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90-670: A Witchfinder is a person who seeks witches in a witch-hunt . Witchfinder may also refer to: Witch-hunt A witch hunt , or a witch purge , is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft . Practicing evil spells or incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the Middle East . In medieval Europe , witch-hunts often arose in connection to charges of heresy from Christianity. An intensive period of witch-hunts occurring in Early Modern Europe and to

180-571: A fifth column . He hardens their labor and orders the killing of all newborn boys. A Levite woman named Jochebed saves her baby by setting him adrift on the Nile in an ark of bulrushes . Pharaoh's daughter finds the child, names him Moses , and brings him up as her own. Later, a grown Moses goes out to see his kinsmen. He witnesses the abuse of a Hebrew slave by an Egyptian overseer. Angered, Moses kills him and flees into Midian to escape punishment. There, he marries Zipporah , daughter of Jethro ,

270-542: A 1791 pamphlet by Gottfried Christian Voigt . Book of Exodus Traditionally ascribed to Moses himself, modern scholars see its initial composition as a product of the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), based on earlier written sources and oral traditions, with final revisions in the Persian post-exilic period (5th century BCE). American biblical scholar Carol Meyers , in her commentary on Exodus, suggests that it

360-461: A Midianite priest. While tending Jethro's flock, Moses encounters God in a burning bush . Moses asks God for his name, to which God replies with three words, often translated as " I Am that I Am ." This is the book's explanation for the origin of the name Yahweh , as God is thereafter known. God tells Moses to return to Egypt, free the Hebrews from slavery and lead them into Canaan , the land promised to

450-445: A case was brought to trial, the prosecutors hunted for accomplices. The use of magic was considered wrong, not because it failed, but because it worked effectively for the wrong reasons. Witchcraft was a normal part of everyday life. Witches were often called for, along with religious ministers, to help the ill or deliver a baby. They held positions of spiritual power in their communities. When something went wrong, no one questioned either

540-402: A conspicuous part. The Code of Hammurabi (18th century BC short chronology ) prescribes that If a man has put a spell upon another man and it is not yet justified, he upon whom the spell is laid shall go to the holy river ; into the holy river shall he plunge. If the holy river overcomes him and he is drowned, the man who put the spell upon him shall take possession of his house. If

630-427: A form of Satanic influence and its classification as a heresy. As Renaissance occultism gained traction among the educated classes, the belief in witchcraft, which in the medieval period had been part of the folk religion of the uneducated rural population at best, was incorporated into an increasingly comprehensive theology of Satan as the ultimate source of all maleficium . These doctrinal shifts were completed in

720-690: A heavily Canaanite origin for Israel, with little suggestion that a group of foreigners from Egypt comprised early Israel. They also argue that the exodus narrative perhaps evolved from vague memories of the Hyksos expulsion, spun to encourage resistance to the 7th century domination of Judah by Egypt. However, a majority of scholars believe that the story has an historical core, though disagreeing widely about what that historical kernel might have been. Kenton Sparks refers to it as "charter myth" and "mythologized history". Biblical scholar Graham I. Davies notes that several literary texts from Ancient Egypt document

810-622: A history of God's saving actions that give identity to Israel – the promise of offspring and land to the ancestors, the Exodus from Egypt (in which God saves Israel from slavery), the wilderness wandering, the revelation at Sinai, and the hope for the future life in the Promised Land . A theophany is a manifestation (appearance) of a god – in the Bible, an appearance of the God of Israel, accompanied by storms –

900-520: A human cultural universal. One study finds that witchcraft beliefs are associated with antisocial attitudes: lower levels of trust, charitable giving and group participation. Another study finds that income shocks (caused by extreme rainfall) lead to a large increase in the murder of "witches" in Tanzania. Punishment for malevolent magic is addressed in the earliest law codes which were preserved, in both ancient Egypt and Babylonia , where it played

990-419: A pact with the devil and using witchcraft. In 1615, she was called a witch by a female neighbor in the duchy of Württemberg following a dispute with her of having given her a bitter drink that had made her ill. She was held captive for over a year and threatened with torture, but was finally acquitted thanks to her son's efforts. Modern scholarly estimates place the total number of executions for witchcraft in

