Jesus the Magician

Religious people might be put off by the implication of this book's title, but the late Morton Smith's "Jesus the Magician" is not quite what you might think. It begins by exploring what will be instantly recognized by the biblically literate person: that Jesus' enemies accused him of being a magician. Smith quotes every scriptural passage he can find to explore this fact. Ironically, the gospels defend Jesus against this charge over and over even though the modern reader would hardly know that the accusation was ever made if the gospels did not repeat it.

If the book has any weakness, it is that it never answers the questions of whether or not Jesus was a magician or, more importantly, of what the difference between magic and religion show more is, precisely. The reader, however, will be in a better position to answer this question for himself when he has read it.

A bonus to reading this book is that Smith has done two very illuminating things. He has explained a great deal about what magic is in general, and he has reconstructed the world of magic in Jesus' era in particular. There was, for example, a social hierarchy among magicians. The magi whom Matthew tells us came to see the new-born Jesus represented the highest class of magicians. The "go-es" or itinerant street magician, was what Jesus was accused of being, and it was truly an insult.

My favorite insight from reading this book is that I understood for the first time why a magic spell can take a very long time or a very short time. It is because there are two stages to a magic spell, preparation and execution. A magic spell is like a computer program. Setting up a spell is like writing the code for the computer. Once the spell has been "encoded," a word or phrase can now set it in motion, just as a single key stroke, or combination of a few strokes, can be used to set off an elaborate computer program. show less

This book is in this collection to review the concept of magic as it relates to Jesus.

The benefits of this study are to recognize the semantics of "magic" and how magic was perceived by both jews, christians, gospel evangelists and gentiles abroad.

However, Smith makes bold audacious claims about the objective nature of Jesus' activity as being magic based on what people defined magic as being. This claim moves from the historical analysis to a subjective semantic claim about the nature of Jesus' activities which is in no way ascertainable. All we can say is Jesus' activities were not considered magic by the eyewitnesses or the evangelists who wrote the gospels. Whether the mechanics of magic were differently perceived (thaumaturgy vs show more theurgy) is a different conversation, but it is beyond the scope to assert this as the absolute truth on the basis of this activity as being perceived as magic by other people at the time. Furthermore, the ultimate power of Jesus is considered God and himself, so any discussions on thaumaturgy and theurgy in relation to this have to be nuanced within that framing. It is unlikely the historical Jesus saw himself as using powers outside of the context of YHWH, so whatever mechanics were understood as the vehicle of his miracles could not have been considered magic in that context, but spiritual power of God.

Morton Smith is also spurious for his likely forgery of the so-called Secret Gospel of Mark. This is important in analyzing the way he presents evidence and equivocates Jesus as a Magician. show less

An interesting and generally convincing discussion of the similarities between the reported actions of Jesus and that of the primarily Egyptian magical practitioners of that period. I only diverge from the author's comments that magic (and gods) are not real.

If Jesus was not divine, I think he was very probably the kind of religious charlatan depicted by Smith, not the reformist Unitarian rabbi imagined by many modern intellectuals. Smith has, I think, a very good understanding of the atmosphere of popular religion in the time of Jesus. However, I must admit I find Smith's parallels with Egyptian magic much less close than Smith believes.

This controversial book presents an interesting theory and account of the origins of Christianity; by the scholar who ignited the Dead Sea Scrolls controversy in the 90s.

Alternate Christianity, Antiquity,Biblical Criticism, Biblical History, Biography - Jesus, Christian Origins, Christianity, Early Christianity, Gnosticism, Gospels, Historical Jesus, History of Religion, Jesus Christ, Jewish History, Kabbalah, Magic, Magical Papyri, Myth & Religion, New Testament, New Testament Studies, Occult, Religion Theology, Virgin Birth

From chapter 7, The Evidence for Magical Practice:
"... the most important magical parallel to the gospels is that to Jesus' life and legend as a whole. This we saw in the comparison of Jesus and Apollonius (above, pp. 85ff.), but even when Jesus' career does not parallel that of Apollonius, it is consistently paralleled by other magical material, and the parallels are not haphazard; they fit together. Taking the gospel material supported by such parallels, we get the following coherent, consistent and credible picture of a magician's career.
"After undergoing a baptism believed to purge him of sin, Jesus experienced the descent of a spirit upon him - the experience that made a man a magician - and heard himself declared a god, as show more magicians claimed to be. Then 'the spirit drove him out into the desert,' a common shamanic phenomenon. After visionary experiences there, he returned to Galilee where his new spiritual power manifested itself in exorcism, in cures of types familiar in magic, in teaching, with magical parallels and authority, and in the call of disciples, who, like persons enchanted, were constrained to leave their families and belongings and follow him alone.
"With these disciples he lived the predictable life of a traveling magician and holy man .... The company was supported by his success as exorcist and healer, which increased and was increased by his fame. His fame was such that other magicians began to use his name as that of a god in their exorcisms. Soon opposition developed. His neglect of Jewish law, especially as to fasting, purity, and the Sabbath, as well as his association with rich libertines ('tax collectors and sinners') antagonized 'the scribes' (Jewish notaries, lawyers and upper-schoolteachers) who collected, enlarged and disseminated a body of discreditable stories about him, including various charges of magic....
"... he began to initiate his disciples into his own magical experiences. .... The synoptics describe the inner circle of disciples as those 'to whom the mystery (initiation) of the kingdom of God has been given' and who can therefore receive further secret teaching, not given to 'those outside.' They say the 'the twelve' were given power to exorcise. They tell of Jesus revealing himself in glory with two supernatural beings on 'the mountain' in Galilee.... Jesus instituted a rite of footwashing that cleansed his disciples and gave them a share in his lot....
"We are better informed about another magical rite, the eucharist, that Jesus instituted to unite his disciples with himself, both in love and in body.... The rite is a familiar type of magical ceremony in which the magician identifies himself with a deity, and identifies wine and/or food with the blood and/or body of this deity and of himself. The wine and/or food is then given to a recipient who by consuming it is united with him and filled with love for him. This rite is attributed to Jesus by the earliest and most reliable sources." pp. 137-8 show less