An examination of the words ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ as translations of the Hebrew מכשפה...

1

Dissertation Title: An Examination of Child Witchcraft Accusation, Stigmatization and

Abuses in the Light of Exodus 22:17 and its Application to the Contemporary Church

and Society

An examination of the words ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ as translations of the Hebrew מכשפה in

Exodus 22:17[Eng. 18]1

A Seminar Paper presented at TCNN PhD Seminar Forum on 10/02/2015

by

Paul Cookey (PhD student)

1. Introduction

This paper examines the adequacy of the words ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ as English

translations of the Hebrew מכשפה in Exodus 22:17, often cited as a proof-text in relation to

the issue of children2 victims of violence and maltreatment due to beliefs, identification and

actions usually associated with ‘witchcraft’. This paper argues that the words ‘witch’ and

‘sorceress’ and their cognates, especially as understood within sub-Saharan Africa where

witchcraft and sorcery to include harm done to others do not share the same meaning as the

Hebrew word מכשפה in Exodus 22:17 and its cognates in other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures

and so are not helpful translations. I underscore in this paper that the words ‘witch’ and

‘sorceress’ as translations for מכשפה in most English translations of the Bible illegitimately

aid ‘witch-hunters’, ‘religious spiritualists’ and ‘exorcists’ within African contexts and

particularly in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, to justify their victimization of those accused as

‘witches’. They are stigmatized and in many cases killed. To buttress this point I have re-

examined the meanings of ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ as discussed by historians, anthropologists

and missiologists in their contexts of usage and come up with the most obvious meaning of

devoid of cultural and cosmological misconceptions and I have indicated that Biblical מכשפה

Hebrew does not in any way share the ‘witch’, ’witchcraft’, ’sorceress’, ’sorcery’ worldview

which is often used to justify the accusation and victimization of children. I have also drawn

attention to some translations that are more or less inappropriate to the meaning of מכשפה in

Exodus 22:17.3

I have drawn some insights from Raymond C. Van Leeuwen’s article on ‘translation’ and its

limitations and I have demonstrated that the terms ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ do not translate

accurately but are rather inappropriate translations which misconstrues the cultural and מכשפה

contextual meaning of מכשפה via the Latin translation. The works of Robert J. Priest, a

missiologist and anthropologist, within sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have been very helpful

as well as the work of Aleksandra Cimpric published by UNICEF under the title Children

Accused of Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in Africa. ‘

2. ‘Witch’/’Witchcraft’ and ‘Sorcery’ as ‘worldview’

1 This paper is part of my PhD Dissertation.

2 Adult women and men are also victims who suffer accusation, stigmatization and abuses.

3 See Tables 2, 3, and 4.

2

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in Africa, as in other parts of the world. It is an expression

of the worldview of a particular people as they perceive and understand it.4 The English

rendering ‘sorcery’ and its cognates come from the French term ‘sorcellerie’. Like the

English word ‘witchcraft’ it was introduced to Africa by the first European explorers,

colonialists and missionaries. The translation of local terms for local realities by the single

term ‘witchcraft’, which was strongly influenced by European history connoting only

negativity, is often inappropriate and can lead to confusion. The notion of witchcraft covers

multiple terms in local languages referring to various phenomena whose interpretation relies

heavily on their context. Nevertheless, this ethnocentric terminology has now become

integrated into African languages and is used in daily language to refer essentially to ‘occult

or mystical forces’.5

There are a number of writers who think that the term ‘sorcellerie’, ‘witchcraft’ and ‘sorcery’

should be abandoned as working concepts in anthropology (Crick, 1979; Geschiere, 2000;

Moore and Sanders, 2001).6 Citing S. Ellis, Aleksandra Cimpric notes that for lack of a better

alternative, these terms continue to be used by researchers in different fields “in such varied

meanings that one sometimes has the impression of attending a debate where the speakers are

discussing quite different topics” (Ellis, 2000: 68).7

The words ‘witch’ and ‘witchcraft’ are generic terms. They are often taken to mean the same

thing as ‘sorcery’. However, this understanding was distinguished by the British

anthropologist Edward E. Evans-Pritchard.8 He noticed this distinction in the 1930s when he

was working with the Zande in Anglo‐Egyptian Sudan (1937). According to Evans‐Pritchard,

the Zande clearly distinguished between ‘witchcraft’ and ‘sorcery’. Moreover, in English

there is a further distinction between ‘witchcraft’ and ‘sorcery’.

For them, ‘witchcraft’ referred to a substance that was inherited and innate, located in the

abdomen of people called ‘witches’; because this substance sometimes acted independently

of the witch’s control, it could be considered to be an unconscious act. The witch operates at

night, invisible and transformed, metamorphosed or unfolded from its physical ‘envelope’, in

order to harm victims by devouring their life essence.

