Bede : But Samuel said to Saul: Why have you disturbed me? etc. And the books of the Old Testament, very full of the grace of prophecy, openly testify to readers that after the passion of the Lord they should not be raised again to the symbolic observance of the letter, but rather that the very ministers of prophecy are disturbed when they see what they wrote understood differently than they themselves sensed. — Commentary on Samuel Bede : And Saul said: I am greatly distressed, etc. The Jews, abandoned by God, possess the gift of prophecy not by merit, attacked by all nations, follow, so to speak, a dead shadow of the law and the prophets under blind night. This, beset by miseries, they think should be consulted as to what should be done with them. Indeed, those same legal ceremonies, now celebrated in vain and in corners, signify that which was once shown publicly by the command and gracious acceptance of God, namely that the old things were to pass away, and all things were to be made new, that the kingdom of the Jews was to be utterly destroyed and the kingdom of Christians to be spread throughout the whole world, just as Samuel, though dead, but raised through impious art, revealed everything about the change of kingdom which he had foretold while alive. If anyone is indeed troubled by how a woman with demonic art could disturb and raise a prophet after death, let him know for certain either that the devil showed then a false shade to those seeking it, or if Samuel truly appeared, that the devil could only do as much as the Lord permitted. Nor is it surprising that such things are allowed to a malign spirit for certain secret reasons, since he set the Savior on the pinnacle of the temple, and asked for and received Job to tempt. But if we believe that it was rather the fantasy of an unclean spirit that appeared, this should not disturb as to how such a one could speak true and prophetic things. For we know that the devil often can foretell many future things which he has learned from holy angels, but thereby one ought to listen to his words the less, because all that he speaks or does among men, he does with the intention of deceiving. And what was said among other things: — Commentary on Samuel Origen of Alexandria : These things, then, show that the things written are not false, and that it is Samuel who has come up. What, then, does a witch of Endor do here? What does a witch of Endor do concerning the bringing up of the soul of the righteous man? That man fled, the one who spoke the first argument (so that he might not seem to have a contest over the many other things sought regarding the passage), and says: It is not Samuel; the demon lies, since the Scripture cannot lie. But the words of the Scripture are not from the person of the demon, but from the person of the Scripture itself: "And the woman saw Samuel," "Saul said" … the things spoken by Samuel. How, then, will the matters concerning the witch of Endor appear, once the things regarding the passage are resolved? I inquire of the one who spoke the former things (Samuel in Hades? and the rest), and let him answer to what is asked: Who is greater, Samuel or Jesus Christ? Who is greater, the prophets or Jesus Christ? Who is greater, Abraham or Jesus Christ? Here no one of those who have once come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, will dare to say that Christ is not greater than the prophets. When, then, you have confessed that Jesus Christ is greater — was Christ in Hades, or did he not come to be there? Is not the saying in the Psalms true, interpreted by the apostles in their Acts concerning the Savior's having descended into Hades? It is written that there is borne upon him the saying in the fifteenth Psalm: "For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption." Then is Jesus Christ in Hades, but you fear to say that yes, even there he descends to prophesy and to come to the other souls? Then after this, if he answers that Christ has descended into Hades, I will say: Christ has descended into Hades to do what? To conquer, or to be conquered by death? And he has gone down into those regions not as a slave of those there, but as a master, to wrestle — as we said earlier when expounding the twenty-first Psalm: "Many calves surrounded me, fat bulls encircled me; they opened their mouth upon me, as a ravening and roaring lion. My bones were scattered." We remember, if indeed we remember the sacred writings; for I remember them being said with reference to the twenty-first Psalm. Therefore the Savior descended to save; did he descend there proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, or not? Was he here proclaimed beforehand by the prophets, but elsewhere descends not through prophets? Moses too proclaims him as about to sojourn among the race of human beings, so that it is well said by our Lord and Savior: "If you had believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote concerning me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" And Christ has sojourned in this life, and Christ is proclaimed beforehand as sojourning in this life. But if Moses prophesies him here, do you not wish that he had also descended there, to prophesy that Christ would come? What then? Moses yes, but the prophets after him not? And Samuel not? What is absurd about physicians going down to those who are sick? And what is absurd about the chief physician also going down to those who are sick? Those were many physicians, but my Lord and Savior is the chief physician; for indeed the inward longing, which cannot be healed by others, he himself heals; that which "could not be healed by any" of the physicians, Christ Jesus heals. Do not fear, do not be amazed: Jesus has come to be in Hades, and the prophets before him, and they proclaim beforehand the coming of Christ. — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.6 Origen of Alexandria : I have not digressed, nor have I forgotten the matter at hand; but this is what we wish to establish: that if all the prophets of Christ descended into Hades before Christ, as forerunners of Christ, so also Samuel descended there — not simply, but as a holy one. Wherever the holy one may be, he is holy. Is Christ no longer Christ, because he was once in Hades? Was he no longer the Son of God, because he came to