Post by Rhiannon on May 17, 2004 16:01:35 GMT 1
Offering number two of Pagan Dogma:
Thou Shalt not Suffer a Witch to Live . . . no really it should read Thou Shalt not Suffer a poisoner to live – sound familiar to you?
It seems that this bit of pagan dogma can be traced to that favourite of Wiccans, Uncle Buck, aka Raymond Buckland. You know, the one who wrote that book that you can read and become the equivalent of a third degree Witch? Except some people conveniently ignore the words “the equivalent of” . . . but that’s a whole other thread!
The most well known version in Paganism of this particular bit of the Bible (Exodus 22:18) is the one quoted above. Other versions of the Bible use the term “Sorceress” or “woman who does magic”.
The original Hebrew manuscript uses the words “m’khashepah” or “khasaph”, the former meaning a woman who uses spoken spells to harm others, the latter meaning one who murmers.
So where does Buckland get his theory from? The Greek’s translated m’khashepah as Pharmakeia, one who deals in potions and poisons. At the time, in Greek culture, the use of potions for magical purposes was regarded as evil superstitious nonsense by the Jews. The murmerer of the Jewish culture filled a similar societal role as the Greek potion makers, therefore the Greek translation. So the Hebrew meant “evil woman who mutters spells to do magic” and the Greek was “evil woman who uses potions to do magic”. When King James was busy translating the Bible for us, the common usage of the word “witch” coincided with the evil muttering sorceress of the original Hebrew, therefore he used the word, having no idea that 500 years later the tree hugging Goddess worshipping neo-pagans of today would be claiming that title for themselves. If King James was using modern English to translate the Bible he would perhaps have translated it similarly to modern versions which use terms like “sorceress” or “woman who does evil magic”. (Yes – it is only female magic users who are the targets of this bit, but there’s plenty of other stuff in the Bible if the menfolk are feeling left out.)
Thanks and credit for the above to:
www.draknet.com/proteus/Suffer.htm and Aleq Grai
On to search out another piece of pagan doggy doo, oops, sorry dogma, to disect.
bb
Rhiannon
Thou Shalt not Suffer a Witch to Live . . . no really it should read Thou Shalt not Suffer a poisoner to live – sound familiar to you?
It seems that this bit of pagan dogma can be traced to that favourite of Wiccans, Uncle Buck, aka Raymond Buckland. You know, the one who wrote that book that you can read and become the equivalent of a third degree Witch? Except some people conveniently ignore the words “the equivalent of” . . . but that’s a whole other thread!
The most well known version in Paganism of this particular bit of the Bible (Exodus 22:18) is the one quoted above. Other versions of the Bible use the term “Sorceress” or “woman who does magic”.
The original Hebrew manuscript uses the words “m’khashepah” or “khasaph”, the former meaning a woman who uses spoken spells to harm others, the latter meaning one who murmers.
So where does Buckland get his theory from? The Greek’s translated m’khashepah as Pharmakeia, one who deals in potions and poisons. At the time, in Greek culture, the use of potions for magical purposes was regarded as evil superstitious nonsense by the Jews. The murmerer of the Jewish culture filled a similar societal role as the Greek potion makers, therefore the Greek translation. So the Hebrew meant “evil woman who mutters spells to do magic” and the Greek was “evil woman who uses potions to do magic”. When King James was busy translating the Bible for us, the common usage of the word “witch” coincided with the evil muttering sorceress of the original Hebrew, therefore he used the word, having no idea that 500 years later the tree hugging Goddess worshipping neo-pagans of today would be claiming that title for themselves. If King James was using modern English to translate the Bible he would perhaps have translated it similarly to modern versions which use terms like “sorceress” or “woman who does evil magic”. (Yes – it is only female magic users who are the targets of this bit, but there’s plenty of other stuff in the Bible if the menfolk are feeling left out.)
Thanks and credit for the above to:
www.draknet.com/proteus/Suffer.htm and Aleq Grai
On to search out another piece of pagan doggy doo, oops, sorry dogma, to disect.
bb
Rhiannon