 28:13) (Image 1). Saul bowed to the ground and the specter spoke, “Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?” (1Sam *Corresponding author: Christopher James Blythe, Historian/Documentary Editor, Joseph Smith Papers, Salt Lake City, UT, USA, e-mail: cjb10e@fsu.edu Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 44 Christopher James Blythe Image 1 : William Sidney Mount, Saul and the Witch of Endor (1828), Reproduced by Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. 28:15). The king explained his dilemma with the Philistines and the lack of heavenly intervention. Samuel’s ghost asked Saul why he would turn to him knowing that Samuel had already predicted that he would lose the kingdom. The apparition continued and predicted Saul’s demise the following day. After the supernatural conference, the medium fed the king and his servants and allowed them to sleep in her home.1 The next day, Saul committed suicide after being shot by Philistine archers.2 This well-known narrative of Saul and the “Witch of Endor” has been the subject of treatises across Jewish and Christian history. Early Mormons were also intrigued by this story of a once righteous monarch turning to a conjurer as a substitute to God’s prophet. Even more fascinating than Saul’s apostasy was the appearance of Samuel’s apparition manifest at the woman’s behest. Like Christian theologians who came before them, Mormons wondered why God would allow a 1 1Sam 28. Throughout this article, I use and quote the King James Version of the Bible read by nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints. 2 1Sam 31:3–5. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 45 witch the power to raise the spirits of the righteous dead. This article examines a persistent strain in nineteenth-century Mormon exegesis that proposed that the biblical record was inaccurate and the “witch” was in fact a righteous woman, “a prophetess,” who had become the subject of scorn and misrepresentation in Israelite society. While the “prophetess” reading of the text was never the only or even the most predominant Mormon interpretation of this passage, it continued as a popular folk belief in the community until the end of the nineteenth century. The positive rendering of the woman of Endor initially functioned as a proof text for Mormon theological innovations of the 1840s, but continued to garner support through speaking to the lived experience of many Latter-day Saints who subscribed to it. In the late nineteenth century, church leaders opposed this strand of exegesis in favor of more traditional readings condemning necromancy and other occult practices as they became concerned with the growing popularity of Spiritualism in Utah and other predominately Latter-day Saint locales. In their condemnation, leaders strengthened the boundaries separating the two faiths – boundaries that many Spiritualists had argued were at best blurry and overlapping. 2 Mormon Understandings of the Biblical Text Mormons were and are a distinctive brand of Bible-believing Christians or, as Philip Barlow posited, “Bible-believing Christians – but with a difference.”3 Mormons frequently perceived the historical plots and characters of the Bible as literal realities. There was an Adam, just as there was a Moses or a Christ. Joseph Smith, the originator of the faith, claimed to have personally met with John the Baptist, as well as the apostles Peter, James, and John before he founded the Church of Christ, later re-named the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.4 He had seen visions of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Elijah.5 One early Mormon commented that Joseph Smith “seemed to be as familiar with [ancient apostles and prophets] as we are with one another.”6 Yet, while Mormons based their faith in the world of the Bible, they were suspicious of the accuracy of the biblical text as it was transmitted through the centuries. Mormons not only introduced new volumes of Scripture to the canon and 3 Philip Barlow, Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), xx. 4 Doctrine and Covenants 27:8; 12. 5 Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2008), 1:167; 219–22. 6 John Taylor, April 13, 1879, Journal of Discourses 21:94. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 46 Christopher James Blythe rejected Protestant notions of sola scriptura, but they also questioned and revised the traditional canon. A visionary in the Book of Mormon, Nephi, foresaw the Bible’s corruption, narrating an experience in which he saw “many plain and precious things taken away from the book, which is the book of the Lamb of God.”7 Smith explained his views: “I believe the bible, as it ought to be, as it came from the pen of the original writers.”8 To get closer to these biblical ur-texts, the Mormon prophet undertook an extensive revision of the biblical text between 1830 and 1833.9 This revision, what Smith called the “new translation,” included corrections, deletions, and additions to the King James Version’s text (Image 2). He altered a total of 3410 verses through the Old and New Testaments.10 Smith considered the work “finished” on July 2, 1833, but finances and additional emendations impeded its expected publication.11 Some passages appeared in the church’s newspaper, The Evening and Morning Star in 1832 and 1833, but the complete “new translation” was never published during Smith’s lifetime.12 For various reasons, most importantly that the manuscript was not available to them,13 the largest Mormon faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has never accepted the work as Scripture. While Joseph Smith referred to his revision of the Bible as a translation, at the time he undertook it, he had never professed a knowledge of ancient languages.14 This changed in 1835 when a Hebrew school was inaugurated in the Mormon community of Kirtland, Ohio. With formal training, Smith and a few others would present translations of Hebrew in an effort to respond to orthodox interpretations of the Bible.15 Even as Mormons made no secret of their view of the Bible as a corrupted and incomplete collection of Scripture, they treated the work with great solemnity. 7 1 Nephi 13:28, Book of Mormon. 8 Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Brent M. Rogers, eds., The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals (Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press, 2015), 3:113. 9 Robert J. Matthews “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, A History and Commentary (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1985), 26–39. 10 Barlow, Mormons, 50. 11 Matthews “A Plainer Translation”, 38–42. 12 In 1851, previously published portions of the manuscript were added to a Mormon collection of revelations entitled “The Pearl of Great Price.” This collection was canonized in 1880 and accepted as one of the four standard works of the LDS Church. 13 The manuscript remained in the possession of Smith’s widow, Emma Smith, until it was published by the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ in 1867. (Matthews “A Plainer Translation”, 102–4). 14 Smith had translated the Book of Mormon via the “gift and power of God,” rather than through a traditional translation process. (Preface, Book of Mormon [1830], iii.) 15 Louis C. Zucker, “Joseph Smith as Student of Hebrew,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 3, no. 2 (1968): 41–55. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 47 Image 2a/2b: Joseph Smith’s “New Translation,” showing how Smith marked 1 Samuel 28 in his Bible and then drafted revisions. Courtesy of the Community of Christ Library and Archives, Independence, Missouri. