St. Augustines lost sermons found after 1,600 years revealing secrets of the rumored Witch of Endor
It’s the season of the witch — at least if you’re a theologian.This week, a Latin professor named Christian Tornau revealed two previously undiscovered sermons attributed to St.
Augustine, the 4th-century bishop known as a founding father of modern Christianity.The sermons contain new details and insight on the Witch of Endor, a Biblical prophet who foretold King Saul’s doom in the First Book of Samuel.The sermons assert that the legendary witch wasn’t sent to curse the Israelite king, but instead to give the Biblical monarch a path to redemption and peace.According to St.
Augustine, a Northern African bishop who hailed from what is now Algeria, the spellbinding story begins on the eve of a battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, an ancient seafaring tribe from the Aegean region of Greece that colonized an area of Canaan now known as Gaza.Feeling forsaken by God, King Saul disguised himself and secretly visited the Witch of Endor, a spirit medium on the outskirts of his city who must practice her occult rituals in secret or else risk the death penalty — a punishment decreed by King Saul himself.Going against his own ruling, Saul visits the witch and asks her to summon the dead prophet Samuel, who rises from a ritual pit with some grim news: The Israelites will lose this battle against the Philistines, and Saul and his sons will be slaughtered within a day.The encounter has baffled biblical scholars for centuries.Was Saul a hypocrite whose fear drove him to defy his own belief in God, instead trafficking in the occult? Did the Witch of Endor really summon Samuel or was it an early example of demonic deception? And if the witch’s magic was legit, why would God allow such a forbidden act to work flawlessly?St.
Augustine’s newly discovered work, which was unearthed at Bad Doberan Abbey in Germany, offers some surprising insights.Rather than presenting Saul as beyond redemption, the early text suggests the fallen king’s encounter with Samu...