"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Ex. xxii. 18).
"If there had been no witches, such a law as this had never
been made. The existence of the law, given under the
direction of the Spirit of God, proves the existence of the
thing... that witches, wizards, those who dwelt with
familiar spirits, etc., are represented in the sacred
writing as actually possessing a power to evoke the dead, to
perform supernatural operations, and to discover hidden or
secret things by spells, charms, incantations, etc., is
evident to every unprejudiced reader of the Bible."--_Dr.
Adam Clarice_, Commentary on the above passage.
Thus wrote the great Methodist theologian. His master, John Wesley,
had previously declared, "It is true that the English in general, and,
indeed, most of the men of learning in Europe have given up all accounts
of witches and apparitions as mere old wives' fables. I am sorry for
it, and I willingly take this opportunity of entering my solemn protest
against this violent compliment which so many that believe the Bible pay
to those who do not believe it. I owe them no such service. They well
know (whether Christians know it or not) that the giving up witchcraft
is in effect giving up the Bible."*
* Journal, May 25, 1768, p. 308? vol. iii., Works, 1856. The
earlier volumes of the Methodist Magazine abound with tales
of diabolical possession.
That Wesley was right is a fact patent to all who have eyes. From the
Egyptian magicians, who performed like unto Moses and Aaron with their
enchantments, to the demoniacs of the Gospels and the "sorcerers" of the
fifteenth verse of the last chapter of Revelation, the Bible abounds in
references to this superstition.
Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator, writing upon our text, at a
time when the statutes against witchcraft were still in force, said: "By
our law, consulting, covenanting with, invoking, or employing, any evil
spirit to any intent whatsoever, and exercising any enchantment, charm,
or sorcery, whereby hurt shall be done to any person whatsoever, is made
felony without benefit of clergy; also, pretending to tell where goods
lost or stolen may be found, or the like, is an iniquity punishable by
the judge, and the second offence with death. The justice of our law
herein is supported by the law of God here."
The number of innocent, helpless women who have been legally tortured
and murdered by this law of God is beyond computation.
In Suffolk alone sixty persons were hung in a single year. The learned
Dr. Zachary Grey states that between three and four thousand persons
suffered death for witchcraft from the year 1640 to 1660.*
* Note on Butler's Hudibras, part ii., canto 8, line 143.
In Scotland the Bible-supported superstition raged worse than in
England. The clergy there had, as part of their duty, to question their
parishioners as to their knowledge of witches. Boxes were placed in the
churches to receive the accusations, and when a woman had fallen under
suspicion the minister from the pulpit denounced her by name, exhorted
his parishioners to give evidence against her, and prohibited any one
from sheltering her.* A traveller casually notices having seen nine
women burning together in Leith, in 1664.
"Scotch witchcraft," says Lecky, "was but the result of Scotch
Puritanism, and it faithfully reflected the character of its parent."**
On the Continent it was as bad. Catholics and Protestants could unite
in one thing--the extirpation of witches and infidels. Papal bulls were
issued against witchcraft as well as heresy. Luther said: "I would have
no compassion on these witches--I would burn them all."*** In Catholic
Italy a thousand persons were executed in a single year in the province
of Como.
* See The Darker Superstitions of Scotland, by Sir John
Graham Dalyell, chap. xviii. Glasgow, 1835.
** History of the Rise and Influence of Rationalism in
Europe, vol. i., p. 144.
*** Colloquia de Fascinationibus.
In one province of Protestant Sweden 2,500 witches were burnt in 1670.
Stories of the horrid tortures which accompanied witch-finding, stories
that will fill the eyes with tears and the heart with raging fire
against the brutal superstition which provoked such \ barbarities, may
be found in Dalyell, Lecky, Michelet, and the voluminous literature of
the subject. And all these tortures and executions were sanctioned and
defended from the Bible. The more pious the people the more firm their
conviction of the reality of witchcraft. Sir Matthew Hale, in hanging
two men in 1664, took the opportunity of declaring that the reality of
witchcraft was unquestionable; "for first, the Scripture had affirmed so
much; and, secondly, the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against
such persons."