4 However, until recently, violent allegations of witchcraft were not typically levelled against children. In

several Central African countries, in particular, there are now alarming numbers of killings of adults accused of

being ‘sorcerers’ and a growing recent phenomenon of witchcraft accusations against children and adolescent"

Angola: Papal envoy calls for end to witch child accusations on Independent Catholic News".

Indcatholicnews.com. 2009-07-28. Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 14:55pm.. "Africa: Child witchcraft

allegations on the rise". Yubanet.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24. "Saving Witches in Kolwezi". Christianity Today.

Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 14:55pm.. "Publications: Supporting Victims of Witchcraft Abuse and Street

Children in Nigeria". HumanTrafficking.org. Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 14:55pm. Human Rights Watch

2006. Children in the DRC. Human Rights Watch report, 18 (2). Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 14:55pm. 5 Aleksandra Cimpric, Children Accused of Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in

Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), p. 7. 6 Aleksandra Cimpric, Children Accused of Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in

Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), p. 7. 7 S. Ellis, Armes mystiques. Politique Africaine, 79: 2000. 66 in Aleksandra Cimpric, Children Accused of

Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April

2010), p. 7-8. 8 Edward E. Evans‐Pritchard,. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande. (London: Clarendon Press–

Oxford, 1937 [1976]).

3

In contrast, a ‘sorcerer’ is someone who is socially recognized as such, operating during the

day and able to harm others by using plant substances and rituals associated with evil‐doing.

The ‘sorcerer’ always acts consciously, and although his or her knowledge is not innate and

may be practised by anyone, it can nevertheless be transferred from one generation to the

next.

Jan‐Lodewijk Grootaers, while carrying out research sixty years later among the Zande in the

Central African Republic, noted that they no longer made such a clear distinction between the

two terms (1995).9 Max Marwick (quoted in Douglas, 1973: 73) admits that “the whole

troublesome classification was worthless, since sorcery and witchcraft are so far subject to

the same sociological generalizations”. In contemporary studies, historians and

anthropologists use the notions ‘witchcraft’ and ‘sorcery’ interchangeably (Bernault, 2006;

Geschiere, 2000; Bond and Ciekawy, 2001) because this reflects usage in African realities.10

However, this understanding does not help matters in some African contexts where religious

exorcists and spiritualists use the word ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress’ as translations of the Hebrew

word מכשפה as their proof-text to justify the killing of people perceived as ‘witches’. There is,

therefore, a need for a clear definition of the words ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ in relation to

.מכשפה

3. Defining the words ‘Witch’, ‘Witchcraft’ and ‘Sorceress’, ‘Sorcery’11

Robert Priest has drawn attention to the need to be concise and precise about the meaning of

the words ‘witch’ and ‘witchcraft’. He states:

A global conversation about “witches” and “witchcraft” easily becomes every bit as

confusing, and for the same reason. Different people use the same words to talk about

fundamentally different and even unrelated realities. For example, in America and

Europe there are new forms of religion (Wicca, Neopaganism) whose adherents

publically identify themselves as “witches.” These “witches” typically adhere to

feminist and ecological values and to the ethic of “first do no harm.” Such “witches”

occasionally write a letter to the editor of an African newspaper, asking why local

governments do not fully protect the rights of “witches” to practice their craft as they

wish. Such letters assume a fixed meaning for the term witch and misconstrue the

meaning of the term as it is used in most of Africa.12

Robert J. Priest notes that the term ‘witch’, as used by anthropologists ‘applies to either a

male or female human being who is said to be the cause of another’s misfortune, sickness,

9 Jan‐Lodewijk Grootaers.. A history and ethnography of modernity among the Zande (Central African

Republic). University of Chicago. 1995, (Ph.D. thesis) cited in Aleksandra Cimpric, Children Accused of

Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April

2010), p. 8. 10

Aleksandra Cimpric, Children Accused of Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in

Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), p. 8 11

For a detailed discussion on the belief in and meaning of witchcraft, see Aleksandra Cimpric, Children

Accused of Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary practices in Africa. (UNICEF WCARO,

Dakar, April 2010), 12

Robert Priest, On the Meaning of the Words “Witch,” ”Witchcraft,” and “Sorcery” (May 26, 2012) cited at

Witchcraft http://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/witchcraft-2/ Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 14:55pm.

http://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/witchcraft-2/


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and/or death by means of psychic or other occult power.’13

As for the term ‘sorcerer or

sorceress’ as used in ethnographic writings, the meaning is virtually the same, only that