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 48 Christopher James Blythe It was their book of Scripture. A passage in the Book of Mormon stated that one purpose of that uniquely Mormon work was to increase its readers’ belief in the Bible.16 In expounding their theology, Mormons used the Old and New Testaments much more frequently than they did the Book of Mormon or other revelations received by Joseph Smith.17 Comparatively, they almost never turned to modified passages from the “new translation.” Instead, Mormons believed they held a superior understanding of the Bible, possessing the “keys” to correctly open or interpret its contents. In July 1838, Joseph Smith answered a series of questions in the Church’s Elders’ Journal. One question posed what differentiated Mormonism from other sects to which Smith responded, “We believe the Bible, and all other sects profess to believe their interpretations of the Bible, and their creeds.”18 3 The Witch of Endor in Jewish and Christian Exegesis The vast swath of exegesis of 1 Samuel 28 dealt largely with questions of the hereafter.19 Jewish and Christian commentators used the passage to defend the immortality of the soul and to debate the intricacies of the afterlife. To do so, exegetes argued over the nature of the apparition and the alleged powers of the woman. If the text was to be read literally, exegetes faced apparent contradictions. Could an evil medium really summon the spirit of a righteous prophet? K.A.D. Smelik’s study of Rabbinic and Christian exegesis of 1 Samuel 28 to 800 CE found that before the gaonic period Jewish sources accepted the apparition as the literal spirit of Samuel. For example, the book of Ecclesiasticus took a literal reading of 1 Samuel 28 for granted, affirming that “after [Samuel’s] death he prophesied, and showed the king his end.”20 The rabbis saw necromancy as “wicked but possible” and thus argued that the woman actually could bring forth Samuel.21 While Pseudo-Philo agreed that the entity was unquestionably 16 Mormon 7:9, Book of Mormon. 17 Grant Underwood, “Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17, no. 3 (1984): 53. 18 Untitled Editorial, Elders’ Journal, July 1838. 19 Rowan A. Greer and Margaret M. Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in the Early Church (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), xxxi. 20 Eccl 46:20. 21 K.A.D. Smelik, “The Witch of Endor: 1 Samuel 28 in Rabbinic and Christian Exegesis till 800 AD,” Vigiliae Christianae 33, no. 2 (1979), 162. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 49 Samuel, he doubted a witch’s ability to bring him forth. In his perspective, Samuel’s presence was in spite of the woman’s summoning, rather than because of it. God had willed Samuel there to condemn Saul one final time.22 Literal renderings waned during the gaonic period when some began to question the traditional interpretation in favor of a view that the woman was committing fraud. Unlike Jewish commentators, Christian exegetes commonly challenged the claim that the apparition was Samuel. Instead, they insisted that “Samuel” was an evil spirit enlisted by the devil to deceive Saul. Commonly exegetes pointed to 2 Corinthians 11:14–15’s warning that the devil could appear as an angel of light and thus could easily take on the guise of a prophet.23 Pionius argued that when one admitted that the woman conjured the literal spirit of Samuel, “they have admitted that wickedness has more power than righteousness.”24 God would not allow the righteous to be coerced to appear before a medium. This was sometimes presented as a physical impossibility since Samuel would not have been in that portion of the afterlife that allowed Satan control.25 On the other hand, there were Christian commentators who believed that the spirit was Samuel. Like their rabbinical contemporaries, these exegetes assumed a literal reading of the text. For Origen, the dominant view that “Samuel” was a demon was not simply a misreading of the passage, but “an inducement to unbelief.”26 That is, identifying error in the text’s claim of a successful necromancer left room for further assaults on scriptural authority. Augustine argued that Moses’s visitation in the Gospel of Matthew supported Samuel’s appearance in 1 Samuel.27 Few were comfortable acknowledging necromancy’s effectiveness. Some Christian commentators echoed Pseudo-Philo’s position that God willed Samuel’s appearance. In a similar vein, others, according to Gregory of Nyssa, argued that the departed Samuel had prayed on Saul’s behalf and “was greatly vexed that the Lord did not want to be reconciled to the rejected king,” thus, “God permitted the prophet’s soul to be brought up by magical arts of this kind.”28 In the second century, Justin Martyr asserted greater authority to the witch than God’s 22 Smelik, “The Witch of Endor”: 161–2. 23 See, for example, Tertullian, On the Soul 57:8 in Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, 19; Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, On the Belly-Myther, Against Origen 4:9 in Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, 73. 24 Martyrdom of Pionius 14:5 in Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, 31. 25 Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, xxxii–xxxiii. 26 Origen, Homily on 1 Kingdoms 28 2:5, in Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, 37. 27 Smelik, “The Witch of Endor”: 173. 28 Gregory of Nyssa, Letter to Thodosius Concerning the Belly-Myther, 102 in Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, 167–9. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 50 Christopher James Blythe permission – he claimed that “all the souls of those who in this way were righteous and prophets [were] under the authority of powers” of necromancy.29 In future centuries, the idea that the apparition could have actually been Samuel was increasingly doubted. In 1597, the fictional philosopher of King James’s Daemonologie dialogue posited that “all Christians of what-so-ever Religion agrees” that it was “not the spirit of Samuel.”30 During the transatlantic “Witch Craze” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Witch of Endor herself began to dominate the conversation. It was not enough that the biblical text asserted such figures existed. Exegetes began to speculate on the witch’s operations. The influential Malleus Maleficarum, first produced in the late fifteenth century, explained that necromancy was accomplished by “working some spell over the blood of a man or animal, knowing that the devil delights in such sin, and loves blood and the pouring out of blood. Wherefore, when they think that they call the dead from hell to answer their questions, it is the devils in the likeness of the dead who appear and give such answers.”31 King James suggested that the witch excused herself to perform secretive “circles and conjurations” in another room and then returned once the “unclean spirit” was already present in the form of Samuel.32 While the period was dominated by demonologists of this vein, there were also skeptical readings of the text. Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft argued that the appearance of Samuel was “contrived by the art and cunning of the woman, without any of these supernatural devices.” He suggested that she was instead a talented ventriloquist who could speak in a “counterfeit hollow voice.”33 It is important to recognize that exegetes almost never sympathized with the woman herself. The exception is in the case of Josephus, who held up the medium as a model of kindness and hospitality.34 In almost all other cases, she was a classic witch figure in line with Satan or a fraud. Whether she was effective at the black arts or was a pretender, she was not to be seen as the passage’s heroine. This changed in the nineteenth century with Spiritualist and Mormon representations. 29 Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 105:4 in Greer and Mitchell, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor, 3–5. 30 King James I, Daemonologie (1597), 6. 31 Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers, London: John Rodker, 1928 [1480]. 32 King James, Daemonologie (1597), 5. 33 Quoted in Leigh Eric Schmidt, Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 139–40. 34 Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, translated by H. St. J. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1934), 5:337–9. