Magic: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Owen Davies

Author:Owen Davies [Davies, Owen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Writing magic

The power of the word is one of the contested boundaries between magic and religion. Most of the world’s sacred religious texts mention magic. The Koran refers to sihr some sixty times in contexts, as an Egyptian Islamic ‘Guideline for the people’ explains, ‘from the bizarre and unusual to the attracting of attention and the occasioning of astonishment’. Forty-eight citations concerning amulets have been identified in the Babylonian Talmud, one of two compilations of ancient Jewish law and custom. Both the Old and New Testaments contain many references to magical practices, and their interpretation has caused controversy in Judaism and from the early days of the Christian faith. In these religions, authority depends completely on the written word, the literary record of the sayings of the prophets and their followers. The possession of them was an act of worship in itself. For much of the history of these religions, though, very few people possessed copies of the sacred texts, let alone had the education to read them. Access was restricted, often deliberately. In the ‘wrong hands’, holy texts could be misinterpreted and mistranslated. They could be used to support magic and magicians. They could also be used to make magic.

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