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1080-546: A persecution and expulsion of witches among the Goths in a mythical account of the origin of the Huns . The ancient fabled King Filimer is said to have found among his people certain witches, whom he called in his native tongue Haliurunnae . Suspecting these women, he expelled them from the midst of his race and compelled them to wander in solitary exile afar from his army. There the unclean spirits, who beheld them as they wandered through

1170-410: A preamble, historical prologue, stipulations, deposition and reading, list of witnesses, blessings and curses, and ratification by animal sacrifice. Biblical covenants, in contrast to Eastern covenants in general, are between a god, Yahweh, and a people, Israel, instead of between a strong ruler and a weaker vassal. God elects Israel for salvation because the "sons of Israel" are "the firstborn son" of

1260-457: A small band of wandering Israelites living in the Sinai: "The conclusion – that Exodus did not happen at the time and in the manner described in the Bible – seems irrefutable [...] repeated excavations and surveys throughout the entire area have not provided even the slightest evidence". Instead, they argue how modern archaeology suggests continuity between Canaanite and Israelite settlements, indicating

1350-649: A smaller extent Colonial America , took place from about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years' War , resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 60,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia , contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea , and official legislation against witchcraft

1440-456: A soothsayer, or an augur , or a sorcerer , or one that casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord"; and Exodus  22:18 prescribes: "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". Tales like that of 1 Samuel 28, reporting how Saul "hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of

1530-586: A widely circulated pamphlet, "Newes from Scotland," James VI personally presided over the torture and execution of Doctor Fian. Indeed, James published a witch-hunting manual, Daemonologie , which contains the famous dictum: "Experience daily proves how loath they are to confess without torture." Later, the Pendle witch trials of 1612 joined the ranks of the most famous witch trials in English history. In England, witch-hunting would reach its apex in 1644 to 1647 due to

1620-811: A witch, for it is not possible, nor ought to be believed by Christian minds. This conforms to the teachings of the Canon Episcopi of circa 900 AD (alleged to date from 314 AD), which, stated that witchcraft did not exist and that to teach that it was a reality was, itself, false and heterodox teaching. Other examples include an Irish synod in 800 AD, and a sermon by Agobard of Lyons (810 AD). King Kálmán (Coloman) of Hungary , in Decree 57 of his First Legislative Book (published in 1100), banned witch-hunting because he said, "witches do not exist". The "Decretum" of Burchard, Bishop of Worms (about 1020), and especially its 19th book, often known separately as

1710-519: A witch-hunter, the methods used to extract confessions, and the tests he employed to test the accused: stripping them naked to find the Witches' mark , the "swimming" test , and pricking the skin . The swimming test, which included throwing a witch, who was strapped to a chair, into a bucket of water to see if she floated, was discontinued in 1645 due to a legal challenge. The 1647 book, The Discovery of Witches , soon became an influential legal text. The book

1800-451: Is arguably the most important book in the Bible, as it presents the defining features of Israel's identity—memories of a past marked by hardship and escape, a binding covenant with their God , who chooses Israel, and the establishment of the life of the community and the guidelines for sustaining it. The consensus of modern scholars is that the Pentateuch does not give an accurate account of

1890-412: Is clear from his much-quoted sermon of 1427, in which he says: One of them told and confessed, without any pressure, that she had killed thirty children by bleeding them ... [and] she confessed more, saying she had killed her own son ... Answer me: does it really seem to you that someone who has killed twenty or thirty little children in such a way has done so well that when finally they are accused before

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1980-465: Is physically present, where, through the priesthood, Israel could be in direct, literal communion with him. The heart of Exodus is the Sinaitic covenant . A covenant is a legal document binding two parties to take on certain obligations towards each other. There are several covenants in the Bible, and in each case they exhibit at least some of the elements in real-life treaties of the ancient Middle East:

2070-534: Is recorded in 1563 in a pamphlet called "True and Horrifying Deeds of 63 Witches". Witchcraft persecution spread to all areas of Europe. Learned European ideas about witchcraft and demonological ideas, strongly influenced the hunt for witches in the North. These witch-hunts were at least partly driven by economic factors since a significant relationship between economic pressure and witch hunting activity can be found for regions such as Bavaria and Scotland. In Denmark,