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 51 4 The Woman of Endor as Seer Joseph Smith had likely pondered Saul’s consultation with the woman of Endor long before he became a prophet. In 1824, a travelling exhibit had stopped near his home in Palmyra, New York. The display featured 32 life-size wax figures, including “a scriptural group, representing King Saul, and the Witch of Endor raising Samuel the Prophet from the tomb.”35 The earliest we can document Smith considering the classic text was in the early 1830s when 1 Samuel 28 became one of many Old Testament passages to receive a new rendering as part of Smith’s “new translation.” For convenience, this variant of 1 Samuel 28:11–15 is reproduced here. The italicized words mark Smith’s additions to the text, whereas deletions are acknowledged in brackets. Then said the woman, The word of whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up the word of Samuel. And when the woman saw the words of Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul. And the king said unto her, Be not afraid; for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw the words of Samuel [instead of “gods”] ascending out of the earth. And she said, I saw Samuel also. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, I saw an old man coming up, covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped, his face to the ground, and bowed himself. And these are the words of Samuel unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?36 The significant alteration in this passage does not involve the nature of the woman at all, instead it tackled another murky aspect of the text. Exegetes had disagreed whether Saul too could see as well as hear the departed Samuel. Rabbis had come to believe that necromancers could only see apparitions they summoned, whereas the person who asked for the conjuring could only hear their voice.37 Thus, Saul had to ask the woman what she beheld. Other interpreters held that the woman channeled the specter’s voice. In Smith’s translation, the woman professed that she “saw the words of Samuel,” rather than heard these words, suggesting that the deceased’s words were displayed before her. It seems likely that Smith envisioned that this script appeared on some devise in a fashion not unlike his own means of receiving revelation through a seer stone. One of Smith’s confidants recalled that in order to 35 “Splendid Museum,” Wayne Sentinel, December 22, 1824 in D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview, revised and enlarged (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 291. 36 Holy Scriptures, Translated and Corrected by the Spirit of Revelation by Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer ([Reorganized] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1867), 1Sam 28:11–15. 37 Smelik, “The Witch of Endor”, 162–3. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 52 Christopher James Blythe translate the Book of Mormon, Smith “would put the seer stone into a hat, and put his face in the hat, drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of something resembling parchment would appear, and under it was the interpretation in English.”38 The possible similarities between the woman and Smith’s modes of revelation, does not necessarily imply that Smith intended to portray the woman as a righteous prophetess in the “new translation.” Smith had condemned others who used seer stones, including the Mormon Hiram Page. In 1830, Smith dictated a revelation condemning Page’s revelations – “Satan deceiveth him.”39 If Smith intended to change the reader’s sentiment toward the woman, it would have made more sense to change the context of Saul’s visit; however, all other details of the narrative in 1 Samuel 28 remained unaltered. Saul had still tried unsuccessfully to seek a revelation from the Lord and then turned away from these proper channels of revelation to resort to seeking after a “woman with a familiar spirit.” 5 The Woman of Endor as Prophetess Smith only publically reflected on 1 Samuel 28 once during his ministry. In an 1842 editorial entitled, “Try the Spirits,” he urged the Saints to be cautious of accepting charismatic exercises (e.g. glossolalia, prophecy, visions) from within and without the LDS Church. He employed the example of the witch of Endor as a difficult case in which if one based their assessment of her and her message on her ability to work miracles, they might inadvertently follow an evil figure. Smith recounted that the witch was: clothed with a powerful agency she raised the Prophet Samuel from his grave, and he appeared before the astonished king, and revealed unto him his future destiny. Who is to tell whether this woman is of God, and a righteous woman – or whether the power she possessed was of the devil, and she a witch as represented by the Bible? It is easy for us to say now, but if we had lived in her day, which of us could have unraveled the mystery?40 As it turned out, the decision as to whether she was good or evil was not settled for some of the Church’s leaders. When the woman of Endor passage was again deployed in 1844 the context was a significant departure from these earlier references. During the last 5 years 38 David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (Richmond, Missouri, 1887), 12. 39 Doctrine and Covenants [henceforth D&C] 28:11. 40 “Try the Spirits,” Times and Seasons, April 1, 1842. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 53 of Smith’s life, while in Nauvoo, Illinois, he began to flesh out a number of innovative and controversial topics both privately and in some cases publicly. In April 1844, Smith delivered his famous “King Follett Discourse,” in honor of a recently deceased friend. This was not the first time that Smith expounded on his distinctive understanding of deification, but it was the most explicit. The Mormon Prophet argued that God was an exalted human being – “He was once as one of us and on a planet as Jesus was in the flesh.”41 In turn, mankind had the potential to progress to godhood – “to learn how to be a god yourself.”42 A revelation Smith shared with a limited audience in 1843 explained that the distinction between gods and angels was that gods had entered into the “new and everlasting covenant” of marriage.43 These individuals had received a ritual, whereby “a seal is put upon the father and mother [which] secures their posterity so that they cannot be lost but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father.”44 It was these controversial and distinctive doctrines that led Hyrum Smith to pontificate on 1 Samuel 28 during a meeting before his death. Although there is no extant transcript of this sermon, two contemporary accounts have been located. The first was recorded in the journal of George Laub: The woman was a woman of god, possessed of the Spirit of god, & as Samuel was Sealed to his wife & family in the Everlasting Covanant of the Sealing power, therefore they all had to come with him because he was the head of the family & the woman had power with god to goe to the world of Spirits and bring him fourth. Therefore she cried with a loud voice and there said, I saw gods assending out of the Earth. as being many45 The second account was recorded by Samuel W. Richards in a letter written to his brother, Franklin D. Richards, then on a mission in England: In proving the doctrine of the plurality of Gods he quotes 1st Samuel 28, 13 Said that when Samuel called forth all those who were sealed to him had to come with him they could not be separated one from the other and when they came forth, though it was before the appointed time of their resurrection, they came forth Gods and when Saul asked who he looked like 41 Discourse, April 7, 1844, as reported by William Clayton, General Church Minutes, Church History Library [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], Salt Lake City, Utah. 42 Discourse, April 7, 1844, as reported by William Clayton, General Church Minutes, CHL. 43 D&C 132:19–20. 44 George D. Smith, ed., An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1991), 115–116. For a more thorough discussion of this theology, see Samuel Brown, In Heaven as it Is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 195–201. 45 George Laub reminiscences and journal, 1845 January–1857 April, p. 25–6, MS 9628, CHL. