About the ventriloquist. Letter to Bishop Theodosius

In a small treatise “On the Ventriloquist. Letter to Bishop Theodosius" St. Gregory of Nyssa examines the famous episode from the First Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 28:7-20) about the sorceress of Endor and proves that the husband who appeared from underground to Saul was not the spirit of Samuel, but a demon who took on the guise of a prophet. The treatise expresses the Christian point of view on witchcraft, magic and spiritualism as inventions of the devil. *Title of the work in Greek – ᾿Επιστολὴ διὰ τὴν ᾿Εϒϒαστρίμυθον πρὸς Θεοδόσιον ᾿Επίσκοπον. *The title of the work in Latin is De pythonissa ad Theodosium episcopum. He who said to His disciples: “Seek and you will find” (Matthew 7:7), will undoubtedly give strength to those who, according to the Lord’s commandment, curiously seek and discover hidden secrets. For He who promised is not deceitful, but in His abundance of gifts He generously rewards gifts beyond asking. So, “take heed to reading, child Timothy” (1 Timothy 4:13), for I think that this great word will turn to your goodness, and may the Lord give you understanding in everything, so that you may be enriched in every word and in all knowledge! Now, what you ordered, how much the Lord will help, I have deigned to satisfy a little of your desire, so that you learn from this that we must serve each other with love, by mutually fulfilling the will of the other. Therefore, first of all, since among other orders the main question concerned the opinion of Samuel, with the help of God, as much as possible, I will state this briefly. Some of those who lived before us were pleased to recognize as true the challenge of Samuel's soul as a sorceress, and in order to justify this proposal they present the following kind of evidence: Samuel was saddened by the rejection of Saul and always represented to the Lord that, since it pleased Him, Saul cleansed the people from magic, which led to the deception of people by ventriloquists, and therefore the Prophet was upset that it was not pleasing to the Lord to reconcile with outcasts. That is why, they say, God allowed the soul of the Prophet to be caused by such sorcery, and Samuel saw that he was unfairly interceding for Saul before God, calling the enemy of the ventriloquists the very one who asked for the return of their Samuel’s soul by magic. And I, looking at the gospel abyss, which between the evil and the good “is established” (Luke 16:26), says the patriarch, or better yet, the Lord of the patriarch, why it is impossible for the condemned to enter the rest of the righteous and for the saints to enter the host of the wicked, I do not agree that such assumptions are true, having been taught to believe that only the Gospel is true. So, since Samuel is great among saints, and magic is an evil property, I do not believe that Samuel, having risen to such a height of his own peace, willingly or unwillingly crossed this impassable abyss to the wicked. He would not have tolerated this involuntarily, because it would have been impossible for a demon to cross the abyss and move a saint who abides in the ranks of the righteous, but he would not have done this willingly, because he would not want, and could not, enter into communion with the evil, for it is not desirable for someone abounding in good things to move from the state in which he is to the opposite. Even if someone allowed a desire, the property of the abyss will not allow passage. So, how do we talk about this? The enemy of human nature is the common enemy of all; all his thoughts and efforts are about causing mortal harm to a person. What other blow is more deadly for people than this harm - to be rejected by the life-giving God and voluntarily surrender to mortal destruction? So, since lovers of flesh in this life have a certain zeal to have some knowledge of the future, in which they hope to either avoid troubles, or achieve what they want, therefore, in order for people to turn their gaze not to God, the demonic nature, full of deception, has invented many ways to find out the future, such as: bird fortune-telling, interpretation of signs, divination, observation of the entrails of animals, evocation of the dead, frenzy, influx deities, inspiration and much more like that. And as soon as any kind of foreknowledge, as a result of some deception, is recognized as true, the deceiving demon presents it to the deceived to justify the false assumption. This is how the demon arranges it, that the flight of the eagle serves to arouse hope in the observer; the trembling of the liver, the vibrations that occur in the swollen meninges, the rotation of the eyes and any false sign similar to the above, the demonic trick points out to those who are being deceived, so that people, having departed from God, turn to serving demons in the confidence that they are doing such things. Therefore, one of the types of deception was the deception of ventriloquists, who were believed that their sorcery could attract the souls of the dead again into this life. Therefore, when Saul reached despair of salvation, because all the Philistines had moved against him with all their army, and the thought entered his head that Samuel would show him some way to salvation, then the demon residing in the ventriloquist, with whom she was usually seduced, was transformed in the eyes of this