Updates

1 files changed, 208 insertions, 59 deletions

diff --git a/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst b/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst
index 461289a..d359743 100644
--- a/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst
+++ b/faith/thou_shalt_not_suffer_witch_live.rst
@@ -18,16 +18,16 @@ don’t know what to do with (e.g., just for fun Exodus 35:2b NET
 Leviticus 25:44 NET “As for your male and female slaves who may
 belong to you—you may buy male and female slaves from the nations
 all around you.” so only Austrian slaves, but I cannot import
-them from Africa, even they are a way more affordable?), but then
-there are verses which nobody disputes but they are for most of
-us not part of The Bible Verseparade. I expect most of my readers
-to be Muggles, so I don’t think Exodus 22:18 KJV (“Thou shalt not
-suffer a witch to live.”) is up there in those most important
-Biblical verses of your life.
+them from Africa, even if they are a way more affordable?), but
+then there are verses which nobody disputes but they are for most
+of us not part of The Bible Verseparade. I expect most of my
+readers to be Muggles, so I don’t think Exodus 22:18 KJV (“Thou
+shalt not suffer a witch to live.”) is up there in those most
+important Biblical verses of your life.
 
 However, I think that even for us, Muggles, this verse can bring
 a very important lesson, and this is not the one I hear usually
-when it comes to be the subject of Christian talk.
+when it comes to be the subject of a Christian talk.
 
 First of all, let me add here disclaimer: whatever I say in the
 following paragraphs should not be understood as approval of
@@ -81,7 +81,13 @@ ago from our point of view, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t long time
 from the beginning of the Church as well.
 
 Next one is by Chesterton: we have tendency to always view
-history as the $$$
+history as something which happened in past, and we are the
+glorious (or not-so-glorious) culmination of past events. What if
+we are not the end of history, what if we are just the beginning?
+What if thousands years later, people will sing heroic songs
+about our deeds, and discuss whether somebody so unbelievable as
+President Nelson Mandela truly existed or if he was just a myth?
+Just a food for thought.
 
 Second note is substantially longer. We can use those twelve
 hundred years which separate us (roughly) from that year as
@@ -115,46 +121,179 @@ important, chronology of that era is really vague and uncertain).
 And somewhere there we finally get to the times the Old Testament
 writes about. That is how really far away we are.
 