2160-464: Is still found in Saudi Arabia , Cameroon and South Africa today. In current language, "witch-hunt" metaphorically means an investigation that is usually conducted with much publicity, supposedly to uncover subversive activity, disloyalty, and so on, but with the real purpose of harming opponents. It can also involve elements of moral panic , as well as mass hysteria . The wide distribution of

2250-485: The 5th century BC laws of the Twelve Tables laid down penalties for uttering harmful incantations and for stealing the fruitfulness of someone else's crops by magic. The only recorded trial involving this law was that of Gaius Furius Cresimus . The Classical Latin word veneficium meant both poisoning and causing harm by magic (such as magic potions), although ancient people would not have distinguished between

2340-403: The "Corrector", is another work of great importance. Burchard was writing against the superstitious belief in magical potions , for instance, that may produce impotence or abortion. These were also condemned by several Church Fathers. But he altogether rejected the possibility of many of the alleged powers with which witches were popularly credited. Such, for example, were nocturnal riding through

2430-416: The 15th and early 16th centuries, but then the witch scare went into decline, before becoming a major issue again and peaking in the 17th century; particularly during the Thirty Years' War . What had previously been a belief that some people possessed supernatural abilities (which were sometimes used to protect the people), now became a sign of a pact between the people with supernatural abilities and

2520-513: The 300-year period of European witch-hunts in the five digits, mostly at roughly between 35,000 and 60,000 (see table below for details), The majority of those accused were from the lower economic classes in European society, although in rarer cases high-ranking individuals were accused as well. On the basis of this evidence, Scarre and Callow asserted that the "typical witch was the wife or widow of an agricultural labourer or small tenant farmer, and she

2610-626: The 3rd century AD, the Lex Cornelia had begun to be used more broadly against other kinds of magic deemed harmful. The magicians were to be burnt at the stake. Persecution of witches continued in the Roman Empire until the late 4th century AD and abated only after the introduction of Christianity as the Roman state religion in the 390s. The German author Wilhelm Gottlieb Soldan argued in History of

2700-1017: The Church, while those who worshiped the Devil (Germanic gods) were killed outright. Witch-hunting also appears in period literature. According to Snorri Sturluson , King Olaf Trygvasson furthered the Christian conversion of Norway by luring pagan magicians to his hall under false pretenses, barring the doors and burning them alive. Some who escaped were later captured and drowned. Early secular laws against witchcraft include those promulgated by King Athelstan (924–939): And we have ordained respecting witch-crafts, and lybacs [read lyblac "sorcery"] , and morthdaeds ["murder, mortal sin"] : if any one should be thereby killed, and he could not deny it, that he be liable in his life. But if he will deny it, and at threefold ordeal shall be guilty; that he be 120 days in prison: and after that let kindred take him out, and give to

2790-581: The Egyptians with ten terrible plagues , such as a river of blood , an outbreak of frogs , and the thick darkness . Moses is commanded by God to fix the spring month of Aviv at the head of the Hebrew calendar . The Israelites are to take a lamb on the 10th day of the month, sacrifice the lamb on the 14th day, daub its blood on their mezuzot—doorposts and lintels, and to observe the Passover meal that night, during

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2880-715: The God of Israel, descended through Shem and Abraham to the chosen line of Jacob whose name is changed to Israel. The goal of the divine plan in Exodus is a return to humanity's state in Eden , so that God can dwell with the Israelites as he had with Adam and Eve through the Ark and Tabernacle, which together form a model of the universe; in later Abrahamic religions Israel becomes the guardian of God's plan for humanity, to bring "God's creation blessing to mankind" begun in Adam. List of Torah portions in

2970-590: The Hebrews and repeats to them the commandments he has received from God, which are to keep the Sabbath and to construct the Tabernacle. The Israelites do as they are commanded. From that time God dwells in the Tabernacle and orders the travels of the Hebrews. Jewish and Christian tradition viewed Moses as the author of Exodus and the entire Torah , but by the end of the 19th century the increasing awareness of discrepancies, inconsistencies, repetitions and other features of

3060-608: The Inquisition to prosecute sorcerers in 1320, inquisitorial courts rarely dealt with witchcraft save incidentally when investigating heterodoxy. In the case of the Madonna Oriente , the Inquisition of Milan was not sure what to do with two women who, in 1384, confessed to have participated in the society around Signora Oriente or Diana . Through their confessions, both of them conveyed the traditional folk beliefs of white magic. The women were accused again in 1390, and condemned by

