It is Magic (by any other name)

Huh, I just noticed this. I never quite realized that blood magic and hexes were part of Christianity. I mean, I knew it but never quite recognized the significance of knowing it; you know what I mean? Not the prayers for this or that, or the you'll be damned and cursed for thinking this or doing that, but spoken incantations. Yes, many rituals too, but this is really magic. The blood sacrifice (animal and human), blessing by a 'priest', protection spell (benediction?), divination (prophesy?), hexing or cursing by a layman? Like the sample to the left, the words are inspired by scripture. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a protection spell; looks more like a curse. It is exactly the sort of thing that the sorcerers and seers (and 'priests') would provide, for a fee of course, in case you felt you needed that 'extra oomph' from a professional. This kind of generic spell casting is easily attributable to dozens of beliefs and religions that came before and after the stories of the bible. It can easily be used in a modern wicca type belief structure; throw a bit of 'so mote it be' in there and you have a spell. It is magic.  

Magic tricks like turning a rod (staff) into a snake -- that ate the other magicians' snakes -- LOL! Great story isn't it! A talking donkey, a talking burning bush (I'm thinking it was maybe a *very* special herb kind of bush). These are stories created by people who didn't know where the sun went at night. Speaking of which, somewhere in there (the bible) "the sun stood still in the sky" so somebody could finish their battle -- need I say more about "tall tales"? Every story needs an antagonist so Satan, by many other names, was created. Magically feeding thousands of people with barely enough food to make a picnic for two is pretty magical. Engorgio, as it were!! Magical beings, giants, dragons (with multiple heads), unicorns, nephilim (half angel/half human)... I wonder if stories of dragons and leviathans and maybe even giants came about because dinosaur bones (fossils) had been found for many years? 

Magic and witchcraft is okay, as long as it's not performed by a witch (i.e., do not permit a witch to live)? How does this fit together in the over-arching bible story, does anyone know? 

Interesting discussion of religious witchcraft in Europe and western churches in early Christian history. Those areas didn't have the witch burning frenzy either, since priests would have been named as culprits (Hungary, Romania). "in this region [it] witchcraft and priestly practice seems to exist with almost the same intensity in the twentieth century as we know it did in medieval Western Christianity."