YHWH is Elohim, Not the Ancestral Spirits

Biblical death notices typically include both an idiomatic statement that the individual has been either gathered to (אסף) or has lain down with (שכב) his or her people or ancestors and a burial announcement. For example:

‏^{בראשׁית כה:ח} וַיִּגְוַע וַיָּמָת אַבְרָהָם בְּשֵׂיבָה טוֹבָה זָקֵן וְשָׂבֵעַ וַיֵּאָסֶף אֶל עַמָּיו. ^כה:ט וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ יִצְחָק וְיִשְׁמָעֵאל בָּנָיו אֶל מְעָרַת הַמַּכְפֵּלָה....

^{Gen 25:8} And Abraham breathed his last, dying at a good ripe age, old and contented; and he was gathered to his kin. ^25:9a His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah.^[1]

^{מלכים א ב:י} וַיִּשְׁכַּב דָּוִד עִם אֲבֹתָיו וַיִּקָּבֵר בְּעִיר דָּוִד.

^{1 Kgs 2:10} Then David lay down with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David.

The double description suggests that death was a two-part process: the spirit of the deceased was transitioned to join its forbears in Sh’eol, the realm of the dead; and the corpse was physically entombed.^[2] While the burial preceded the transitioning temporally, the more important element was the successful settling of the spirit in She’ol, to join other generations of ancestors, which is probably why it is mentioned first in the death notices. We do not know much about the rituals that accompanied each step, but the physical remains found in Iron Age Judahite tombs suggest some possibilities.^[3]

Rituals for Dealing with the Dead

The burial preference in monarchic era Judah (ca. 975–586 B.C.E.) was for a family tomb, hewn into soft limestone, which would contain the bones of multiple generations. In bench tombs, the deceased would be laid out to deflesh on one of two or three waist-high benches that lined the walls. When the bench was needed for a new corpse, the bones were mingled with those of earlier generations either on the chamber floor or in bone depositories cut into the benches.^[4]

Grave goods accompanied all burials. Even the humblest of Iron Age tombs in Judah included an oil lamp and a chalice placed beside the cadaver, suggesting a belief that the realm beyond life, or the path to reach it, was one where darkness and thirst prevailed.^[5]

Additional items typically included various vessels for the storage, preparation, and serving of food and beverage.^[6] The underlying purpose of the vessels is disputed, with scholars variously arguing that they were intended for use by the dead or by the living:

For the Dead – The vessels may have held provisions for the spirit of the dead, either as it “crossed over” (from the root ע.ב.ר) to a new existence in She’ol,^[7] or for its continued life in She’ol.^[8]

For the Living – The vessels may have been used to prepare periodic meals shared with the dead.

Tomb-Side Rituals

Trito-Isaiah (chs. 56–66; late 6^th c. B.C.E.) condemns some sort of ritual(s) taking place in or at tombs—euphemistically referred to as גַּנּוֹת, “gardens”^[9]—which likely involved a series of actions believed to enable human contact or communion with the dead:

‏^{ישׁעיה סה:ג} הָעָם הַמַּכְעִיסִים אוֹתִי עַל פָּנַי תָּמִיד זֹבְחִים בַּגַּנּוֹת וּמְקַטְּרִים עַל הַלְּבֵנִים. ^סה:ד הַיֹּשְׁבִים בַּקְּבָרִים וּבַנְּצוּרִים יָלִינוּ הָאֹכְלִים בְּשַׂר הַחֲזִיר וּפְרַק [וּמְרַק] פִּגֻּלִים כְּלֵיהֶם.

^{Isa 65:3} A people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks; ^65:4 who sit inside tombs and spend the night in secret places; who eat the flesh of pigs, with broth of abominable things in their vessels.^[10]

Although we no longer can clearly understand the full import of the activities described, their condemnation indicates that belief in the power of ancestral spirits to influence the lives and fortunes of their living relatives was not limited to the Iron Age, but continued into Yehud in the early Persian period.

