Though Shalt Not Suffer A Witch to Live….
A lot of potential spell casters have been scared off by this so-called biblical injuction in Exodus 22:18. However, most modern people who practice The Art were raised in a Judeo-Christian environment. So how can we reconcile this terrible warning with spell casting?
Mistranslations
The original Old Testament or Torah was written in Hebrew, and was written in the context of language use a few thousand years old. This article – Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live – is quite complete on this subject.
In its original Hebrew text the verse reads: M’khashephah lo tichayyah. Literally this means: “May a m’khashephah not live” or “You will not keep a m’khashephah in life.” M’khashephah is the feminine form (although it also has a collective meaning) of a term which can also be used in the masculine m’khasheph). It means someone who practices k’shaphim, a magic characterized by spell-working that aggressively makes changes in the environment.
Evil vs. Good Use of Magic
In other words, we believe the injuction applies to agressive and destructive use of spells. The spellcaster is condemned because she uses her powers to cause destruction, and not because of those powers. In fact, in I Samuel 28:7-25, King Saul consults with the “Witch of Endor.” In that story, she is portrayed as a virtous and helpful woman who goes out of her way to help.
The important thing to note here is that the ancient biblical Israelites did believe in the power of magic. They may have felt that this practice did cut into the identity of their religion though. Other translations may have been less severe than the first, in that a person should not give witches a livlihood (i.e. give them business), but not take their lives.
Either way, many modern bible translations have replaced witch with soceress, implying the injuction was against the use of evil powers, but not benign ones. Besides, in this modern world, it is easy to see how some very common practices could have been mistaken for witchcraft. Is the bark of a willow tree which contains the same indgredients as aspirin magic when brewed into a tea that could reduce fever and pain?
This line of thought just raises more questions. In the end, where is the line between magic and science? Maybe a modern scientist or doctor would have been considered a witch by ancient people.
