"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18)

[technomage]

This may or may not be true but it works for me.

In eighteen years of being Wiccan, I have heard statements that were more foolish than yours. Just not many.

[MarcusAndreas]

The verse is about necromancy. End of discussion.

[IanCorrigan]

One of the original versions tranlates that line as "Thou shalt not allow a posinor to live". Supposedly changed to make an english King happy. One thing to not.. in other places some things are said just as bad.. don't make the mistake that even if this line is not really about witches.. still witchcraft, pagan worship etc.. are soundly and oftenly spoken out against in any translation of the Bible.

Brighid Bless, Dur

My understanding from a jewish friend is that the Hebrew term used in the passage has the connotation of 'sorcery with herbs and drugs' - thus 'poisoner' is one sort of translation.

The greek equivalent is the term 'pharmakos' which was used to refer to a type of sorcerer, again one who used potions, drugs, etc. The greek context clearly puts the term in the context of illegal magic.

It was entirely reasonable for the KJV translators to use the english term 'witch' (from a root meaning 'magic user') to translate the septuagint greek 'pharmakos'. Any english translator of the period would have said that pharmakos referred to witchcraft. Of course while greek had several words to refer to various types of disrespectable magical practice, english mostly had only one, and so the distinctions do get blurred. But there's no real mistranslation in the verse "thou shalt not suffer (allow) a witch to live"
Ian

[Huguenot]

I was curious if someone could find where in the Bible a witch was ever found? Was she burned or killed?

[Weboh2]

Φαρμακευς is the original greek word for witch, and it means someone who delivers narcotics or hallucinogens.

[Geoffrey]

Part of the problem is that we can no more than guess who these "witches" were that the Hebrews were commanded to eradicate.

All too many people imagine these witches as rather inoffensive fellows, and move from there to being indignant at this biblical commandment.

Read H. P. Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". Then ask yourself if letting Joseph Curwen live would be a good idea.

My guess is that these "witches" that Moses commanded the Hebrews to kill were of the same sort as Joseph Curwen. I don't think they were Wiccans or anything like that..

[Weboh2]

It was a command to not let them prosper. It wasn't a death sentence.

[Huguenot]

It was a command to not let them prosper. It wasn't a death sentence.

Under King Saul, I know of the witch who conjered up the dead spirit - or familar spirit - i.e. a demon from Hell, and she was exiled to a witches paradise of sort - Egypt.

LOL

[Weboh2]

Under King Saul, I know of the witch who conjered up the dead spirit - or familar spirit - i.e. a demon from Hell, and she was exiled to a witches paradise of sort - Egypt.

LOL

A different hebrew word is used for this person. It implies one who murders for money.

[MichelleA]

In the original it was '...not suffer a poisoner to live" and referred to poisoner of wells because water was scarce.

King James had it poisoner changed to witch to suit his own purposes.

[technomage]

In the original it was '...not suffer a poisoner to live" and referred to poisoner of wells because water was scarce.

King James had it poisoner changed to witch to suit his own purposes.

This is false, but is a commonly repeated error in the Neo-Pagan community.

The Hebrew word here translated "witch" is haKashaph--it does not refer to a "poisoner" or "poisoner of wells," but to one who performs incantations. The root of the word means "To mutter, to murmer," and is consistantly used in Hebrew and Ugaritic manuscripts to refer to witchcraft, not to poisoning.

In the Septuagint, the word was translated pharmakeia, which can mean poisoner, but more frequently means "one who makes magic potions."

Oh, and by the way--while King James commissioned the scholars who translated the Old Testament, he played no part in the actual translation.

[san1976]

King james WROTE a BIBLE it's not gods word it's his as he actually changed it to WITCH from POISONER. I am wiccan and think people should not JUDGE but they will because they judge about everything nowadays.

[Adrift]

King james WROTE a BIBLE it's not gods word it's his as he actually changed it to WITCH from POISONER. I am wiccan and think people should not JUDGE but they will because they judge about everything nowadays.

You resurrected a very old thread. No one has posted in it since 2009. But its odd that your post here is almost a thought for thought reply that technomage (also a wiccan) answered right above your post.

[Jeffrey Wood]

witch was someone who controlled another person without there consent or someone who caused harm through magical means.

[headheart]

witch was someone who controlled another person without there consent or someone who caused harm through magical means.

Traditionally that's how the line of reasoning went with the witch hunters but most of that was based on confused thinking as a result of a sort of religious-madness a sickness if you will, basically a sort of religious-fanaticism which often leads to bouts of fits similar to the sort of crazy ideas that were meant to be associated with the word 'witch' However, in actual fact most witches are just normal everyday folks who got mistaken for someone else's nightmare view of reality.
Once the passages are looked at carefully it's clear that the only sort of person that was doing the sort of thing that those old kill-em-dead-if-they-don't-follow-the-way-of-our-religion were actually sorcerer who practices sorcery, whereas witches practice magic which has very strict rules about who, how, when and why and it's hardly certain if their magic actually works yet I guess love works if you know what I mean?
It's a pity that there are these crazy misconceptions about witches but most of it is rooted in a fear which still hangs on from the early 1600s when there were the most ghastly witch trials. One has to just read about the sheer barbarism and stupidity to realize that it was ALL motivated by fear and ignorance.
I'll leave others to tell it, but I think if you get a book about the Salem witch trials and the crazy crack heads who went around holding trials and killing folks, you might get to wondering if you might have been on the list seeing as they just about thought that if you farted to loudly you might be a witch. Very different times, but it seems that some folks are still suffering from witch hunters moon madness.