Antiquities of the Jews Author:William Brown Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECT. III. The various Kinds of Dicination. Magic; applying to wise men ; divining by the cup ; sorcery ; witchcraft; enchantment; the observing of times; cl... more »oud-mongeri; consulting familiar spirits, or Aubs; wizzards; charming; necromancy ; divination; astrology ; stargazing; dreams; rhabdomancy, or consulting by staves; making bright the arrows; consulting by images; looking into the liver; soothsaying. In perusing the Scriptures, one is struck with the various kinds of divination, which are mentioned ; and feels a desire to be informed of some par-, ticulars concerning them. The following observations are intended to gratify such a curiosity. Magic is very early spoken of. Pharaoh sent for the magicians of Egypt, to interpret his dreams/ The original word DCDin Hcrethemim is differently rendered by the Septuagint; for sometimes they translate it eyra, interpreters, or explainers of things secret; sometimes iVKoiftoi, enchanters ; and sometimes tpagpuxoi, conjurors by drugs. Nor do the Greek Hexaplar versions, or the Vulgate, by their translations, throw any more light upon the strict and proper sense of the word; which may, as Parkhurst thinks, be best considered as a compound of Bin Hereth, a pen, or instrument to draw with, and Dn tern, to perfect, or accomplish; and so denote those who were perfect in drawing the sacred, astrological, and hieroglyphical figures or characters, and by means of them pretended to Gen. xli. 8. extraordinary feats/ among which was the inter- pretation of dreams. In short, they seem to have been such persons, as Josephusb calls /Egoygattars, sacred scribes, or professors of sacred learning; one of whom, he tells us, foretold Moses birth to the king of Egypt, for they were eminent, he adds, for predicting futurities. The wise men ...« less