On Witches

No Israelite should possess poison, whether lethal or prepared for other harmful uses. If anyone is found possessing it, they should be punished by death and suffer the very fate they intended for those against whom they prepared the poison. The Cornelian Law regarding assassins and poisoners Cornelian Law 46. says almost the same thing: "Whoever makes, sells, or possesses a harmful poison for the sake of killing a human being shall be punished." Saint Jerome translates the "pharmaka" original: "φάρμακα," meaning drugs, charms, or poisons of Jezebel as "poisonings" original: "veneficia" in 4 Kings 9 In the Latin Vulgate Bible used by the author, 4 Kings corresponds to 2 Kings in modern Bibles.. Furthermore, if we wish to apply the Old Testament to the New, we find Saint Paul using the same word in Galatians chapter 5: "pharmakeia" 10 original: "φαρμακεῖα", that is, the work of poisoners, among the "works of the flesh." The Germans incorrectly translated this as Zauberey German: "Sorcery" or "Magic", in which they are surpassed by the Italians, who translated it correctly as avvelenamento Italian: "Poisoning". If Paul had intended another kind of evil-doing, he could have used a different word, or repeated the term "baskania" or "baskainein" in- / fa- / sc. 20 original: "βασκανίαν" and "βασκαίνειν", which signifies "to bewitch" or "to fascinate" In the historical sense, "fascination" referred to casting a spell with the eyes, or the "evil eye.". This is the meaning used by Theocritus, Dioscorides, and the ancients—indeed, by Paul himself in the third chapter of that same epistle: "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you original: "τίς ὑμᾶς ἐβάσκανε", so that you do not obey the truth?" Here the Germans translated it correctly as Wer hatt euch bezaubert? German: "Who has bewitched you?" In the Revelation of John, chapter 9, where "Homicides" is placed first as a general word for killing, 30 "pharmakeia" original: "φαρμακεῖα" follows immediately—that is, evil deeds done through poisons. So too in chapters 18, 21, and 22.

mechashe- / pha. / mechashe- / him.

Meanwhile, I am not unaware that mechashepha and mechashephim Hebrew terms usually translated as "witch" or "sorcerer.", or pharmakon and pharmakeia, are sometimes used more freely and extended to include magical arts; but only to those known in those ancient ages. However, the acts of the "Witches" original: "Lamiae." The author uses this term to refer to the women accused in his own time of supernatural flight and sabbaths. described by me are entirely different from those mentioned by Moses and Holy Scripture. You can bring nothing solid from true histories written in that era to support this. What poets later

wrote about them are for the most part the vainest fictions, and mere fables, or rather lies.

Horace, On the Art of Poetry.

Virgil in the fourth book of the Aeneid and in his Pharmaceutria bear witness to this, as do Ovid in the seventh book of the Metamorphoses, Horace in Epode 5, Tibullus in Book 1, Elegy 2, and others. One can see these 10 in Book 3, chapter 1 of On the Deceptions of Demons The author is citing his own major work, "De Praestigiis Daemonum" (1563), a famous skeptical treatise against witch-hunting.; just as the law of the Twelve Tables regarding "charmed crops" An ancient Roman law against using magic to steal a neighbor's harvest. is refuted in chapter 16.

The matter itself shows that by mechashephim in Exodus 7:13, illusionists original: "praestigiatores" are designated; those who, by incantations or nefarious arts common among the Egyptians, presented certain things to the eyes of unbelievers that appeared to be real but were not. 20 Our witches, however, could by no means do such things, even if they most desired it; I challenge them to a test. In the remaining places (for that word is read in the Holy Bible thirteen times in all)—namely in Exodus 22:17, Deuteronomy 18:10, 4 Kings 9:22, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Isaiah 47:9 and 12, Jeremiah 27:8, Daniel 2:2, 30 Micah 5:12, Nahum 3:4 (twice), and finally Malachi 3:5—Saint Jerome translated that word as "Evildoers" or "Evil Deeds" original: "Malefici" or "Maleficia", according to the inflection of the word. I understand these to mean infamous magi and their acts. There is a controversy regarding the passage in Exodus 22. In 4 Kings 9, Jerome rendered it as "The poisonings of Jezebel"; 4 Kings 9. / Evil deeds / of Jezebel. others render it "The evil deeds [maleficia] of Jezebel." Yet one never reads that she practiced magical 40 arts, but rather that she raged with slaughter against the prophets; 3 Kings 18. 21. that she ordered the innocent Naboth to be stoned because he refused to sell his field; that she led her husband Ahab, King of the Israelites, to the worship of idols; and that she ate things sacrificed to idols, Revelation 2. and used arts...