3150-440: The Israelites complain and long for Egypt, but God miraculously provides manna for them to eat and water to drink. The Israelites arrive at the mountain of God, where Moses's father-in-law Jethro visits Moses; at his suggestion, Moses appoints judges over Israel. God asks whether they will agree to be his people – They accept. The people gather at the foot of the mountain, and with thunder and lightning, fire and clouds of smoke,

3240-573: The Pentateuch had led scholars to abandon this idea. In approximate round dates, the process which produced Exodus and the Pentateuch probably began around 600 BCE when existing oral and written traditions were brought together to form books recognizable as those we know, reaching their final form as unchangeable sacred texts around 400 BCE. Although patent mythical elements are not so prominent in Exodus as in Genesis , ancient legends may have an influence on

3330-523: The Roman Catholic Inquisition remained highly skeptical of witch accusations, although there was sometimes an overlap between accusations of heresy and of witchcraft, particularly when, in the 13th century, the newly formed Inquisition was commissioned to deal with the Cathars of Southern France, whose teachings were charged with including witchcraft and magic. Although it has been proposed that

3420-464: The Signoria you should go to their aid and beg mercy for them? Perhaps the most notorious witch trial in history was the trial of Joan of Arc . Although the trial was politically motivated, and the verdict later overturned, the position of Joan as a woman and an accused witch became significant factors in her execution. Joan's punishment of being burned alive (victims were usually strangled before burning)

3510-573: The Witchcraft Trials that the philosopher and mathematician Hypatia , murdered by a mob in 415 AD for threatening the influence of Cyril of Alexandria , may have been, in effect, the first famous "witch" to be punished by Christian authorities. Cyril's alleged role in her murder, however, was already controversial among contemporary sources, and the surviving primary account by Socrates Scholasticus makes no mention of religious motivations. The 6th century AD Getica of Jordanes records

3600-470: The Würzburg trials of 1629, children made up 60% of those accused, although this had declined to 17% by the end of the year. Rapley (1998) claims that "75 to 80 percent" of a total of "40,000 to 50,000" victims were women. The claim that "millions of witches" (often: " nine million witches ") were killed in Europe is spurious, even though it is occasionally found in popular literature, and it is ultimately due to

3690-444: The accused, which was important for the success of the witch trials. In practice, appeals were made to other witnesses to the crimes, so that the first informer was followed by others. In the event of a conviction, the informer sometimes received a third of the accused's assets, but at least 2 guilders . A well-known and well-documented example is the case of Katharina Kepler , the mother of the astronomer Johannes Kepler , for being in

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3780-734: The air, the changing of a person's disposition from love to hate, the control of thunder, rain, and sunshine, the transformation of a man into an animal, the intercourse of incubi and succubi with human beings, and other such superstitions. Not only the attempt to practice such things, but the very belief in their possibility, is treated by Burchard as false and superstitious. Pope Gregory VII , in 1080, wrote to King Harald III of Denmark forbidding witches to be put to death upon being suspected of having caused storms or failure of crops or pestilence. There were many such efforts to prevent unjust treatment of innocent people. On many occasions, ecclesiastics who spoke with authority did their best to disabuse

3870-501: The altar and its appurtenances, procedures for the ordination of priests, and the daily sacrifice offerings. Aaron becomes the first hereditary high priest . God gives Moses the two tablets of stone containing the words of the ten commandments, written with the "finger of God" . While Moses is with God, Aaron casts a golden calf , which the people worship. God informs Moses of their apostasy and threatens to kill them all, but relents when Moses pleads for them. Moses comes down from

3960-620: The basis of future witch hunts. Ironically, many clerics of the Middle Ages openly or covertly practiced goetia , believing that as Christ granted his disciples power to command demons, to summon and control demons was not, therefore, a sin. Whatever the position of individual clerics, witch-hunting seems to have persisted as a cultural phenomenon. Throughout the early medieval period, notable rulers prohibited both witchcraft and pagan religions, often on pain of death. Under Charlemagne, for example, Christians who practiced witchcraft were enslaved by

