Is The Bible a Magickal Text?

A great many people were raised believing that The Bible is the literal "word of God." Not a book written by men about God, but actually written BY GOD as it's author using humans as his "fingers" or divinely inspired scribes. In this way, as the doctrine is taught, although it was penned by sinful, imperfect men, the faithful should accept the Bible not as the word of man but as the word of God.

Having been raised as a devout Christian who became a true believer in the Bible as the infallible, ineffable word of God, I was surprised to learn that a great many people used the Bible as a book, a tool for working magick! To my very Christian viewpoint (at the time) this was difficult to comprehend.

Doesn't the Bible condemn magick and magickians?

As a former Christian minister and serious student of the Bible for over 25 years, I can answer this question with some authority. YES... and no!

Christians will tell you almost to a man, that the Bible condemns any and all supernatural activity that does not come from God. The presumption is that any powerful work that doesn't come from God MUST come from Satan!

People who believe this cite passages like the following as proof that God abhors magic, divination, omens, and Witchcraft.

Deuteronomy 18: 9-12 says,

"There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead."

On the surface, it would appear that this scripture is a pretty straightforward condemnation of common magickal practices. Like so many other passages in the Bible, upon closer examination, a rather different story arises.

On this score, I quite understand why Bible readers believe that magick is forbidden in the scriptures, especially if you are convinced that it is the UNADULTERATED, pure and un-tampered with DIRECTLY AND DIVINELY INSPIRED, infallible word of God! And, it should also be noted that there are quite a few other texts in other texts similar to the one cited above in Deuteronomy.

Here is why I, a former Christian minister, believe that those Christians and non-Christians who practice the magickal arts are NOT under divine condemnation for doing so.

Some background

The Bible did not come down out of heaven to us in its current form. A few things to keep in mind are as follows:

1) The word "Bible" comes from the Greek, meaning "books." The Bible is not actually ONE book but is a collection of 66 smaller books written by at least 45 different authors over the span of roughly 4000 years! This is the official story, although many scholars suggest there were other writers and contributors in addition to the traditional 45.

Before the Bible was whittled down to its current 66 book canon, there were other writings that were also considered "holy" or "scriptural" texts in the first century and there was a jostling for predominance in those days, but in the mid-sixteenth century to the 18th century, the 66 book canon we have today was finally settled upon by the major religious powers of the day.

Why is this important? Because it should be known that from the very beginning human beings have had their fingers in deciding what was and was not "inspired of God."

2) The Bible has been significantly altered and edited in MANY THOUSANDS of places in the 3000 or so years since it began to be written. Many of these alterations were errors, minor grammatical changes, it's true, but many were made to support the religious beliefs of the many religious institutions that translated and copied it over the millennia.

3) The Bible was NOT written in English. It was written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek primarily. That means that there have been many translations into virtually all the world's many languages. If we now add to the picture the fact that the words in every language gradually evolve and change with the passing centuries... well, you should then understand that the Bible was written in ancient foreign tongues over the course of thousands of years and was then translated into other languages whose words were also morphing throughout time.

The bottom line as far as this article is concerned is this: the words, magic, divination, Witchcraft, etc. have changed meanings a great deal since they were first written.

The meanings of many original words have been drastically altered when translating them into English and some of these changes were INTENTIONAL in order to promote and "prove" a certain religious doctrine. To be clear, Bible teachings were INTENTIONALLY DISTORTED to serve human ends! This was not a mistake or some conspiracy theory. This has been proven time and again by a wide variety of Biblical scholars.

(If you would like more information on this subject, I recommend a book by Bart D. Ehrman called Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why)

Gehenna, Hades, and Sheol

To give only one of many such examples of human tampering with the Bible I offer the following. The Greek words Gehenna, Hades, and Sheol are 3 DIFFERENT WORDS WITH 3 DISTINCT meanings.

Gehenna was basically a garbage dump that was located outside the city walls. Into this dump was tossed all sorts of garbage. To help consume the refuse the whole city was depositing there fires were kept burning 24/7 using a fuel called brimstone. It burned long and hot and was ideal for breaking down anything people threw into the town dump. Sometimes executed criminals considered unworthy of a decent burial were also thrown there as a final insult to their memory. You see where I'm going with this?