be in the region below, "that every knee should bow in the name of Jesus Christ, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth"? Thus Christ was Christ even when he was below; and, so to speak, though being in the region below, in purpose he was above. So also the prophets and Samuel: even if they descend where the souls below are, they can be below in place, but they are not below in purpose. And I inquire: did they prophesy the things above the heavens? Yet I cannot grant to a demon such great power, that it prophesies concerning Saul and the people of God, and prophesies concerning the kingdom of David that he is about to reign. Those who say these things will come to know the truths regarding the passage; they will not find how to establish that a holy one would not come, for the salvation of those who are sick, into the place of those who are sick. Let physicians go into the places of the wounded soldiers, and let them enter where the stenches of their wounds are; this is what the physicians' love of humankind prompts. In this way the Word has prompted the Savior and the prophets both to come here and to descend into Hades. — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.8 Origen of Alexandria : And this too must be added to the argument: that if Samuel was a prophet, and when he departed the Holy Spirit left him, and prophecy left him, then the apostle does not speak truly who says: "Now I prophesy in part, and I know in part; but when the perfect comes, then that which is in part shall be done away." Therefore the perfect is after this life. And if Isaiah prophesied anything, he prophesied in part, with all boldness; but the things here are testified of David as pointing to the perfection of prophecy. Samuel, then, did not cast away the prophetic grace. And to show that he did not cast it away: did he use it in such a way — like those who speak in tongues — as to say, "My spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful"? And yet the one who speaks in a tongue does not build up the church; for Paul says that the one who prophesies builds up the church, saying in these very words: "But the one who prophesies builds up the church." Now if "the one who prophesies builds up the church," and Samuel had the prophetic grace (for he had not lost it, since he had not sinned; for only he loses the prophetic grace who, after prophesying, has done things unworthy of the Holy Spirit, so that the Spirit forsakes him and flees from his governing faculty — which David too feared then, after his sin, and said: "And take not your Holy Spirit from me") — if, therefore, the Holy Spirit prophesies, and Samuel was a prophet, and "the one who prophesies builds up the church," whom does he build up? Does he prophesy to heaven? To whom? To angels, who have no need? "They have no need, those who are strong, of physicians, but those who are sick." Some need his prophecy; for the prophetic grace is not idle — no gift of those given in the Holy Spirit is idle. Of the prophetic grace, then, the souls of those who sleep had need (that I may dare even to say it). But here Israel had need of the prophet; and the one who sleeps also, the one released from life, had need of the prophets, that again the prophets might proclaim to him the coming of Christ. Besides, before the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ it was impossible for anyone to pass where the tree of life is; it was impossible to pass those appointed to guard the way of the tree of life: "He stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life." Who was able to make a way? Who was able to make anyone pass through the flaming sword? Just as it belonged to no one to make a way through the sea except to God and to the pillar of fire, the pillar of light from God; just as it belonged to no one to make a way through the Jordan except to Joshua (that Joshua was a type of the true God) — so through the flaming sword Samuel was not able to pass, nor Abraham. For this reason Abraham too is seen by the one being punished, and "being in torments, the rich man, lifting up his eyes, sees Abraham," even though "he sees from afar," yet he sees, "and Lazarus in his bosom." They awaited, then, the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ — both patriarchs and prophets and all — that this one might open the way. "I am the way," "I am the door." There is a way to the tree of life, so that it may come to pass: "If you pass through fire, the flame shall not burn you." What fire? "He stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life." So for this reason the blessed ones waited there, carrying out a dispensation and not being able to come where the tree of life is, where the paradise of God is, where God is husbandman, where the blessed and chosen and holy ones of God are. — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.9 Origen of Alexandria : There is, then, no stumbling block regarding the passage, but all things have been wondrously written and understood by those to whom God may reveal them. But we who have come at the consummation of the ages have something more. What more? If we depart from here, having become good and noble, not bringing with us the burdens of sin, we too shall pass through "the flaming sword," and shall not descend into the region where those who slept before his coming awaited Christ; rather we shall pass through, in no way harmed by the flaming sword. "And each one's work, of what sort it is, the fire itself will test. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." We shall pass through, then; and we have something more, and we cannot, having lived well, depart badly. The ancients did not say — nor the patriarchs, nor the prophets — what we can say, if we live well: "For it is better to depart and to be with Christ." Therefore, having thus something more and much gain in having come at the consummation of the ages, we first receive the denarius; for hear the parable, that "beginning, he gave the denarius from the last; but the first thought that they would receive something more." You, then, who are first, having come last, receive the wages from the householder in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the might unto the ages of the ages. Amen. — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.10