Bible Magic!

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Dan McClellan (1:17)

Throughout the ancient world, everybody just seemed to presuppose that, yeah, there's magic out there. There's witchcraft works. It's just a matter of trying to suggest that when we do it, the person on the other end of the line is righteous. When they're do it, it's demons. Hey, everybody. I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:36)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:37)

And you are listening to the Data Over Dogma Podcast, where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:51)

Things are good. Things are good. I'm it's my birthday. So I'm just chilling here. I just I just stepped foot into my 50th year.

Dan McClellan (2:02)

Oh, wow.

Dan Beecher (2:03)

That's I'm not 50 To be clear, I am 49

Dan McClellan (2:08)

OK.

Dan Beecher (2:09)

But that's that thus begins. You know, yes, you start at zero and you don't get that one until that first whole year has gone by. So this this means of counting is backwards looking.

Dan McClellan (2:21)

Yes. Yes. Well, congratulations. Happy birthday.

Dan Beecher (2:24)

Thank you.

Dan McClellan (2:25)

By the time this goes out, you will have been a couple of weeks into that fiftieth year. You will be gaining all kinds of experience.

Dan Beecher (2:33)

I'll be a wise old man by then. Yeah. Right now, I'm just a young spry doofus, but soon the wisdom is going to hit. It hits at 50, right? That's when it kicks in.

Dan McClellan (2:44)

That's what I heard. Yeah, it comes flooding in.

The floodgates are open. You get the key to unlock all those doors.

Dan Beecher (2:50)

Thank goodness. So speaking of wisdom, today we're going to be talking about and also speaking of like magical things happening, like wisdom just magically occurring at 50 Magic's the theme of the show, man. We're going to be talking about some awesome, you know, we've had people on Patreon and other places ask us about various sort of magic that appears in the Hebrew Bible, including magical implements and various things. So we're going to dive into that to begin with. And then we're going to we're going to zero in on some things very specific that sort of of that realm.

Dan McClellan (3:33)

Yes.

Dan Beecher (3:33)

An archaeological find, if I'm not mistaken.

Dan McClellan (3:36)

An archaeological find. Yeah, we're actually going to talk about the single earliest witness to any text in the Hebrew Bible. And it is a magical text.

Dan Beecher (3:48)

Interesting.

Dan McClellan (3:49)

Yes, yes.

Dan Beecher (3:50)

I like it.

Dan McClellan (3:51)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (3:52)

All right. Well, let's start with with some magical thinking.

Dan McClellan (3:59)

Yeah, I think it would be helpful first to talk a little bit about the concept of magic as as we understand it and as we use it, particularly in relation to the Bible, because there are an awful lot of people who understand magic to be something that other people do. Basically, it's religious stuff that I don't like.

Is magic. Just like a cult is a religion I don't like, magic is the bibbidi-boppidi-boo that I don't like. Because when I go bibbidi-boppidi-boo, well, that's just priesthood or that's just God, or that's just a miracle or something like that, but it's not magic. And so the distinction between what might be called, you know, priesthood authority or God's authority or something like that, and magic is an arbitrary one. It is one that is drawn by the folks who are involved in it or against it.