Article on Witchcraft and Christianity

[Yahweh]

I decided to celebrate my morning-after-Rosh-Hashanah with a bit of fun googling, so I googled up the words "Jesus was a witch" just to see what kind of interesting things would come up.

Needless to say, I found some of the predicatable material which attempts to find parallels between the life of Jesus and basic Wiccan tenets.

Then, I came across a page titled Doesnt The Bible Forbid Witchcraft?, I thought I could shatter whatever apologetics this page might have with the words "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". The page caught my attention when it made two very interesting claims:
1. "... the words 'Witch' and 'Witchcraft' are accurate or inaccurate translations of the original terms. If they are not accurate, then the question remains open about the viability of Christian Witchcraft." (Dont pay attention to the strangeness of the words "Christian Witchcraft", the author does make an interesting point.)
2. " I conclude that the concern that the Bible prohibits Witchcraft or being a Witch is not a real issue."

I scrolled through the page only to see that the jist of these claims was eerily similar to the same low-caliber semantics gynastics that is very easy to find in Christian Apologetics. I have a great deal of spare time on my hands, so I thought it would fun to see how much of the apologetics truely held up. Because I dont read Hebrew or Greek, I turn to Strong's Greek/Hebrew Concordance found at BlueLetterBible.org as my authoritative source.

The page takes the (im)famous Exodus 22:18, and renders it as follows:

Exodus 22:18
KJV: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
NRSV: You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live.
Mine: You shall not allow a Kashaph to live.

Further down the page, the author writes:

In my studies I have discovered only one other Hebrew term that is close at all in sound to Kashaph, that is the word Kasaph. This term means to be greedy, to have desire, or to long.

A few translations from Yahweh's scouring of Strong's Greek/Hebrew Concordance:

The word "witch" is kashaph (meaning practice of witchcraft).

One translation of "lust" is nephesh
(which doesnt seem to be defined in a negative tone)

The word "desire" is 'avvah (which doesnt have negative connotations), ta'avah (which has negative connotaitons), and another nephesh.

The word "greedy" is kacaph, this seems to be the word the author is referring to above. (Although the translation pleonexia is the word which specifically means "desire to have more; covetousness").

The author is correct that Kacaph and Kashaph sound a great deal alike, but I'm not sure if I can give the author the benefit of the doubt that its merely a mistranslation. However, one thing led credence to what the author was saying, Vine's Expository of New Testament Words makes the following statement:

In the popular sense of the word no mention is made either of witches or of witchcraft in Scripture.

I would really like to know what "in the popular sense" means, but at face value it seems to restate almost verbatim what the author says.

The author deduces the following reasoning:

The one that strikes me is the Nahum 3:4 passage. In it Assyria is compared to a prostitute who is a Kashaph. By her sexual practices and her Keshaphim she has captured or enslaved nations and peoples. We are also told that her sexuality and her Keshaphim make her extremely desirable and alluring.

When we look at the 2 Kings 9:22 passage we find Jehu saying pretty much the same thing about the wicked Queen Jezebel. The story of Jezebel is one of a very alluring and attractive woman seducing first her husband the King and then an entire nation to false worship of a fertility cult of Ba'al and oppression of the poor in pursuit of materialistic wealth. In Jezebel's case we clearly see her as a Mistress of Lust and Greed. She is a Queen of Desire.

...

Taking this fact seriously means we realize that a Kashaph was a person who practiced some form of supernatural activity, just as a medium or a diviner did. It would seem logical from the 2 Kings and Nahum passage to conclude that the kind of supernatural activity was one of seduction and control of others. It would seem a Kashaph was someone who was filled with a deep desire and longing for power over others who used supernatural powers to seduce them to be under his or her sway. It is interesting that Keshaphim is often coupled with sex, which also is something that people can misuse to cast a web of control over others.

...

