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Magical Terms in the Old Testament
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
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I am not clear as to what Professor Driver's exact position is. On the last page of his criticism of my paper on this subject, he says that “the majority of additional passages [in the O.T.] in which witchcraft is suspected are almost, if not quite, all susceptible of alternative explanations”; while on p. 6 he is good enough to say that some of my suggestions “seem eminently convincing”. As they all had to do with magical terms I cannot reconcile his statements.
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References
page 251 note 1 In JRAS. 1943, 6–16, entitled “Witchcraft in the Old Testament”.
page 251 note 2 Id. 1942, 111–131.
page 251 note 3 See esp. 233–289. A summary of the evidence for the existence of magic among the Hebrews, which formed the introduction to my essay, was cut out to save paper.
page 251 note 4 See the writings of Jastrow, Campbell Thompson, and Gadd.
page 251 note 5 “Overcome” would make no difference to my argument.
page 252 note 1 Thompson, Campbell, Devils and Evil Spirits, II, xlviGoogle Scholar.
page 252 note 2 Sirah, Cairo, n.d., 166.
page 252 note 3 v.i., ad fin.
page 252 note 4 p. 144, 1. 5.
page 252 note 5 vv. 9–12.
page 253 note 1 Professor Driver has failed to perceive the meaning of 
.
page 253 note 2 And to ancient Aryans also, cf. Rigveda, vi, 75, 16:—
Loosed from the bowstring fly away,
Thou arrow sharpened by our prayer (or spell).
Go forth and fall upon our foes,
And leave not one of them alive.
For the defensive counter-spell, cf. v. 19:—
Whoso would kill us, whether he
Be alien foe or one of us,
May all the gods discomfit him,
Prayer (spell) is my dearest coat of mail.
The Religion of the Rigveda, Griswold, H. D., Oxford, 1923, 42 fGoogle Scholar. “Some, if not all, of the stanzas of this hymn are probably spells, and doubtless they owe their preservation to their apparently successful use in this capacity.”
page 253 note 3 Cf. Ex. viii, 22; Job xlii, 7, 8, where “sure” would be an impossible rendering.
page 253 note 4 See P. & D., 266, 284–8, and Spuren magischer Formeln in den Psalmen, Giessen, 1927, 14 ffGoogle Scholar.
page 254 note 1 For the latter use, of. Num. xxx, 3 ff., and Strack and Billerbeck, i, 738, 9.
page 254 note 2 I find that I have been anticipated in the identification of (proto) Heb. hwt (though not the biblical Heb. hawwāh) with the Accadian amātu. Virolleaud, , Danel, 159Google Scholar, writing of the three forms quoted above says: “Ces trois formes, dont la plus frequente est hwt, étant interchangeables, il y a là simplement trois aspects différents d'un seul et meme vocable; C'est l'acc. awātu ou amātu, ‘parole, ordre.’” Incidentally the forms in Ugaritic show that hayyāh is a legitimate variant of hawwāh.