ys there is among them neither augury,
nor divination, nor magic.

In the time of the Judges, the Idol of Micah was consulted as a kind
of oracle.[125] Gideon made, in his house and his city, an Ephod,
accompanied by a superstitious image, which was for his family, and to
all the people, the occasion of scandal and ruin.[126]

The Israelites went sometimes to consult Beelzebub, god of Ekron,[127]
to know if they should recover from their sickness. The history of the
evocation of Samuel by the witch of Endor[128] is well known. I am
aware that some difficulties are raised concerning this history. I
shall deduce nothing from it here, except that this woman passed for a
witch, that Saul esteemed her such, and that this prince had
exterminated the magicians in his own states, or, at least, that he
did not permit them to exercise their art.

Manasses, king of Judah,[129] is blamed for having introduced idolatry
into his kingdom, and particularly for having allowed there diviners,
aruspices, and those who predicted things to come. King Josiah, on the
contrary, destroyed all these superstitions.[130]

The prophet Isaiah, who lived at the same time, says that they wished
to persuade the Jews then in captivity at Babylon to address
themselves, as did other nations, to diviners and magicians; but they
ought to reject these pernicious counsels, and leave those
abominations to the Gentiles, who knew not the Lord. Daniel[131]
speaks of the magicians, or workers of magic among the Chaldeans, and
of those amongst them who interpreted dreams, and predicted things to
come.

In the New Testament, the Jews accused Jesus Christ of casting out
devils in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of the devils;[132] but he
refutes them by saying, that being come to destroy the empire of
Beelzebub, it was not to be believed that Beelzebub would work
miracles to destroy his own power or kingdom.[133] St. Luke speaks of
Simon the sorcerer, who had for a long time bewitched the inhabitants
of Samaria with his sorceries; and also of a certain Bar-Jesus of
Paphos, who professed sorcery, and boasted he could predict future
events.[134] St. Paul, when at Ephesus, caused a number of books of
magic to be burned.[135] Lastly, the Psalmist,[136] and the author of
the Book of Ecclesiasticus,[137] speak of charms with which they
enchanted serpents.

In the Acts of the Apostles,[138] the young girl of the town of
Philippi, who was a Pythoness, for several s