HEBREW WORD STUDY – SORCERY –  KASHAPH  כשׁפ  

Exodus 7:11-12:  “Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”

Exodus 22:18:  “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

We tend to lump all these a mystical practices in one pile. We mix the words sorcerers and witches up as if they were the same thing, they are not.  Exodus 22:18 often uses the English word witch in saying we must not suffer a witch to live but it is really the word kashaph or sorcerer.   The Bible condemns magicians, enchanters, mediums, astrologers, witches, wizards and sorcerers. These are all different practices that the Bible calls an abomination.  They all involve the spirit world, specifically evil or demonic spirits. 

All these Hebrew words for these practices have English equivalents which are very close to the original. All except one, kashaph in the Hebrew.  We render that as sorcerer.  Sorcerers were the scientist of their day.

You look up sorcery in your English dictionary and you are told it means the art and practice of casting spells on people or things. It is often called black magic or witchery.  That is our modern definition of kashaph or sorcery.  Yet, the word kashaph is not so well defined in our lexicons.  They just simply say it means sorcery.  But it is really our modern idea of sorcery. 

Sorcerers changed things so they took on a new appearance.  In fact, tracing this word to its Middle Egyptian origins we find it has the idea of deception through the change in imagery or appearance. The classic example of the work of a sorcerer is found in Exodus 7 where the magicians threw down their rods and they turned into snakes.  The magicians worked hand in hand with the sorcerers.  The magicians were the front men and the sorcerers were the ones working behind the scenes.  It was really the enchantments of the sorcerers who changed the rod into snakes. 

Sorcerers in the Greek is the word pharmakeia where we get the word pharmacy.  When our scientists use genetic engineering on various drugs to mass produce them, it is called pharming but in the Bible, we render it as sorcery.  It is called that because in its very root it means to alter or change the essence of something.  This is the root meaning of the word kashaph to alter or change the very essence of a plant, animal or person. These sorcerers were actually in the business of using satanic or supernatural powers to alter God’s creation which was profoundly forbidden by God.

To alter the very essence of a plant, animal or person to be something different means you have to go to the very genetic makeup and alter the genes.  We call that today genetic modification.  Could the ancient Egyptians have been involved with genetic modification?  Look how much our medical science has advanced in just 100 years. They were still bloodletting a  hundred years ago.  We still know very little of the practice of these sorcerers. Could they have developed genetic modification over a thousand years? We did it 100 years ago. Egypt existed much longer than that.  I don’t know, it is a wild thought.

The Bible, however, declares that a kashaph, one who alters the very essence of life should not be allowed to live.  Am I saying it is wrong to eat seedless grapes, seedless watermelon or any other GMO product?  Should we purchase only organic foods?  That is not what I am saying because I cannot say for sure that we can apply the word genetic modification to kashaph. There is still so much to explore. Although I wonder what will happen when only giant corporations can supply seeds? I  have met many Christians who feel something in their spirit is not right about GMOs and will stay away from them.  I am not a student of prophecy but I can see how the Anti-Christ will be able to control the food of the world if he controls the giant corporations that produce the GMO seeds. 

Is it possible to say that the production of our world food supply through GMOs and our supply of drugs through pharming or genetic modification is really kashaph – sorcery?  I cannot say for sure, that is probably quite a jump.   Anyways, I need to stop here so I can find my tin hat, where did I put that?