Guardian_V
April 10th, 2008, 04:13 AM
Here is an interesting article
Thou Shalt Not Suffer
a Witch to Live...?
©2001 - 2006 by Fiona Broome
People often ask about the famous line in the Bible, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18)
Here are the facts:
James I was notorious for being paranoid about witches, spells, and so on. This was, in part, due to volatile politics of the time. He had good reason to be nervous.
Witch... or Poisoner?
"His" Bible (the King James Bible) was translated to keep Jamie-boy happy, so they translated the word chasaph--which is Hebrew for poisoner-- to mean "witch" instead. The real Biblical passage was about the disturbing crime of poisoning in the Jewish community. When that line was originally written, poisonings were a growing concern. And, in that "eye for an eye" era, the logical sentence for a poisoner was death.
Reginald Scot dissents
Here's an early document, written around 1580 at the time of King James I, protesting the translation of chasaph as "witch." (And when good King James discovered what Reginald Scot had said in this book, James first wrote his own book, Daemonologie, a rebuttal to Scot's. Then James ordered his men to find every copy of Scot's book and burn them. It was too late. The Scot book was already in its third printing, widely distributed, and nine more chapters had been added.)
From The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot.
BOOKE VI
Chapter I - The exposition of this Hebrue word Chasaph, wherein is answered the objection conteined in Exodus 22. to wit: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, and of Simon Magus. Acts. 8.
(page 64) Chaspah, being a Hebrue word, is Latined Veneficium, and is in English, poisoning, or witchcraft; if you will so have it. The Hebrue sentence written in Exodus, 22. is by the 70. interpretors translated thus into Greeke, [note: I'll fill this in when I have a Greek font and more time], which in Latine is,
Veneficos (sive) veneficas non retinebitis in vita, in English, You shall not suffer anie poisoners, or (as it is translated) witches to live. The which sentence Josephus an Hebrue borne, and a man of great estimation, learning and fame, interpreteth in this wise; Let none of the children of Israel have any poison that is deadlie, or preparted to anie hurtfull use. If anie be apprehended with such stuffe, let him be put to dfeath, and suffer that which he meant to doo to them, for whom he prepared it. The Rabbins exposition agree heerewithall. Lex Cornelia differeth not from this sense, to wit, that he must suffer to death, which either maketh, selleth, or hath anie poison, to the intent to kill anie man.
This word is found in these places following: Exodus. 22, Deut. 18, 10. 2 Sam. 9, 22. Dan. 2,2. 2 Chr. 33, 6. Eay. 47, 9, 12. Malach, 3,5. Jerem. 27, 9, Mich. 5, 2. Nah. 3,4. bis. Howbeit, in all our English translations, Chaspah is translated, witchraft.
[This was copied from the Dover reprint edition of Reginald Scot's DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT. For a more complete copy of this text, see this page (http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/scot16.htm).]
The story doesn't conclude there.
Luther's Bible compounds the problem
The word "witch" appeared in Christian scriptures as maleficos, which is gender-neutral, until the mid-1500's. Then things took a nasty turn. In the "Luther Bible," the German line is "Die Zuberinnen soltu nicht leben lassen," which makes the word "witch" feminine. By 1566, in La Saincte Bible of Lyon, France, the word is even more clearly female, despite a footnote that the law applied equally to men. In other words, if people hadn't been so afraid of King James and mindful of his vivid imagination regarding Witches, that Bible passage might have been correctly translated. In that case, we might never have to deal with such preposterous prejudice in the Bible.
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ellerbe, Helen. The Dark Side of Christian Historyhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hollowhill&l=as2&o=1&a=0964487349. 1995, San Raphael, CA: Morningstar Books. Paperback. ISBN 0-9644873-4-9.
Pagels, Elaine. The Origin of Satanhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hollowhill&l=as2&o=1&a=0679731180. 1995, New York: Vintage Books. Paperback. ISBN 0-679-73118-0.
"The Book of Q" in any text. My favorite is: "The Lost Gospel : The Book of Q and Christian Originshttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hollowhill&l=as2&o=1&a=0060653752," by Burton L. Mack.
The "Book of Q" is the text of Christ's messages, as accurately as we can determine. If you're interested in "just the facts," and if you want to get to bedrock on Christianity, a copy of the Book of Q will save you a lot of research! Spong, Rev. John Shelby. Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes. 1996, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. Or any book by him. (His essays are here (http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/vox.html).)
Some of these books aren't about Witchcraft, per se, but if you're going to start digging into fact and fiction in the King James Bible, these books (and others by the same authors) are illuminating.
