Witches, Warlocks, Wizards, and JKR

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 168409

Pippin:
>"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" --whatever that meant
>in biblical times, it was certainly used later as a rationale for
>persecuting witches. 

A) It didn't mean ANYTHING in Biblical times; English didn't exist until much later. This is NOT sophistry, by the way; far too many people forget that not only is King James a translation, it's a pretty poor one at that, sometimes (as with this verse), mistranslated on purpose. 

B) Not prosecuting witches; prosecuting those they BELIEVED were witches, who were defined as those who sold their soul to Satan in return for power (the term "warlock" was more direct; it originally referred to a trusted officer who went over to the enemy in time of war, and was used to refer to a baptised person who went over to Satan). 

For some reason the related word "wizard" didn't get the same connotation (Isaac Asimov had a rather interesting theory about it having to do with beards and the lack of dentistry). 

In the 1920's, when Gerald Gardner considered taking late 19th-early 20th century occult systems and turning them into a religion loosely based on pre-Christian Europe, he called it "Wicca" or "Witchcraft", partially to give a colorful background of a hidden society, persecuted by the outside. Interestingly enough, he took a lot from C.W. Leadbeater, who added those same occult systems to Roman Catholicism in reforming the Liberal Catholic Church. 

While it is unknown how much JKR knew of these, she almost certainly was familiar with the aftermath, such as the famous Wiccan, Sybil Leek, movies like BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, or TV shows like BEWITCHED.

Bart