My conclusion is that the best thing to do is use the Hebrew term itself and define it. My definition is:
<blockquote>A Kashaph is a person who seduces other to his or her will through magical means.</blockquote>

When we realize what a Kashaph really was, and think about how being one meant a commitment to suborning other's freedom and autonomy, then the extreme antipathy we find in Exodus 22 is not surprising. In fact this attitude of being against folk who would steal other's wills from them, is actually in harmony with the Witches' Rede! In a sense a Kashaph is a spiritual rapist, few of us would have trouble with the ancient Hebrew Scriptures repulsion over such as a rapist, even if today we don't feel such a crime deserves a death penalty.

I find this to be at the very least, not unbelievable.

The author makes the following translation:

Leviticus 19:26
KJV: Neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.
NRSV: You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.
Mine: You shall not whisper enchantments or watch clouds ('Anan).

The words "observe times" are translated together as the word 'anan, meaning fortune telling and sorcery. Sifting through other translations of this verse, I was smiled a little after reading the HCSB's footnote "DIVINATION: An attempt to foresee future events or discover hidden knowledge by means of physical objects such as water, arrows, flying birds, or animal livers". After more sifting, I discovered that the YLT version of the bible confirms the author's literal translation. I feel sorry for all those meterologists and cloud watchers who will suffer God's wrath in the end ( )...


I dont see the authors reasoning as terribly far-fetched, and does seem to be supported. But I cant know for sure. Does the author really make a convincing case that witchcraft isnt explicitly condemned by the bible? If so, then this information is very new to me.

 

[c4ts]

Here's the thing. FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN MAGIC POWERS! THEY HATE COMPETITION! YOU CAN JUSTIFY ANYTHING WITH AN OUT OF CONTEXT BIBLE QUOTE!

Does it matter what the bible actually means? No. Because all they want to do is convert everybody and quote something they say is infallible so it sounds legit.

 

[Bikewer]

There's a possibly interesting slant in that "Witchcraft" in it's modern meaning of the religion of Wicca, is of relatively modern invention, created (as of last reading) out of mostly whole cloth back around the turn of the century. (The last one...)

The term used in the middle ages, and infamous from the various inquisitions and witch-hunts, had more to do with supposed Satan-worship, which (so far as I know, anyway) was unheard of in Biblical times.

Seems likely the OT writers were referring to various sorts of conjurors, diviners, and fortune-tellers, which we know existed in some plenty at the time.

 

[neutrino_cannon]

Let's not forget Genesis 1:14

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years"

Which could easily be taken as divine approval of augery and fortune telling in general.

There is a similar passage in Luke 21:25.

[hijack]
I suppose a similar arguement could be made for homosexuality. The references to homosexuality outside Leviticus are anything but clear, and the words used have some wiggle room in the translation, though not quite so much. Still, Biblical passages supposedly condemning homosexuality have all the clairity of mud.

Take for example Genesis 13:13 (ooh! double thirteens! Must be bad!). Since I can translate Latin, we'll take the Vulgate version:

homines autem Sodomitae pessimi erant et peccatores coram Domino nimis

No, the noun homo, hominis (m) does not mean what you think it does, it means man. My skills may not be the best, but I would translate the passage thus:

"Moreover(autem), the men of Sodom (homines Sodomitae) were terrible sinners (peccatores pessimi) exceedingly (nimis) before the Master/Lord/Invisable Pink Unicorn (coram Domino).

-Neutrino_Cannon standard version.

In the case of Sodom and Gomorrha, the clearest suggestion of homosexuality comes in Freaking Jude 1:7, which is several inches of gilded pages after the fact.

While I suppose it's trite to suggest that most Christian denominations derive their teachings first and interpretations second to fit, the suggestion would be in agreement with most of what I see.

Edited to add:

I just realized the humor inherent in all of those "personally know God" affairs, when one considers what the verb was a euphamism for in a Biblical context. That God fellow is one crazy guy.

Who said translation based apologetics had to be boring?