A science which teaches to produce surprising and extraordinary effects; a correspondence with bad spirits, by means of which a person is able to perform surprising things. This was strictly forbidden by the law of God, on pain of death, Lev 19:31.
In the Bible, all the superstitious ceremonies of magicians, sorcerers, enchanters, necromancers, spiritualists, exorcists, astrologers, soothsayers, interpreters of dreams, fortune-tellers, casters of nativities, etc., which are all forbidden by the law of God, whether practiced to hurt or to benefit mankind. It was also forbidden to consult magicians on pain of death, Lev 19:31 20:6. See ENCHANTMENTS and SORCERERS.\par
Magic. Magic is "the science or practice of evoking spirits, or educing the occult powers of nature to produce effects apparently supernatural." It formed an essential element in many ancient religions, especially among the Persians, Chaldeans and Egyptians. The Hebrews had no magic of their own. It was so strictly forbidden by the law, that it could never afterward have had any recognized existence, save in times of general heresy or apostasy and the same was doubtless the case in the patriarchal ages. The magical practices which obtained among the Hebrews were therefore borrowed from the nations around.
From the first entrance into the land of promise, until the destruction of Jerusalem, we have constant glimpses of magic practiced in secret, or resorted to, not alone by the common, but also as the great. It is a distinctive characteristic of the Bible that from first to last it warrants no such trust or dread. Laban attached great value to, and was in the habit of consulting, images. Gen 31:30; Gen 31:32.
During the plagues in Egypt, the magicians appear. Exo 7:11; Exo 8:18-19. Balaam also practiced magic. Num 22:7. Saul consulted the witch of Endor. An examination of the various notices of magic in the Bible gives this general result: They do not, act far as can be understood, once state positively that any, but illusive results were produced by magical rites.
(Even the magicians of Egypt could imitate the plagues sent through Moses only so long as they had previous notice and time to prepare. The time Moses sent the plague unannounced the magicians failed; they "did so with their enchantments," but in vain. So, in the case of the witch of Endor, Samuel appearance was apparently unexpected by her; he did not come through the enchantments. -- Editor).
The Scriptures therefore afford no evidence that man can gain supernatural powers to use at his will. This consequence goes some way toward showing that we may conclude that there is no such thing se real magic; for although it is dangerous to reason on negative evidence, yet in a case of this kind it is especially strong. See Divination.
Magic was the art of influencing future events and changing their course by dark and secret means. Of the religion of the Egyptians, Chaldæans, Persians, etc., magic formed an essential element, and of the Egyptian magicians, in their conflict with Moses and Aaron, Exodus gives a vivid account. 7:11, 12, 22; 8:7. Of the religion of the Jews magic did not only not form a part, but the law forbade the consulting of magicians, under penalty of death. Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6. Nevertheless, from their neighbors magic crept in among the Israelites. The most remarkable instance is that of Saul and the sorceress of Endor. 1Sa 28:3-20. Also in the New Testament we find it mentioned. Act 8:9.
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By: Joseph Jacobs, Ludwig Blau
The pretended art of producing preternatural effects; one of the two principal divisions of occultism, the other being Divination. The effects produced may be either physical (as a storm or death under conditions insufficient to explain its occurrence, or any phenomenon impossible in the ordinary course of nature) or mental, and the latter either intellectual (as preternatural insight or knowledge) or emotional (as love or hate arising or disappearing in obedience to the arbitrary will of the magician). The methods of producing these effects include on the one hand actions of various sorts, and on the other incantations, invocations, and the recitation of formulas. Even in the Talmud the act and the results produced by it are regarded as the criteria of magic, and these two factors appear in all forms of witchcraft as essential characteristics. Closely connected with magic are Superstition and Demonology. In so far as gods are invoked (demons frequently being degraded gods), magic is akin to idolatry, and, in a certain sense, to Astrology.
In the Bible.