-* Exodus 22:18 (LXX) “φαρμακοὺς οὐ περιποιήσετε.” : “You shall
-  not permit a female sorcerer to live.”
-* Leviticus 19:26 “You shall not eat anything with its blood. You
-  shall not practice augury or witchcraft.“
-* Leviticus 20:27 (LXX) “Καὶ ἀνὴρ ἢ γυνή, ὃς ἂν γένηται αὐτῶν
-  ἐγγαστρίμυθος ἢ ἐπαοιδός, θανάτῳ θανατούσθωσαν ἀμφότεροι·
-  λίθοις λιθοβολήσετε αὐτούς, ἔνοχοί εἰσι.“ “A man or a woman who
-  is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be
-  stoned to death, their blood is upon them.”
-* Deuteronomy 18:10-11 “No one shall be found among you who makes
-  a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices
-  divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, //
-  or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or
-  who seeks oracles from the dead.”
-* http://www.religioustolerance.org/divin_bibl.htm points rightly
-  out that some practices in Bible are looking very much occultic
-  in nature: Joseph’s silver cup used for divination,
-  Numbers 5:12-31, Urim & Thummim, Elisha cursing small boy who
-  calls him “badly”, lots, Daniel was supervisor of “the
-  magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers”
-  (Daniel 5:11). In the New Testament Paul’s declaration in
-  Acts 13:6-12 looks uncomfortably like a curse, and Acts 5:9
-  perhaps too (this one is more explainable).
-
-Uvedu ještě jeden příklad. Jsem veliký fanda knížek o Harry
-Potterovi od paní Rowlingové a nadšeným čtenářem fanfikce,
-příběhů, které jsou sepsány nadšenými fandy jejich knih a které
-rozšiřují doplňují, rozvíjejí a pokračují příběhy, které ona
-začala. Pochopitelně, že se velice zajímám o příběhy, které
-zpracovávají motivy křesťanské víry v magickém světě paní
-Rowlingové. Očividný problém pro každého mladého křesťanského
-kouzelníka a čarodějnici je verš „Čarodějnici nenecháš naživu.“
-z Exodu 22:18.
-
-Pochopitelně pro většinu z Vás, kdo předpokládám jste mudlové,
-nemáte žádné magické schopnosti, je tento verš vlastně nepříliš
-podstatný. Jedinou lekci, kterou si z něho vezmete je, že bychom
-se měli vyhnout horoskopům, kartářkám, okultismu a podobným
-nesmyslům, což je rozhodně dobrá rada, ale pravděpodobně to pro
-Vás není mezi deseti nejdůležitějšími verši z celé Bible.
+So, let us return back to witches in the Old Testament. There are
+surprisingly few verses explicitly dealing with witchcraft. Most
+important are four verses (Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 19:26, 20:27,
+and Deuteronomy 18:10-11). Let us start with the last one (YLT):
+
+    There is not found in thee one causing his son and his
+    daughter to \`abar ba-'esh (H5674, H784), a user of
+    qosem qesamim (H7080), a me’onen (H6049), and a menakhesh
+    (H5172), and a [practices] mekhashef (H3784), // and
+    a châbar (H2266) cheber (H2267), and one wə·šō·’êl ’ō·wḇ
+    yidde'oni (H7592 H178 H3049), doresh el ha-metim
+    (H1875 H4191).
+
+Young’s Literal Translation gives us this:
+
+    There is not found in thee one causing his son and his
+    daughter to pass over into fire, a user of divinations, an
+    observer of clouds, and an enchanter, and a sorcerer, // and
+    a charmer, and one asking at a familiar spirit, and a wizard,
+    and one seeking unto the dead.
+
+NET Bible this:
+
+    There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his
+    son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination,
+    an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, one who casts
+    spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the
+    occult, or a necromancer.
+
+Without even looking at the English translations, it is obvious
+that this is some kind of list of technical terms. Whole
+interpretation of these two verses stands and falls with the
+exact translation of these terms.
+
+Let me add here one very hypothetical example. Let us imagine,
+that after this verse about magic, there is another one, which
+reads:
+
+    You shall not permit bunja’h to live.
+
+Whole translation of the verse again hinges on the understanding
+of the term bunja’h (completely make-up word just for the purpose
+of this example). Unfortunately, this word is never ever
+mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, and we don’t know anything
+about it even from other ancient Hebrew literature (i.e., it is
+*hapax legomenon*).
+
+Imagine Saint Jerome sitting over this text racking his brain
+over this verse. In the end he dives into books about the Hebrew
+language, asks neighbouring rabbis for help, and then they
+conclude that by using languages of other ancient Near East
+nations it could be said that the word is based on roots of words
+“man” and “knife”, so it could be literally translated as
+something like “a man with a knife”. Jerome puts that in his
+translation project (later to be called Vulgate) and whole
+history of the Latin Christianity is then marred with the
+persecution of cooks and butchers. They have to live outside of
+the normal society in the neighbourhood of tanners, hangmen, and
+knackers, and in the difficult times and time of crisis they are
+frequently victims of pogroms.
+
+Poor Jerome didn’t know, that “a man with a knife” was in the
+ancient Palestine a slang expression for the assassin, who killed
+his victims with a knife.
+
+That’s an illustration how difficult is our situation and on the
+other hand, how important is to get the translation right, to
+fully understand it. And just to make it clear, there are over
+400 true hapax legomenon in the Hebrew Bible alone. For example,
+“gopher wood” from Genesis 6:14 has not been found anywhere else,
+so we really don’t know what the Noah’s ark was really made from
+(the idea it was cypress which is a common translation is just
+because it was the wood ships were usually made from, but there
+is no evidence it was really so).
+
+Back to our verse in Deuteronomy.
+
+    There is not found in thee one causing his son and his
+    daughter to \`abar ba-'esh (H5674, H784), a user of
+    qosem qesamim (H7080), a me’onen (H6049), and a menakhesh
+    (H5172), and a [practices] mekhashef (H3784), // and a châbar
+    cheber (H2266 H2267), and shâ'al ob (H7592 H178), and
+    a yidde'oni (H3049), and one doresh el ha-metim (H1875
+    H4191).
+
+    There is not found in thee one causing his son and his
+    daughter to pass over into fire, a user of divinations, an
+    observer of clouds, and an enchanter, and a sorcerer, // and
+    a charmer, and one asking at a familiar spirit, and a wizard,
+    and one seeking unto the dead.
+    
+
+Understating of some of these terms is rather straightforward.
+The context is the interdict on the pagan practices of
+divination, so *qosem qesamim* is literally “distributes
+distributions”, and according to the commentaries to the Czech
+study Bible, it means some kind of divination by observing either
+spread lots or arrows shot in front of the diviner. Another
+commentaries (NET Bible) claims it is just a generic term for any
+diviner who predicts future from observing various omens and
+signs.
+
+*menakhesh* has very complicated meaning. According to one it is
+just a generic term for any divination by observing signs and
+omens (Strong’s Dictionary). According to other (Czech Bible
+commentary, Wikipedia) this word derives from the word for snake,
+and as a verb it literally translates to hissing. It could mean
+either some kind of whispering or murmuring incantation, or it
+may signifies a snake charmer.
+
+*yidde'oni* means “consults a medium or familiar spirit”, and
+these mean just what the literal translation suggests.
+
+*\`abar ba-'esh* means literally “pass over into fire” and it is
+understood to be just repetition of the interdict on the human
+sacrifice, here probably specifically the sacrifice of children
+to the Canaanite god Moloch.
+
+*doresh el ha-metim* is slightly more complicated. Literally it
+means “inquires of the dead” (or “(one who) questions corpses”),
+which most English versions of the Bible translate as
+“necromancy”, but my Czech commentary suggests a diviner lying in
+a grave waiting for the vision there. 
+
+*me’onen* has rather obscure meaning. The literal
+translation is something like “conjure clouds”, which if it is
+meant to be some kind of magic, sounds to me more like some
+weather modifying, but if it is in the context of divination the
+commentaries claimed it to be aeromancy (divination from the
+shape of clouds), which is documented from the late ancient Rome
+(5th century CE) and it is thought to have been used by the
+ancient Babylonian priests. Given how accessible clouds usually
+are, I have no problems to imagine that some kind of divination
+from them could exist, but it is certainly not something which
+would be very widespread. On the other hand, NET Bible commentary
+explains that it is not about clouds, but about conjuring spirits
+and apparitions. Rashi’s commentary mentions, that The Sages
+(whoever they were) said, that this referred to those who “catch
+the eyes” [i.e., they deceived by creating optical illusions].
+
+*mekhashef* is translated as “sorcery”, but this meaning is far
+from certain and obvious. (khashef and khesh come from the same
+root, which means snake)
+
+*châbar cheber* means literally “join joinings”, which is not
+very clear. Rashi means that this is “One who collects snakes,
+scorpions or other creatures into one place.” The second world
+means either spells and charms, or something collected together,
+association, shared household, company of priests. Czech
+commentary to the Ecumenical translation suggests even
+a relationship with bindings in Matthew 18:18.
+
+.. https://netbible.org/bible/Deuteronomy+18
+   https://biblehub.com/parallel/deuteronomy/18-10.htm
+   https://biblehub.com/parallel/exodus/22-18.htm
+   https://studybible.info/strongs/H2267
+   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_and_divination_in_the_Hebrew_Bible
+   https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9982/showrashi/true/jewish/Chapter-18.htm#lt=both
+
+----
+
+1. Exodus 22:18 (LXX) “φαρμακοὺς οὐ περιποιήσετε.” : “You shall
+   not permit a female sorcerer to live.”
+   
+2. Leviticus 19:26 “You shall not eat anything with its blood.
+   You shall not practice augury or witchcraft.“
+   
+3. Leviticus 20:27 (LXX) “A man or a woman who is a medium or
+   a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned to death,
+   their blood is upon them.”
+   
+
+I have to admit 
 
