JEWISH,GREEK AND ROMAN MAGIC (C.1000 BCE-1000 CE)

THE IDEA OF MIRACLES HAS COMPLICATED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAGIC AND RELIGION FOR THE LAST 3000 YEARS OR MOREL.WITHIN JEWISH AND ARABIC TRADITIONS, RELIGIOUS FIGURES FROM MOSES TO JESUS AND MUHAMMED WORKED MIRACES, WHICH BECAME A BASIS FOR THEIR POWER, FEEDING THEN INTO CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM. MEANINGS OF THE WORD MIRACLE RANGE VETWEEN THE WONDROUS AND THE UNBELIEVABLE, CONTAINING ALWAYS THE NOTION THA A MIRACLE GOES BEYOND THE NORMAL WORKINGS OF THE  WORLD, DERIVING FROM THE INFLUENCE OF SOME DIVINE OR MAGICAL POWER, MOSES THE PROPHETS ELIJAH AND ELISHA, AS WEL AS JESUS AND MUHAMMED ALL PERFORMED MIRACLES OF SIMILAR TYPES, THEY EXORCISED DEMONS, HEALED THE SICK AND RAISED THE DEAD CONFOUNDED THEIR ENEMIES IN VARIOUS WAYS AND CAUSED DRAMATIC CHANGES IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD, SUCH AS PARTING THE RED SEA OR WALKING ON WATERS. 

MAYBE SOME ELEMENTS OF THE OLDER BELIEF SYSTEMS CLUNG TO MIRACULOUS ACTS GIVING THEM ANCIENT POWER IN THIS NEW WORLD MUCH LATER WHEN PROTESTANTISM CONFRONTED CATHOLIC CHRISTINANITY ITS MAJOR CRITICISM WAS THAT THE OLDER CHURCH WAS MAGICAL . BELIEFS THAT SUBSTANCES COULD BE TRANSFORMED OR GIVEN THE POWER TO PROTECT PEOPLE WERE THOUGHT ILLEGITIMATE, PERHAPS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ENERGIES OF DEMONS AS MUCH AS WITH GOD. EARLY MODERN  NEGATIVE EVALUATIONS OF MAGIC AND MIRACLES HAVE MADE IT HARDER TO WRITE HISTORIES OF EARLIER PERIODS IN WAYS THAT SHOW MAGIC WAS OFTEN A POSITIVE QUALITY AND CERTAINLY A CONSTANT PRESENCE IN JEWISH, GREEK, AND ROMAN LIFE 

MAGIC WAS ACCEPTED WITHOUT EXCEPTION BY ALL STRATA OF SOCIETY, BUT ITS PRACTICE REQUIRED CONSISERAVLE SPECIALIST MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE AMATER DABBLING WITH SUCH POWERS WAS GENERALLY DIASTROUS. IN THE OFFICIAL RHETORIC OF THESE TIMES MAGIC IS A POWERFUL BUT AMBIGUOUS QUALITY SOMETIMES PRACTISED BY SPECIALISTS OR CHARISMATIC INDIVIDUALS AND ALSO BY PRIESTS AND RABBIS DRAWING ON RELIGIOIUS LORE. MAGIC IS INTIMATELY BOUND UP WITH RELIGION FOR GREEKS AND ROMANS, SOMEWHAT MORE REMOVED FOR JEWS IT IS BY TURNS VALUED CONTESTED DEBATED AND DEEMED DANGEROUS, IT IS A VARIABLE QUALITY BUT STILL CENTRAL TO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL FORCES AS WELL AS BEING A GOOD DIAGNOSTIC OF THEM.

REFERENCES

• Magic in the Greco-Roman world
  Roman Empire, in the 3rd to 5th centuries CE.[citation needed] Thorndike comments: "Greek science at its best was not untainted by magic".
• Greek Magical Papyri The magic papyri
  The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM) is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written
• Languages of the Roman Empire
  language of the Roman Empire, but other languages were regionally important, such as Greek. Latin was the original language of the Romans and remained 
• Greco-Roman world
  Greco-Roman mysteries Greek and Roman Egypt Hellenistic Greece Legacy of the Roman Empire List of Greco-Roman geographers Magic in the Greco-Roman world
• Magic (supernatural)
  borrowed from Jewish thought, in particular the opposition of magic and miracle. Some early Christian authors followed the Greek-Roman thinking by ascribing
• Hellenistic religion (redirect from Ancient Greek and Roman religion)
  Ancient Greek religion covers any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the people who lived under the influence of ancient Greek culture
• Love magic
  syncretic magic tradition of Hellenistic Greece, which incorporated Egyptian and Hebraic elements, as documented in texts such as the Greek Magical Papyri
• Magi (category Magic (supernatural))
  was influenced by (and eventually displaced) Greek goēs (γόης), the older word for a practitioner of magic, to include astronomy/astrology, alchemy and
• White magic
  polytheistic and pagan Roman Empire began to expand that Jewish leaders began to rally against those ideas. Early origins of white magic can also be traced
• Roman Empire
  The Roman Empire (Latin: Imperium Rōmānum [ɪmˈpɛri.ũː roːˈmaːnũː]; Greek: Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, translit. Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican
• Hermetic Qabalah
  of angelic magic of John Dee and Edward Kelley, hermeticism, tantra and the symbolism of the tarot. Hermetic Qabalah differs from the Jewish form in being
• List of mythological objects (section Bows from Classical Greek and Roman mythology)
  (Greek mythology) Shield of Ajax, a huge shield made of seven cow-hides with a layer of bronze. (Greek mythology) Ancile, the shield of the Roman god
  
  
• Moon magic
  Witches in Greek and Roman literature, particularly those from Thessaly, were regularly accused of "drawing down the Moon" by use of a magic spell. The
  
  
• Abracadabra (category Magic words)
  point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as abraxas or to its similarity to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta-gamma-delta or
• Abyzou (category Articles containing Greek-language text)
  Kotansky, "Incantations and Prayers on Inscribed Greek Amulets," in Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, edited by Christopher A. Faraone and
• Greco-Roman mysteries
  famous mysteries of Greco-Roman antiquity were the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were of considerable antiquity and predated the Greek Dark Ages. The mystery
• Roman Egypt
  Egypt (Latin: Aegyptus [ae̯ˈɡʏptʊs]; Koinē Greek: Αἴγυπτος Aígyptos [ɛ́ːɡyptos]) was a subdivision of the Roman Empire from Rome's annexation of the Ptolemaic
• Chemical depilatory
  include Nair, Magic Shave and Veet. Depilatory ointments, or plasters, were known to Greek and Roman authors as psilothrum. In Jewish lore, King Solomon
• Necromancy (category Magic (supernatural))
  ISBN 978-1-57607-134-2. Luck, G. (2006). Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds—A Collection of Ancient Texts (2nd ed.). Baltimore
• Religion in ancient Rome (redirect from Roman Paganism)
  of Apollo. The Romans looked for common ground between their major gods and those of the Greeks (interpretatio graeca), adapting Greek myths and iconography
  
  

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