Summary:

Does the Jewish Tanakh or the Christian Old Testament forbid the use of witchcraft or just some forms? If you grew up a Christian it is likely you were taught that witchcraft was totally forbidden. However, there is no agreed on translation of terms used in the context of the time the Bible was written. Scholars suggest that what was being referred to was the magic practices of the surrounding peoples. The Israelites did employ divination techniques such as the Urim and Thummim with God’s explicit approval. So magic was approved of as long as it was not the magic of their neighbours.

Summary

Are all forms of magic prohibited in the Hebrew Bible or are only some types of witchcraft forbidden?

Stay tuned to find out!

Hello everyone. I’m Angela and welcome to my Symposium. I am a PhD and a university lecturer and this is your online resource for the study of magick, witchcraft paganism, shamanism, esotericism, and all things related to the occult, really.

This video will tackle whether in the Hebrew Bible, also known as Tanakh and the Old Testament by Christians, witchcraft is prohibited outright or whether there are forms of magic deemed acceptable.

The main source for the following content is the brilliant ‘Ancient Jewish Magic’ by Gideon Bohak.
Onto the topic now.

If you grew up in a Christian family or were taught the Bible in school, it is very likely that the matter of witchcraft had come up at some point. More specifically, the idea that witchcraft in all shapes and forms is forbidden to those who see the Bible as their sacred revealed text. However, when we look at the Hebrew Bible [Masoretic, basis of most English translations] in its original language and in relation to its cultural and historical context, we quickly realise that the matter is much more nuanced and complex. We definitely see many occurrences of witchcraft and divination being practised throughout the Hebrew Bible, while certain forms of magic do not really appear if not to be banned.

The two core elements to consider when trying to understand witchcraft in the Hebrew Bible are:

1 – The matter of translation.
Classical Hebrew and Aramaic work very differently, as languages, compared to English, or to any other language, the Hebrew Bible has been translated into, including the Greek of the Septuagint. Interestingly, there is no ‘insider’ term that the Israelites of the time used to define magic.

As Bohak highlights, ‘unlike some ancient Greek or Roman writers and rulers, and some Christian religious and political leaders, ancient Jews rarely labelled people as magicians or punished them for practising magic. Thus, an emic definition of ancient Jewish Magic is simply not available (Bohak, 2008, p. 3). So, if we don’t have an insider agreed-upon term for magic, how should we read the different translations of this concept found in the Bible?

And here we come to the second and most important element:

2 – Identity.
The matter of identity is embedded in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, and witchcraft is no exception to that.

This collection of texts tells the story of the ancient Israelites in search of their freedom, a land to settle in, and their cultural/national identity. As a consequence, the prohibitions are often related to this yearning for a stable, communitarian, centralised identity, which leads to the magic and the Gods of neighbouring countries being forbidden.

You don’t really have here, in fact, an all-encompassing ‘Don’t practice magic’ or ‘Don’t get involved in witchcraft’ but rather ‘Don’t be this kind of magician’ or ‘Don’t seek help from this type of witch’. Where ‘this kind’ usually refers to the type of magic practised by their neighbours, by the others (Bohak, 2008, p. 14). The Israelites were, at the time, trying to distinguish themselves from the non-Israelites and the prohibitions are simply aimed at ‘non-Israelite’ or ‘bad Israelite’ customs, which were perceived as displeasing their God.

For instance, the magical use of God’s powerful name is absent from the prohibitions of magic and divination found in Deuteronomy 18, Exodus 22, or Leviticus 19 and 20. This is due to it being a Jewish practice of the time as well as a way of providing a substitute for foreign practices offered by their own God’s prophets (Bohak, 2008, p. 18).

As Bohak suggests, ‘sometimes it is very clear that God’s sacred objects and priests are used as a substitute for non-Jewish practices and practitioners, as when the Bible condones and encourages divination by means of the Urim and Thummim while utterly forbidding any contact with non-Israelite diviners’ or practices (Bohak, 2008, p. 33).

To sum it up, in the Hebrew Bible there isn’t really an outright condemnation of magic or witchcraft but only of certain types of practices which were deemed foreign to the Israelite cultural and religious identity of the time. Thus, the proscription of any form of witchcraft and magic as ‘sinful’ or against the will of the Judeo-Christian conceptualisation of God is to be ascribed to later exegeses and consequent theologies on the part of religious denominations which adopt the Bible as their sacred revealed text.

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REFERENCE
‘Ancient Jewish Magic’ by Gideon Bohak