WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT WICCA AND WITCHCRAFT

Introduction

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Overview:

It is important to realize that:

Thus, in terms of behavior, Wicca is a benign and healing religion; the "witchcrafts" mentioned in the Bible are evil and destructive. The two are exact opposites.

That said, it is important to remember that:

Who exactly is a Witch?

In this section, we are considering whether the Bible specifically condemns Wicca. We have not been able to find any translation of either the Hebrew or Christian Scriptures which contains the words Wicca or Wiccan. However, many translations of the Bible, such as the King James Version and the New International Version, condemn what they call "Witches" and "Witchcraft". This causes serious misunderstandings.

The religion of Wicca is one of at least 18 different practices associated with the term "witchcraft." Most of are unrelated to each other. Of these 18 practices, six main forms of "witchcraft" exist today.

The most popular usages of "Witch" refer to:

1. A woman of such incredible beauty that she bewitches men.
2. An old woman, often portrayed with an evil appearance; sometimes called a "hag."
3. A follower of Religious Satanism who either worships Satan or recognizes Satan as a virile pre-Christian, pagan concept. They may perform evil sorcery, but only against their enemies.
4. A person devoted to performing evil sorcery: using rituals, spoken curses, etc to injure or kill others.
5. A Wiccan; a follower of a modern religion that was reconstructed partly from an ancient religion of the Celts. Wiccans are prohibited from harming others.
6. In Africa, a native healer who practices alternative, holistic medicine and may engage in evil sorcery.
7. In TV programs like Bewitched, a person, usually a woman, who was born with supernatural abilities and is capable of performing miracles by waving a wand, wiggling a nose, etc.
8. In children's books like the Harry Potter™ series, where people live in an alternative universe with unicorns, invisibility cloaks, dragons, talking animals, magical quills, flying broomsticks, magic wands, etc.

There are many additional meanings not cited above. Most are variations on the above eight.

General religious intolerance in the Bible:

Passages in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures are quite intolerant of other religions:

These are general condemnations. They criticize a wide variety of non-Judeo-Christian religions, not Wicca specifically.

On the other hand, many English translations of the Bible refer to Witches and Witchcraft by name. A careful analysis of the original passages in the original Greek and Hebrew, shows that they condemn individuals who:

Wiccans are prohibited from engaging in either of these activities. Wiccans are prohibited by the Wiccan Rede from dominating, manipulating, controlling, or doing harm to others. The use of the terms "Witch" or "Witchcraft" in English translations of the Bible is either a poor translation or a mistranslation. The Bible appears contain no direct references to Wicca and Wiccans.

Ambiguity in Bible translations:

By translating the original Hebrew and Greek text as "Witch" and "Witchcraft", translators have selected one of the most confusing words in the English language. In the case of the King James Version, this seems to have been done deliberately. King James had a deathly fear of "Witches" (in the 4^th meaning above). The justification for choosing such a misleading word in a some recent translations, is less clear. The translators must be aware of the exact meaning of the original Hebrew word; yet they selected an English word which was clearly ambiguous. Further, it makes large numbers of people vulnerable to religious hatred.

The only large religious group in North America who describe themselves as "Witches" are Wiccans and other Neo-Pagans. That minority of Wiccans who are open about their faith suffer extreme persecution from very well meaning, very devout but very misinformed Christians who honestly believe that they are following the guidance of various Biblical passages. In recent years in the U.S., this discrimination has occasionally taken the form of lynching, attempted mass murder by stoning, shooting, and other forms of assault. Fortunately, most modern translations have been using the slightly less ambiguous term "sorcery" in place of "Witchcraft". We expect that this change, plus accurate portrayal of Wiccans in the media, will gradually lessen the discrimination that they experience. More information about Witches.

Related essay:

Copyright © 1997 to 2001 incl. and 2003 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2003-JUN-2
Author: B.A. Robinson