‘sorcery generally also implies that the harm is caused through learned and acquired, self-

consciously exercised powers, which is not necessarily true of witch.’14

But it is also important to understand how people in given settings are actually using these

terms. The notion of ‘witchcraft’15

is so flexible and elastic that it is able to integrate into all

areas of life, including the most ‘modern’ (Geschiere, 1995).16

From a scientific perspective,

it is apparent that it is impossible to give a general definition of African witchcraft. ‘African

witchcraft’ does not exist. On the other hand, ‘witchcrafts’ in various forms and in different

socio‐historical contexts do exist. The current forms of belief are more a product of an

‘invented tradition’ (Hobsbawm, 2006),17

or perhaps a reinvented tradition. Yet in several

sub-Saharan African countries there is a relatively general concept of witchcraft and witches’

powers. This ‘mystical’ power is known only to those who practise it and is currently most

generally defined as the capacity to harm someone (Ashworth, 1998).18

Since historically most of the world did not speak English, this should not be primarily a

discussion about the ‘true meaning’ of the English word ‘witch’ or ‘sorcerer/sorceress’. And

yet anthropologists have discovered across hundreds of languages and cultures a widespread

(although not universal) lexically distinguished idea, the idea that misfortunes and deaths

were caused by malicious human third parties making socially disapproved use of

occult/supernatural power to harm or kill others. In some cultures there was a distinction

between those who harmed others with innate psychic power, sometimes exercised

unconsciously (witch), and those who harmed others through power (consciously) exercised

through the manipulation of learned magical techniques (sorceress/sorcerer). Following the

lead of Evans-Pritchard,19

many anthropologists reserved the term ‘witch’ to translate

indigenous terms for those understood as using innate or psychic power to harm others, and

the term ‘sorcerer/sorceress’ for those understood as consciously using learned and acquired

magical techniques to harm others.20

13

Robert J. Priest, Missiology and the Witch, an Article presented at the American Society of Missiology,

(Techny Towers, 11, June 19, 2010). 14

Priest, Missiology and the Witch, June, 19, 2010. 15

The notion of witchcraft is only a translation, often inappropriate, of vernacular expressions. 16

Cited in Aleksandra Cimpric, Children Accused of Witchcraft: An anthropological study of contemporary

practices in Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), p. 7. 17




practices in Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), p. 7 19

Edward E. Evans‐Pritchard,. Witchcraft, oracles, and magic among the Azande. (London: Clarendon Press–

Oxford, 1937 [1976]). 20

Priest, Missiology and the Witch, June, 19, 2010. Among the Azande of the southern Sudan, a witch is

regarded not as the demonic creature of European and Asian folklore but as an ordinary man who has inherited a

substance (often unknown to him) that is activated by the emotional state of ill will expressed towards someone

else in the community. Thus, the Azande (as well as many other African cultures) believe that a witch is not

necessarily condemned, for witchcraft may be due to this involuntary, unconscious power; only the deliberate

practice of witchcraft is punished. (New Encyclopedia Britannica ‘cross - cultural beliefs 19:895c’ (15th edition)

716) (New Encyclopedia Britannica, ‘Witchcraft 19:895’ (15th edition) 716). ‘In common speech, the believed

5

In the context of Basse Côte d’Ivoire, the French anthropologist Marc Augé notes that ‘the

witch is believed to possess a power that allows him to attack someone else’ (1976: 129).21

Augé proposed a general definition of witchcraft, which can be applied to various contexts.

For Augé witchcraft is ‘a set of beliefs, structured and shared by a given population, that

addresses the origin of misfortune, illness and death, and the set of practices for detection,

treatment and punishment that corresponds to these beliefs’ (1974: 53).22

This definition

could be extended by adding that witchcraft is a theory that explains and justifies a

conception of the universe. For Sally F. Moore and Todd Sanders, witchcraft is ‘a set of

discourses on morality, sociality and humanity. It is not a set an irrational beliefs but a form

of historical consciousness or a sort of social diagnostic’ (2001: 20).23

Extending the

definition still further, witchcraft can be understood as a metonymy of complex

configurations, intertwined in various fields: philosophical, cultural and social (Bond and

Ciekawy, 2001: 4‐5).24

Aleksandra Cimpric gives some examples of understandings of ‘witchcraft’ in some parts of

sub-Saharan African to buttress the fact that it always has harmful connotation:

Despite these various representations, in many regions of sub-Saharan Africa,

witchcraft is perceived as a power that is located within the witch’s body. This power

is sometimes described as a substance, an organ or an animal that is innate, inherited,

transmitted or acquired, voluntarily or not. In Central Africa, it is located in the

witch’s abdomen. This witch substance, called mangu (Evans‐Pritchard, 1937),

djambe (Geschiere, 1995), evu(s) (Fernandez, 1961; Mallart‐Guimera, 1981;

