48 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
48 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
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From "The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology"
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by Robbins / Crown / 1959
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BIBLE WITCHCRAFT. One of histories ironies is the justification
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of witchcraft on biblical texts, written originally for a
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religion which had no devil. Catholics and Protestants quoted
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Exodus xxii. 18, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." But
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the Hebrew word kaskagh (occuring twelve times in the Old
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Testament with various meanings) here means, as Reginald Scot
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pointed out in 1584, "poisoner," and certainly had nothing to do
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with the highly sophisticated Christian conception of a witch.
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Yet the domination of Holy Scriptures was such that these
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mistranslations fostered the delusion. After the execution of
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Goody Knapp at Fairfield (Kent) in 1653, a neighbor said "it was
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long before she could believe this poor woman was a witch, or
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that there were any witches, till the word of God convinced her,
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which saith, Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
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Another text which changed the Hebrew meaning--"a woman with a
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familiar spirit" for "pythoness"-- occurred in 1 Samuel xxvii,
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the miscalled Witch of Endor.
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Writers who tried to expose the witchcraft superstition, such
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as Reginald Scot or Thomas Ady, had to clear up two fallacies:
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(1) The numerous Hebrew words, uniformly translated by veneficus
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or maleficus or witch, covered many different practitioners of
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the occult, from jugglers to astrologers. To refer to all of
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these different classes by one word (witch) was inadequate and
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erroneous. (2) The defination of witch based on the pact with
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Satan, transvection, metamorphosis, sabbat and maleficia was
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neither implied or defined anywhere in the Bible. That the Old
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Testament did not deal with witchcraft is hardly surprising, for
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witchcraft depended on a Christian demonology. Thus Sir Walter
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Scott observed:
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It cannot be said that, in any part of that sacred volume [Old
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Testament], a text occurs indicating the existance of a system
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of witchcraft, under the Jewish dispensation, in any respect
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similar to that against which the law-books of so many European
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nations have, until very lately, denounced punishment.... In the
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four Gospels, the word, under any sense, does not occur.
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(Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft)
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Lea suggested the biblical denunciations against sorcery were
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directed almost exclusively against divination.
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In fact, therefore, while it may discuss magic and occult
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customs, the Bible has nothing to do with heretical witchcraft.
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