woman into various gloomy forms, while nothing visible to Saul appeared to the woman. As soon as she began to practice magic and ghosts began to appear before the woman’s eyes, the demon, in order to confirm that the phenomena were true, contrived in the following way: first he made known Saul himself, who was hiding in a pretended form, which Saul was most amazed at, concluding that the woman would not be deceived in anything when the magical power did not recognize him in the clothes of an honest man. Therefore, since she said: “Old of gods and men I saw the one rising in a long robe” (1 Samuel 28:13–14), then how will the servants of the letter establish historical fidelity? For if the one seen by the sorceress really is Samuel, then it follows that the others seen by her are in reality gods; Scripture calls demons gods: “All Gods have the tongue of demons” (Ps. 95:5). So, is Samuilov’s soul really with demons? Let this not happen! On the contrary, the demon, always obedient to the sorceress, took with him other spirits to seduce the woman herself and Saul, who was seduced through her, and made the demons recognized by the ventriloquist as gods, and he himself was transformed into the appearance of the one being summoned, feignedly spoke with his voice, and what was natural to conclude from what was visible, as if in the form of a prophecy, pronounced the expected sentence, which should have been fulfilled. But the demon reluctantly exposed himself, saying the truth: “Tomorrow you” and Jonathan are with me (1 Samuel 28:19). For if the speaker had really been Samuel, how would he have agreed to have someone guilty of every vice with him? On the contrary, it is clear that instead of Samuel, the evil demon was visible, and he did not lie when he said that Saul would be with him. If Scripture says: “And Samuel spoke” (1 Sam. 28:15), then let such an expression not confuse the knowledgeable, but let him mean the addition: “Imaginary Samuel.” For in many places of Scripture we find the custom of describing what appears to be instead of what is real, as in the story of Balaam. First he says: “I will listen to what God says within me” (Num. 22:19)? And after this, Balaam, having learned that it pleased God not to curse the Israelites, “did not go according to custom to the meeting with sorcery” (Numbers 24:1). The unwary will think that there, too, the true God spoke with Balaam, although the explanation shows that Scripture did not call the true God that way, but whom Balaam considered God. Therefore, here too, the one who introduced himself as Samuel feignedly spoke as if on behalf of Samuil, and the demon, skillfully deducing from probabilities, imitated the prophecy. As for Elijah, it requires more research than was required in the proposed question. For the prophet, who received the command to “drink water from the stream” (1 Kings 17:4), was secretly inspired by God so that he himself would cancel the sentence he pronounced on the Israelites about lack of rain. He was allowed to drink from only one stream, which in all likelihood was drying up from the heat; and since the prophet had no other way to quench his thirst, because he was forbidden to drink in another place, it was necessary to ask for rain so that the water in the stream would not become scarce. The service necessary for life is performed by the prophet by ravens, by which God gave the prophet the appearance that there were still many who served the true God, from whom the ravens brought food to the prophet, because undefiled bread and meat not sacrificed to idols were delivered to him, which is why this prompted Elijah to somewhat moderate his irritation with those who dishonored, having learned from what was happening that there are many who turn their gaze to God and it is unfair to punish them with the guilty. Bread is brought to him in the morning, and meat in the evening, which, perhaps, mysteriously teaches care for a virtuous life, namely that beginners need the food of those who are more perfect, but in the words of Paul, who says: “But those who are perfect have solid food; those who have senses are trained by long learning” (Heb. 5:14). And what is meant by the veil of Moses, you will not remain ignorant of this if you talk with Paul’s Epistle to the Corinthians. And regarding the questions that you proposed about sacrifices, you will know well if you study the entire book of Leviticus with great diligence and with great diligence review the laws relating to them in general, for in this case you will understand the part along with the whole; But this alone could not have been decided before a review of the whole. In the face of doubt about the opposing force, the solution is obvious, namely: the one who became an apostate was not an ordinary angel, but one elevated to the rank of Archangels. Therefore, it is clear that along with the beginning, the rank subordinate to it is also indicated, and therefore the question is resolved: why was he alone, and now there are many with him? Since the army subordinate to him also retreated with him, this explains what was sought. To the last, the main one among the questions you proposed (I mean the question of why the Spirit descends before baptism - Acts 10:44), as requiring wider consideration and research, having written, if God gives, the answer in a special word, we will send it to your honor. You might be interested in: