A serendipitous discovery of an ancient manuscript within archival collections has shed light on one of the most unsettling episodes in Scripture, prompting a re-evaluation of centuries-old church doctrines.
A page from an ancient manuscript containing previously unknown texts by Saint Augustine about the Witch of Endor / Photo: Diocesan Library named after Bishop Jan Bernard Szlaga in Pelplin
In 2024, researchers working in a Polish library identified two previously unknown texts by Saint Augustine, aiming to reveal his stance on the eerie biblical story of King Saul and the Witch of Endor. These 12th-century Latin manuscripts meticulously analyze the episode of summoning the spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel, which had perplexed Christian thinkers for centuries. This discovery has enabled scholars to better comprehend the logic and rhetoric of one of the Western Church’s most influential theologians.
The Daily Mail reports on the unique deciphering of ancient sermons by the eminent Christian thinker.
The Mystery of the Witch of Endor
According to the Old Testament, on the eve of a hopeless battle against the Philistines, King Saul consulted a sorceress to magically summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel for a prophecy. In the discovered sermons, Saint Augustine questions whether the medium truly possessed magical power over the dead. The theologian asserts that Samuel’s appearance was solely permitted by God to warn Saul of his impending demise, not due to witchcraft.
“The first sermon was delivered during a Sunday service and concludes with a question of theodicy and interpretative options,” explained Christian Tornau, a professor of Latin at the University of Würzburg.
“Only in the second sermon, on the following Wednesday, were all these options carefully weighed,” added the scholar.
Verification of Manuscript Authenticity
To confirm the authenticity of these texts, Dr. Tornau, along with Dr. Clemens Weidmann, engaged twenty additional Latin specialists. The scholars note that the style, humor, and rhetorical approach of allowing listeners to draw their own conclusions are entirely characteristic of Augustine. However, the creation of such a manuscript in the 12th century is considered highly unusual, as copies were typically made in the 8th or 9th centuries.
“An old monastery catalog mentions a text with the same titles and the same sequence of content as our manuscript, so it could have served as a model for copying,” stated Christian Tornau.
Scholars hypothesize that a medieval scribe copied these sermons from a considerably older manuscript that was subsequently lost forever. It is impossible to definitively verify this hypothesis, as the original collection of that monastic library was entirely destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War from 1618 to 1648.
As a reminder, scientists have deciphered the exact coordinates of Noah’s Ark. A clay tablet that had puzzled scientists for over 140 years turned out to be not just the oldest map of the world, but also a guide to the location where, according to Babylonian beliefs, the legendary ark still lies.
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Source: tsn.ua