Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MEDIUM, WIZARD

A person who engages in necromancy, the divinatory technique of consulting ghosts to obtain oracles about the future. In the OT these two terms most often occur together (except for 1 Sam. 28; 1 Chr. 10:13, where “medium” appears alone). Heb. yiddĕʿōnî, “wizard,” is derived from the Semitic root ydʿ, “to know.” Normally translated as “wizard,” it refers to practitioners who possess special knowledge of the dead, and presumably other mantic arts. Heb. ʾôḇ may designate either the medium who consults the spirit or the ghost itself. The etymology of the word is disputed among scholars, depicting ghosts, spirits of the dead, or ancestors. In addition, ʾôḇ may also signify “pit” (cf. Akk. aptu; Ugar. ʾēb). Extrabiblical sources describe the digging of a ritual pit for the purpose of sacrificial offerings and to implore the spirits of the dead, a practice which Isaiah ridicules (Isa. 29:14). A related term in Deut. 18:11, dōrēš ʾel-hammēṯîm (“inquiring of the dead”), refers specifically to the practice of necromancy. The belief that the dead spirits possessed occult knowledge about the future was a prominent feature in ancient Near Eastern mythology and religion; the dead spirits functioned as gods, dispensing oracles, and were often venerated.

In the OT necromancy and other mantic arts were strongly polemized and listed among the abhorrent practices of the other nations. Saul, after exhausting more “legitimate” means of divine communication, seeks a female necromancer, a woman of Endor, to consult with the spirit of Samuel (1 Sam. 28). Lev. 20:27 prescribes capital punishment for anyone who practices necromancy, but in 1 Sam. 28:3-9; 2 Kgs. 23:24 the necromancers were only expelled from the land.

Julye Bidmead

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MEDIUM, WIZARD

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)