Chap. X The Several Sorts of Divination Forbidden
We shall find, Deut. 18. 10, 11. those Diviners, which are by the Law forbidden, distinguished into seven kinds; not because there were no other, but they were the most usual. 1. An observer of times. 2. An Inchanter. 3. A Witch. 4. A Charmer. 5. A consulter with familiar spirits. 6. A Wizard. 7. A Nigromancer. To these we may add an eighth, out of Hos. 4. 12. Consulting with the staff. and a ninth out of Ezek. 21. 21. A consulter with entrails. 1. The first is מעונן, an observer of times,500 one that distinguisheth times and seasons, saying Such a day is good, or such a day is naught; such an hour, such a week, such a month is luckie, and such and such unluckie for such and such businesses: whence those501 that derive the word from עין Gnajin, signifying an eye (as if hereby we meant a Jugler, or Imposter, who deceived the eyes of his spectators by casting a mist before them) utterly mistake: more pertinently they speak, who derive it from עונה Gnona, signifying Time. But of all I approve those who derive it502 from ענן Gnanan, A Cloud, as if the Original signified properly a Planetary, or Star-gazer. Hereby he is distinguished from the second sort of unlawful Diviners, for he also was an Observer of times; the first drawing his conclusions from the colour or motion of the Clouds: the second from his own superstitious observation of good and evil events, happening on such and such dayes, such and such times: the first seemeth to have drawn his conclusions, a priori, from the Clouds or Planets, causing good and bad events: the second, a posteriori, from the events themselves, happening upon such and such times. This Planetary, when he observed the clouds, seemeth to have stood with his face Eastward, his back Westward, his right hand towards the South, and his left hand towards the North: except it was from this positure of the Star-gazers body in time of observing, I find no reason why the Hebrews should term the Eastern part of the world קדים, Kadim i. The former part of the world: the Western part אחור, i. e. The back part; the South part ימין Jamin, i. e. The right hand; the North part שמאל Shemol, i. e. The left hand. That the reason of these denominations is, because Adam was created with his face toward the East, is as vain, as hard to prove.
2. The second is מנחש, Menachesch, rendred an Inchanter; it importeth rather an Augur, or Soothsayer. The Original signifieth such an one who out of his own experience draweth observations to foretell good or evil to come, as Soothsayers do, by observing such and such events, by such and such flying of Birds, screechings, or kawings. The Rabbines speak in this wise:503 He is Menachesch, a Soothsayer, who will say, because a morsel of bread is fallen out of his mouth, or his staff out of his hand, or his son called him back, or a Crow kawed unto him, or a Goat passed by him, or a Serpent was on his right hand, or a Fox on his left hand, therefore he will say, Do not this or that to day. This word is used, Gen. 30. 27. I have learned by experience, saith Laban, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. Again, Gen. 44. 5. Is not this the cup in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? that is, proveth, or maketh tryal or experience what manner of men ye are: The Heathen people were very superstitious in these observations: Some daies were Atri, others Albi, some unlucky, others lucky; on some daies they accounted it unfortunate to begin battel, on some months unfortunate to marry.
Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait.
Ovid. Fast.
And as they were superstitious in observing unlucky signs, so likewise in the means used to avert the evil portended: the means were either words or deeds.504 Deeds; thus if any unlucky Bird, or such like came in their way, they would fling stones at it; and of this sort is the scratching of a suspected Witch, which among the simple sort of people is thought to be a means to cure Witch-craft. By words, they thought to elude the evil, signified by such signs, when they say, Εἰς κεφαλὴν σοὶ, In caput tuum recidat hoc omen; This evil light on thy own head.
