Familiar Spirit
Familiar Spirit
( ob, a leathern bottle or water-skins, Job 32:19; hence, the conjurer, being regarded as the vessel containing the inspiring demon), a necromancer, or sorcerer who professes to call up the dead by means of incantations, to answer questions (Deu 18:11; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ch 33:6; Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; 1Sa 28:3; 1Sa 28:9; Isa 8:19; Isa 19:3). Put also specially for the python (Act 16:16) or divining-spirit, by the aid of which such jugglers were supposed to conjure (Lev 20:27; 1Sa 28:7-8), and for the shade or departed spirit thus evoked (Isa 29:4). SEE DIVINATION. The term is rendered by the Septuagint , “a ventriloquist,” but is rather a wizard who asked counsel of his familiar, and gave the responses received from him to others the name being applied in reference to the spirit or demon that animated the person, and inflated the belly so that it protuberated like the side of a bottle. Or it was applied to the magician, because he was supposed to be inflated by the spirit (), like the ancient ( , Ar. Vesp. 1017, malusa spirituns per verend t naturce excipiabat; Schosl. in Ar. Plut.). The ob of the Hebrews was thus precisely the same as the pytho of the Greeks (Plutarch, De def. Or. 414; Cicero De div. 1:19), and was used not only to designate the performer, but the spirit itself, , which possessed him (see Lev 20:27; 1Sa 28:8; also Act 16:16). A more specific denomination of this last term was the necromancer (literally seeker of the dead, ; Deu 18:10; comp. ), one who, by frequenting tombs, by inspecting corpses, or, more frequently, by help of the ob, like the witch of Endor, pretended to evoke the dead, ad bring secrets from the invisible world (Gen 41:8; Exo 7:11; Lev 19:26; Deu 18:10-12).
Compare the whisperers (“charmers”), of Isa 19:3. But Shuckford, who denies that the Jews in early ages believed in spirits, makes it mean “I consulters of lead idols” (Connect. 2:395). These ventriloquists “peeped and muttered” (compare , Homer, Il. 23:101; “squeak and gibber,” Shaksp. Jul. Caesar) from the earth to imitate the voice of the revealing ‘familiar” (Isa 29:4, etc.; 1Sa 28:8; Lev 20:27; compare , Soph. Frag.). Of this class was the witch of Endor (Josephus, Ant. 6:14, 2), in whose case intended imposture may have been overruled into genuine necromancy (Sir 46:20). On this wide subject, see Chrysostom ad 1 Corinthians 12; Tera tullian, adv. Marc. 4:25; De Anima, page 57; Augustine, De doctr. Christ. 33; Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 1:16, and the commentators on AEn. 6; Critici Sacri, 6:331; Le Moyne, Var. Sacr. page 993 sq.; Selden, De Diis Syr, 1:2; and, above all, Bottcher, De Inferis, pages 101-121, where the research displayed is marvellous. Those who sought inspiration, either from the dasmons or the spirits of the dead, haunted tombs and caverns (Isa 65:4), and invited the unclean communications by voluntary fasts (Maimon. De Idol. 9:15; Lightfoot, Hor. Hebrews ad Mat 10:1). That the supposed was often effected by ventriloquism and illusion is certain; for a specimen of this even in modern times, see the Life of Benvenuto Cellini. SEE NECROMANCER.
Closely connected with this form of divination are the two following:
(1.) , che’ber, a spell or enchantment, by means of a cabalistic arrangement of certain words and implements (Deu 18:11; Isa 47:9; Isa 47:12), spoken also of serpent-charming (Psa 58:6). SEE CHARMING; SEE ENCHANTMENT.
