Old Testament Times.
There is considerable circumstantial evidence that the practices of the peoples of the land of Canaan, as well as those of other surrounding nations with which they had dealings, were quite prevalent among the Hebrews. The jealousy ordeal of Numbers 5:17 has its parallels in primitive medicine as well as in all Mohammedan countries, where we should call it magic. This drink, composed of holy water into which the priest put some dust from the floor of the sanctuary and into which he washed the curses against unfaithfulness which he had previously written on a parchment, the accused was forced to drink. This is "the bitter water which causeth the curse."
If innocent the accused received no harm, while the guilty could not drink with impunity. The miraculous healing of those bitten by the " fiery serpents" by means of the brazen serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness, bears striking resemblance to the theory of sympathetic magic. It seems evident that Rachael and Leah (Gen. 3o:14-16) knew the reputed magic power so universally attributed by primitive peoples to the mandrake. The beneficial effect of music was recognized when Saul was troubled by the evil spirit from the Lord. The plague is represented as a destroying angel and in one case was stayed by incense which Moses and Aaron carried among the people, in another by an angel of the Lord.
The belief in all the arts of magic, witchcraft, divination, enchantments, etc., seems to have flourished all through Old Testament times in spite of the opposition which the prophets and religious leaders of the people continually waged against it.' Balaam, who is spoken of as a soothsayer, was certainly believed in by the Hebrews. The Moabites came to him with the "rewards of divination in their hands," but he refused and (Num. 24:1) "went not as at other times, to seek enchantments," but "saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open," and declared (Num. 23:23) "surely there is no enchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel." True, Balaam was not a Hebrew, and consultations with familiar spirits were denounced, but still there seems to have been among the people a belief in these things all the while.
The Levitical law "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is in itself evidence of the belief in witchcraft even with the law giver. Dent. 18:10-11 says : " there shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer," things which they were warned not to learn from the people of the land. Saul, however, found occasion to put away those with familiar spirits and the wizards, but when he himself could get answer "neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets," he was able to find a witch at Endor.
Manasseh (2. Chron. 33:6) again introduced all these practices at the very temple itself. Josiah soon after endeavored to purge the land of all such "abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem," and still Ezra much later complains that " the people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Egyptians and the Amorites." (Ezra 9:1.)
Miracles of Healing
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By Charles W. Waddle (1909)
Primitive Christian Worship
Hereditary genius