Becoming a Family Ancestor

In the final step in the burial process, some or all deceased adults were formally assigned the status of family ancestors. This process might have involved dedicating an object to represent the ancestor, possibly into which its spirit could temporarily enter, like a deity into a statue. This object would have been used in the household cult, alongside objects representing the family’s personal protective god(s).^[11]

The תְּרָפִים (teraphim) may have represented these family ancestors,^[12] as suggested by their association with necromancy or consultation of the ancestors in Josiah’s cultic reforms:

^{מלכים ב כג:כד} וְגַם אֶת הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶת הַיִּדְּעֹנִים וְאֶת הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת הַגִּלֻּלִים וְאֵת כָּל הַשִּׁקֻּצִים אֲשֶׁר נִרְאוּ בְּאֶרֶץ יְהוּדָה וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם בִּעֵר יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ....

^{2 Kgs 23:24a} Josiah also did away with the ghosts and the familiar spirits, the teraphim and the fetishes—all the detestable things that were to be seen in the land of Judah and Jerusalem.

אוֹב (ʾov), a ghost /spirit

The term אוֹב (ʾov) may derive from the same root as אב (ʾav), “father,” thus referring specifically to an ancestral spirit.^[13] The various biblical references to an אוֹב suggest that it was the spirit of a human being who had died and who could be consulted.^[14] For example, Saul finds a medium in Endor so that he can consult with the deceased prophet Samuel:

^{שׁמואל א כח:ח} וַיִּתְחַפֵּשׂ שָׁאוּל וַיִּלְבַּשׁ בְּגָדִים אֲחֵרִים וַיֵּלֶךְ הוּא וּשְׁנֵי אֲנָשִׁים עִמּוֹ וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל הָאִשָּׁה לָיְלָה וַיֹּאמֶר קְסוֹמִי [קָסֳמִי] נָא לִי בָּאוֹב וְהַעֲלִי לִי אֵת אֲשֶׁר אֹמַר אֵלָיִךְ.

^{1 Sam 28:8} Saul disguised himself; he put on different clothes and set out with two men. They came to the woman by night, and he said, “Please divine for me by a ghost. Bring up for me the one I shall name to you.”

When she sees Samuel’s spirit, she is afraid, but Saul presses on:

^{שׁמואל א כח:יג} וַיֹּאמֶר לָהּ הַמֶּלֶךְ אַל תִּירְאִי כִּי מָה רָאִית וַתֹּאמֶר הָאִשָּׁה אֶל שָׁאוּל אֱלֹהִים רָאִיתִי עֹלִים מִן הָאָרֶץ.

^{1 Sam 28:13} The king answered her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a divine being coming up from the earth.”

Here, the אוֹב is described as an אֱלֹהִים (ʾelohim), “divinity” (more on this later).

Since a spirit existed in the spiritual-divine continuum, it was thought to have access to knowledge belonging to that realm and could also intercede on behalf of its living relatives with more powerful entities.^[15] Saul thus explains to Samuel, when he asks why Saul has disturbed him:

^{שׁמואל א כח:טו} וַיֹּאמֶר שְׁמוּאֵל אֶל שָׁאוּל לָמָּה הִרְגַּזְתַּנִי לְהַעֲלוֹת אֹתִי וַיֹּאמֶר שָׁאוּל צַר לִי מְאֹד וּפְלִשְׁתִּים נִלְחָמִים בִּי וֵאלֹהִים סָר מֵעָלַי וְלֹא עָנָנִי עוֹד גַּם בְּיַד הַנְּבִיאִם גַּם בַּחֲלֹמוֹת וָאֶקְרָאֶה לְךָ לְהוֹדִיעֵנִי מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה.

^{1 Sam 28:15} Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Saul answered, “I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams, so I have summoned you to tell me what I should do.”