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 54 Christopher James Blythe she described the leader who was an old man with a mantle. This woman instead of being filled with the devil was one who had power with God or the Holy Priesthood to call forth the dead.46 In this discourse, Hyrum Smith only intended to reference 1 Samuel 28:13 – “And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.” – as a proof text for deification, yet in doing so, hinted at a more complex reading of the passage. Concerning the traditional question whether the woman actually summoned Samuel’s spirit, Hyrum answered in the affirmative. While he ignored 1 Samuel’s subtext that seeking out a woman with a familiar spirit was a misdeed with tragic consequences, he accepted the actual text at face value. It is clear that Hyrum did not consult Smith’s “new translation” which had altered the word “gods” to “words.” Hyrum saw the “gods” accompanying Samuel as evidence of the doctrine of deification and as illustrative of the doctrine’s relationship with sealing. In his rendering of 1 Samuel 28 the sealing functions as more than a mutual assurance of exaltation, but as a tether literally binding Samuel’s family together in space. Wherever Samuel goes, his family must follow. While Hyrum Smith did not explicitly state that the woman of Endor was Samuel’s wife as well, later Mormons would remember this fact as an integral part of the tradition. One source claimed that John Taylor specifically credited Joseph Smith with the idea that she was wedded to Samuel. This claim would have fit well with Hyrum’s description of the woman as “one who had power with God or the Holy Priesthood to call forth the dead.” In the rites of the Nauvoo period, including sealing, many came to see that women possessed divine authority or priesthood in “connection with their husbands.”47 The belief that the woman was the wife of Samuel may have originated in a translation of the Hebrew text. According to scholars Teresa Angert-Quilter and Lynne Wall, one way to translate , the words describing the woman, is “woman, spirit mistress” or “spirit wife.”48 It seems likely that someone in Nauvoo arrived at the same conclusion. Both Smith brothers had received Hebrew instruction in 1835–1836. As part of this course, they practiced translating different Old Testament texts. Hyrum Smith even kept a Hebrew Bible 46 Samuel W. Richards, Letter to Franklin D. Richards, August 23, 1844, MS 14590, CHL. 47 Journal of Discourses 21:367–8; Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company and Brigham Young University Press, 1992):42. 48 Theresa Angert-Quilter and Lynne Wall, “The ‘Spirit Wife’ at Endor,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 92 (2001), 60. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 55 throughout his life, which he claimed to be able to translate fluently.49 During this same period both Joseph Smith and W.W. Phelps publically presented their personal translations of biblical texts.50 Joseph Smith had used a novel translation of Hebrew in Genesis to argue that “gods” rather than a singular deity had created the world. And, in fact, they had done so by organizing pre-existing matter rather than through creation ex nihilo.51 Understanding the woman as Samuel’s wife may have had as much to do with the Saints’ belief that spousal relationships continued after death and, as such, that a widow or widower maintained a special connection with the deceased. Mormon theologian Parley P. Pratt, for example, described the effort of a deceased spouse to remain in communication with their beloved through dreams.52 Their “affection for us (…) can never be lessened or diminished by death, distance of space, or length of years.”53 Hyrum Smith may have found this image of Samuel returning at the behest of his living spouse increasingly significant given the apparitions that had influenced his life in the past year. Robert B. Thompson and Hyrum married sisters Mercy Fielding and Mary Fielding respectively. After Thompson died from tuberculosis on August 27, 1841, Mercy moved in with Mary and Hyrum. Two years later, on August 11, 1843, she married Hyrum as his first plural wife. According to Mercy’s account, the union was arranged after her first husband appeared to Joseph Smith “several times, telling him that he did not wish me to live such a lonely life, and wished him to request (…) Hyrum to have me sealed to him for time.” After the last of these visitations, “he came with such power that it made [Smith] tremble.” The Mormon prophet “then enquired of the Lord what he should do; the answer was, ‘Go and do as my servant hath required.’” In what was the Mormon equivalent to ancient levirate marriage, the ceremony included “a covenant to deliver me up in the morning of the resurrection to Robert Blaskel [Blancher] Thompson, with whatever offspring should be the result of that union (…).”54 While the speculation of leaders in the Nauvoo period concerning the woman of Endor was remembered and perpetuated by individual Latter-day Saints, the 49 The volume is currently housed at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Pearson H. Corbett, Hyrum Smith, Patriarch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1963), 165. 50 Samuel Brown, “The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps,” Journal of Mormon History 34, no. 1 (Winter 2008), 55. 51 Discourse, April 7, 1844, as reported by William Clayton, General Church Minutes, CHL. 52 Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology (London: L. D. Saints’ Book Depot, 1855), 120–1. 53 Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, 120. 54 Mercy R. Thompson, Letter to Joseph Smith III, September 5, 1885 in “The Letter from Mercy R. Thompson,” Saints’ Advocate, June 1886. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 56 Christopher James Blythe woman was not publically presented as a sympathetic figure after Hyrum Smith’s 1844 sermon. Joseph Smith’s successor as Church president, Brigham Young, frequently cited 1 Samuel 28 as a critique against those who expected the visibly miraculous from church leaders. If the Christian world thought miracles were the means to detect a true prophet, then why wasn’t the Witch of Endor treated as a Saint?55 Young’s remarks left little room to mistake his own beliefs on the subject – he viewed the woman as a wicked figure rather than a saintly one. In fact, without a strong institutional memory of Hyrum’s remarks, some Mormon theologians again tried to explain how a witch could conjure a prophet. For example, in 1858, John Hyde, echoing Justin Martyr, argued that “Before the resurrection of Jesus, Lucifer held the keys of death and hell.”56 Even when the woman’s authority was left unexplained, Mormons assumed “Samuel” was actually the deceased prophet’s spirit.57 Nevertheless, the reading of the woman as “one who had power with God” did survive among church leaders and among the laity, which they credited to having originated with Joseph Smith or other significant Mormon leaders. For example, the speaker at a child’s funeral on January 1, 1883 stated that Hyrum Smith had identified “the witch of Endor that Saul went to for counsel was not a witch but was a woman holding the Holy Priesthood.”58 An 1898 editorial written by future apostle Charles Penrose, although critical of the view, acknowledged that “[i]t has been alleged that the ‘prophetess’ theory has been held by persons supposed to understand the question thoroughly.”59 On May 21, 1900, Angus M. Cannon, the president of the Salt Lake Stake, confronted Penrose about his disparaging article in the presence of two members of the church’s first presidency, George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith.60 Angus Cannon recounted having previously conversed on the subject with two deceased apostles, including Parley P. Pratt, the revered theologian, and John Taylor, who had served as the church’s prophet between 1880 and 1887. Cannon recalled that in 1855, while serving as a missionary in Connecticut, he was stumped when a gathering of Spiritualists pointed to the woman of Endor to refute something he had taught. When he was “unable to meet the thrust,” he 55 Journal of Discourses 3:158; 14:204. 56 John Hyde, “Divine Retribution,” Millennial Star, December 4, 1858. 57 For example, in 1853, Orson Pratt cited Samuel’s apparition to argue that one’s spirit was the same form as one’s body. “Figure and Magnitude of Spirits,” Seer, March 1853. 58 Charles Walker, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, eds. A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1980), 2:603. 59 Charles W. Penrose, “The Witch of Endor,” Improvement Era, May, 1898. 