Reference: Magic, Divination, and Sorcery
Hastings
Magic, divination, sorcery, and witchcraft are all connected with belief in superhuman powers, and are methods whereby men endeavour to obtain from these powers knowledge of the future, or assistance in the affairs of life. Belief in magic and divination is most prevalent in the lower stages of civilization and religion. The arts of the magician and the diviner were founded upon the same logical processes as have issued in the development of modern science; but the limits within which deduction would be valid were disregarded, and the data were frequently imperfect. Accidental coincidence was often confused with causal sequence. (See Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, art. 'Divination'). Magic and divination were derived from attempts at reasoning which were very often erroneous; but from such crude beginnings science has slowly grown.
In their beginning these arts were associated with religion; and diviners and magicians were those thought to be most intimately connected with the Deity, and, owing to their superior knowledge of Him and His ways, best able to learn His secrets or secure His aid. Among the Arabs the priest was originally also the soothsayer; the Heb. k
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But while he thought on these things, lo! an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, fear not to take to thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.
Now when Jesus had been born in Bethlehem of Judaea, in the days of Herod the king, lo! there came magians from the East to Jerusalem,
And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for the multitude of their words.
And if I cast out the demons through Beelzebul, through whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be judges of you.
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from thee.
And the Pharisees and Sadducees came to try him, and asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
And all their works they do to be observed by men. They make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge their fringes,
And while he was sitting on the judgmentseat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that righteous man; for I have suffered much this day in a dream because of him.
and others, to make trial of him, asked of him a sign from heaven.
So he came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick, at Capernaum.
But before their arrival a certain man, named Simon, was in the city, a man practising sorcery, and amazing the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was some great person;
But Elymas the magian (for so is his name interpreted) withstood them, seeking so turn away the proconsul from the faith.
And it came to pass, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain bondmaid having a soothsaying spirit met us, who brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.
Then some of the wandering Jewish exorcists undertook to name over those who had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by that Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Many also of those who had practised magical arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, rivalry, outbursts of wrath, cabals, divisions, factions,
in the body of his flesh through his death, to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable in his sight;
But evil men and impostors will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
and they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them, their God;