Jewish magic is mentioned as early as Deut. xviii. 10-11, where various classes of diviners, astrologers, and exorcists are named, their ceremonies being forbidden as idolatrous (comp. II Kings xxi. 6; II Chron. xxxiii. 6). Nor is there any doubt expressed as to the actual potency of magic, and the magician, who may misuse it, is accordingly feared and abhorred (Micah v. 11 [A. V. 12]; Jer. xxvii. 9; Ex. xxii. 17-23; et al.). The commonest form of magic was the love-charm, especially the love-charm required for an illicit amour. Such magic was practised especially by women, so that magic and adultery frequently are mentioned together (II Kings ix. 22; Nah. iii. 4; Mal. iii. 5). The law (Ex. xxii. 17 [A. V. 18]) which punishes sorcery with death speaks of the witch and not of the wizard. This was correctly interpreted by the Talmud (Sanh. 67a) as implying that magic was practised chiefly by women, and the context of the passages in Exodus which mention sorcery clearly shows that it was associated with sexual license and unnatural vices (Blau, "Das Altjüdische Zauberwesen," pp. 17-18, Strasburg, 1898; see Witchcraft). The frequency of allusions to it in the Bible indicates that the practise of magic was common throughout ancient Israel.
In Talmudic Literature.
More abundant information is found in post-Biblical literature, especially in the Babylonian Talmud, where the great number of the passages alluding to magic furnishes incontrovertible evidence of its wide diffusion. It was, however, only the practise of witchcraft which was prohibited, for a knowledge of magic was indispensable to a member of the chief council or of the judiciary, and might be acquired even from the heathen. The most profound scholars were adepts in the black art, and the Law did not deny its power. The people, who cared little for the views of the learned, were devoted to witchcraft, though not so much as the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans (Blau, l.c. pp. 17 et seq.). "Adultery and sorcery have destroyed everything" (Soṭah ix. 13); the majesty of God departed from Israel and His wrath came upon the world when the "wizards" became too numerous (Tosef., Soṭah, xiv. 3); Simon b. Shetah hanged eighty witches in a single day (Sanh. 45b); Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xlii. 9-10 is quoted in Sanh. 100b with the addition of the words "When the daughter grows old she will probably deal in magic" (see further examples in Blau, l.c. pp. 23-26).
This ingrained belief in magic infected even the scholars; for although they did not practise witchcraft for gain or for unlawful ends, they occasionally counteracted black magic by white. They were even able to create a calf when they needed food (ib. pp. 26 et seq.). Healing by means of white magic is not condemned except when the means employed are pagan or idolatrous. Many scholars consumed men with a glance, or reduced them to a heap of bones, but since this magic was regarded as a punishment for sins which had been committed, the passages of the Talmud which mention it take no exception to it (Blau, l.c. pp. 49-61). Exorcism also flourished, although not as widely as in Judæo-Christian circles (Acts viii. 9, xiii. 6-9). Jesus was regarded in the Talmud and by the ancient world generally as a magician (Sanh. 106b; Soṭah 47b; see Jesus in Jewish Legend). The Greco-Roman world regarded the Jews as a race of magicians (Juvenal, vi. 542-547; Suidas, s.v. 'E
Magic Agencies.
The means adopted in witchcraft were manifold. The most potent was human speech, to which all peoples attribute invincible power. "Open not thy mouth for evil" (Ber. 19a and parallels). Those words of the magician are all-powerful which he utters at the right time and place and under proper conditions (Blau, l.c. pp. 68-82). Since official Judaism bitterly opposed black magic, there was a constant stream of prohibitions against it, and from these the existence of various forms of witchcraft can be inferred. The secret Jewish name of God was a powerful factor in incantation, as is shown by the Egyptian magic papyri written in Greek, in which heathen and Jewish names of the Deity are frequently found in juxtaposition or combination, termed 
(= "union") by the Talmud (ib. pp. 117-146).
