Good morning, Shalom,<p>
Thank you for your customary warm welcome. It is a relief and a delight to find you still here.
I won't stay and bother anyone (except maybe you for the purpose of discussing words- I have always been impressed by your scholarly approach). I was disturbed by the implications of Chris Land's posts. In citing Ex.22:18 as justification for the horrendous torture and murder of thousands, and his focus on burning or hanging as the method of murder (as if the method mattered!), and his apparent avoidance of comment on the Church's activities during the Inquisition, I thought he rather missed the point that there was NO justification for what was carried out in God's name at that time and seemed, instead, to be legitimizing it.<p>
The reason I asked for his definition of witch was to try to pin down how much research he had done into the etymology and development of the word through the ages and whether he had considered possible translations, or was he just accepting the concept of "witchcraft" that really dind't gain popularity until the Middle Ages. Was he seeing pointy black hats and cauldrons bubbling in his mind?
You used Strong's Concordance for your definition, certainly an excellent source, but there has been a lot of debate about the word kashaph. (I think you know I am a word maven, and am never happier than when tracing word origins!)
The Webster's New World Hebrew Dictionary breaks the term "kashaph", into two parts: a root word, "kash", meaning, "straw, herb, reed", and "hapaleh",or "casting, bringing down, using."
Using this- it seems a closer definition might be "A person who uses/casts herbs/straw".
Somewhere I read that Kashaph is not the Hebrew term for witch. The Hebrew term for witchcraft is "keeshoof", meaning sorcery or magic. "Mekhash" means "to bewitch", and the term for a female who practices magic is "mekhashah", whereas the term for a male is "mekhashef", (the "ah"<br>
and "ef" suffix denoting gender.)
Speaking of gender--The KJV uses the Latin "maleficos", which is gender-neutral (to do evil); when Martin Luther did his translation, he changed this to 'Zauberinnen' which is the specifically feminine form of the English word 'witch
'
IN other verses, the same word (kashaph) has been translated as sorcerer, which in King James' time were interchangable . However, another source claims that in OT times, the word sorcerer refers to "man that learned in (well versed in) the Bible".
Translations being so susceptible to the influences of the cultures and times in which they take place, small variations can wind up altering entire meanings. The King James translation of kashaph as witch was opposed even in his own time by Reginald Scott, a scholar who claimed the word meant "poisoner" in his book, DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT. (1580)
All of this I throw out because I think it is important to realize before we cavalierly use a quotation to condemn thousands of people (or even the woman next door with a ouija board) to death, we are not infallible in our interpretation of the word of God. We know too little (and I would argue that we know too little both academically AND spiritually!) to assume the role of executioner, even if we claim the right to judge.
I hope this was as interesting to you as it was to me!
As always, it's a joy to see you; you are infallibly patient, kind, and gracious!
penni |