60 There are two accounts of this conversation: (1) Angus M. Cannon, Journal, May 21, 1900, Journals 1900–1901, MS 8988, CHL; (2) Joseph W. Musser, Journal, May 21, 1900, Journals 1895– 1911, MS 1862, CHL. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 57 later consulted with the apostle John Taylor and asked him “who the ‘Woman of Endor’ was.” Taylor informed him “that the Prophet Joseph Smith had taught him that she was a Prophetess of God,61 and that she was in hiding on account of a decree of death having gone out against such as she, whom the people claimed to be witches.” Shortly after this conversation, Cannon shared Taylor’s remarks with Pratt, who confirmed, “she was the wife of the Prophet Samuel and was a Prophetess of God.”62 Specifically, according to Cannon’s diary, Pratt told him that “she was one of Samuel’s wives.”63 While Cannon appealed strictly to tradition to defend the woman’s reputation, the conversation hinted at reasons why Mormons of that generation would have been attracted to the woman as prophetess narrative. In 1844 Hyrum Smith employed the narrative to defend theological innovations, but this later defense had more to do with the lived experience of Latter-day Saints in the later century. In the 1880s, the wave of marshals enforcing the Edmunds Act, a federal law targeting the practice of polygamy, had sent the Church’s leadership and those in polygamous unions into hiding, lest they be sentenced to time in the penitentiary. The memoir of Annie Clark Tanner, a child of a plural family and later a plural wife herself, provided a particularly vibrant account of the period known as the “raid”: It is difficult to picture the unsettled conditions in Utah and Idaho during the raid against polygamists. Homes were broken up and families scattered among relatives or friends. Thus, shelter was given them as they sought to avoid the officers who raided the towns. Some had secret hiding places in their own homes; others trained the children to watch for the Deputy Marshal, and to evade or deceive when asked questions by strangers or deputies about family relations. If people were at any public gatherings and the Federal Marshal entered the town, there was a scattering of local Church authorities. Polygamists were warned or smuggled to safety. Mothers ran with their babies to neighbors; old men took to the fields.64 While Cannon did not spell out a connection between the woman of Endor and the polygamous prosecutions of the recent past, the parallels were evident. He argued that the woman was not just Samuel’s wife, but explicitly that she was a plural wife. The image was of a righteous plural wife, a prophetess who had 61 While in 1844, Hyrum Smith depicted the woman of Endor as possessing supernatural power or “priesthood,” later sources name her specifically as a “prophetess.” This term, although appearing in the biblical text, was used by Mormons in the Utah era to describe prominent Mormon women known for their revelatory abilities. (See, for example, Edward William Tullidge, Women of Mormondom [New York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1878], 21; 31.) 62 Joseph W. Musser, Journal, May 24, 1900. 63 Angus M. Cannon, Journal, May 21, 1900. 64 Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography of Annie Clark Tanner, 4th edn. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Tanner Trust Fund, 2006), 75. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 58 Christopher James Blythe become the target of the government’s systematic persecution. By the 1880s, this was a narrative that Latter-day Saint men and women would have understood all too well. Ultimately, to address the larger contest with Spiritualism, Penrose’s views would win out. 6 The Relationship and Contests between Spiritualism and Christianity Communication with the dead was popularized with the rise of Spiritualism in the late 1840s. In 1848, the Fox sisters of Rochester, New York, claimed their family home was haunted by a murdered peddler – a fact they discovered through communicating with the ghost via a series of raps, a process later referred to as “spiritual rapping.” The Fox sisters sparked a movement as they performed this feat before interested visitors. They later found that they could communicate with other spirits than the peddler, including the deceased loved ones of their audience members.65 The practice spread as others replicated the Foxes’ talents throughout the United States (Image 3). At the heart of this new belief system was the medium. He, or more frequently, she, served as “a conduit for communication between this world and the other side.”66 In a darkened room in her home, believers held hands around a table as part of the faith’s central sacrament, the séance.67 Initially mediums were more likely to communicate with the spirits via sounds or through automatic writing, but in time “trance-speaking,” channeling the voice of the departed while in a singular mental state, became the norm.68 Believers participated with their faith, their reverence, and their questions to a variety of spirits ranging from close relatives to elite figures of history. Spiritualism was anathema to many orthodox Christians of the nineteenth century. It seemed a diabolical blending of fortune telling, ghost stories, and necromancy. The Spiritualist’s attention was turned from the Bible and the authority of the local minister to the medium and her messages from beyond. However, 65 Kenneth D. Pimple, “Ghosts, Spirits, and Scholars: The Origins of Modern Spiritualism,” in Out of the Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural, ed. Barbara Walker (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1995), 79–80. 66 Pimple, “Ghosts, Spirits, and Scholars, 79. 67 For a discussion of the séance, see Bret E. Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 129–40. 68 Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 178. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor Image 3 : Modern Witch of Endor, Theatrical Poster, 1870, Courtesy of Library of Congress. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 59 60 Christopher James Blythe many Spiritualists saw themselves as devout Christians, even if their views were unwelcome in their local congregations. In fact, the movement became bifurcated between those who saw themselves as “Christian” and those who saw themselves as “anti-Christian.”69 For Christian Spiritualists, Spiritualism was a fulfillment of the Biblical faith. Spiritualists found most relevance in biblical texts that documented supernatural communication. A column in the Spiritualist periodical Banner of Light read, “from Genesis to Revelations, every act is participated in by angels – every word is at the dictation of a spirit (.…) In a word, the Bible will be found to be a record of angel visitations to mankind; of spirits encouraging the lovers of truth and the workers in its broad fields.”70 It was in this context that Spiritualists began to champion the figure of the woman of Endor. She became an icon for the movement and the most popular subject of debate between critical Christians and Spiritualists, including Christian Spiritualists. Spiritualists insisted the woman had been vilified. Feminist and Spiritualist Elizabeth Oakes charged that it was “a strange perversion of taste that would represent her hideous in aspect.”71 The claim that she was an ancient counterpart of the witches of Salem or witches of Macbeth had been brought on by “the superstition of monk and priest through the long era of darkness and bigotry, and every age hath lent a shadow to the picture.”72 They frequently objected to her being labelled a witch – in a significant debate between the Spiritualist Moses Hull and Christian minister W. R. Covert, Hull railed against his opponent, “there isn’t a word about the Witch of Endor from one end of the Bible to the other – not one. I challenged him half a dozen times to find it. He doesn’t find it, but goes on and on saying it just the same.”73 In opposition to a similar Christian critique of the woman, another Spiritualist compared the situation with the appearance of Moses and Elijah to Jesus. “You deify Jesus, and stigmatize the woman as a witch. Why this difference? Samuel was a familiar spirit for the woman, Moses and Elias for Jesus.” He or she cited 1 Corinthians 14:32, “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,” as “evidence that the woman of Endor was a prophetess.”74 Spiritualist lecturer Tom Forster encouraged his audience to read 1 69 Taves, Fits, 185. 