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The views of witches during the Lord’s time were actually complicated. I am pasting a post I made a couple years back on this:
There seem to have been various perceptions of witches or even what was a witch. Josephus’ account of Exodus 22:18 indicates capital punishment for an individual recklessly using poison as medicines.
34. Let no one of the Israelites keep any poison (30) that may cause death, or any other harm: but if he be caught with it, let him be put to death; and suffer the very same mischief that he would have brought upon them for whom the poison was prepared.
footnote #30 ( from above) states:
What we render a witch, according to our modern notions of witchcraft, Exod. 22:18. Philo and Josephus understood of a Poisoner: or one who attempted, by secret and unlawful drugs or philtra, to take away the senses or the lives of men.
From Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews book 4, chapter 8, section 34
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV
Amazingly in his account of Saul & the Witch of Endor ( 1 Samuel 28) while condemning sorcery, Josephus still praises the generosity & hospitality of the witch of Endor:
Now she had one calf, that she was very fond of; and one that she took a great deal of care of, and fed it her self: for she was a woman that got her living by the labour of her own hands; and had no other possession but that one calf. This she killed, and made ready its flesh, and set it before his servants and himself. So Saul came to the camp while it was yet night.
(33) because, when the King had forbidden her to use that art, whence her circumstances were bettered, and improved; and when she had never seen the King before, she still did not remember to his disadvantage that he had condemned her sort of learning: and did not refuse him as a stranger, and one that she had had no acquaintance with: but she had compassion upon him, and comforted him; and exhorted him to do what he was greatly averse to; and offered him the only creature she had, as a poor woman; and that earnestly, and with great humanity: while she had no requital made her for her kindness; nor hunted after any future favour from him: for she knew he was to die
The footnote ( #33, above) indicates:
These great commendations of this necromantick woman of Endor; and of Saul’s martial courage, when yet he knew he should die in the battel; are somewhat unusual digressions in Josephus. They seem to me extracted from some speeches or declamations of his, composed formerly, in the way of oratory, that lay by him; and which he thought fit to insert upon this occasion. See before on Antiq. II.6.8.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 6, chapter 14, section 2
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI
And Josephus was a Pharisee to boot.
The footnotes are from 17th c. English translator William Whiston who was an aquaintance of Isaac Newton.
William Whiston - Wikipedia
There seem to have been various perceptions of witches or even what was a witch. Josephus’ account of Exodus 22:18 indicates capital punishment for an individual recklessly using poison as medicines.
34. Let no one of the Israelites keep any poison (30) that may cause death, or any other harm: but if he be caught with it, let him be put to death; and suffer the very same mischief that he would have brought upon them for whom the poison was prepared.
footnote #30 ( from above) states:
What we render a witch, according to our modern notions of witchcraft, Exod. 22:18. Philo and Josephus understood of a Poisoner: or one who attempted, by secret and unlawful drugs or philtra, to take away the senses or the lives of men.
From Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews book 4, chapter 8, section 34
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews, Book IV
Amazingly in his account of Saul & the Witch of Endor ( 1 Samuel 28) while condemning sorcery, Josephus still praises the generosity & hospitality of the witch of Endor:
Now she had one calf, that she was very fond of; and one that she took a great deal of care of, and fed it her self: for she was a woman that got her living by the labour of her own hands; and had no other possession but that one calf. This she killed, and made ready its flesh, and set it before his servants and himself. So Saul came to the camp while it was yet night.
(33) because, when the King had forbidden her to use that art, whence her circumstances were bettered, and improved; and when she had never seen the King before, she still did not remember to his disadvantage that he had condemned her sort of learning: and did not refuse him as a stranger, and one that she had had no acquaintance with: but she had compassion upon him, and comforted him; and exhorted him to do what he was greatly averse to; and offered him the only creature she had, as a poor woman; and that earnestly, and with great humanity: while she had no requital made her for her kindness; nor hunted after any future favour from him: for she knew he was to die
The footnote ( #33, above) indicates:
These great commendations of this necromantick woman of Endor; and of Saul’s martial courage, when yet he knew he should die in the battel; are somewhat unusual digressions in Josephus. They seem to me extracted from some speeches or declamations of his, composed formerly, in the way of oratory, that lay by him; and which he thought fit to insert upon this occasion. See before on Antiq. II.6.8.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, book 6, chapter 14, section 2
Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews, Book VI
And Josephus was a Pharisee to boot.
The footnotes are from 17th c. English translator William Whiston who was an aquaintance of Isaac Newton.
William Whiston - Wikipedia
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