What is the Christian position on witches and witchcraft?
The Bible says:
Exodus 22:18
“Do not allow a sorceress to live."
In a truly Christian society, without any secularism, would witches be killed? And would you support such a thing?
Indeed, would you like to live in a Christian State that uses Christianity and the Bible as the whole basis of how to govern
My mother, sister and aunt are all witches.. and they all do spells that can hurt people.. my sister works with a deity called Lucifer (very familiar to Christians)... Should I keep relationships going with them?
The translation of "witch" or "sorcerer/ess" is probably not the best translation of things like this.
The modern idea of witches/witchcraft is largely a product of modern Western Europe in a post Malleus Malificarum age.
The Hebrew word here is one with contested meaning, it is מְכַשֵּׁפָה (mekhashepha), a grammatical form of the verb kashaph, "to mutter". Literally it seems to mean "one who mutters" or "one who whispers" or perhaps "one who [practices] whisperings". The Septuagint chose the Greek word φαρμακοὺς (pharmakous) to translate this. This only raises more questions, as a pharmakous is one who does pharmakeia, again this frequently gets translated as "sorcerer" or "witch" or similar; but in its most basic and essential meaning is something like herbalist or poisoner. In the ancient world pharmakeia could refer to someone who cuts and mixes herbs, so as to produce a medicine. The Greek word pharmakon can refer to medicines, poisons, or drugs--the difference being the use of the pharmakon. Pharmakon which heals, what we would deem "medicine" is certainly not condemned; in the Seputagint's translation of Sirach 38:4
κύριος ἔκτισεν ἐκ γῆς φάρμακα καὶ ἀνὴρ φρόνιμος οὐ προσοχθιεῖ αὐτοῖς
"The Lord forms out of the earth pharmaka and a wise man does not scorn them."
Here pharamaka/medicines refers to what the earth produces, i.e. herbs which a physician mixes and uses to treat disease or injury.
On the contrary, one who mixes herbs to produce poisons, to cause injury, would be condemned. Such as those who create concoctions to kill or make people sick, perhaps to murder, or perhaps as what we'd call making "snake oil". Also, certain herbs and concoctions made of natural things have been used in spiritual and religious practices in many cultures around the world, where the use of such things are used to alter the mind, or are viewed as a way to communicate with the spirits, or gain communion with the gods, etc. From a Jewish/Christian perspective, using concoctions to commune with the dead, or with spirits of some kind, or in the honor of false gods would all be viewed as practice which is unacceptable.
In this last assessment, this is probably where "one who mutters" or "one who whispers" may get translated as pharmakous by the translators of the LXX. The idea is one who engages in whispering/muttering to commune with spirits.
The idea of trying to commune with the dead, or with spirits, or with supernatural (real or imaginary) entities is consistently condemned throughout the Old Testament, and is considered an abhorrent practice by God and thus He forbids Jews from engaging in it.
The construction of Exodus 22:18 is also interesting, it's fairly simple: mekhashepha lo t'hayah "one who whispers not do live". The Septuagint, again, offers us something interesting here, the LXX offers a simple and rather direct translation:
φαρμακοὺς οὐ περιποιήσετε
"pharmakous not to remain"
The idea here is to not tolerate those who do this thing. They shouldn't have a place in Jewish life and community. There is no command in this which suggests killing anyone. At least there's no direct statement to that effect. When we encounter practicioners of various supernatural "arts" such as communing with the dead or the like, we often see that they have been forced out of inhabited places. So, as just one example, King Saul visits one in the desert in an attempt to speak with the ghost of the deceased Prophet Samuel.
When we look at historic Christian practice, what we might deem as "magic" has routinely and consistently been condemned by Church authorities. However, Church authorities associated these things with superstition. The Greek word Christians used here was deisidaimonia, it referred to false spirituality or an irrational fear of the supernatural, literally "supplicating daimons", where daimon had a broader meaning than the more familiar "demon" and referred to any manner of supernatural entity or power. It was always used in a negative sense by Christian writers to speak of what they perceived as false spirituality, false worship, pagan superstition, etc.
Christian writers and Church leaders by and large viewed not only certain practices to be superstitious, but belief in such things as having any kind of power as being superstitious. So, for example, the Canon Episcopi, a common free-floating Canon extant throughout the Middle Ages and probably dates to Antiquity speaks of those who believe they go on "night rides" with "the goddess Diana". The Canon explicitly states that this is impossible, and that such people are simply delusional, and possibly have their minds being poisoned by the devil. It goes on to say that anyone who thinks or believes that the devil, or any creature, could have divine-like power is committing blasphemy against God, and believes heresy. Because there are things only God can do, and to attribute such things to any creature, to attribute it to Satan or to demons, is blasphemous.
Following this, both Church and State laws emphatically viewed belief in magic, and fear of "witchcraft" as a pagan superstition. When Charlemagne conquered Saxony, he desired to have the entire region baptized and converted to Christianity; and also to exterminate the pagan practices and beleifs among the Saxons. One of the things explicitly condemned and outlawed was the
pagan practice of hunting down women accused of being witches. Witch-hunting was directly and explicitly condemned by both Church and State authorities throughout the Middle Ages.
This only started to change in the transition from the MIddle Ages to the Modern Age. This is why we don't really see witch hunts and witch burnings in "Christian Europe" until the 16th and 17th centuries. It's why the Salem Witch Trials happened in Puritan Massichussets in the 17th century. The Salem Witch Trials were not a vestige of medieval Christian superstition, but was a modern phenomenon that emerged after the Middle Ages in the Early Modern Era.
It is also this superstitious fear of witches/witchcraft which has continued to haunt the modern world, such as the Witch Panics of the 1970's and 80's connected with the larger Satanic Panic of the era. It's why we still see accusations of witchcraft--and the killing of supposed "witches"--in those places which historically practiced killing people accused of engaging in mystical (and bad) practices. In some parts of Africa where folk religion still sometimes influences an otherwise Christian community, fear of witches remains--and is made worse because often the forms of Christianity which have been influential are modern forms of Christianity which actively promote fear of witches/witchcraft. In other words, it is a mixture of modern Christian superstition and folk superstition. But it does not reflect the historic beliefs and ideas of the Christian Church for most of its history. To put it another way: There are more superstitious Christians in the USA then there were in Medieval France or Britain. Which is a problem of modern Christianity.
The brief version of all this: No, don't kill people who call themselves "witches". There is no biblical nor Christian justification for doing something like that. "Do not murder" means
do not murder.
-CryptoLutheran
