Necromancy (1)

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In Sumerian, Hittite, Ugaritic, and Akkadian the word apu (in its Akkadian form) means a hole in the ground through which one may communicate with the dead, and it plays a part in Neo-Assyrian rituals, being sometimes supplied with the determinative that denotes a divinity. Hebrew ˁōb (1 Samuel 28:7) is cognate with apu, and refers to a spirit in necromancy when the woman of Endor conjures up the ghost of Samuel at Saul’s request. Isaiah 29:4 uses the word to mean a ghost, and Leviticus 20:27 in banning magicians uses it in the sense of a necromancer. Obtaining oracles through necromancy using figurines of ancestors or numinous fissures in the ground seems therefore to have been a widespread practice from early times in the ancient Near East.

Bibliography

Stephanie Dalley

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