Witch belief and witch persecutions have existed from the most savage
times down to the rise and spread of medical science, but nothing is
more striking in history than the fact of the great European outburst
against witchcraft following upon the Reformation and the translations
of God's Holy Word, This was no mere coincidence, but a necessary
consequence. "It was not until after the Reformation that there was any
systematic hunting out of witches," says J. R. Lowell.*
* Among my Books, p. 128. Macmillan, 1870.
If the Bible teaches not witchcraft, then it teaches nothing.
Science and scepticism having made Christians ashamed of this biblical
doctrine, as usual they have sought a new interpretation. They say it is
a mistranslation; that _poisoners_ are meant, and not _witches_. Now, in
the first place, poisoners were really dealt with by the command, "Thou
shalt not kill." In the second place, not a single Hebrew scholar
of repute would venture to so render the word of our text. Its root,
translated "witch," is given by Gesenius as "to use enchantment."
Fuerst, Parkhurst, Frey, Newman, Buxtorf, in short, all Hebrew
lexicographers, agree. Not one suggests that "poisoner" could be
considered an equivalent. The derivatives of this word are translated
with this meaning wherever they occur. Thus Exodus vii. 11, "the wise
men and the sorcerers." Deuteronomy xviii., 10,11, "There shalt not be
found among you anyone that useth divination, or an observer of times,
or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with
familiar spirits, or a wizard or a necromancer." 2 Kings ix. 22, "her
witchcrafts." 2 Chronicles xxxiii. 6, Manesseh "used enchantments, and
used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards."
Isaiah xlvii. 9 and 12, "thy sorceries." Jeremiah xxvii. 9, "your
sorcerers." Daniel ii. 2, "the magicians, and the astrologers, and
the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans." Micah v. 12, "And I will cut
off witchcrafts, and thou shalt have no soothsayers." Nahum iii. 4,
"witchcrafts." Malachi iii. 5, "I will be a swift witness against the
sorcerers." The only pretence for this rendering of _poisoner_ is the
fact that Josephus (_Antiquities_, bk. iv., ch. viii., sec. 34) gives a
law against keeping poisons. As there is no such law in the Pentateuch,
Whiston tried to kill two difficulties with one note, by saying that
what we render a _witch_ meant a poisoner. The Septuagint has also been
appealed to, but Sir Charles Lee Brenton, in his translation of the
Septuagint, has not thought proper to render our text other than, "Ye
shall not save the lives of sorcerers."
But apart from texts (of which I have only given those in which occurs
one word out of the many implying the belief), the _thing_ itself
is woven into the structure of the Bible. Not only do the Egyptian
enchanters work miracles and the witch of Endor raise Samuel, but the
power of evil spirits over men is the occasion of most of the miracles
of Jesus. The very doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible, so
cherished by Protestant Christians, is but a part of that doctrine of
men being possessed by spirits, good and evil, which is the substratum
of belief in witchcraft.
Even yet this belief is not entirely extinct in England; and Dr. Buckley
says that in America a majority of the citizens believe in witchcraft.
The modern Roman Catholic priest is cautioned in the rubric concerning
the examination of a possessed patient "not to believe the demon if
he profess to be the soul of some saint or deceased person, or a good
angel." As late as 1773 the divines of the Associated Presbytery passed
a resolution declaring their belief in witchcraft, and deploring the
scepticism that was general. In the Church Catechism, explained by the
Rev. John Lewis, minister of Margate in Kent--a work which went through
many editions, and received the sanction of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge--a copy of which lies before me, published in
1813, reads (p. 18): "Q. What is meant by renouncing the Devil?--A.
The refusing of all familiarity and contracts with the Devil, whereof
witches, conjurors, and such as resort to them are guilty."
Let it never be forgotten that this belief which has not only been the
cause of the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent women, but has
sent far more into the worst convulsions of madness and despair, is the
evident and unmistakable teaching of the Bible.