4050-610: The book's form or content: for example, the story of the infant Moses's salvation from the Nile is argued to be based on an earlier legend of king Sargon of Akkad , while the story of the parting of the Red Sea may trade on Mesopotamian creation mythology . Similarly, the Covenant Code (the law code in Exodus 20:22–23:33) has some similarities in both content and structure with the Laws of Hammurabi . These potential influences serve to reinforce

4140-522: The book's title is שְׁמוֹת, shemōt , "Names", from the beginning words of the text : "These are the names of the sons of Israel" ( Hebrew : וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמֹות בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל ). Most mainstream scholars do not accept the biblical Exodus account as historical for a number of reasons. It is generally agreed that the Exodus stories were written centuries after the apparent setting of the stories. Archaeologists Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman argue that archaeology has not found evidence for even

4230-425: The breath" meant slashing across a woman's forehead in order to remove the power of her magic. This was seen as a kind of emergency procedure which could be performed in absence of judicial authorities. Another important element of the persecution of witches were denunciations . "In England, most of the accusers and those making written complaints against witches were women." Informers did not have to be revealed to

4320-403: The burning of witches increased following the reformation of 1536. Christian IV of Denmark , in particular, encouraged this practice, and hundreds of people were convicted of witchcraft and burnt. In the district of Finnmark, northern Norway, severe witchcraft trials took place during the period 1600–1692. A memorial of international format, Steilneset Memorial , has been built to commemorate

4410-563: The conclusion that the Book of Exodus originated in the exiled Jewish community of 6th-century BCE Babylon , but not all the potential sources are Mesopotamian: the story of Moses's flight to Midian following the murder of the Egyptian overseer may draw on the Egyptian Story of Sinuhe . Biblical scholars describe the Bible's theologically motivated history writing as " salvation history ", meaning

4500-501: The covenant between them (chapters 20–40). The text of the Book of Exodus begins after the events at the end of the Book of Genesis where Jacob 's sons and their families joined their brother Joseph in Egypt , which Joseph had saved from famine. It is 400 years later and Egypt's new Pharaoh , who does not remember Joseph, is fearful that the enslaved and now numerous Israelites could become

4590-509: The death penalty. This law banned the trading and possession of harmful drugs and poisons, possession of magical books and other occult paraphernalia. Emperor Augustus strengthened laws to curb these practices, for instance in 31 BC, by burning over 2,000 magical books in Rome, except for certain portions of the hallowed Sibylline Books . While Tiberius Claudius was emperor, 85 women and 45 men accused of sorcery were executed. By

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4680-477: The devil. To justify the killings, some Christians of the time and their proxy secular institutions deemed witchcraft as being associated to wild Satanic ritual parties in which there was naked dancing and cannibalistic infanticide . It was also seen as heresy for going against the first of the Ten Commandments ("You shall have no other gods before me") or as violating majesty , in this case referring to

4770-411: The divine majesty, not the worldly. Further scripture was also frequently cited, especially the Exodus decree that "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18), which many supported. Witch-hunts were seen across early modern Europe, but the most significant area of witch-hunting in modern Europe is often considered to be central and southern Germany. Germany was a late starter in terms of

4860-442: The earth trembles, the mountains quake, the heavens pour rain, thunder peals and lightning flashes. The theophany in Exodus begins "the third day" from their arrival at Sinai in chapter 19: Yahweh and the people meet at the mountain, God appears in the storm and converses with Moses, giving him the Ten Commandments while the people listen. The theophany is therefore a public experience of divine law. The second half of Exodus marks

4950-483: The efforts of Puritan Matthew Hopkins . Although operating without an official Parliament commission, Hopkins (calling himself Witchfinder General) and his accomplices charged hefty fees to towns during the English Civil War . Hopkins' witch-hunting spree was brief but significant: 300 convictions and deaths are attributed to his work. Hopkins wrote a book on his methods, describing his fortuitous beginnings as

5040-448: The full moon. The 10th plague comes that night, causing the death of all Egyptian firstborn sons, prompting Pharaoh to expel the Israelites. Regretting his decision, Pharaoh commands his chariot army after the Israelites, who appear trapped at the Red Sea . God parts the sea , allowing the Israelites to pass through, before drowning Pharaoh's pursuing forces. As desert life proves arduous,

