[1] Khartummim. The same word is used to describe the magicians whom Pharaoh summoned to interpret his dream, Genesis xli. 8, where the Vulgate has coniectores. Exodus viii. 11, the Vulgate reads: “Uocauit autem Pharao sapientes et maleficos.”
[2] It is perhaps worth mentioning that even the most modernistic commentators assign the history of Balaam to the oldest document of the Hexateuch, that they call the Jehovistic.
[3] In his commentary on the ninth chapter of the prophet Osee (Hosea), S. Jerome says: “Ingressi [sunt] ad Beel-Phegor, idolum Moabitarum quem nos PRIAPUM possumus appelare.” And Rufinus on the same prophet has: “Beel-Phegor figuram Priapi dixerunt tenere.” (They entered in unto Beel-Phegor, the idol of the Moabites, whom we may identify with PRIAPUS.... Beel-Phegor is said to have had the same shape as Priapus.)
[4] Balaam hariolus a Domino mittitur ut decipiat Balac filium Beor. In Ezechielem, IV. xiv. Migne, Patres Latini, XXV. p. 118. (Baalam, a soothsayer, is sent by God to deceive Balac, son of Beor.)
[5] Balaam fuisse prophetam non Dei, sed diaboli constat.... Fuit ipse magus, et dæmonis alloquium quærebat, eumque consulere.
[6] The word is usually found with yidde ’onim (from yada, “to know,”) and they are generally considered to be identical in meaning. But W. R. Smith, Journ. Phil., XIV. 127, makes the following distinction: Yidde ’oni is a familiar spirit, one known to him who calls it up; the ’ôbh is any spirit who may be invoked by a spell and forced to answer questions.
[7] Divination, et la science des présages, Paris, 1875. p. 161 ff.
[8] History of the People of Israel, 3 vols., London, 1888-91. I. p. 347.
[9] Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoseon, IV, 412-3, of bats:
[10] Josephus says that Samuel told the witch it was Saul.
[11] Migne, Patres Græci, LXXX. p. 589.
[12] Plerique putant Saulem signum accepisse de terra et de profundo inferni quando Samuelem per incantationes et artes magicas uisus est suscitasse. Migne, Patres Latini, XXIV. p. 106.
[13] ... inspirantur diabolico spiritu. Has autem dicunt Hebræi maleficis artibus eruditas per necromantias et pythicum spiritum qualis fuit illa quæ uisa est suscitare animam Samuelis. Idem, XXV. p. 114.
[14] Migne, Patres Græci, XLV. pp. 107-14.
[15] Δαίμονες γαρ ἦσαν οἱ κατασχηματίζουτες ὲαυτοὺς εἰς τὸ τοῦ Σαμουὴλ πρόσωπον. Idem, XXX. p. 497.
[16] Et credo quia [spiritus immundi] mendacio possunt; nec enim pythonico tunc spiritui minus liciut animam Samuelis effingere. (De Anima, LVII.) Migne, Patres Latini, II. p. 749.
[17] Ἀλλὰ γέγραπται, ὁτὶ ἔγνω Σαουλ ὅτι Σαμουὴλ ἔστι.
[18] ἐπεὶ οὐ δύναται ψευδέσθαι ἡ Γραφη. τὰ δε ῥήματα τῆς Γραφῆς ἐστὶν· Καὶ εἶδεν ἡ γυνὴ τὸν Σαμουήλ. (In librum Regum. Homilia II.) Migne, Patres Græci, XII. p. 1013.
[19] καὶ ὅτι μένουσιν αὶ ψυχαὶ, ἀπέδειξα ὑμῖν ἐκ τοῦ καὶ τὴν Σαμουὴλ ψυχὴν κληθῆναι ὑπὸ τῆς ἐγγαστριμμύθου, ὡς ἠξίωσιν ὁ Σαουλ. (In I. Regum. XXVIII.) Idem, XII.
[20] Samuel post mortem, secundum Scripturæ Testimonium futura non tacuit. I. Regum. XXVIII. 17 et seq. (In Lucam. I. 33.) Migne, Patres Latini. XV. p. 1547.
[21] Imago Samuelis mortui Saul regi uera prænuntiauit. Idem, XXXIV. p. 52. And De Cura, XL. p. 606.
[22] Nam Samuel propheta defunctus uiuo Sauli etiam regi futura prædixit.
[23] Whiston’s translation. Ed. 1825. Vol. I, p. 263.
[24] So 1 Kings (Samuel) xv. 23: “Because it is like the sin of witchcraft, to rebel.” Heresy and rebellion are fundamentally the same.
[25] Schrader, Die Keilenscheiften und das alte Testament, Giessen, 2nd ed., 1883.
[26] ... raconta ses rapts d’enfants, ses hideuses tactiques, ses stimulations infernales, ses meurtres impétueux, ses implacables viols; obsédé par la vision des ses victimes, il décrivit leurs agonies ralenties ou hâtées, leurs appels et leurs râles; il avoua s’être vautré dans les élastiques tiédeurs des intestins; il confessa qu’il avait arraché des cœurs par des plaies élargies, ouvertes, telles que des fruits mûrs. Là-Bas, J. K. Huysmans, c. xviii.
[27] Healey’s translation, 1610.
[28] De Magia, XLVII.
[29] The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia, Sven Nilsson. 3rd edition. 1868. p. 241.
[30] The original title is κατὰ πασῶν αἱρέσεων ἔλεγχος. A Refutation of all Heresies. The first book had long been known; books IV-X, which had been discovered a short time previously, were first published in 1851 (Oxford) by Miller as the work of Origen, but edited by Duncker and Schneidewin as by Hippolitus, eight years later, Göttingen, 1859. The first chapters of the Fourth, and the whole of the Second and Third Books are still missing.
[31] Theocritus, II. 121. Κρατὶ δ’ ἔχων λεύκαν Ἡρακλέος ἱερὸν ἔρνος. Vergil. Eclogue VIII, 61: Populus Alcidæ gratissima. Æneid, VIII, 276: Herculea bicolor quem populus umbra....
[32] Pliny (Historia Naturalis, XV. 86) says walnuts were thrown, and it appears from an inscription that this custom prevailed on birthdays as well as at weddings. But originally, at any rate, chestnuts were also used. In time the meaning became obscured, and as nuts were used in all kinds of games they merely became synonymous with playthings.
[33] The play is referred to in 1520 as Messer Nicia, and the first edition printed at Florence circa 1524 has the title The Comedy of Callimaco and Lucrezia, but the Prologue definitely gives the name La Mandragola (The Mandrake), and this is used in all later editions. The story has been imitated by La Fontaine; the play itself (which is still acted in Italy) has been repeatedly translated, at least six times into French and five times into German, but as yet no English version has been published.
[34] De Legibus Hebræorum ritualibus earumque rationibus, 2 vols., Tubingæ, 1732.
[35] Not later than A.D. 200. They were well known to Commodian, who wrote about A.D. 250.
[36] This is, of course, the view of the Fathers, and even later theological writers (e.g. Alfred Edersheim, Delitzsch, Rev. Walter Scott) accept this literal truth.
[37] In his book Acta pro Ueritate Martyrii corporis, & cultus publici B. Andreæ Rinnensis, Innsbruck, 1745. Blessed Andrew, a child, was killed at Rinn in the Tyrol, 12 July, 1462. A systematic investigation would, no doubt, wellnigh double the number of instances recorded by Kembter, and there are 15 for the eighteenth, 39 for the nineteenth century. In 1913 Mendil Beiliss was tried upon the charge of ritually murdering a Russian lad, Yushinsky.
[38] Leviticus xvii. 14.