[VietVet]

The reference to the King James Version of the Bible, and to those who apparently believe that St. Paul (and the author of Duteronomy) wrote in Elizabethan English, has to do with the Bible's condemnation of 'witchcraft'. There is no such word in anchient Hebrew, or in Koinic Greek. The words and phrases which the Committee that translated the Bible for King James I, in the first decade of the 17th Century rendered as 'witch' and 'witchcraft' can be translated alternately as 'poisoners', 'woman with a familiar spirit' (what we would call a medium or channeler today), 'wise man', and so on. The blanket condemnation of 'witchcraft' was as much an artifact of the language used in translation as it was a condemnation of a coherent set of beliefs and practices.

[germanshepherd]

Here are a few I found in my Strong's Dictionary (gives original Hebrew and Greek meanings of the words used in KJV translation). (Old Testament) to WHISPER (a spell), ie to INCHANT or practice magic. MAGIC. DIVINATION, ORACLE. In the New Testament, PHARMAKEIA is the original Greek word, rendered "witchcraft" in KJV. It means MEDICATION ("pharmacy") and by extension MAGIC (lit or fig).

If you simply take all the things Pharoah's magicians did in trying to emulate the works of Moses, I think it's pretty clear that we're talking about the same thing, translations notwithstanding.

[jnarcus]

Ah you are a scholar and a gentleman.

I hadn't bothered trying to explain what should have been an obvious oxymoron but you handled it marvelously. Thanks ever so