The third is מכשף Mecascheph, a Witch, properly a Jugler. The Original signifieth such a kind of Sorcerer who bewitcheth the senses and minds of men, by changing the forms of things, making them appear otherwise than indeed they are. The same word is applied to the Sorcerers in Egypt, who resisted Moses Exod. 7. 11. Then Pharaoh also called Mecaschphim, the Sorcerers. Now the Magicians in Egypt; they also did in like manner with their Inchantments. This latter part of the Text explaineth what those Sorcerers were. In that they are called Magicians, it implieth their learning, that they were wise men, and great Philosophers: the word inchantments declareth the manner of the delusion, and it hath the signification of such a slight whereby the eyes are deluded, for להטים Lahatim, there translated inchantments, importeth the glistering flame of a fire or sword, wherewith the eyes of men are dazled. The Greek version doth not unfitly term them φαρμακοὺς, Unguentarios, Syplasiarios, Compounders of Medicines, or if you please complexion-makers,505 such Artisans who mask men and womens faces with paintings and false complexions. Hence it is that the Apostle compareth such false teachers, who under a form and shew of godliness, lead captive silly women, to the Egyptian Sorcerers Jannes and Jambres, who resisted Moses, 2 Tim. 3. 8. These two were of chief note: In the Talmud506 they are all called Johanne and Mamre; by Numenius,507 a Pythagorean, Jannes and Mambres; by Pliny,508 Jamnes and Jotape.
The fourth is חובר Chober, a Charmer. The Hebrew word signifies conjoyning or consociating; either from the league and fellowship which such persons have with the devil, or as Bodine thinketh509 because such kind of Witches have frequent meetings, in which they dance and make merry together. Onkelos translateth such a charmer רטין Raten, a mutterer, intimating the manner of these Witcheries to be by the muttering, or soft speaking of some spell or charm. The description of a Charmer is thus delivered:510 He is a character who speaketh words of a strange language, and without sense, and he in his foolishness thinketh that these words are profitable: that if one say so or so unto a Serpent or Scorpion, it cannot hurt a man, and he that saith so or so unto a man, he cannot be hurt, &c. He that whispereth over a wound, or readeth a verse out of the Bible, likewise he that readeth over an Infant, that it may not be frighted, or that layeth the book of the Law, or the Phylacteries upon a child that it may sleep, such are not only among Inchanters, or Charmers, but of those that generally deny the law of God, because they make the word of the Scripture medicine for the body, whereas they are not, but medicine for the soul. As it is written, Prov. 3. 22. They shall be life unto thy soul. Of this sort was that whereof Bodinus511 speaketh, That a child by saying a certain verse out of the Psalms, hindred a woman that she could not make her butter; by reciting the same verse backward, he made her butter come presently.
The fifth, שאל אוב Schoel Ob, a consulter with Ob, or with familiar spirits. Ob signifieth properly a bottle, and is applied in divers places of Scripture to Magicians, because they being possessed with an evil spirit, speak with a soft and hollow voice, as out of a bottle. The Greek calleth them Ἐγγαστριμύτης Ventriloquos; such whose voice seemeth to proceed out of their belly.512 Such a Diviner was the Damosel, Acts 16. 16. in St. Augustines judgement,513 and is probably thought so by most Expositors, who are of opinion, that the spirit of Python with which this Damosel was possessed, is the same which the spirit of Ob was amongst the Hebrews. Hence the Witch of Endor, whom Saul requested to raise up Samuel, is said in Hebrew to have consulted with Ob; but among the Latine Expositors she is commonly translated Pythonissa, one possessed with the spirit of Python.
The sixth is, ידעני Iiddegnoni, a Wizard; in the Greek, he is translated sometimes Γνώστης, a cunning-man. In both Languages he had his name from knowledge, which either the Wizard professed himself to have, or the common people thought him to have. The Rabbies say,514 he was so called in Hebrew from a certain beast named by them Jadua, in shape resembling a man, because these Wizards when they did utter their Prophecies, held a bone of this Beast between their teeth. This haply might be some Diabolical Sacrament or Ceremony, used for the Confirmation of the league between Satan and the Wizard. Prophane History515 mentioneth Divinations of the like kind, as that Magicians were wont to eat the principal parts and members of such beasts which they deemed Prophetical, thinking thereby, that by a kind of μετεμψύχωσις the Soul of such Beasts would be conveyed into their bodies, whereby they might be enabled for Prophecy.
