Demonic · Deliverance tradition · c. 400 BCE

The Familiar Spirit

Also called Ob, The spirit of Endor

The biblical term for a medium's attending spirit — and at Endor, the one occasion where the practice is depicted as working.

42attested

Narrow source base

InfernalNamed SpiritChristian Deliverance & Spiritual Warfare

The law forbids consulting familiar spirits repeatedly and prescribes death for it. Then 1 Samuel 28 has Saul, having himself expelled the mediums, go in disguise to the woman at Endor and ask her to bring up Samuel. She does, she is frightened by what appears, and Samuel — the text simply says Samuel — delivers a judgment on Saul that comes true.

The narrative is awkward for everybody. It appears to depict a forbidden practice working, and the text neither explains the mechanism nor says the apparition was a deception. Interpreters have argued for it being genuinely Samuel, a demonic impersonation, or a divine intervention overriding the medium, and the passage supports none of these decisively.

Identity

Where does the name come from?

What the name means

'Familiar' here is the old sense of Latin *familiaris*, a member of the household, not 'well known'. The Hebrew behind the biblical phrase is *ob*, and BDB (1906) files it as one word with three senses: a skin-bottle, at Job 32:19; a necromancer, in the recurring legal pairing with the wizard; and a ghost, at Isaiah 29:4, where a voice comes from the ground and chirps out of the dust. BDB also records the proposal that *ob* is primarily a subterranean spirit and that the necromancer sense is a shortening of the fuller phrase — the witch of Endor is literally a mistress of *ob*. Which of the three came first is not settled, and BDB does not settle it.

Where it was actually worshipped

None. A category in modern deliverance teaching rather than a figure anyone has ever worshipped — these are diagnoses of a condition, and a diagnosis has no address.

A figure with temples and a figure that only ever existed on a page are different kinds of thing, and the difference is easy to lose once both are entries in a list.

At a glance

Vitals

Also known as

ObThe spirit of Endor

First attested: Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon · c. 900–100 BCE
Named there as: A familiar spirit
Rank: Named Spirit
Order: Deliverance tradition
Base of operations: None. A category in modern deliverance teaching rather than a figure anyone has ever worshipped — these are diagnoses of a condition, and a diagnosis has no address.
Era: c. 400 BCE
Traditions: Christian, Deliverance & Spiritual Warfare

Traits

Domain: Necromancy, mediumship, consultation of the dead
How firm the basis is: Strong as a phrase; the Endor narrative is harder than either side allows
Textual basis: Leviticus 20:27, 1 Samuel 28

Stats

Source base42/100

Standing in the traditionNamed Spirit

Texts naming it2

Powers attributed3

Known connections

Identified with

Lilith

3 attributed

What is it said to do?

Where these powers cluster

The 3 offices attributed to The Familiar Spirit, grouped by kind. Segment width is the share of powers falling in each category.

A bar dominated by one colour means a specialist; an even spread means a figure the sources credit with almost anything.

divination1
transformation1
malefic1

divination

Reveals Past, Present & Future Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon

transformation

Raises or Speaks with the Dead Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon

malefic

Deceives & Tempts Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon

2 claims

What is it blamed for?

Harms attributed to this figure by a named text. An attribution is not a diagnosis, and where a claim carries a grading it is about how well it rests on the passage it cites.

Consulting the Dead

c. 900–100 BCE

The medium at Endor brings up Samuel at Saul's request; the apparition speaks and its prediction holds.

Consulting the Dead

1973

Understood as spirits attached to a family or individual across generations, gaining access through ancestral occult involvement.

Grading · Moderate as a phrase, weak as a doctrine. The biblical term denotes a medium's spirit; the generational-inheritance framework is modern.

2 texts

Which texts say so, and where do they disagree?

When these texts were written

Each dot is one of the 2 texts that names The Familiar Spirit, placed at that text's approximate date.

A wide spread means the figure was carried across many centuries and traditions; a tight cluster means a single period produced the whole record.

2 texts spanning roughly 2,373 years

Where the texts differ

Name: given as A familiar spirit, Familiar spirits
Rank: given as A medium's attendant spirit; Grouping

Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanonc. 900–100 BCE

A familiar spiritA medium's attendant spirit

Forbidden on pain of death throughout the law. At Endor the woman brings up Samuel at Saul's request, and the figure that appears pronounces a judgment which is fulfilled.

“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death.”

Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance1973

Familiar spiritsGrouping

Treated as a family of spirits attached to occult practice and inherited involvement in it.

Connections

What is it connected to?

Identified with Lilith

Both belong to the practical magic of bowls, amulets and mediums rather than to any literary demonology.

Answered from the sources

Common questions

Which texts mention The Familiar Spirit?

ColossiansOne records 2 texts naming The Familiar Spirit: Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon and Pigs in the Parlor: A Practical Guide to Deliverance. The earliest is Hebrew Bible & Deuterocanon (c. 900–100 BCE), which gives the name as A familiar spirit.

Is The Familiar Spirit the same as Lilith?

ColossiansOne records the link as "identified with" rather than as simple identity. Both belong to the practical magic of bowls, amulets and mediums rather than to any literary demonology. Where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is shown rather than resolved.

What rank is The Familiar Spirit?

The texts do not agree. The Familiar Spirit is given as A medium's attendant spirit and Grouping depending on which source is consulted, which is normal for figures that pass through several traditions — each one assigns a rank from its own system rather than inheriting one.

How else is The Familiar Spirit spelled?

The name appears as A familiar spirit, Familiar spirits, Ob and The spirit of Endor. Variation on this scale is the norm: these names cross Ugaritic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and vernacular transmission, and each step reshapes the spelling. Every profile records the name as each text gives it.

What is The Familiar Spirit said to do?

The sources credit The Familiar Spirit with 3 distinct powers or offices, including Reveals Past, Present & Future, Raises or Speaks with the Dead and Deceives & Tempts. Each is attributed on the profile to the text that claims it. ColossiansOne describes what the texts say; it does not endorse the claims or reproduce them as instruction.

How old is The Familiar Spirit?

The earliest attestation in this corpus dates to c. 400 BCE. That is when the name first appears in a surviving text, which is a lower bound rather than an origin — a figure known from three tablets was probably named in many more that did not survive. The Familiar Spirit is classified as infernal in ColossiansOne.

Nearest in the corpus

If The Familiar Spirit is what you came for, these are next

Chosen by proximity rather than by popularity: the same pantheon first, then the same rank, then the same kind of figure.