Laburthe‐Tolra, 1985), ikundu (Tonda, 2000) or likundu, may be inactive or may act

contrary to the will of its host. The representations of uchawi witchcraft in southern

Tanzania combine both the involuntary capacity for harm (Wilson, 1963) and the

voluntary manipulation of powers for harmful ends (Green, 2005). In muthi witchcraft

in South Africa, it also refers to an animal, but one that is placed by the witch in the

abdomen of the victim in order to “devour” him or her from the inside (Ashworth,

2005: 9). In Ghana, obayi witchcraft is also represented by a snake (Parish, 2001:

120), just to give some examples.25

The term ‘witch’, like ‘witchcraft’, covers a multitude of meanings. According to André

Mary, the figure of the witch refers to ‘that disconcerting character, who operates more or

use of supernatural means for harmful, evil ends. Witchcraft as the practice of weird, aberrant persons believed

to possess an inherent, mysterious power may be distinguished from sorcery as the work of ordinary persons

using commonly understandable techniques. In some societies witchcraft-often called white witchcraft- is for

socially beneficial aims (healing the sick, protecting property).’ (New Encyclopedia Britannica, ‘Witchcraft

19:895’ (15th edition) 716). 21




practices in Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), 23






Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), p. 11.

6

less undercover, and who employs occult knowledge and controls certain objects and magic

techniques, the female witch on her broom and even to the seers consulted by the local

population’ (1987: 126). In many African societies, this figure symbolizes evil as much as

good, who is both feared and respected because he is part of the invisible world and is

consequently in contact with genies and spirits. The witch is both someone who could cause

harm as well as being someone who possesses special gifts of clairvoyance and healing. As

an example, this ambivalent position of good and evil is found among the Evuzok in southern

Cameroon. Louis Mallart Guimera, who worked in the region in the 1960s, states that the evu

– the witch substance – can be predominantly social or anti‐social. The holder of evu can

thereby use it in a positive way as a healer, seer, musician, dancer, orator or hunter, or in a

harmful way as a witch (1981). This ambiguity also appears in representations of the

behaviour of genies and spirits who are always represented as harmful and helpful.26

Currently, representations of the ‘good’ witch are losing ground to the ‘evil’ witch, who is

driven to commit harm by the irresistible force that may be the product of jealousy, envy,

maliciousness, ambition, an irrepressible and excessive thirst for power and possession, or

increasingly a desire to acquire wealth exclusively for oneself, or to misappropriate socially

approved authority for personal gain (Marie, 1997: 64).27

The general conception is that

witches belong to groups that celebrate nocturnal feasts during which members must

periodically offer human sacrifices and that they are capable of not only transforming

themselves into any form they desire but can fly.28

Robert Priest notes that in many contemporary settings (as among Ghanaian Pentecostals) the

word ‘witch’ or ‘witchcraft’ involves a broadened range of meaning inclusive of many

‘magico-religious’ practices not originally conceptualized as involving harm to anyone. By

contrast, among Wiccans and Neopagans, the term ‘witch’ is thought to describe a person

with feminist, ecological, and life-affirming ‘magico-religious’ values and practices grounded

in an ethic of not harming anyone.29

From the fore-going the notion of witchcraft possesses a multifaceted semiology,30

referring to a wide

variety of representations and practices, which further vary not only within a country but also

according to different socio‐cultural groups.31

Thus I conclude this section by maintaining the distinctive understanding of the meaning of

‘witch’ and ‘sorcerer/sorceress as clearly presented by Priest as follows:

… both because it best fits the empirical realities cross-culturally, and because of

historical and anthropological precedent, is to reserve the term “witch” and

26


Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), 11. 27


Africa. (UNICEF WCARO, Dakar, April 2010), 11-12. 28

See attached documents of alleged ‘witches’ said to have fallen as birds in Lagos. 29

Robert Priest, On the Meaning of the Words “Witch,” ”Witchcraft,” and “Sorcery” (May 26, 2012) cited at

Witchcraft http://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/witchcraft-2/ Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 14:55pm. 30

Also spelt semeiology, is the science of the signs or sign language. 31

For example, in the Central African Republic, the notion of witchcraft corresponds to clearly distinct

phenomena, such as ngbin, ouroukouzou, talimbi, ango‐brotto, likundu, etc.



