MAGICIAN (חַרְטֹּ֖ם, engraver, writer, only in a derivative sense of one possessed of occult knowledge, diviner, astrologer, magician; μαγική, adj. from μάγος, G3407, a Zoroastrian priest; therefore the art practiced in Persia by the recognized priests). One who tries by certain prescribed words and actions to influence people and events, bringing about results beyond man’s own power to effect. In ancient times a magician was not necessarily a fakir. Magic then was sometimes a species of crude science, and a magician could bring about what appeared to the uninitiated supernatural results simply because he was familiar with certain natural laws unknown to the average person. Magic and medicine were closely related with each other in Egypt and Babylonia. In these countries magicians were regarded as wise men, eminent in learning and science. They were priests who had charge of the sacred rites, since they alone cultivated the recognized departments of learning. Often magicians were frauds. The first paragraph of the Code of Hammurabi legislated against them.
In Egypt even the gods availed themselves of magic formulae to constrain each other. Although magic was forbidden to the Jews, the Book of Tobit shows the angel Raphael teaching Tobias how to drive away a demon and cure blindness by means of magic.
Magicians abounded throughout the ancient world, as both classical lit. and the Bible show. Every ruler had one or more of them in his court. In Genesis 41:8, 24 and Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7, 18, 19; 9:11 the “magicians” prob. designate the priestly class, who were supposed to know the sacred mysteries and have possession of occult knowledge. It is therefore not surprising that Pharaoh should turn to them for an interpretation of his dreams (Gen 41:8, 24) or that Nebuchadnezzar should ask his magicians and other wise men to tell him what he had dreamed (Dan 2:1, 2, 10). Magicians in the court of Pharaoh were able to duplicate some of the miracles of Moses and Aaron, but the Scriptures leave one free to decide whether they were clever conjurers who made use of the laws of nature or whether they used occult methods. It is to be observed that they acknowledged their own inability to do all that was done by Moses and Aaron and that they saw in the wonders of the Israelites the “finger of God” (Exod 8:19).
The law of Moses strictly forbade the Israelites to practice any of the occult arts (Lev 19:26, 31; Deut 18:9-12); and those who did so were threatened with death (Exod 22:18; Lev 20:6, 27). In spite of this, the prophet Isaiah says that when the people of Jerusalem found themselves in serious straits they ignored their God and turned for help to the “mediums and the wizards who chirp and mutter” (Isa 8:19), and because of this the Lord will take from them all on which they leaned, including diviners, skillful magicians, and experts in charms. Manasseh, king of Judah, provoked the Lord to anger because he practiced the magic arts and dealt with mediums and wizards (2 Chron 33:6); Josiah found favor with the Lord when he put all these things out of Judah (2 Kings 23:24).
Practitioners of the magic arts are mentioned three times in the NT, twice by name. It is said of Simon, who offered money to Peter and John for the gift of laying hands on people so they might receive the Holy Spirit, that he previously practiced magic in Samaria with such astounding success that everyone from the least to the greatest said of him, “This man is that power of God which is called Great” (Acts 8:10). Elymas, an apostate Jew who by his magic arts acquired power over Sergius Paulus, the governor of Cyprus, was punished with temporary blindness for trying to dissuade the governor from accepting the Christian faith (Acts 13:6-12). Paul’s success in preaching the Gospel in the city of Ephesus may be judged from the fact that the value of magic books publicly burned by some of his converts was fifty thousand pieces of silver (Acts 19:19).
According to the Bible whenever practitioners of magic attempted to combat the servants of God, they always failed conspicuously.
Bibliography W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (1896), 73-81; W. M. Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the New Testament (1915), 106-139; M. F. Unger, Biblical Demonology (1952), 107-118; G. Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1967), IV, 356-359.