📖 Biblical Definition
The practice of consulting the dead — seeking guidance, knowledge, or contact with deceased persons through occult means (mediums, séances, channeling, ancestor veneration, attempting communication with departed family members). Scripture's prohibition is unambiguous: Deuteronomy 18:11 lists the consulter with familiar spirits, wizard, and necromancer as abominations. The classic biblical case is Saul's consultation of the medium of Endor (1 Sam 28), which Scripture treats as a desperate sin that confirmed his rejection. The modern face of necromancy includes spiritualist mediums, ancestor-veneration practices common in some Christianized cultures, and the broader my deceased loved one is sending me signs sensibility.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
Consulting the dead; Greek nekros + manteia; Deut 18:11 abomination; Saul-at-Endor (1 Sam 28) as cautionary case.
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NECROMANCY, n. Greek nekros (dead) + manteia (divination). The practice of consulting the dead — seeking knowledge, guidance, or contact with deceased persons through occult means: spiritualist mediums, séances, channeling, ancestor-veneration rituals, attempts to receive messages from departed family. Hebrew expression: doresh el-ha-metim (one who seeks unto the dead). Listed alongside divination and witchcraft as abomination in Deuteronomy 18:11. The canonical biblical case is 1 Samuel 28 — Saul's consultation of the medium of Endor — which Scripture frames as desperate sin that confirmed his rejection.
📖 Key Scripture
Deuteronomy 18:11 — "Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer."
Leviticus 19:31 — "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God."
1 Samuel 28:6-7 — "And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not... Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her."
Isaiah 8:19 — "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits... should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?"
⚠️ Modern Corruption
A prohibition Saul's spectacular fall illustrates is softened into spiritualism, ancestor veneration, signs from loved ones.
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The cultural face of necromancy in 2026 is gentler than the Witch of Endor — it presents as the comforting sign from heaven, the visit-in-a-dream, the cardinal-bird-as-Grandma. The Christian observation is not that grief is wrong or that God cannot use providence to comfort the bereaved; it is that the practice of seeking the dead — consulting them, asking them for guidance, treating them as accessible communicators — is what Scripture forbids. The line is between providential comfort received (right) and deliberate consultation sought (forbidden).
Isaiah 8:19 gives the principle: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? The Christian's communication with departed believers is through the LORD they both share, not through direct contact across the veil. Mediums, séance, ancestor-veneration, and the broader spiritualist practice are all classed by Scripture as the same category as Saul-at-Endor. The cure is the providence-trusting prayer of the bereaved who entrusts her departed beloved to Christ and waits for the resurrection.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek nekros + manteia; Hebrew doresh el-ha-metim; classic case 1 Sam 28.
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['Greek', 'G3498', 'nekros', 'dead, deceased']
['Greek', 'G3132', 'manteia', 'divination']
['Hebrew', 'H1875', 'darash', 'to seek, inquire (the dead)']
Usage
"Providential comfort received is right; deliberate consultation of the dead is forbidden."
"Isaiah 8:19's question: should not a people seek their God rather than the dead?"
"1 Sam 28 is the cautionary canonical case."