In addition to the magic word and the magic formula there were various magic objects (ib. pp. 156-165) which were used to avert the Evil Eye. Women and children, and even animals, as being weaker and less capable of resistance, were protected by Amulets and Talismans. These charms consisted either of natural objects or of papers with writing on them. Copies of the Bible had protective power and were carried especially on journeys, while the tefillin, as their Greek name, Phylacteries, implies, were also regarded as preservative, at least in Hellenistic circles, as were the slips of paper ("mezuzot") attached to the door-posts. Blau (ib. pp. 96-117) has edited, translated, and explained two Hellenistic exorcismal formulas, one of which was found in a grave in Hadrumetum (in the ancient Byzacium), in the Roman province of Africa.
Apocrypha.
In addition to the official sources from which the data given above are derived, the Apocrypha, in view of its antiquity, deserves attention in connection with the subject of magic. The general picture which it presents is the same as that given by the Bible and the Talmud. According to the Book of Enoch (ix. 7), the angels taught the daughters of men "incantations, exorcisms, and the cutting of roots, and revealed to them healing plants" (comp. viii. 1 et seq. with vii. 6, ix. 8; x. 7-8 with xiii. 2, xvi. 3, and lxix. 12 et seq.). The heart, liver, and gall are magic agencies, and the blind Tobit recovers his sight when his eyes are anointed with the gall of a fish (vi. 4 et seq., viii. 2, xi. 10; see Sibyllines, iii. 220 et seq., discussed in "Alter Orient," iii. 41; Ascensio Isaiæ, ii. 5; Syriac Apoc. Baruch, lx. 1, where the muttering of the incantations of the Ammonites is mentioned; see Kautzsch, "Apokryphen," ii. 435, note). Noah's book of healing (Jubilees, x.) was magical in character, as were the writings of Solomon and Moses, mentioned elsewhere.
Medieval Jewish Magicians.
In the Middle Ages, as in antiquity, the Jews were regarded as magicians, and many of them doubtless profited by the general delusion. In the ninth century a Jewish magician named Zambrio is found in Italy (Güdemann, "Gesch." ii. 40; comp. p. 255), and Sicilian sorcerers flourished even a century earlier (Zunz, "Z. G." p. 486; "Magyar Zsidó Szemle," xv. 47). The Arabic author Mas'udi speaks of a Jewish magician (Budge, "Egyptian Magic," p. 23). The Jews were considered sorcerers in Germany also (Güdemann, l.c. iii. 233; comp. "Israelitische Monatsschrift," 1899, No. 7; "Hebräische Bibliographie," 1903, No. 24; Micelle, p. 30, "Judæi . . . pessimi magici"; "Jüdische Wahrsager," in Van Vloten, "Recherches sur la Domination Arabe," pp. 55 et seq., Amsterdam, 1894). In times of drought, during the Middle Ages, the people turned to the Jews, who were suppoṣed to be able to cause rain, and they are still regarded by some peoples as magicians.
Sources of Jewish Magic.
The diversity existing within ancient Jewish magic and the essential contradiction between witchcraft and monotheism are in themselves evidences of foreign influence on the system. The scholars of the first centuries of the present era refer frequently and unanimously to Egypt as the original home of magic arts (Blau, l.c. pp. 37-49). In the Bible the real homes of all varieties of witchcraft are given as Egypt (Ex. vii. et passim) and Babylon (Isa. xlvii. 9-15). It is very probable that in this respect both countries influenced Israel, and their political power and high civilization made it inevitable that that influence should be deep, although the lack of historical data renders it impossible to determine its extent or trace its course. The influence of Egypt admits of no doubt as regards post-Biblical Judaism, which was for a long period under the control of the Ptolemies both in its civilization and its government. The Egypto-Hellenistic syncretism influenced first the Hellenistic Jews, especially those of Alexandria, and through them the Jews of Palestine. The Jewish and Judæo-Christian view as to the source of Hebrew magic is confirmed by the Books of Hermes and by the recently discovered Greek and Coptic magic papyri, in which the Jewish element is no small factor; and Jacob ("Im Namen Gottes") has recently proved that the belief in the almighty power of the name of God is Egyptian in origin. Although Assyro-Babylonian and other elements are not lacking, they are for the most part astrological and divinatory in character. Egypt, therefore, gave ancient Judaism its magic and Babylonia gave it its divination, while Hellenism served as the connecting-link.