7

“sorcerer/sorceress” for persons accused of being the cause of someone else’s

misfortune or death. Because there are many cultures that have magico-religious

practices that no one in the culture thinks has anything to do with harming others, I do

not think it is helpful to expand the term witchcraft to include all magico-religious

practices that are not Christian (Robert Priest May 25, 2012).32

Western and even African translators33

have generalized and imposed the meaning of the

terms ‘witch’/’witchcraft’ and ‘sorceress’/’sorcery’ which refer to ‘persons accused of being

able to cause misfortune or death of someone else through either mystical powers or learned

art’ on the Hebrew word מכשפה in Exodus 22:17. One should better retain other terms (such

as magic, or magico-religious) to describe these other practices that do not cause or intend to

cause harm to someone else (Robert Priest May 25, 2012).34

4. Insights from Van Leeuwen on Translation

Most Christians read the Bible in translation and their translation is generally identified as the

‘Word of God’. It is obvious that the quality and character of the translations people read

have an extraordinary importance for shaping worldview and theology, whether positively or

negatively. Bruce Metzger has highlighted that the twentieth century has experienced an

explosion of Bible translations into many languages and multiple versions in the same

language – with special reference to the English versions (8-10). James Barr it is who noted

that awareness of the nature of Bible translation and its limitations is crucial to the church’s

well-being. ‘Translation’ has been defined as the attempt to communicate what was first

expressed in one language by expressing it in another (Van Leeuwen 813).35

This means that

the words of the target language (TL), for example, English, Ibibio, Efik, expresses the

meanings of words of the source language (SL), (for example, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and

Greek), so that the readers may, as much as possible, discern what was said and infer what

was meant in the original (i.e. the source language (SL)). Translation is a communicative

process in which the translator in effect ‘quotes’ (directly or indirectly) what was written in a

SL in a TL (Van Leeuwen 813). The communicative goal of translation is that readers in the

TL will understand, for instance, what the writer of Exodus 22:17 meant and to what he was

referring when he used the word מכשפה in the SL. But for understanding to take place, readers

need knowledge of the immediate context and of background ‘schematic factual’ and

‘sociocultural factors’ (Van Leeuwen 814).

What translation attempts to do is to communicate what is written in the Bible by

compensating for this lack of linguistic knowledge. In this way translation accommodates

what is said to the ‘language system’ of readers because that is what they already know (Van

Leeuwen 814). This we must admit is a serious limitation of translation which could result in

32

See posted article Robert Priest, On the Meaning of the Words “Witch,” “Witchcraft,” and “Sorcery” (May

26, 2012) cited at Witchcraft http://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/witchcraft-2/ Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 33

Compare Tokumbo Adeyemo, (Gen. Ed.), Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi: Zondervan WordAlive

Publishers, 2006), p. 116-117, 234. 34

See posted article Robert Priest, On the Meaning of the Words “Witch,” “Witchcraft,” and “Sorcery” (May

26, 2012) cited at Witchcraft http://henrycenter.tiu.edu/category/witchcraft-2/ Accessed Wednesday 21/01/2015 35

Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, ‘Translation’ in DITB, Libre, (813).





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over-translation or a mistranslation and misunderstanding by both translator and reader of the

SL.

From our source text (ST)36

in Exodus 22:17 the Israelites are not to allow מכשפה to live. The

exact meaning of כשף is contestable – and will need to be considered carefully.37

Here I

simply point out that in Exodus 7:11 כשפיםמ are part of Pharoah’s entourage of magico-

religious professionals asked to perform power displays; and in Daniel 2:2 Nebuchadnezzar’s

cadre of מכשפים are asked to divine his dream. These were consulted along with others. That

is, it would appear that in Hebrew usage מכשפים are magico-religious professionals who,

among other things, divine dreams and perform power displays. The LXX translated מכשפה as

φαρμακους ‘magicians’, a translation consistent with the idea that these were magico-

religious professionals of some sort.38

But when the Latin Vulgate translated מכשפה as

maleficos, ‘evil worker’, this moved things more towards the witch/sorcery idea, a translation

with consequences for European history.

This use of the term maleficos echoed the Latin translations of the Old Testament39

and

implied the same perversions. Consequently, the translators of the Scriptures had to hand a

set of associated terms which already carried malevolent undertones; and which the Latin had

come to identify with the vilest kinds of sorcery. It was consequently effortless to link

witchcraft, in popular thought, with the worship of the Devil.

Thus maleficos, with the further Latin injunction, non patieris vivere, 'not suffer to live' most

inevitably led to the assumption that it meant all convicted witches should be destroyed. As a

consequence, 'All over Europe ordinary people were eager to denounce their female

neighbours as witches in the belief that they caused maleficium.’40

The implication here became a sociological one as the understanding of the word מכשפה

shifted from one who engaged in magico-religious power play and a craft of divining to know

the future or mystery through the aid of (familiar) spirits or spirits of the dead (ancestors) or

mastery of nature and manipulation of same for the purpose of influencing the future to

working of evil against one’s neighbour or family members.