(2.) Sorcery (either wizard, knowing one, Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Deu 18:11; 1Sa 28:3; 1Sa 28:9; spoken also of the imp or spirit of divination by which they were supposed to be attended, Lev 20:27; or some form of
, ‘kashaph’, to act the witch, literally by magic incantations, 2Ch 23:6; Exo 7:11; Deu 18:10; Dan 2:2, etc.), which signifies practicing divination by means of the black art, with an implied collusion with evil spirits; applied usually to pretending to reveal secrets, to discover things lost, find hidden treasure, and interpret dreams. SEE WIZARD.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Familiar spirit
Sorcerers or necormancers, who professed to call up the dead to answer questions, were said to have a “familiar spirit” (Deut. 18:11; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chr. 33:6; Lev. 19:31; 20:6; Isa. 8:19; 29:4). Such a person was called by the Hebrews an _’ob_, which properly means a leathern bottle; for sorcerers were regarded as vessels containing the inspiring demon. This Hebrew word was equivalent to the pytho of the Greeks, and was used to denote both the person and the spirit which possessed him (Lev. 20:27; 1 Sam. 28:8; comp. Acts 16:16). The word “familiar” is from the Latin familiaris, meaning a “household servant,” and was intended to express the idea that sorcerers had spirits as their servants ready to obey their commands.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Familiar Spirit
The familiar spirit is Ob (), literally, ‘a bottle’ (see Job 32:19, where the word is used), and hence perhaps the hollow sound which might be produced by the wind or breath in an empty bottle or skin. The LXX renders the word , ventriloquist; so that the process called Ob must probably have depended in some degree on the power of producing some peculiar sound which might represent the voice of the dead. this point is alluded to in Isa 8:19, where we read of ‘them that have familiar spirits,’ together with ‘wizards that peep and that mutter’ (lit. that chirp or squeak, see 10:14, and that utter a low sound or speak indistinctly, see 59:3). Also in Isa 29:4 we read, ‘Thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper (or chirp) out of the dust.’ The idea that the dead, if they could speak at all, would be represented as speaking out of the ground, is very old and very natural; see Gen 4:10, ‘The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.’
In one passage (2Ki 21:6) the LXX renders the word by , by which was meant perhaps a person with a strong will who could act up on the feelings of others. If this were not a solitary instance, one might be inclined to connect Obwith the root Avah (), to win, and to class the dealings referred to with those which are now called animal magnetism, and possibly to introduce the or will-worship of the N.T into the same category. The word Obalso occurs in Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Lev 20:27; Deu 18:11; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:24; 1Ch 10:13; 2Ch 33:6; and Isa 19:3.
The most interesting passage, however, is that in which ‘the witch of Endor’ is described (1Sa 28:3; 1Sa 28:7-9). We are first told that Saul had put away these ‘familiar spirits’ out of the land, then that he charged his servants to seek out a woman who dealt in this forbidden art. Accordingly, they find out for him a ‘mistress of Ob,’ and he visits her in disguise and asks her to divine to him by Ob, and to bring up that which he should speak of to her. The woman, under a promise of secrecy, is ready enough to gratify his wishes, and asks whom she shall raise up. Her business then was necromancy, the real or pretended dealing with the departed, the ‘inquiring of the deed,’ which is called necromancy in Deu 18:11. There is no indication from other parts of Scripture where Ob is referred to that there was usually any appearance; but generally a voice, which was supposed to be that of the departed person, was heard to proceed, as it were, from the ground, sometimes muttering indistinctly and sometimes ‘peeping,’ that is to say, piping or chirping like the th in shrill notes of a bird.
Saul says, ‘Bring me up Samuel.’ No sooner are the words uttered than, to her astonishment, the woman perceives Samuel. She screams with terror, and says to her visitor, ‘Why hast thou deceived me? and thou art Saul.’ There was no sham here. God had permitted the prophet to appear, perhaps clad in judicial robes of office, so that she said, ‘I saw gods (or Jdg 11:1-40) coming up from the earth.’
Did the woman really bring up Samuel? She professed afterwards that she had done so (verse 21), but the narrative rather implies that it was not so. Certainly there is no encouragement here for Spiritualism or Theosophy, especially when we remember that ‘Saul died for his transgression, and also for asking counsel of a familiar spirit, instead of inquiring of the Lord’ (1Ch 10:13-14).