 Existuje několik fanfikcí, které se tímto problémem zabývají
 z hlediska většinou zhruba jedenáctiletých dětí, pro které je
@@ -180,17 +319,6 @@ překládáme jako „čarodějnice“ je ve skutečnosti nějaký technický
 termín, který označuje nějaký druh černokněžnice, používající
 magii k nekalým cílům?
 
-Představte si, že by v Písmu (třeba zrovna v knize Deuteronomium)
-byl zákaz „Nenecháš na živu býti bunšáh“ (slovo, jehož význam
-nikde jinde v Písmu není více vysvětlen, *hapax legomenon*).
-Dlouhým vědeckým studiem se překladatel Septuaginty rozhodne, že
-slovo bunšáh vychází z kořenu slova, který se zdá nasvědčovat, že
-doslovný překlad by mohl být něco jako „muž s nožem“. Přeloží
-tedy text „Nenecháš na živu býti muže s nožem“ a následují
-staletí pronásledování a mučení všech kuchařů a řezníků. Bohužel
-nepochopil, že „muž s nožem“ zde byl eufemismus pro nájemného
-vraha, který svoje oběti podřezával.
-
 Jak dobře mohli mudlovští, tedy nemagičtí, pisatelé, překladatelé
 a komentátoři Písma opravdu správně zaznamenat a přeložit něco,
 čemu v podstatě moc nerozuměli? A to platí i ve chvíli, kdy
@@ -223,3 +351,24 @@ a sedmnáctého století.
 * https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/thou-shalt-not-suffer-a-witch-to-live-a-murderous-mistranslation-1.5443682
 * https://archive.org/details/witchcraftinmidd0000russ
 
+----
+
+Before I (finally) get to them, let me add one more side track:
+while looking for these verses, and studying them, I have met
+[#]_ quite couple of mentions of actions or practices described
+in the Bible (both Old and New Testament), which looked to me
+very much like occult practices and which would today be strongly
+prohibited by all Bible-loving churches. Bible just notices them,
+but neither condemns them, nor even comments on their
+(un-)righteousness:
+
+* Joseph’s silver cup used for divination, Numbers 5:12-31, Urim
+  & Thummim, Elisha cursing small boy who calls him “badly”,
+  lots, Daniel was supervisor of “the magicians, astrologers,
+  Chaldeans and soothsayers” (Daniel 5:11). In the New Testament
+  Paul’s declaration in Acts 13:6-12 looks uncomfortably like
+  a curse, and Acts 5:9 perhaps too (this one is more
+  explainable).
+
+.. [#] Mostly from http://www.religioustolerance.org/divin_bibl.htm
+