5130-453: The harmful effects of pharmaka – an ambiguous term that might mean "poison", "medicine", or "magical drug" – do survive, especially those where the drug caused injury or death. Antiphon 's speech " Against the Stepmother for Poisoning " tells of the case of a woman accused of plotting to murder her husband with a pharmakon ; a slave had previously been executed for the crime, but the son of

5220-400: The holy river declares him innocent and he remains unharmed the man who laid the spell shall be put to death. He that plunged into the river shall take possession of the house of him who laid the spell upon him. The Hebrew Bible condemns sorcery. Deuteronomy  18:10–12 states: "No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, who practices divination, or is

5310-427: The inquisitor. They were eventually executed by the secular arm. In a notorious case in 1425, Hermann II, Count of Celje accused his daughter-in-law Veronika of Desenice of witchcraft – and, though she was acquitted by the court, he had her murdered by drowning. The accusations of witchcraft are, in this case, considered to have been a pretext for Hermann to get rid of an "unsuitable match," Veronika being born into

5400-527: The king 120 shillings, and pay the wer to his kindred, and enter into borh for him, that he evermore desist from the like. In some prosecutions for witchcraft, torture (permitted by the Roman civil law ) apparently took place. However, Pope Nicholas I (866 AD), prohibited the use of torture altogether, and a similar decree may be found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals . The manuals of

5490-613: The land", suggest that in practice sorcery could at least lead to exile. In the Judaean Second Temple period , Rabbi Simeon ben Shetach in the 1st century BC is reported to have sentenced to death eighty women who had been charged with witchcraft on a single day in Ascalon . Later the women's relatives took revenge by bringing false witnesses against Simeon's son and causing him to be executed in turn. No laws concerning magic survive from Classical Athens. However, cases concerning

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5580-687: The largest and most notable of these trials were the Trier witch trials (1581–1593), the Fulda witch trials (1603–1606), the Würzburg witch trial (1626–1631) and the Bamberg witch trials (1626–1631). In addition to known witch trials, witch hunts were often conducted by vigilantes, who may or may not have executed their victims. In Scotland, for example, cattle murrains were blamed on witches, usually peasant women, who were duly punished. A popular method called "scoring above

5670-485: The lower nobility and thus "unworthy" of his son. A Catholic figure who preached against witchcraft was popular Franciscan preacher Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444). Bernardino's sermons reveal both a phenomenon of superstitious practices and an over-reaction against them by the common people. However, it is clear that Bernardino had in mind not merely the use of spells and enchantments and such like fooleries but much more serious crimes, chiefly murder and infanticide. This

5760-591: The mid-15th century, specifically in the wake of the Council of Basel and centered on the Duchy of Savoy in the western Alps, leading to an early series of witch trials by both secular and ecclesiastical courts in the second half of the 15th century. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued Summis desiderantes affectibus , a Papal bull authorizing the "correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising" of devil-worshippers who have "slain infants", among other crimes. He did so at

5850-676: The ministers or the power of the witchcraft. Instead, they questioned whether the witch intended to inflict harm or not. Current scholarly estimates of the number of people who were executed for witchcraft vary from about 35,000 to 60,000. The total number of witch trials in Europe which are known to have ended in executions is around 12,000. Prominent contemporaneous critics of witch-hunts included Gianfrancesco Ponzinibio (fl. 1520), Johannes Wier (1515–1588), Reginald Scot (1538–1599), Cornelius Loos (1546–1595), Anton Praetorius (1560–1613), Alonso Salazar y Frías (1564–1636), Friedrich Spee (1591–1635), and Balthasar Bekker (1634–1698). Among

5940-412: The mountain and writes down God's words, and the people agree to keep them. God calls Moses up the mountain again, where he remains for forty days and forty nights, after which he returns, bearing the set of stone tablets . God gives Moses instructions for the construction of the tabernacle so that God may dwell permanently among his chosen people , along with instructions for the priestly vestments ,

6030-462: The mountain, smashes the stone tablets in anger, and commands the Levites to massacre the unfaithful Israelites. God commands Moses to construct two new tablets. Moses ascends the mountain again, where God dictates the Ten Commandments for Moses to write on the tablets. Moses descends from the mountain with a transformed face ; from that time onwards he must hide his face with a veil . Moses assembles

