Primary source · Greek
Eustathius, On the Witch of Endor, against Origen
Eustathius of Antioch · c. AD 320s
What this text is
The Nicene confessor's exegetical duel: against Origen's reading of 1 Samuel 28, Eustathius argues the 'ghost of Samuel' was a demonic phantom — and, in passing, delivers the sharpest ancient critique of Origen's allegorism. Transmitted, with fine irony, alongside the very Origen homily it attacks.
Profile of Eustathius of Antioch →
Public-domain translations
Working translation (from the Greek, CCSG 51)
[It was not the soul of Samuel that the belly-myther brought up, he argues, but a phantom shaped to deceive — and Origen, reading spirits where the letter speaks, is answered chapter by chapter.]
Manuscript witnesses
Medieval Greek tradition (with Origen's homily attached)
10th c. onwardThe treatise travels bound to its opponent's text — adversarial transmission in a single quire.
Allatius's editio princeps (Rome)
1629First printing of the duel.
CCSG 51 (Declerck)
2002The modern text. The rest of Eustathius's corpus — against the Arians — survives only in fragments; the loss is logged on his profile.
Provenance
Antioch; the one complete survivor of the first Nicene bishop of Antioch's shelf
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The 'Belly-Myther' of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 (SBL WGRW)Rowan A. Greer & Margaret M. Mitchell, 2007Greek text with translation of the whole duel — deliberately even-handed between Eustathius and Origen.
- Eustathios von Antiochien (CCSG 51)José H. Declerck (ed.), 2002Critical edition with full study of the transmission.