Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Witchcraft

Superstition is the natural complement to materialism. The mind of man, having once become warped in religious matters, does not cling with unerring sagacity to the truth that there is a God, but goes aside into bypaths, sometimes resting in that which is material, and seeking to exclude the idea of spiritual existences altogether from the mind; at other times oscillating in the direction of what is now called spiritualism, a system known in earlier days by the ruder name of witchcraft. Few things are more fascinating than the thought that the secrets of the hidden world or of the unknown future may be unfolded through dealings with the departed, or that one person may, by going through certain mysterious processes, exercise a powerful influence over the will or destiny of another incantations, drugs, vapours, the conjunction of the stars, the voice or flight of birds, the passage of the clouds, mesmerism, animal-magnetism, electro-biology - these and suchlike have been used in various ages and countries to take the place of religion, and by their means men have mimicked the supernatural dealings of God. But they are all abominable (Deuteronomy 18:10-12), and are to give way before the simple voice of the inspired prophet. Accordingly, the Ephesian converts acted on a true instinct, and in plain harmony with the teaching of the O.T., when they discarded their 'curious arts,' and burnt all their books at a great sacrifice (Acts 19:19)). How dishonouring to God these practices are the prophet Isaiah plainly shows (Isaiah 8:19), and how unprofitable to man our Lord teaches when He lays down that if men believe not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead (Luke 16:31).

Witchcraft

With one exception, which will be referred to under the head of 'divination,' the word for witch and witchcraft throughout the O.T. is Cashaph (כשׁף , Ass. kasipu). The original meaning of this word is unknown, but if we may judge from the use of cognate forms in Arabic and Syriac, it may be taken to refer to the performance of religious rites, either in the way of prayer or of secret communications with another world.

Witchcraft was adopted in very early days as a method of trading up on the religious instincts and superstitions of mankind. It was largely carried on by the female sex, though not confined to it. Thus Cashaph is applied to the 'sorcerers' of Egypt in Exodus 7:11, to Israelite sorcerers in Jeremiah 27:9 and Malachi 3:5, and to those of Chaldean orig in in Daniel 2:2. It is also used of sorcery in Isaiah 47:12. That the Canaanites were well acquainted with the art is evident from the fact that they had a city (Acshaph) which must have been specially named from it (Joshua 11:1; Joshua 12:20; Joshua 19:25).

The word is rendered witch or witchcraft in the following passages: - Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 9:22; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Micah 5:12; Nahum 3:4.

With regard to the exact nature of the art represented by this word, little is known; but the general rendering of the LXX, which is φαρμακεία, leads to the supposition that the use of drugs, probably to produce clouds of vapour, was part of the process. The art, whatever it might be, was denounced as one of the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:20, and is referred to in Revelation 9:21; Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15. See also Acts 19:19.