Talk:Witchcraft and divination in the Hebrew Bible

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Appears to consist of original research[edit]

In principle, this topic seems notable enough to justify a separate article on it. And the content is, to the best of my understanding, generally correct. However, it still needs to be properly supported by secondary sources, i.e. not just Bible verses and the editor's knowledge of Biblical Hebrew. Scholarly journals on Biblical topics, specialised encyclopedias such as the Encyclopedia Talmudit, and monographs by established researchers in the field could be good sources of verifiable information. Davidhof (talk) 18:23, 23 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Agree. I can find no references to the first two so they can go. Deuteronomy 18 10-11 only says that 10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one that useth divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or one that consulteth a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer. Anything other than that reference to D 18 10-11 can be removed.Guns of brixham (talk) 19:40, 23 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Leviticus 19:26 is 26 Ye shall not eat with the blood; neither shall ye practise divination nor soothsaying. So there is no RS there for anything listed in this article.Guns of brixham (talk) 19:43, 23 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, original research is in this article. Upon review, there is also a threat to Nineveh via Nahum 3:4 Twillisjr (talk) 19:29, 17 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

… one example of witchcraft in the Bible which is not apparently condemned.[edit]

I don't think there is any foundation to believe that what Saul did was in any way right. It implied witchcraft is possible, but that’s something completely different. I will remove this from the caption. Ceplm (talk) 14:46, 21 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]

OR cleanup[edit]

This article has been tagged as original research since 2016, and contains a great deal of potentially inaccurate information. (To give one example, the Hebrew word onan is said here, in the Wikipedia Voice of Certainty, to mean "clouds", but this source (Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22, p. 1688) lists seven possible interpretations of the word, and labels them all as "sheer speculation".) I feel like this OR has been left standing for five years in the hope that someday an ancient Hebrew expert will come along and create a proper sourced analysis of each of these words. That would be nice, but until then, I think the unsourced content ought to be removed. So I'm taking out the list of Hebrew words and replacing them with the English text of the relevant verses (KJV, which I know isn't ideal, but I believe there are copyright issues with quoting newer translations). Here's a permalink to the current version of the article, as there may be content in it worth restoring when sources can be found. Dan from A.P. (talk) 15:45, 25 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The word 'ob' in Hebrew[edit]

The Hebrew word 'ob'/'ov' (אוֹב) generally refers to the act of necromancy and associated acts, not a person who practices it. 2A02:14F:170:5AF:0:0:273A:2B20 (talk) 13:58, 23 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]