The antisocial dimension in the understanding of מכשפה may be due to a comparison of the

list of abominable practices listed in Deuteronomy which are an expanded or expository

version of כשף - the list of terms for practitioners of various forms of magic which is an

attempt to secure information from the beyond or to bring supernatural influence to bear on

situations or persons by other than the regular means of religion. All such practices are

36

Compare Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4. 37

See my PhD section titled ‘The Contextual Meaning of the Word מכשפה in Exodus 22:17’. 38

See my PhD section titled ‘The Contextual Meaning of the Word מכשפה in Exodus 22:17’.and ‘Translation of

the Word מכשפה in Exodus 22:17’. 39

" Deuteronomy 18:10 maleficus; 2 Chronicles 33:6 malefids; Jeremiah 27:9 maleficos; Micah 5:12 maleficia;

Nahum 3:4 maleficia and maleficiis; Isaiah 47:9, 12 maleficiorum; Exodus 7:11 maleficos; Daniel 2:2 malefici;

etc. 40

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 1997), p. 1757; In Akwa Ibom State, the female sex is the most hunted and accused of this

practice.

9

recognized as antisocial and punishable by death (cf. Lev 20:6, 27) (cf. Layman 58). This

understanding betrays the contextual relationship of Exodus 22:17-19 which out-rightly

condemns any form of magic and prescribes capital punishment.41

Thus English translations that render מכשפה as ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress’ following the Latin, and

the receptor translations that follow this understanding are guilty of what James Barr calls

‘illegitimate totality transfer,’ that is, ‘over emphasis upon words to the detriment of context.’42

5. The terms ‘witch’ and ‘sorcery’ express ‘interpersonal causal ontological’ meanings

alien to the Biblical Hebrew text and culture

The translation of the word ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress’ for the Hebrew מכשפה carries the idea of

‘interpersonal causal ontologies’, that is belief in human third parties mystically causing harm

to others. This idea is not only contextually alien to the understanding of מכשפה and other

Hebrew words that share semantic fields like נחש ,ענן ,קסם .cf) מכשף and ידעני ,אוב ,חבר,

Deuteronomy 18:9-10), but is completely alien to the biblical Hebrew culture and worldview.

I perceive that this is the problem with the translation of the Hebrew word מכשפה as ‘witch’

or ‘sorceress’.

For example, the cultural assumptions about causal ontologies in the culture of Job’s

community centered on moral causes – on the belief that affliction comes purely as a result of

one’s own sin. One finds not the slightest hint of an idea that Job’s misfortunes could be

caused by a human third party such as a witch, acting through evil occult means.43

This seems

to be the general understanding in the Hebrew Scriptures. Robert Priest puts it forcefully as

follows:

Had the Bible been given in cultural contexts where the “wise counselors” of the

culture attributed misfortunes to human third parties acting through evil occult means,

then we would have a text which directly addresses our concerns. But while the Bible

is filled with stories of infertility, affliction, and death, the very subject matter which

in many cultures triggers witch discourses, the Bible makes no reference to

interpersonal causal ontologies purporting to explain misfortune. Instead numerous

biblical texts involve dialog with moral causal ontologies of the culture – where

cultural assumptions blamed the afflicted for their own suffering. Nowhere in

Scripture do we find anyone attributing affliction or death to a human third party

acting through evil occult means.44

However, contemporary Bible translations do seem to point to the witch idea in other ways.

For example, in 1Samuel 28, English Bibles, at least in the section headings, will sometimes

41

Walter Elwell places Exodus 22:18 within the text of 22:16 – 31 which he says are primarily related to social

responsibilities. In the midst of this section of social laws is a segment that is concerned with pagan practices, all

of which are capital offenses. Elwell says that sorcery is an offense not to be tolerated and refers to

Deuteronomy of 18:9 – 14 as containing an expanded list of such offenses Walter A. Elwell, (ed.), Evangelical

Commentary on the Bible, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1996, p. 56. 42

James Barr, op. cit., 1961, p. 218. 43

Robert Priest, ‘Bible Translation and the Witch,’ (July 5. 2012). 44

Robert Priest, ‘Bible Translation and the Witch,’ (July 5. 2012).

10

use the term ‘witch’ for the woman practitioner at Endor that was asked to make contact with

the deceased Prophet Samuel. Robert Priest sees her as a magico-religious practitioner:

…in fact this woman was similar to the Korean Moodang – a female magico-religious

professional believed to have the power to interact with and call up the dead.

