ortality, there was
no state of retribution in their theology. Samuel expects Saul and his
sons to come to him in Sheol.

The next circumstance to be remarked is that the name of _Elohim_ is
applied to the spirit which the woman sees "coming up out of the earth,"
that is to say, from Sheol. The Authorised Version translates this in
its literal sense "gods." The Revised Version gives "god" with "gods"
in the margin. Reuss renders the word by "spectre," remarking in a
note that it is not quite exact; but that the word Elohim expresses
"something divine, that is to say, superhuman, commanding respect and
terror" ("Histoire des Israelites," p. 321). Tuch, in his commentary on
Genesis, and Thenius, in his commentary on Samuel, express substantially
the same opinion. Dr. Alexander (in Kitto's "Cyclopaedia" s. v. "God")
has the following instructive remarks:--

[_Elohim_ is] sometimes used vaguely to describe unseen
powers or superhuman beings that are not properly thought of as
divine. Thus the witch of Endor saw "Elohim ascending out of the
earth" (1 Sam. xxviii. 13), meaning thereby some beings of an
unearthly, superhuman character. So also in Zechariah xii. 8, it
is said "the house of David shall be as Elohim, as the angel of
the Lord," where, as the transition from Elohim to the angel of
the Lord is a minori ad majus, we must regard the former as a
vague designation of supernatural powers.

Dr. Alexander speaks here of "beings"; but there is no reason to
suppose that the wise woman of Endor referred to anything but a solitary
spectre; and it is quite clear that Saul understood her in this sense,
for he asks "What form is HE of?"

This fact, that the name of Elohim is applied to a ghost, or disembodied
soul, conceived as the image of the body in which it once dwelt, is
of no little importance. For it is well known that the same term was
employed to denote the gods of the heathen, who were thought to have
definite quasi-corporeal forms and to be as much real entities as any
other Elohim. [5] The difference which was supposed to exist between
the different Elohim was one of degree, not one of kind. Elohim was, in
logical terminology, the genus of which ghosts, Chemosh, Dagon,
Baal, and Jahveh were species. The Israelite believed Jahveh to be
immeasurably superior to all other kinds of Elohim. The inscription
on the Moabite stone shows that King Mesa held Chemosh to be, as
unquestionably, the s