Magic and Magicians

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Magic and Magicians

In the Roman Empire

Jewish Magic

"Widespread ancient reports of Jewish magic involving worship of angels and demons, as well

as Yahweh, have now been confirmed by the recovery of Sefer ha-Razim, ('the Book of

Secrets'), a Jewish magical text of late Roman times that gives directions for such worship,

prescribing the prayers and sacrifices to be made to these minor powers."

"Listing in his preface the things to be learned from his book he [the author] put first, how to do

mircles, second, general wisdom, and third,"

- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) pp. 91, 164

"To know what is necessary for ascent to the heavens; to travel through all that is in the
seven heavens, to behold all the signs of the zodiac, and...sun...moon and [stars]; to learn
the names of the [angelic] guards of each firmament and their work and how they manage
everything, and what are the names of their servants, and what libations are to be made
to them, and what is the time [in which each of them] will consent to do whatever is asked
by anyone who approaches them in purity." Sefer ha-Razim, ('The Book of Secrets')

Such a heavenly ascent is described in detail in the apocryphal Book of Enoch

Goetes

"Through him [the demon Eros] all divination is made possible, and the science of the
priests and of the specialists in sacrifices and initiations and spells, and all prophecy and
goetia."
- Plato Symposium (202e)

"Here goetia (what goetes ['magicians'] do...seems to have been a sort of Greek shamanism, a
form of mourning for the dead in which the goetes became ecstatic and were thought to
accompany the dead on their journey to the underworld."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) p. 92

In classical times the scope of goetia came to include "accounts of the underworld, practice as
mediums, necromancy, charms, curses, and therefore, by extension, any deceitful persuasion..
By New Testament times we find Josephus describing as goetia men who do or promise to do
miracles - divide the Jordan, make the walls of Jerusalem fall down, overpower the Romans,
and give the people 'salvation and rest from troubles.' Here Josephus' use of goetia is abusive.
The word had lower class connotations and was widely used of political orators and the like to
mean approximately 'spellbinder,' or just plain 'fraud'."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) p 93

Similar accusations were leveled against Jesus. Celsus charged that the teachings of Jesus
and his followers were dualistic (similar to Zoroastrian doctrine of the magis).

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"...Making some sort of opponent to God and calling this 'devil' and, in Hebrew,
'Satan'...so that when the greatest God wants to help men in some way, he has this being
who works against him and he is not able [to carry out his plan]. Likewise the Son of God
is defeated by the devil and, by him, make to suffer, and teaches us to be contemptuous
of the sufferings that the devil inflicts. [Moreover,] he [Jesus] foretells that Satan himself,
appearing in the same way [as Jesus], will perform great and marvelous works [miracles]
and claim for himself the glory due to God. But we should not be deceived by these
[miracles] nor desire to turn away to Satan, but should believe in him [Jesus] alone. These
are obviously the teachings of a man who is a goes, a trickster trying to discredit in
advance his rival claimants and rival beggars."
Celsus "immediately puts them [stories of Jesus' miracles] on a level with the works of the
goetes on the grounds that they too promise marvelous things, and with the tricks done by
those who have learned from Egyptians, who sell their revered teachings in the middle of
the market for a few obols, and drive demons out of people and blow away diseases and
call up spirits of [long dead] heroes and produce appearances of expensive dinners,
[complete with] tables and pastry and nonexistent entrees, and make objects not really
alive move as if alive and seem to be so, as far as appearance goes. And he says, 'Then,
since these fellows do these things, will you ask us to think them sons of God? Should it
not rather be said that these are the doings of scoundrels possessed of evil demons."
- Origen, Contra Celsus

In the early Roman empire, the title "magus" "might mean anything from a genuine Median
priest or potentate to a fellow who peddled amulets or poisons to superstitious or jilted serving
girls. In general however the term was pretentious. A man's enemies would probably call his a
goes ['magician'], though they might refer to his practices as mageia, but there was no fixed
rule."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) p. 98

Divine Man

"Nevertheless, the friends of a higher class practitioner would be apt to claim that he was not a
magus, but rather, a 'divine man.' The 'divine man' was a god or demon in disguise, moving
about the word in an apparently human body. He could do all the beneficent things a magus
could, and he could also curse effectively - though of course he would curse only the wicked.
He did his miracles by his indwelling divine power and therefore did not need rituals or spells."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) p. 98

"Unlike magicians he did his miracles without sacrifices, prayers, or spells - by the power
of his own divine nature."
- PhilostratusLife of Apollonius IV.38 end

"The magical papyri describe a number of rites by which one can obtain a spirit as a constant
companion. A magician who has such a spirit at his service can also dispense with rites and
spells; he need only give his orders and they will be obeyed. Moreover, there were some
magical rites that were supposed to deify the magician, either by joining him with some god in a
permanent and perfect union (as Paul claimed to be joined with Jesus ), or by changing the
form, nature, or power of his soul so as to make it divine. A magician who had been so defied
would thereafter be a divine man and would perform miracles by his own power, not by a
spirit's."
"In common usage the lines between goes, magus, and divine man shifted according to the
sympathies of the speaker. The same is true for the distinction between true and false prophets
and the Greek translations that mights be chosen for ba'al 'ob [the master of a 'divining spirit]."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) pp. 99, 106

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"We would have thought him [Jesus] a magus, as you [Sossianus Hierocles, a high
imperial official who attacked Christianity around 304] now think and as the Jews taught in
his lifetime, had not all the prophets with one spirit predicted that he was to do these very
miracles. Therefore, his marvelous deeds and works do no more to make us think him a
god than does that very cross...because it to was prophesied at the same time. Not
therefore from his own testimony - for who can be believed if he speaks about himself -
but from the testimony of the prophets...has he won credence for his divinity, a testimony
that...can never be given to Apollonius or to Apuleius or to any of the magi."
- Lactantius, Div. Inst

To charges that they practiced magic "the defenders of Apollonius and Jesus made similar
replies. They asserted that their heroes were truly divine, and to support these assertions they
tried to distinguish their deities form magicians. Magicians used animal sacrifices, strange
materials, and elaborate spells often containing barbarous words and the names of demons.
They were out for money and were commonly cheats, their miracles usually illusory, commonly
trivial, and sometimes harmful. They had no moral teaching, were often themselves
conspicuously immoral, and could not offer men a say to salvation. In contrast therefore the
traditions about Apollonius and Jesus minimize the ritual aspect of their miracles, represent
them as indifferent or hostile to money, emphasize the reality, importance, and beneficence of
their cures, emphasize their moral teachings, and represent them as bringing salvation."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) pp. 121-122