To communicate with the dead, a human could also be possessed by (i.e., “have”) an אוֹב:

^{ויקרא כ:כז} וְאִישׁ אוֹ אִשָּׁה כִּי יִהְיֶה בָהֶם אוֹב אוֹ יִדְּעֹנִי מוֹת יוּמָתוּ בָּאֶבֶן יִרְגְּמוּ אֹתָם דְּמֵיהֶם בָּם.

^{Lev 20:27} A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones—their bloodguilt shall be upon them.

יִדְּעֹנִי (yiddeʿoni), “knowing/familiar one”

Derived from the root ידע, “to know,”יִדְּעֹנִי (yiddeʿoni) probably refers to a spirit guide or helper who was not necessarily a former ancestor of the person being consulted. Like the אוֹב, it could take temporary control of a human body (Lev 20:27, above). Based on modern analogies, the spirit guide would have provided the specialist being consulted access to the spirit world more generally; the guide could then contact a specific dead person in that realm.^[16]

Stamping out the Ancestral Cult

The consistent condemnation of the ancestor cult in the Bible suggests that the biblical authors found certain ancestor beliefs and practices no longer theologically acceptable and engaged in a deliberate campaign to root them out. The most overt evidence for this campaign appears in the direct prohibitions:

‏^{דברים יח:י} לֹא יִמָּצֵא בְךָ מַעֲבִיר בְּנוֹ וּבִתּוֹ בָּאֵשׁ קֹסֵם קְסָמִים מְעוֹנֵן וּמְנַחֵשׁ וּמְכַשֵּׁף. ^יח:יא וְחֹבֵר חָבֶר וְשֹׁאֵל אוֹב וְיִדְּעֹנִי וְדֹרֵשׁ אֶל הַמֵּתִים.

^{Deut 18:10} No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, or a sorcerer, ^18:11 one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or who inquires of the dead.^[17]

The two verbs, שאל, “to ask,” and דרש, “to inquire,” are likely here used in the technical sense of seeking an oracle. The law prohibits both asking an ancestral spirit or familiar spirit and inquiring of the dead, suggesting that the latter action potentially includes contacts beyond established family or clan ancestors, extending to dead friends, acquaintances, and business partners—anyone with whom a person had had some sort of interaction.

Yet perhaps the second prohibition—not to inquire of the dead—serves to deny any sort of earthly influence to the אוֹב and יִדְּעֹנִי by emphasizing that those who have died are dead, existing in another realm, and unable to influence the living or access knowledge in the spiritual-divine continuum to communicate to the living on earth. With a rhetorical question, the psalmist describes She’ol as the broad land of forgetfulness:

^{תהלים פח:יג} הֲיִוָּדַע בַּחֹשֶׁךְ פִּלְאֶךָ וְצִדְקָתְךָ בְּאֶרֶץ נְשִׁיָּה.

^{Ps 88:13} Are Your wonders known in the netherworld, your beneficent deeds in the land of oblivion?

Job states that it is a place from which the dead never return to the land of the living:

^{איוב י:כא} בְּטֶרֶם אֵלֵךְ וְלֹא אָשׁוּב אֶל אֶרֶץ חֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת.

^{Job 10:21} Before I depart—never to return—for the land of deepest gloom.

If so, for Deuteronomy, divine knowledge is the sole purview of YHWH Elohim, and both the prohibition against consulting ghosts and familiar spirits and the one against inquiring of the dead would be meant to deny that these non-human, numinous entities have access to divine knowledge that they could convey to the living.

Ancestral Spirits as אֱלֹהִים

Like the medium in Endor, Isaiah also refers to the אוֹב (and יִדְּעֹנִי) as אֱלֹהִים (ʾelohim):

^{ישׁעיה ח:יט} וְכִי יֹאמְרוּ אֲלֵיכֶם דִּרְשׁוּ אֶל הָאֹבוֹת וְאֶל הַיִּדְּעֹנִים הַמְצַפְצְפִים וְהַמַּהְגִּים הֲלוֹא עַם אֶל אֱלֹהָיו יִדְרֹשׁ בְּעַד הַחַיִּים אֶל הַמֵּתִים.