Hades was simply the common grave. It's where EVERYBODY goes regardless of how good or bad you are. When a person dies they go to "the grave" as a generic term to describe our common resting place. It's just "the grave" where you, me, and everybody else spends the rest of eternity.

That brings us to Sheol. This Greek word means variously the common grave, like Hades, or the unseen place your spirit goes when you die. To be clear, folks, there are other words in other languages that could be brought into this discussion but, if you are not already dozed off, they would definitely put you to sleep! There is also a phrase that figures in here used to describe a spiritual, figurative place called "the lake of fire."

What do these terms all have in common? They are ALL translated into English as "Hell." That's right!

The concept of Hell, and Hell fire, as it is taught in countless churches for a thousand years, is a FALSE, MANUFACTURED CONCEPT that does not exist in the Bible!

Basically, the church created a doctrine that was a composite of several unrelated concepts to form a single monstrously terrifying place. The idea of Hell might possibly be the greatest scare tactic ever devised to control the minds and hearts of millions of "the faithful." Cherry picking verses, mistranslated others, and using the illiteracy of Medieval churchgoers against them, they created a fictional place where you could be burned in a fire that was said to be 7 times hotter than natural fire (another concept not found in the Bible) if you failed to obey the church or its leaders. Eternal torment forever for sins committed during a tiny sliver of a human lifetime. How cruel!

All of this brings us full circle back to magick and the Bible. The bottom line is something we can all easily understand.

Most people in the religion business want the Bible to support their own ends. If it doesn't say what they want it to they will arrange to "tweak" or misquote it, or take passages out of context it any way they can.

The Bible is a VERY magickal book with stories of all kinds magickal, metaphysical, and supernatural things happening in almost every one of its 66 mini-books.

The passage in Deuteronomy and most of the other similar mentions of magic begins with a curious expression; "There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire..." This is talking about a horrific practice of sacrificing one's own family by burning them to death as PART of a magickal practice! This Biblical condemnation refers specifically to the practice in those days of empowering magickal rites with the spilling of precious HUMAN blood.

Curiously enough, the Jews practiced blood sacrifices EVERY DAY! They were animal blood sacrifices but it was part of their religious rites.

Jews were forbidden to practice divination like the nations around them but it was OK for them to seek divine guidance using the "Urim and Thummim." This was the casting of special stones which were interpreted as the answers to their questions. In other words, it was a form of divination! Lots were also used frequently to decide even life and death matters.

The "interpreting of omens" in Deuteronomy is also condemned but the Bible is full of stories where omens were seen and interpreted by God's people! There are so many instances of this that I hardly need to provide specific text locations. If you wish those details, feel free to write me.

As for the condemnation of "casting spells, consulting a medium or spiritist or someone who calls up the dead," I would say the Bible has many examples of the prophets, holy men and women, and other blessed characters who did ALL of those things for people! When THEY did them, of course, it wasn't called "Witchcraft!" It was called, a miracle, a powerful work, God's spirit, God "opening their eyes" to see things far away, or hidden, or future events, or calling forth and seeing the spirit of people who had passed.

Do I detect a bit of hypocrisy here? It begins to look like the main Biblical condemnation was made to maintain control over believers. They didn't want anyone to experience or use miraculous powers unless it was sanctioned by the priests, religious leaders, or the church. In this way miracles performed by approved people of their own faith were gifts from God but if the SAME gifts were possessed by people outside their control they were "from the Devil or the evil one." Yeah, right.

Final thoughts

The Bible is a rich source of Spiritual and allegorical truth. It is also inspirational and yes, it is very much a magickal, occult, metaphysical book. It is no surprise that people use it as a sort of Grimoire, calling on the many powerful characters and spirits whose stories are told within it. The Bible is like an iceberg that shows only the tip above the surface to the casual reader but whose true value is in delving deeper and deeper into metaphysical mysteries that are carefully hidden beneath the facade of its many stories, songs, poems, and histories.