Anthropologists typically translate Moodang as shaman, not as witch or

sorceress. The Moodang are not believed to cause harm to others. Like the Korean

Moodang or the South African Sangoma or Inyanga, this woman from Endor was

thought to have powers to engage the dead for divinatory purposes. But nothing in

the Hebrew text suggests that this woman was thought to be the cause of affliction

and death in the lives of others. In that sense, this woman was not a

witch/sorceress. If anything, she was closer to the diviner/witchdoctor/shaman idea.45

There are English translations such as the Easy-to-Read-Version which render מכשפה as ‘any

woman who does evil magic’ and New International Readers Version - ‘a woman who does

evil magic’, and New Century Version [NCV] – ‘any woman who does evil magic’.46

It does

not have to be ‘unnatural powers or secret arts’ as translated by Bible in Basic English (BBE)

as the מכשפים were public figures whose practice was open to the public. These translations

are also problematic. Apart from implying that only women who practice ‘evil magic’ can

face capital punishment, they also suggest that ‘good magic’ or magic for good purposes may

have been tolerated. This understanding is totally inconsistent with the context of Exodus

22:17 and the religious faith of Israel in covenant relationship with Yahweh.

On the other hand the Good News and Today’s English Version translate מכשפה simply as

‘any woman who practices magic’.47

These translations I consider as being accurate in

translating מכשפה.

It is interesting to note that Priest identifies this same problem in some translations (such as

Chinese) that simply translate כשף as persons practicing “bad magic” – but with no indication

of why exactly it was ‘bad’.48

Furthermore, Priest noted that there are some translations that

render כשף with indigenous terms for professional magico-religious practitioners (such as in

Korean or Cambodian Bibles) with no necessary implication of occult harm or murder. But

while most languages have a range of terms for magico-religious professionals called on to

interpret dreams or perform power displays of various sorts, numerous Bible translations

across Africa do not use those terms but rather translate כשף with terms meaning

witch/occult-killer (as in Kimeru, Lingala, Kalenjin, Yoruba, Malagasy, Twi, Swahili,

Amharic, Bambara, Kikamba, Bobo, Dholuo).49

That is, while Kamba Christians read a Bible

apparently endorsing the traditional Kamba assumption that human third parties are to blame

for misfortunes and death, third parties who are really secret serial murderers and who should

thus be ferreted out and killed, Korean Christians find rather the shaman condemned, a figure

in Korea not associated with killing others, but whom a jealous God insists must not be part

45


See Tables 3 and 4. 47

See Tables 3 and 4. 48


Robert Priest, ‘Bible Translation and the Witch,’ (July 5. 2012).

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of the people of God. That is, Korean or Cambodian or even Chinese Christians read a

different Bible at this point than most African Christians, or even than many English

speakers.50

I agree with Priest that the Korean translation fits the Exodus 7:11 and Daniel 2:2 accounts

both (where kings historically did avail themselves of shamans doing exactly the sort of

things being asked for here), or even the Chinese translation, than does the occult killer idea

of many African translations.51

Examples within Africa and Asia are given by Priest to show

how the indigenous translations that express harm to others do not express the appropriate

meaning of כשף:

Some African translations consistently translate kashaph in all three passages (Ex

22:18, Ex 7:11, Dan 2:2) using the same indigenous term for evil witch/sorcerer/killer

(Swahili, Yoruba, Malagasy, Amharic, Kikamba), although speakers of these

languages concede that traditionally no one would ever call on witches/sorcerers to

interpret a dream, or would expect a king or chief to have a public cadre of

witches/sorcerers at his beck and call for public power displays. Perhaps because of

this lack of fit, many African translations retain the witch/sorcery idea for the Exodus

22:18 passage calling for the death of the kashaph, but use other indigenous terms for

public magico-religious professionals to translate kashaph in Exodus 7:11 and/or

Daniel 2:2 (as in Kimeru, Lingala, Kalenjin, Twi, Bambara, Dholuo, Bobo). While

Korean Christians would not think to point to Exodus 22:18 as evidence that a cause

of afflictions and deaths is the secret presence of humans who kill through witchcraft,

and who must be ferreted out and dealt with, this is precisely what seems to be

endorsed in many African translations, as where the Swahili warns, “You must not

allow a woman-witch to live.”

The above examples illustrate how translations are limited and in some cases do not really

correspond to the worldview of SL, the TL does not have an exact word or words to express

the meaning of the SL. For instance, in my language Ibibio, there is no one word for magic or

magicians. In the Efik Bible (used by Ibibios also), the expression anwan abre idiong as

translation for המכשפ means ‘a woman who practices divination’. It does not really express

the concept of magic.52

Neither does it reflect the idea of one who can harm someone else, as

do the words ‘witch’ and/or ‘sorceress’. The common word for ‘witch’ in Efik and Ibibio is

ifot, but the word idiong can be used for ‘sorcery’ though not with a negative concept. The

idiong man or woman practitioner is tolerated and could be consulted by individuals or a

community for problem solving. Abre idiong is an expression that really translates the

Hebrew קסם קסמים ‘one who divines’ without the negative connotation of harming anyone.