In view of the authority which the Talmud possessed for posterity the magic in it could not but influence later generations. There is no doubt that the majority of the theurgic and magic elements in the post-Talmudic literature which Jellinek collected in his "Bet ha-Midrash," date from Talmudic, and in part even from pre-Talmudic, times (see Gnosticism). This may be assumed also for the magical portions of the geonic literature in general, especially as the Geonim lived and worked in Babylonia. This ancient magic, blended with Hellenistic and medieval European elements, was incorporated in the "practical Cabala." At the close of the Middle Ages the Cabala influenced the Jewish and the Christian world alike. The "Nishmat Ḥayyim" of Manasseh ben Israel, chief rabbi in Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, is filled with superstition and magic, and many Christian scholars were deluded. The evil deeply and widely infected the people, and is still active, especially among the Ḥasidim. See Abracadabra; Abraxas; Asmodeus; Astrology; Asusa; Augury; Balaam; Bibliomancy; Blessing and Cursing; Cursing; Death; Folk-Medicine; Hermes, Books of; Liver; Necromancy; etc.
Bibliography:
Zimmern, Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Babylonischen Religion, Leipsic, 1896;
Blau, Das Altjüdische Zauberwesen, Strasburg, 1898;
Brecher, Das Transcendentale, Magie, und Magische Heilarten im Talmud, Vienna, 1850;
Davies, Magic, Divination, and Demonology Among the Hebrews and Their Neighbours, London, 1898 (with extensive bibliography);
Gaster, The Sword of Moses, ib. 1896;
Güdemann, Gesch.;
Jacob, Im Namen Gottes, Berlin, 1903;
Reitzenstein-Poimandres, Studien zur Griechisch-Aegyptischen und, Frühchristlichen Literatur, Leipsic, 1904;
Schürer, Gesch. iii. 297-304 (extensive bibliography);
Scholz, Götzendienst und Zauberwesen bei den Alten Hebräern und den Benachbarten Völkern, Ratisbon, 1877;
Moïse Schwab, Un Vase Judæo-Chaldéen, in R. E. J. iv. 165;
Smith, Witchcraft and the Old Testament, in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1902, pp. 26-35;
Zauberei, in Winer, B. R.;
Magier, Magie,in Herzog-Hauck, Real-Encyc. xii. 55-70;
Hastings, Dict. Bible;
Jüdische Magie, in Beilage zur Münchener Allgemeinen Zeitung, 1898, No. 38.
Pretended art of producing marvelous physical phenomena through the intervention of spiritual beings and of influencing the course of nature by bringing into operation some occult controlling principle. Magic which made use of the invocation of evil spirits was always regarded as sinful, but natural magic, i.e., that which did not involve the aid of personal spirits, was regarded in the Middle Ages as a legitimate department of study. Books dealing with magic were forbidden by a Bull of Pope Leo XIII, 1897.
See Divination.
People have from earliest times had the urge to use supernatural (occult) forces to help them know the future. The foretelling of events in this way is sometimes called divination (Act 16:16-18). Magic, witchcraft and sorcery go beyond divination in that they seek to use occult powers not merely to foretell future events but also to influence those events.
Such magic often has an evil intent, being directed at enemies by means of curses, spells and ritualistic actions. Sometimes it may have a partly good intent in trying to reverse evil spells and curses (Num 24:1; Num 24:10; 1Sa 6:2; 2Ki 17:17; 2Ki 21:6; Dan 2:2; Rev 9:21). But divination and sorcery derive their power from the demons of the spirit world, and for this reason the Bible condemns them (Lev 19:26; Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Lev 20:27; Deu 18:10-11; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:24; Gal 5:19-20; Rev 9:21; Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15). Sorcerers often used their powers in deliberate opposition to God (Act 13:8; Act 19:19; 2Ti 3:8).