70 Quoted in Taves, Fits, 186. 71 Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Shadow Land; or the Seer (New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1852), 64. 72 Smith, Shadow Land, 65. 73 A Debate on Spiritualism between Moses Hull and Eld. W. R. Covert (Chicago: Progressive Thinker Publishing House, 1899), 70. 74 “An Open Letter to Rev. J. C. Simmons,” Common Sense: A Journal of Live Ideas, October 31, 1874. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 61 Samuel 28 for themselves. “She proved herself a good woman, and a noble, true hearted, God-gifted medium.”75 As the faith’s most notable forerunner, the woman was held in special reverence. The First Spiritual Temple in Boston was adorned with a variety of spirit portraits, painted by a medium under the influence of a spirit, including one of “Saul consulting with the Witch of Endor.”76 Often Spiritualists simply preferred the King James Version’s “woman” to refer to 1 Samuel 28, but sometimes they applied the more honorific “lady.”77 While most renditions of the passage simply overlooked the forbidden nature of Saul’s consultation with a woman with a familiar spirit, some voices within the Spiritualist movement directly questioned the accuracy of the story as passed down through the author of 1 Samuel. In 1861, Charles Gregory, a Spiritualist from the Isle of Wight, documented a series of channeled revelations answering questions relating to the Bible. In the relevant revelation, the question read:“By what means did the woman of Endor communicate with Samuel?” The answer read: “Behold (…) the witch of Endor, as she is so called, saw Samuel, with other spirits, at different times, through the medium of the crystal, white stone, or urim, and was a seer of low degree, as she divined for gain.” Gregory posited that “as a seer the woman was of some note and of respectable standing in society, and not a person who was reputed to be a witch, or possessed of a familiar spirit, both of these terms being base and corrupt, originating most probably in ignorance of the real character of the woman by the more early translators.”78 Gregory defended the woman by arguing that the Bible had been corrupted. While Spiritualists championed the cause of the woman of Endor, Christians drew on the passage to condemn the modern necromancers. Some argued for a classic understanding of “Samuel” as an evil spirit masquerading as the ancient prophet and others suggested that the medium merely tricked Saul into believing she was communicating with a spirit. In this case, she was just as guilty of fraud as contemporary mediums. In many cases, Christian critics were particularly troubled by the Spiritualist appropriation of the figure (Image 4). As one critic posited in 1876, the passage “has given our modern Spiritualists and necromancers their strongest authority for their tricks and devices.”79 75 Thomas Gales Forster, What is Spiritualism? (Boston: William White and Co., 1868), 16. 76 “Spirits Rule this Temple,” New York Herald, November 17, 1895. 77 “Spiritualist Union Lectures,” Common Sense: A Journal of Lived Ideas, February 27, 1875. 78 Charles Gregory, “The Bible and Its Corruptions Tested by Modern Divine Revelation,” The Spiritualistic Free Press, July 13, 1861. 79 “Saul and the Witch of Endor,” New York Herald, February 27, 1876. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 62 Christopher James Blythe Image 4 : Broadsheet equating Spiritualism with Witchcraft, 1865, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 63 7 Mormon Contests with Spiritualism and the Loss of the Prophetess Mormons, like other Christians, perceived Spiritualism as a threat. Yet when compared to major Protestant positions on revelation and the afterlife, there was much the two faiths shared in common. Both communities vehemently opposed cessationist claims that supernatural gifts had ceased with the closing of the Bible. Christian Spiritualists and Mormons revered the Bible even while they questioned the accuracy of its transmission to the present. Both interpreted contested passages through their own visions and revelations, and perhaps most controversially held that communication with the invisible world was a reality that even lay members could participate in. The movements were one another’s competition. A number of Mormons became attracted to the new tradition, sometimes incorporating it with their Mormonism and sometimes leaving Mormonism altogether. Several dissidents, including the apostle Amasa Lyman and early Church leader Martin Harris, recorded the words of mediums who often channeled Joseph Smith and other deceased Mormon leaders, to oppose the current church leadership.80 J. H. Beadle, a contemporary critic, observed that “there is no other form of apostacy the Mormon Priesthood so fear, hate, and curse, and no kind of mysticism to which apostate Mormons are so prone, as spiritualism.”81 From the 1850s and into the next century, Mormon leaders preached extensively against Spiritualism.82 They saw the movement as a counterfeit faith, inspired by the devil. Mormons mocked the means by which early Spiritualists received revelation through counting noises and pointed out the contradictions between different medium’s views. Yet, Mormons earliest sermons against Spiritualism tended to accept the efficacy of séances. It seemed reasonable that spirits would reach out to the living. However, Church leaders argued that the information received from the dead was questionable even if it did originate with a departed loved one. In one of the earliest Anti-Spiritualist sermons, Parley Pratt expressed his belief that some spirits “if we could converse with them face to face, would be found as ignorant of the truths, the ordinances, powers, keys, 80 Ronald W. Walker, Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois, 1998), 115–21; 256; Martin Harris, A Proclamation and a Warning Voice to All People (Cleveland, 1855). 81 J. H. Beadle, Appendix in William Hickman, Brigham’s Destroying Angel (New York: George A. Crofutt, 1872), 209. 82 The best article examining Spiritualist and Mormon relations in the nineteenth century is Michael W. Homer, “Spiritualism and Mormonism: Some Thoughts on Similarities and Differences,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27, no. 1 (Spring 1994), 171–90. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 64 Christopher James Blythe Priesthood, resurrection, and eternal life of the body, in short, as ignorant of the fullness of the Gospel, with its hopes and consolations, as is the Pope of Rome, or the Bishop of Canterbury, or as are the Chiefs of the Indian tribes of Utah.”83 At the same time, Mormons condemned Spiritualism as a Satanic imitation of the true faith, Spiritualists increasingly came to see Mormons as their allies against a world that had become increasingly skeptical about the supernatural. Mormonism was an imperfect forerunner designed to prepare the world for the higher truths of Spiritualism.84 Non-Spiritualists also connected the two faiths and disparaged them in tandem. One minister insisted, “Mormonism is a delusion the same as Spiritualism, and Spiritualism the same as Mormonism.”85 Similarly, a newspaper editorial from 1874 explained, “[t]here is really no difference between Mormon revelation and spiritualism, and it is merely a question of time when Mormonism will absorb the entire spiritualistic fraternity.”86 The representation of Mormons as pseudo-Spiritualists infuriated Latter-day Saint leaders. On October 30, 1870, an exasperated Brigham Young starkly condemned the association: We are accused of being nothing more nor less than a people possessing what they term the higher order of Spiritualism. Whenever I see this in print, or hear it spoken, “You are right,” say I. “Yes, we belong to that higher order of Spiritualism; our revelations are from above, yours from beneath. This is the difference. We receive revelation from Heaven, you receive your revelations from every foul spirit that has departed this life, and gone out of the bodies of mobbers, murderers, highwaymen, drunkards, thieves, liars, and every kind of debauched character, whose spirits are floating around here, and searching and seeking whom they can destroy; for they are the servants of the devil, and they are permitted to come now to reveal to the people.”87 It was this concern over identity that led Charles W. Penrose to contend against the “prophetess” reading of 1 Samuel 28. Despite the wealth of Mormon discussion on Spiritualism, there is no reference of Mormons using 1 Samuel 28 in anti-Spiritualist discourse until the end of the twentieth century. Penrose was the first Mormon exegete to draw links between the woman and modern Spiritualism. In his aptly entitled 1898 editorial, “The Witch of Endor.” The future apostle condemned Spiritualism using a similar 83 Journal of Discourses 1:10–11. 