^{Isa 8:19} Now, should people say to you, “Inquire of the ghosts and familiar spirits that chirp and moan; for a people may inquire of its divinities—of the dead on behalf of the living.”

In the story of Baal-Peor, the Moabite women seduce the Israelites to worship their אֱלֹהִים:

‏^{במדבר כה:ב} וַתִּקְרֶאןָ לָעָם לְזִבְחֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶן וַיֹּאכַל הָעָם וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶן.

^{Num 25:2} They invited the people to the sacrifices for their divinities. The people partook of them and worshiped their divinities.

The Psalmist appears to understand the Baal Peor incident as including worship of ancestral spirits:

^{תהלים קו:כח} וַיִּצָּמְדוּ לְבַעַל פְּעוֹר וַיֹּאכְלוּ זִבְחֵי מֵתִים.

^{Ps 106:28} They attached themselves to Baal Peor, ate sacrifices offered to the dead.

YHWH, Your Elohim

Deuteronomy emphasizes the prohibition against inquiring of spirits by attributing these practices to the inhabitants of Canaan and treating them as part of the reason that YHWH is driving these people out from before the Israelites:

‏^{דברים יח:יב} כִּי תוֹעֲבַת יְ־הוָה כָּל עֹשֵׂה אֵלֶּה וּבִגְלַל הַתּוֹעֵבֹת הָאֵלֶּה יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מוֹרִישׁ אוֹתָם מִפָּנֶיךָ. ^יח:יג תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה עִם יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ.

^{Deut 18:12} For anyone who does such things is abhorrent to YHWH, and it is because of such abhorrent practices that YHWH your Elohim is dispossessing them before you. ^18:13 You must be wholehearted with YHWH your Elohim.

Moreover, the expression יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ, “YHWH your Elohim,” stresses that the only legitimate אֱלֹהִים for the Israelites is YHWH.

Ensuring a Fruitful Harvest

Deuteronomy’s first fruits law also works to eliminate worship of spiritualized ancestors, who were thought to influence the growth of crops for a successful harvest, a belief that continues in certain cultures today.^[18] Part of the confession recited when delivering a basket of first fruits is an acknowledgement that YHWH is the sole divine source of food crop yields:

^{דברים כו:י} וְעַתָּה הִנֵּה הֵבֵאתִי אֶת רֵאשִׁית פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה לִּי יְ־הוָה וְהִנַּחְתּוֹ לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתָ לִפְנֵי יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ.

^{Deut 26:10} I now bring the first fruits of the soil which you, YHWH, have given me.” You shall leave it before YHWH your God and bow low before YHWH your God.

The passage continues a little later with a notice that every third year, when the tithe is to be distributed to the poor, the Israelites are to avow that none of it has been dedicated to the dead or used in mourning rituals:

^{דברים כו:יד} לֹא אָכַלְתִּי בְאֹנִי מִמֶּנּוּ וְלֹא בִעַרְתִּי מִמֶּנּוּ בְּטָמֵא וְלֹא נָתַתִּי מִמֶּנּוּ לְמֵת שָׁמַעְתִּי בְּקוֹל יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהָי עָשִׂיתִי כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתָנִי.

^{Deut 26:14} I have not eaten of it while mourning; I have not cleared any of it out while I was unclean, and I have not deposited any of it with the dead. I have obeyed YHWH, my God, doing just as you commanded me.

The denial seems intended to disassociate ancestors from having influence over crop production and food supplies. At the very least, the confession is denying spiritual or even divine status to the dead on the spiritual/divine continuum. They are not sanctified and so are not entitled to a share of YHWH’s sanctified tithes.

