saul | Coat of Many Colors – A Geek and the Bible

Halloween is the holiday of witches and warlocks, ghosts and goblins, and– if we are being honest– quite a few kids dressed up as the cast of Frozen. Halloween is also the season of ghost stories and the bible has a fantastic one: the Ghost of Samuel. The “Good Book” has its share of demons (we have discussed Azazel and Lillith in previous Halloween posts), but nowhere does the bible say more explicitly that witches are real, that necromancy is real, and that you can talk to the spirits of the dead than in the story of King Saul and the Ghost of Samuel. To do necromancy is against the Law of Moses, but that does not mean– the story seems to say– it does not work.

This is the story of King Saul and the Witch of Endor. It is a ghost story. So, gather around the campfire, bring out your bibles, and let’s talk spooky. Read on for more.

Continue reading Spooky Things in the Bible: The Ghost of Samuel, the Witch of Endor, and the Death of King Saul →

The situation was desperate: a small group of Jewish soldiers were surrounded. The year was 72 AD, only two years after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and eight years into a rebellion that pitted Jewish soldiers against the Romans. The Romans were winning, Jerusalem had been captured, and this may have been the last stand. The place was Masada, a fortress on a plateau on the edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea.

This is the first in a short series I’m calling “Biblical Tourist”, pictures and commentary on a recent trip to Israel. This was my third trip so I didn’t see all of the typical things, but I took a lot of pictures. Each entry in this series will connect to bible passages in some way.

So, what happened? And where are the pictures? And how does a fort built more then thirty years after Jesus figure into the bible? Read on for more!

Continue reading Masada in the Bible →