84 Homer, 177. 85 A Debate on Spiritualism between Moses Hull and Eld. W. R. Covert, 66. 86 “A Prediction,” Virginia (Nevada) Evening Chronicle, republished in True Latter Day Saints Herald, June 15, 1874. 87 Journal of Discourses 13:281. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 65 line of reasoning employed by a legion of Protestant preachers over the past 50 years, but first he needed to disentangle the narrative from what he referred to as “the popular view of the matter” – namely, that the woman actually had the power to raise the departed prophet and that, to explain this interpretation, “the woman was not really a witch, but a prophetess who was in hiding.” To do so, Penrose urged his readers to disregard whether early church leaders had taught “the ‘prophetess’ theory” and instead undertake a “careful investigation of the history of the event [which] will show that there has been great misunderstanding of the subject.”88 Penrose’s argument focused on refuting that “Samuel” was truly the departed and thereby rendering the prophetess idea unnecessary and untenable. He posited that those in paradise could not “be at the beck and call of witches, wizards, diviners, or necromancers.” Because necromancy was forbidden by God, readers could be assured that it was “not one of the functions of a prophet or prophetess.”89 In response to a common claim that the apparition must be Samuel because his prophecy of Saul’s death was fulfilled, Penrose argued that “if the devil never told the truth he would not be able to deceive mankind by his falsehoods.”90 Penrose, like so many other Christian opponents to Spiritualism, presented the “witch” as an ancient equivalent to modern mediums: The Witch of Endor, then, instead of being a prophetess of the Lord, was a woman that practiced necromancy; that is, communication or pretended communication with the spirits of the dead; but she was led by a familiar spirit. In other words, she was a spiritual medium, similar to those modern professors of the art, who claim to be under the control of some departed notable, and through him or her to be able to communicate with the dead.91 Penrose apparently disagreed with earlier Mormon sentiments that suggested the possibility that the departed were truly communicating in Spiritualist séances. Instead he believed “evil spirits, no doubt, act as ‘familiars’ or as ‘controls’ and either personate the spirits of the dead or reveal things supposed to be known only to them and their living friends, in order to lead away the credulous.”92 It was not only that Penrose wanted to condemn Spiritualism through a popular scriptural critique. The concern was that when Mormons held that the woman of Endor was a prophetess, then her methods, including the séance, was then legitimated. It could seem as if this tradition confirmed the doctrines 88 Charles W. Penrose, “The Witch of Endor,” Improvement Era, May, 1898. 89 Charles W. Penrose, “The Witch of Endor,” Improvement Era, May, 1898. 90 Charles W. Penrose, “The Witch of Endor,” Improvement Era, May, 1898. 91 Charles W. Penrose, “The Witch of Endor,” Improvement Era, May, 1898. 92 Charles W. Penrose, “The Witch of Endor,” Improvement Era, May, 1898. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 66 Christopher James Blythe of Spiritualism. When it came to exegesis, Penrose’s approach was a reversal of earlier positions adopted by both Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Both Joseph Smith’s “new translation” and Hyrum Smith’s Nauvoo rendering assumed that the biblical text had been corrupted in some fashion. Joseph Smith had addressed textual errors he believed had been introduced into the document, whereas, Hyrum Smith’s presentation of the woman’s righteousness assumed the historical circumstances of Saul’s figure had not been accurately transmitted. Penrose argued that a common sense reading of the text told the readers all that they needed to know about the passage. Despite sentiment in favor of the prophetess narrative, the Church’s concern of an association between Spiritualism and Mormonism trumped the preservation of a novel piece of Mormon folklore. If Spiritualism had not been perceived as such a legitimate threat, the prophetess reading would have likely remained as a rare but fairly uncontroversial reading of the chapter. However, four years later, Joseph F. Smith, the church’s then current prophet, criticized Spiritualism and divination in the same vein: “There are many now who undertake to predicate their practice of this superstition upon the authority of the Bible, and use Saul and Balaam as examples.”93 Penrose’s editorial had already been republished in the Millennial Star in 1898.94 In 1907, it appeared in the Elder’s Journal of the Southern States Mission and again in the Millennial Star.95 In the Millennial Star, it was retitled, “‘Spiritualism’ and the Witch of Endor” and a new preface explained that the republication was intended to address Spiritualist arguments based in the biblical text – specifically “the supposed conversation of Saul, the King of Israel, with the deceased prophet Samuel.”96 Whenever the question of “Samuel” and the woman of Endor was posed thereafter, Mormon theologians tended to point to Penrose’s words.97 With the dissemination of Penrose’s article, any interpretation that did not link the figure of the woman of Endor and modern Spiritualism was heterodox. After the early 1900s, there is no evidence that anyone opposed the traditional reading of 1 Samuel 28 with the exception of Mormon Fundamentalist groups 93 Joseph F. Smith, “Witchcraft,” Juvenile Instructor, September 15, 1902. 94 Charles W. Penrose, “Witch of Endor,” Millennial Star, June 16, 1898. 95 Charles W. Penrose, “Witch of Endor,” Elder’s Journal of the Southern States Mission, February 15, 1907; “‘Spiritualism’ and the Witch of Endor,” Millennial Star, November 21, 1907. 96 “‘Spiritualism’ and the Witch of Endor,” Millennial Star, November 21, 1907 97 See for example, Joseph Fielding Smith, “Your Question: What of the Witch of Endor and Samuel?” Improvement Era 65, no. 8 (August 1962), 566–7; 600–1; Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, [1980] 2003), 282–3; D. Kelly Ogden and Andrew C. Skinner, Verse By Verse The Old Testament, vol. 1, Genesis through 2 Samuel, Psalms (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2013), 1:410–1. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 67 that championed nineteenth century doctrines, including the continued practice of plural marriage. Joseph W. Musser had been present when Angus Cannon confronted Charles Penrose and recorded the conversation in his journal. Years later Musser would become a prominent Mormon Fundamentalist and his journal would preserve the idea within the movement.98 8 Conclusion The reception history of 1 Samuel 28 captures Mormonism’s evolving and divergent approaches to the Bible. Nineteenth-century Mormons, like many Christian Spiritualists, assumed the possibility of textual corruption and could therefore read the text in radical ways. Joseph Smith revised the chapter as part of his “new translation,” portraying the woman as a seer who viewed the words of the spirit presumably through the aid of a material instrument. Hyrum Smith reversed the biblical narrative and presented her as a “woman of god, possessed of the Spirit of god.” This latter idea was passed down orally over the next 60 years, while it simultaneously developed independently within the emerging Spiritualist tradition. For Spiritualists, the “lady” of Endor was a counterpart to the modern medium. Meanwhile, mainstream Christians became aware of the legitimacy Spiritualists sought to obtain by associating themselves with the woman of Endor and in turn persistently deployed the traditional narrative to combat Spiritualism. She was a practitioner of black magic or deception who summoned a counterfeit Samuel to take advantage of Israel’s fallen king. Mormons also used this narrative, but the persistent “prophetess theory” remained a popular tradition. Ultimately it was the real (albeit exaggerated) and perceived similarities between Mormonism and Spiritualism that led Charles Penrose and other Mormon leaders to speak out with alternative readings of 1 Samuel 28. They carefully regulated acceptable boundaries of interpretation. Spiritualism was a threat to Mormonism’s cohesion and evangelism. To combat the menace, Penrose enforced the predominant mainstream Christian scriptural critique of the Spiritualist and vernacular Mormon interpretation by championing a sola scriptura-esque approach 98 This survival in Mormon Fundamentalism is evidenced by a sermon given by the prophet, Rulon Allred, who stated: “It has been stated by the Prophet Joseph Smith and recorded in at least three places that the so-called ‘Witch of Endor’ was the wife of Samuel the Prophet, that because of her spiritual attainments she still had a close affinity to her husband, and it was through his voice and appearance to her that Saul was condemned and told of God’s rejection of him, and his ultimate doom.” Rulon C. Allred, Treasures of Knowledge: Selected Discourses and Excerpts from Talks by Rulon C. Allred (Hamilton, Montana: Bitterroot Publishing Company, 1982), 1:327. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 68 Christopher James Blythe to the Bible. One should not mistrust the simplest reading of the text. Instead, the “history” should be read exactly as it was reproduced in the King James translation of the Bible. In the twentieth century, new Mormon biblical exegesis has increasingly tended towards traditional readings of the text. Acknowledgments: The author would like to express his appreciation for those who read and commented on drafts of this paper, including Mason Kamana Allred, Matthew Godfrey, Courtney Jensen Peacock, Joseph Spencer, Joseph Stuart, Jeff Turner, and Kris Wright. Works Cited Manuscripts The Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. General Church Minutes. MS 1862 MS 8988 MS 9628 MS 14590 Newspapers Common Sense: A Journal of Lived Ideas Elders’ Journal Elder’s Journal of the Southern States Mission Improvement Era Juvenile Instructor Millennial Star New York Herald Saints’ Advocate Seer Spiritualistic Free Press Times and Seasons True Latter Day Saints Herald Printed Books: Anon. 1889. A Debate on Spiritualism between Moses Hull and Eld. W. R. Covert. Chicago: Progressive Thinker Publishing House. Allred, Rulon C. 1982. Treasures of Knowledge: Selected Discourses and Excerpts from Talks by Rulon C. Allred. Hamilton, Montana: Bitterroot Publishing Company. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM The Prophetess of Endor 69 Angert-Quilter, Theresa and Lynne Wall. 2001. “The ‘Spirit Wife’ at Endor.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 92: 55–72. Barlow, Philip. 1991. Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion. New York: Oxford University Press. Brown, Samuel. 2012. In Heaven as it is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death. New York: Oxford University Press. Brown, Samuel. 2008. “The Translator and the Ghostwriter: Joseph Smith and W. W. Phelps.” Journal of Mormon History 34: 26–62. Carroll, Bret E. 1997. Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Clayton, William. 1991. An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton, edited by George D. Smith. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. Corbett, Pearson H. 1963. Hyrum Smith, Patriarch. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1963. Derr, Jill Mulvay, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher. 1992. Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company and Brigham Young University Press. Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013 [1981]. Forster, Thomas Gales. 1868. What is Spiritualism? Boston: William White and Co. Greer, Rowan and Margaret M. Mitchell. 2007. The “Belly-Myther” of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in the Early Church. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. Harris, Martin. 1855. A Proclamation and a Warning Voice to All People. Cleveland, OH. Hickman, William. 1872. Brigham’s Destroying Angel. New York: George A. Crofutt. Holy Scriptures, Translated and Corrected by the Spirit of Revelation by Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer. Philadelphia, Penn.: [Reorganized] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1867. Homer, Michael W. 1994. “Spiritualism and Mormonism: Some Thoughts on Similarities and Differences.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 27: 171–190. Josephus. 1934. Jewish Antiquities, trans. H. St. J. Thackeray and Ralph Marcus. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Journal of Discourses. 26 vols. Edited by George D. Watt, et al. Liverpool: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. King James VI of Scotland. 1597. Daemonologie. Edinburgh, Scotland. Kramer, Heinrich and James Sprenger. 1928 [1480]. Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger, translated by Montague Summers. London: John Rodker. Matthews, Robert J. 1985. “A Plainer Translation”: Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, A History and Commentary. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press. Ogden, D. Kelly and Andrew C. Skinner. 2013. Verse By Verse The Old Testament, vol. 1, Genesis through 2 Samuel, Psalms. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book. Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2003 [1980]. Pimple, Kenneth D. 1995. “Ghosts, Spirits, and Scholars: The Origins of Modern Spiritualism,” In Out of the Ordinary: Folklore and the Supernatural, edited by Barbara Walker. Logan: Utah State University Press. Pratt, Parley P. 1855. Key to the Science of Theology. London: L. D. Saints’ Book Depot. Quinn, D. Michael. 1998. Early Mormonism and the Magic Worldview, revised and enlarged. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM 70 Christopher James Blythe Schmidt, Leigh Eric. 2000. Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Smelik, K. A. D. 1979. “The Witch of Endor: 1 Samuel 28 in Rabbinic and Christian Exegesis till 800 AD.” Vigiliae Christianae 33: 160–179. Smith, Elizabeth Oakes. 1852. Shadow Land; or the Seer. New York: Fowlers and Wells. Smith, Joseph. 2008. The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, vol. 1, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen. Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press. Smith, Joseph. 2015. The Joseph Smith Papers: Journals, vol. 3, edited by Andrew H. Hedges, Alex D. Smith, and Brent M. Rogers. Salt Lake City: The Church Historian’s Press. Tanner, Annie Clark. 2006. A Mormon Mother: An Autobiography of Annie Clark Tanner, 4th edition. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Tanner Trust Fund. Taves, Ann. 1999. Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton: Princeton University Press. The Book of Mormon. Palmyra, New York: E. B. Grandin, 1830. The Book of Mormon. Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013 [1981]. Tullidge, Edward William. 1878. Women of Mormondom. New York: Tullidge and Crandall. Underwood, Grant. 1984. “Book of Mormon Usage in Early LDS Theology.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 17: 35–74. Walker, Charles. 1980. Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, edited by A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. Walker, Ronald W. 1998. Wayward Saints: The Godbeites and Brigham Young. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Whitmer, David. 1887. An Address to All Believers in Christ. Richmond, Missouri. Zucker, Louis C. 1968. “Joseph Smith as Student of Hebrew.” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 3 (2): 41–55. Authenticated | cjb10e@fsu.edu author's copy Download Date | 7/19/17 4:59 PM