6120-505: The newly invented printing presses, enjoyed a wide readership. It was reprinted in 14 editions by 1520 and became unduly influential in the secular courts. In Europe, the witch-hunt craze was negligible in Spain, Poland, and Eastern Europe; conversely, it was intense in Germany, Switzerland, and France. The witch trials in Early Modern Europe came in waves and then subsided. There were trials in

6210-411: The numbers of trials, compared to other regions of Europe. Witch-hunts first appeared in large numbers in southern France and Switzerland during the 14th and 15th centuries. The peak years of witch-hunts in southwest Germany were from 1561 to 1670. The first major persecution in Europe, when witches were caught, tried, convicted, and burned in the imperial lordship of Wiesensteig in southwestern Germany,

6300-591: The origins of the Israelites, who appear instead to have formed as an entity in the central highlands of Canaan in the late second millennium BCE (around the time of the Late Bronze Age collapse ) from the indigenous Canaanite culture. The English name Exodus comes from the Ancient Greek : ἔξοδος , romanized :  éxodos , lit.   'way out', from ἐξ- , ex- , 'out' and ὁδός , hodós , 'path', 'road'. In Hebrew

6390-461: The people of their superstitious belief in witchcraft. A comparable situation in Russia is suggested in a sermon by Serapion of Vladimir (written in 1274~1275), where the popular superstition of witches causing crop failures is denounced. Condemnations of witchcraft are nevertheless found in the writings of Augustine of Hippo and early theologians, who made little distinction between witchcraft and

6480-510: The point at which, and describes the process through which, God's theophany becomes a permanent presence for Israel via the Tabernacle . That so much of the book (chapters 25–31, 35–40) describes the plans of the Tabernacle demonstrates the importance it played in the perception of Second Temple Judaism at the time of the text's redaction by the Priestly writers: the Tabernacle is the place where God

6570-457: The practice of witch hunts in geographically and culturally separated societies (Europe, Africa, New Guinea) since the 1960s has triggered interest in the anthropological background of this behaviour. The belief in magic and divination , and attempts to use magic to influence personal well-being (to increase life, win love, etc.) are universal across human cultures. Belief in witchcraft has been shown to have similarities in societies throughout

6660-421: The practices of pagan religions. Many believed witchcraft did not exist in a philosophical sense: Witchcraft was based on illusions and powers of evil, which Augustine likened to darkness, a non-entity representing the absence of light. Augustine and his adherents like Saint Thomas Aquinas nevertheless promulgated elaborate demonologies, including the belief that humans could enter pacts with demons, which became

6750-440: The presence of Semitic peoples working for building projects under the 19th Dynasty of Egypt , suggesting a possible historical basis for the account of Israelite servitude to the Egyptians. However, there is an increasing trend among scholars to see the biblical exodus traditions as the invention of the exilic and post-exilic Jewish community, with little to no historical basis. There is no unanimous agreement among scholars on

6840-469: The request of inquisitor Heinrich Kramer , who had been refused permission by the local bishops in Germany to investigate. However, historians such as Ludwig von Pastor insist that the bull neither allowed anything new, nor was necessarily binding on Catholic consciences. Three years later in 1487, Kramer published the notorious Malleus Maleficarum (lit., 'Hammer against the Evildoers') which, because of

6930-527: The seed of Abraham in Genesis. On the journey back to Egypt, God seeks to kill Moses. Zipporah circumcises their son and the attack stops. (See Zipporah at the inn .) Moses reunites with his brother Aaron and, returning to Egypt, convenes the Israelite elders, preparing them to go into the wilderness to worship God. Pharaoh refuses to release the Israelites from their work for the festival, and so God curses

7020-533: The sound of trumpets, and the trembling of the mountain, God appears on the peak, and the people see the cloud and hear the voice (or possibly sound) of God. God tells Moses to ascend the mountain. God pronounces the Ten Commandments (the Ethical Decalogue ) in the hearing of all Israel. Moses goes up the mountain into the presence of God , who pronounces the Covenant Code of ritual and civil law and promises Canaan to them if they obey. Moses comes down from

7110-411: The structure of Exodus. One strong possibility is that it is a diptych (i.e., divided into two parts), with the division between parts 1 and 2 at the crossing of the Red Sea or at the beginning of the theophany (appearance of God) in chapter 19. On this plan, the first part tells of God's rescue of his people from Egypt and their journey under his care to Sinai (chapters 1–19) and the second tells of