Communal Ancestors

A more subtle strategy for eliminating the ancestor cult appears in Genesis’ construction of a set of forefathers and mothers for all of Israel. They are specifically said to be buried in the same family tomb—the cave of the field of Machphelah, where Sarah was the first to be entombed:

^{בראשׁית כג:יט} וְאַחֲרֵי כֵן קָבַר אַבְרָהָם אֶת שָׂרָה אִשְׁתּוֹ אֶל מְעָרַת שְׂדֵה הַמַּכְפֵּלָה עַל פְּנֵי מַמְרֵא הִוא חֶבְרוֹן בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן.

^{Gen 23:19} And then Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan.

Later, Abraham (25:9), Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah (49:31), and Jacob (49:29–32; 50:1) are also entombed there.^[19]

These communally shared ancestors are meant to replace the individual families’ ancestors, but not as sources of power. Rather, it is YHWH who directly intervenes to ensure such crucial matters as human fertility and the granting and subsequent inheritance of the promised land to Abraham and future generations of what will become Israel.

Burying Sarah

When Abraham speaks to the Hittites about a place to bury Sarah, the passage repeatedly emphasizes and refers to Sarah (at least seven times) as “the dead” rather than naming her or giving her relationship as Abraham’s wife. For example, the Hittites say to Abraham:

^{בראשׁית כג:ו} שְׁמָעֵנוּ אֲדֹנִי נְשִׂיא אֱלֹהִים אַתָּה בְּתוֹכֵנוּ בְּמִבְחַר קְבָרֵינוּ קְבֹר אֶת מֵתֶךָ אִישׁ מִמֶּנּוּ אֶת קִבְרוֹ לֹא יִכְלֶה מִמְּךָ מִקְּבֹר מֵתֶךָ.

^{Gen 23:6} “Hear us, my lord: you are the elect of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places; none of us will withhold his burial place from you for burying your dead.”

Another clue pointing toward a likely hidden polemic here is the phrase that the Hittites use to characterize Abraham: נְשִׂיא אֱלֹהִים אַתָּה, “you are a mighty prince” or “you are one brought along by God.” He, and not Sarah, who is dead, has this exalted status.^[20]

YHWH Elohim: Personal and Universal Deity

The predominant view in the Bible champions the idea that YHWH Elohim is the only deity for members of the covenant community known as Israel. The concept probably emerged during the Babylonian exile among a family of priestly descent, as a way to adapt to the changed circumstances they experienced both religiously and culturally.

Priests would have been among the most likely Judahites to have honored YHWH already as their family god. In the new multi-religious and multicultural setting in which they found themselves, continuing the worship of YHWH at home would have helped maintain some sense of personal and group identity. Modeling home worship of YHWH among common Judeans might have led to the spread of the practice of YHWH as a household god: YHWH as Elohim.

The term אֱלֹהִים sometimes represents a standard plural noun, meaning gods or numinous entities, and in such cases, uses a plural verb form. When applied to YHWH, however, the accompanying verb form is the singular, and the term is best understood as a plural of abstraction or abstract noun: “divinity”.^[21] The development of the epithet Elohim for YHWH involves the twofold assertion that YHWH alone is to be equated with the abstract concept of divinity, as expressed in the Shema:

^{דברים ו:ד} שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְ־הוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְ־הוָה אֶחָד.

^{Deut 6:4} Hear, O Israel! YHWH is our God, YHWH alone.^[22]

As a corollary, YHWH must assume all the functions that formerly had been associated with other gods and numinous entities in the monarchic-era religion of Judah and Israel. In a way, then, both the plural and abstract meanings can be evoked simultaneously: YHWH has absorbed the attributes and identities of all other deities into the role of singular godhead or divinity.

As YHWH Elohim came to be perceived as both a personal and universal deity, personal piety and prayer made directly to this sole deity at home eventually replaced the household cult and the need to petition ancestral spirits.^[23]