The seventh is דורש אל המתים Doresch el hammethim; the Greek answereth word for word, ἐπερωτῶν τοὺς νεκροὺς, An enquirer of the Dead, a Necromancer. Such Diviners consulted with Satan in the shape of a dead man. A memorable example we find recorded, 1 Sam. 29. There, King Saul about to war with the Philistines (God denying to answer him either by dreams, or by Urim, or by Prophets) upon the fame of the Witch of Endor, he repaired to her, demanding that Samuel might be raised up from the dead, to tell him the issue of the war. Now that this was not in truth Samuel, is easily evinced, both by testimonies of the learned, and reasons. First, it is improbable, that God who had denied to answer him by any ordinary means, should now deign him an answer so extraordinary. Secondly, no Witch or Devil can disturb the bodies or Souls of such as die in the Lord, because they rest from their labors, Rev. 14. 13. Thirdly, if it had been Samuel, he would doubtless have reproved Saul for consulting with Witches.
The eighth is שאל מקלו Scoel maklo, A Consulter with his Staff. Hos. 4. 12. Jerome saith the manner of this divination was thus: That if the doubt were between two or three Cities, which first should be assaulted; to determin this, they wrote the names of the Cities upon certain staves or arrows, which being shaked in a quiver together the first that was pulled out determined the City. Others516 deliver the manner of this consultation to have been thus: The consulter measured his staff by spans or by the length of his finger, saying, as he measured, I will go, I will not go, I will do such a thing, I will not do it, and as the last span fell out, so he determined: This was termed by the Heathens ῥαβδομαντεία or βελομαντεία, Divination by rod or arrows.
The ninth was ראה בכבד Roe baccabed, a diviner by intrales, Ezek. 22. 21. Nebuchadnezzar being to make war both with the Jews, and the Ammonites, and doubting in the way, against whether of these he should make his first on-set: First he consulted with his Arrows and Staves, of which hath been spoken immediately before: Secondly, he consulted with the intrals of beasts. This practice was generally received among the Heathens, and because the liver was the principal member observed, it was called ἡπατοσκοπία, Consultation with the liver. Three things are observed in this kind of divination. First, the colour of the intrals, whether they were all well coloured. Secondly, their place, whether none were displaced. Thirdly, the number, whether none were wanting; among those that were wanting, the want of the liver, or the heart chiefly presaged ill: That day Julius Cæsar was slain, it is storied, that in two fat Oxen then sacrificed, the heart was wanting in them both.
Notes
500 Jarchi. Lev. 19. 26.
501 D. Kimchi. in rad.
502 Aben. Esra. Levit. 19. 26.
503 D. Kimchi. radic.
504 Plura istiusmodi ἐνόδια σύμβολα vide apud Theophrastum Character. περὶ Δεισιδαιμ.
505 φαρμακὸς δέ ἐστι μύρεψος. Suidas.
506 Talmud. tract. Menachoth. c. 9.
507 Origen. contra Celsum. lib. 4.
508 Plin. nat. hist. lib. 30, cap. 1.
509 Bodin. Mag. dæmon. l. 1. c. 6.
510 Maimon. tract. Idolol. c. 11. sect. 10. 12.
511 Bodin. Mag. dæmon. l. 2. c. 1.
512 Chrysostom. 1 Cor. 12. Tert. adv. Marcion. l. 4. c. 25.
513 August. 1. de doct. Christ. c. 23.
514 P. Fag. Levit. 19. Verum Athenæus bestiam hanc vocat καταβλεπάδα. Vid. Bodin. Mag. dæmon. l. 1. c. 6. p. 18.
515 Perer. de Mag. p. 57.
516 Vid. Drus. in Deut. p. 592.