Thou Shalt Not Suffer
a Witch to Live...?
©2001 - 2006 by Fiona Broome
People often ask about the famous line in the Bible, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." (Exodus 22:18)
Here are the facts:
James I was notorious for being paranoid about witches, spells, and so on. This was, in part, due to volatile politics of the time. He had good reason to be nervous.
Witch... or Poisoner?
"His" Bible (the King James Bible) was translated to keep Jamie-boy happy, so they translated the word chasaph--which is Hebrew for poisoner-- to mean "witch" instead. The real Biblical passage was about the disturbing crime of poisoning in the Jewish community. When that line was originally written, poisonings were a growing concern. And, in that "eye for an eye" era, the logical sentence for a poisoner was death.
Reginald Scot dissents
Here's an early document, written around 1580 at the time of King James I, protesting the translation of chasaph as "witch." (And when good King James discovered what Reginald Scot had said in this book, James first wrote his own book, Daemonologie, a rebuttal to Scot's. Then James ordered his men to find every copy of Scot's book and burn them. It was too late. The Scot book was already in its third printing, widely distributed, and nine more chapters had been added.)
From The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot.
BOOKE VI
Chapter I - The exposition of this Hebrue word Chasaph, wherein is answered the objection conteined in Exodus 22. to wit: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, and of Simon Magus. Acts. 8.
(page 64) Chaspah, being a Hebrue word, is Latined Veneficium, and is in English, poisoning, or witchcraft; if you will so have it. The Hebrue sentence written in Exodus, 22. is by the 70. interpretors translated thus into Greeke, [note: I'll fill this in when I have a Greek font and more time], which in Latine is,
Veneficos (sive) veneficas non retinebitis in vita, in English, You shall not suffer anie poisoners, or (as it is translated) witches to live. The which sentence Josephus an Hebrue borne, and a man of great estimation, learning and fame, interpreteth in this wise; Let none of the children of Israel have any poison that is deadlie, or preparted to anie hurtfull use. If anie be apprehended with such stuffe, let him be put to dfeath, and suffer that which he meant to doo to them, for whom he prepared it. The Rabbins exposition agree heerewithall. Lex Cornelia differeth not from this sense, to wit, that he must suffer to death, which either maketh, selleth, or hath anie poison, to the intent to kill anie man.
This word is found in these places following: Exodus. 22, Deut. 18, 10. 2 Sam. 9, 22. Dan. 2,2. 2 Chr. 33, 6. Eay. 47, 9, 12. Malach, 3,5. Jerem. 27, 9, Mich. 5, 2. Nah. 3,4. bis. Howbeit, in all our English translations, Chaspah is translated, witchraft.
[This was copied from the Dover reprint edition of Reginald Scot's DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT. For a more complete copy of this text, see this page (http://www.esotericarchives.com/solomon/scot16.htm).]
The story doesn't conclude there.
Luther's Bible compounds the problem
The word "witch" appeared in Christian scriptures as maleficos, which is gender-neutral, until the mid-1500's. Then things took a nasty turn. In the "Luther Bible," the German line is "Die Zuberinnen soltu nicht leben lassen," which makes the word "witch" feminine. By 1566, in La Saincte Bible of Lyon, France, the word is even more clearly female, despite a footnote that the law applied equally to men. In other words, if people hadn't been so afraid of King James and mindful of his vivid imagination regarding Witches, that Bible passage might have been correctly translated. In that case, we might never have to deal with such preposterous prejudice in the Bible.
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ellerbe, Helen. The Dark Side of Christian Historyhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hollowhill&l=as2&o=1&a=0964487349. 1995, San Raphael, CA: Morningstar Books. Paperback. ISBN 0-9644873-4-9.
Pagels, Elaine. The Origin of Satanhttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hollowhill&l=as2&o=1&a=0679731180. 1995, New York: Vintage Books. Paperback. ISBN 0-679-73118-0.
"The Book of Q" in any text. My favorite is: "The Lost Gospel : The Book of Q and Christian Originshttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=hollowhill&l=as2&o=1&a=0060653752," by Burton L. Mack.
The "Book of Q" is the text of Christ's messages, as accurately as we can determine. If you're interested in "just the facts," and if you want to get to bedrock on Christianity, a copy of the Book of Q will save you a lot of research! Spong, Rev. John Shelby. Liberating the Gospels: Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes. 1996, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. Or any book by him. (His essays are here (http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/vox.html).)
Some of these books aren't about Witchcraft, per se, but if you're going to start digging into fact and fiction in the King James Bible, these books (and others by the same authors) are illuminating.