7200-593: The two. In 331 BC, a deadly epidemic hit Rome and at least 170 women were executed for causing it by veneficium . In 184–180 BC, another epidemic hit Italy, and about 5,000 people were brought to trial and executed for veneficium . If the reports are accurate, writes Hutton , "then the Republican Romans hunted witches on a scale unknown anywhere else in the ancient world". Under the Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis of 81 BC, killing by veneficium carried

7290-479: The victim claimed that the death had been arranged by his stepmother. The most detailed account of a trial for witchcraft in Classical Greece is the story of Theoris of Lemnos , who was executed along with her children some time before 338 BC, supposedly for casting incantations and using harmful drugs. During the pagan era of ancient Rome , there were laws against harmful magic. According to Pliny ,

7380-678: The victims of the Finnmark witchcraft trials. In England, the Witchcraft Act 1541 regulated the penalties for witchcraft. In the North Berwick witch trials in Scotland, over 70 people were accused of witchcraft on account of bad weather when James VI of Scotland , who shared the Danish king's interest in witch trials, sailed to Denmark in 1590 to meet his betrothed Anne of Denmark . According to

7470-495: The view of the Church for many centuries. The general desire of the Catholic Church 's clergy to check fanaticism about witchcraft and necromancy is shown in the decrees of the Council of Paderborn , which, in 785 AD, explicitly outlawed condemning people as witches and condemned to death anyone who burnt a witch. The Lombard code of 643 AD states: Let nobody presume to kill a foreign serving maid or female servant as

7560-427: The wilderness, bestowed their embraces upon them and begat this savage race, which dwelt at first in the swamps, a stunted, foul and puny tribe, scarcely human, and having no language save one which bore but slight resemblance to human speech. The Councils of Elvira (306 AD), Ancyra (314 AD), and Trullo (692 AD) imposed certain ecclesiastical penances for devil-worship. This mild approach represented

7650-533: The witch-hunt developed in Europe from the early 14th century, after the Cathars and the Knights Templar were suppressed, this hypothesis has been rejected independently by virtually all academic historians (Cohn 1975; Kieckhefer 1976). In 1258, Pope Alexander IV declared that Inquisition would not deal with cases of witchcraft unless they were related to heresy. Although Pope John XXII had later authorized

7740-457: The world. It presents a framework to explain the occurrence of otherwise random misfortunes such as sickness or death, and the witch sorcerer provides an image of evil. Reports on indigenous practices in the Americas, Asia and Africa collected during the early modern Age of Exploration have been taken to suggest that not just the belief in witchcraft but also the periodic outbreak of witch-hunts are

7830-451: Was found innocent, while Mary was acquitted of witchcraft but she was still sentenced to be hanged as punishment for the death of her child. She died in prison. About eighty people throughout England's Massachusetts Bay Colony were accused of practicing witchcraft; thirteen women and two men were executed in a witch-hunt that occurred throughout New England and lasted from 1645 to 1663. The Salem witch trials followed in 1692–1693. Once

7920-422: Was reserved solely for witches and heretics, the implication being that a burned body could not be resurrected on Judgment Day . The resurgence of witch-hunts at the end of the medieval period, taking place with at least partial support or at least tolerance on the part of the Church, was accompanied with a number of developments in Christian doctrine, for example, the recognition of the existence of witchcraft as

8010-838: Was used in the American colonies as early as May 1647, when Margaret Jones was executed for witchcraft in Massachusetts , the first of 17 people executed for witchcraft in the Colonies from 1647 to 1663. Witch-hunts began to occur in North America while Hopkins was hunting witches in England. In 1645, forty-six years before the notorious Salem witch trials , Springfield, Massachusetts experienced America's first accusations of witchcraft when husband and wife Hugh and Mary Parsons accused each other of witchcraft. In America's first witch trial, Hugh

8100-663: Was well known for a quarrelsome and aggressive nature." According to Julian Goodare, in Europe, the overall proportion of women who were persecuted as witches was 80%, although there were countries and regions like Estonia, Normandy and Iceland, that targeted men more. In Iceland 92% of the accused were men, in Estonia 60%, and in Moscow two-thirds of those accused were male. In Finland, a total of more than 100 death row inmates were roughly equal in both men and women, but all Ålanders sentenced to witchcraft were only women. At one point during

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