Among the methods of divination and sorcery mentioned in the Bible are throwing arrows into the air and observing the pattern formed when they fall (Eze 21:21), consulting idolatrous figures or images (Eze 21:21), looking into the liver of a sacrificed animal (Eze 21:21), consulting the spirits of the dead (1Sa 28:8-9), studying the movements of the stars (Isa 47:13), gazing into a bowl or large cup of water (Gen 44:5; Gen 44:15) and using wristbands and veils in weird rituals to cast deadly spells over people (Eze 13:17-19). Magicians were among the chief advisers to kings in many ancient countries (Exo 7:11; Dan 2:2).
Divination, witchcraft and all these associated practices are contrary to the ways of God, not only because they depend on evil spiritual powers for their operation, but also because they are a denial of faith. True believers walk humbly with their God, accepting that, no matter what the circumstances, God is still in control of their affairs. Having been saved by faith, they now live by faith (Gal 2:20; Eph 4:17-24; Col 1:11-13; Heb 11:6).
Jesus Christ has triumphed over all the unseen powers of evil, and through him believers too can triumph (Eph 1:19-21; Eph 2:6; Col 2:8-10; Col 3:1-3). They believe in the power of the living Christ, but they do not treat that power as if it is magical (Act 19:13-16).
Magic is an attempt to influence or control people or events through supernatural forces. People try to use these forces by performing ceremonies, saying special words (spells), using charms, and performing rituals.
Several terms in the Bible might be considered forms of magic. Several of these terms are mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:9–14. God does not allow the people of Israel to practice magic or occult activities. God's people should avoid magical practices because God communicates with them directly through his prophets. Human magical practices can create false hope or false fear and lead people away from God's truth. Although magical practices cannot match the accuracy of God's prophets, the Bible suggests there might be some supernatural reality behind certain magical practices.
Magic in the Old Testament
IMagicians appear in the Old Testament book of Exodus, where the magicians of Egypt compete against Moses. The Bible does not dismiss the magicians' initial success as mere tricks, since they were partly successful at first (Exodus 7–8). But their failures begin to become clear in Exodus 8–9. The Bible does not completely deny that evil supernatural power might work through a magician. What the Bible makes clear is that this power does not agree with God's will and cannot defeat it.
Magic in the New Testament
In the New Testament, magic is addressed in the book of Acts. When Philip went to Samaria, he met Simon the magician. Simon had gained much attention by amazing people with his magic (Acts 8:11). After hearing Philip's message, many believed in God and began following him. Simon saw the wonderful things Philip could do and thought these powers came through the ritual of laying on hands. Philip explained that these wonders could not be purchased but came as a gracious gift from God to those who are sorry for their sins.
Another important passage is Acts 19:11–20. Here, some Jewish exorcists tried to use Jesus’s name in their work. Instead, the man the evil spirit lived in attacked them. He overpowered them and they ran out of that house naked and hurt. This shows that the power behind the apostles' miracles was based on their personal relationship with Jesus Christ. After this incident, the people of Ephesus had to choose between the word of the Lord and their magical practices. Some brought their books together and burned them in front of everyone. This display of God’s power and the need for loyalty to him helped spread the good news about Jesus further.
The Bible's position against magic is stated strongly in the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. Sorcerers are condemned to the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). The Bible consistently opposes magic. It does not rule out the possibility that Satan can use magic for evil purposes. Magical practices are condemned because they may lead to false hope or false fear and draw people away from loyalty to God's Word.
See also Amulet; Canaanite Gods and Religion; Frontlet; Omen; Soothsayer; Sorcery; Psychics.
Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.