Like קסם קסמים, it has the same semantic boundaries as מכשפה but without the negative idea of

harming someone. There is no Ibibio or Efik preacher or prophet or exorcist that can quote

50



See Table 5

12

the Efik Bible translation of מכשפה as a proof-text to justify the accusation and victimization

of a child accused as/of ifot ‘witch’/’witchcraft’.

Whereas in the past, elderly people, particularly women, were accused, these days the

number of children accused of witchcraft is increasing. The frequent accusations are the

direct consequence of a generalized climate of “spiritual insecurity” (Ashforth, 2005) that is

created notably through spreading the idea of ever-present danger, closely linked with that of

witchcraft as the source of all evil. The accusations form part of a general anti-witch

movement found within families, churches, as well as State institutions.

In many countries, witchcraft accusations are exploited by revivalist, charismatic or

Pentecostal churches. Their pastor‐prophets fight against witchcraft in the name of God,

identifying witches through visions and dreams, and then offering treatment – divine healing

and exorcism – to the supposed witches. This ‘spiritual’ work, often of a violent nature,

reinforces beliefs in witchcraft and increases accusations. “The more God’s servants fight

against witchcraft, the more they get involved in treating witches, and at the end of the day,

the more they extend the resources of witchcraft” (Tonda, 2002) as well as their own income.

The persecution of witches has become a lucrative “business” for many pastor‐prophets. The

actions of the pastor‐prophets “complement” those of traditional healers who also fight

against the malevolent forces of witchcraft by detecting supposed witches. Unfortunately,

Bible translations that use the words ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress’ have promoted this exploitations

and victimization.

6. Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations

This paper has re-examined the words ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ as inappropriate translations of

in contexts where these words connote ‘harm done against someone’, particularly in מכשפה

sub-Saharan Africa, in the light of Bible translations that have translated the Hebrew word

as ‘witch’ or ‘sorceress’ which have been cited by religious practitioners and exorcists מכשפה

to justify the violence towards children against the contextual meaning of the Hebrew word in

reference. It has highlighted that such translations further complicate and promote child

abuses and are detrimental to indigenous religious faith and progress.

The significance of this paper cannot be over-emphasized because of the role some churches,

religious institutions and practitioners play in the propaganda of child ‘witches’ and

‘witchcraft’. A high-court judge shared her experience how in certain parts of Kenya courts

are inundated with witchcraft-accusation related murders. Close blood relatives murder kin

on suspicion that one has caused harm through witchcraft. For the judge, dispensing a legal

sentence is not enough. She calls the church to lead in providing better answers to this

problem, including a place of refuge for the accused.53

Since religious practitioners and

institutions also constitute agents and agencies of social influence and change, a right

53

Report on Witchcraft Colloquium by Kenyan Scholar of World Christianity, Maggie Gitau. Colloquium on

Witchcraft Accusations at AIU [Africa International University], 6-9th March 2013, posted by Robert Priest

April 5 2013. Originally posted at: http://worldchristianityaiu.wordpress.com/our-scholars/ Reposted in Robert

Priest’s blog of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School by permission of author Maggie Gitau.

http://worldchristianityaiu.wordpress.com/our-scholars/

13

understanding of the Scriptures which is one primary instrument used by them to bring about

change needs to be accurately translated and interpreted. Christianity today exists in contexts

where witch discourses and ontologies are pervasive and consequential. Professor Yusufu

Turaki gave a clarion call to Christian theologians and pastors when he advised that pastors

who minister to victims of witchcraft cannot afford to rely on ‘holy intuition’ and biblical

proof texts. He declared that we need a theologically sound understanding of issues

surrounding witchcraft and scholars must help the church think through these issues.54

We therefore need a community of Christian scholars and leaders grappling with how to

understand and respond to such discourses and practices. One part of this will involve careful

reassessment of histories of Bible translation, and careful reflection on how current

understandings relate to biblical teaching. This paper is concerned with the biblical

translations used to support the reality of witches/witchcraft and the victimization of those

accused, particularly children. The result serves as a paradigm for dealing with accusations

and victimization of other groups (women, men, minigi, albinos, AIDS patients, etc.).

54

Yusufu Turaki, Colloquium on Witchcraft Accusations at AIU, 6-9th March 2013. Accessed Wednesday

21/01/2015 14:55pm.

http://worldchristianityaiu.wordpress.com/our-scholars/

An examination of the words ‘witch’ and ‘sorceress’ as translations of the Hebrew מכשפה...

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