304 THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY vin 



In fact, when, shortly afterwards, Saul accident- 

 ally meets Samuel, he says, " Tell me, I pray thee, 

 where the Seer's house is." Samuel answers, " I 

 am the Seer." Immediately afterwards Samuel 

 informs Saul that the asses are found, though 

 how he obtained his knowledge of the fact is not 

 stated. It will be observed that Samuel is not 

 spoken of here as, in any special sense, a seer 01 

 prophet of Jahveh, but as a " man of Elohim " 

 that is to say, a seer having access to the 

 " spiritual powers," just as the wise woman of 

 Endor might have been said to be a " woman of 

 Elohim " and the narrator's or editor's explana- 

 tory note seems to indicate that " Prophet " is 

 merely a name, introduced later than the time of 

 Samuel, for a superior kind of " Seer," or " man 

 of Elohim." ! 



Another very instructive passage shows that 

 Samuel was not only considered to be diviner, 

 seer, and prophet in one, but that he was also, to 

 all intents and purposes, priest of Jahveh though, 

 according to his biographer, he was not a member 

 of the tribe of Levi. At the outset of their 

 acquaintance, Samuel says to Saul, " Go up before 

 me into the high place," where, as the young 

 maidens of the city had just before told Saul, the 



1 This would at first appear to be inconsistent with the use of 

 the word "prophetess" for Deborah. But it does not follow 

 because the writer of Judges applies the name to Deborah that 

 it was used in her day. 



