[ExI] Witch hunts

[BillK]

On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 8:08 AM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> I don't know that the Greeks had anything against witches in general.
> The Old Testament does mention witches as evil, but it wasn't until
> the Christian Middle Ages that killing suspected witches became widely
> popular.
>

It is divination, sorcery, poisioning and evil spells or the 'evil
eye' that the Bible doesn't like.
The Greeks were quite keen on oracles, divination and potions to cure
ills or cause ills.

The word 'witch' comes from the King James Bible.
King James had a great fear of witches and in fact wrote a book about
them. Fear of witches was very prevalent in England in the 1500s,
before the new Bible translation was done.
The translators doubtless were very aware of King James' beliefs and
the current beliefs in society, so they selected the word 'witch' as
being easily understood by the population of that time.

BillK