Magic and Magicians in the Roman Empire"Widespread ancient reports of Jewish magic involving worship of angels and demons, as well as Yahweh, have now been confirmed by the recovery of Sefer ha-Razim, ('the Book of Secrets'), a Jewish magical text of late Roman times that gives directions for such worship, prescribing the prayers and sacrifices to be made to these minor powers." "Listing in his preface the things to be learned from his book he [the author] put first, how to do mircles, second, general wisdom, and third:" - Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) pp. 91, 164
"The idea of the seven heavens through which the soul ascends to its original home, either after death or in a state of ecstasy while the body is still alive, is certainly very old. In an obscure and somewhat distorted form it is already to be found in old apocrypha such as the Fourth Book of Ezra or the Ascension of Isaiah, which is based on a Jewish text. In the same way, the ancient Talmudic account of the seven heavens, their names and their contents, although apparently purely cosmological, surely presupposes an ascent of the soul to the throne in the seventh heaven. Such descriptions of the seven heavens, plus a list of the names of their archons, have also come down to us from the school of the Merkabah mystics in the post-Mishnaic period. It is precisely here that we still find an entirely esoteric doctrine. Thus for example in the 'Visions of Ezekiel', which have recently become known,' Ezekiel sees the seven heavens with their seven Merkabahs reflected in the waters of the Chebar river. This form of speculation about seven Merkabahs corresponding to the seven heavens is still innocent of any mention of Hekhaloth, or chambers, of the Merkabah. Possibly both conceptions were known to different groups or schools of the same period. In any event, the second variant gradually became the dominant one."
Descriptions of heavenly ascent can be found in the apocryphal Book of Enoch and alluded to in DDS fragment 11 of DDS 4Q491. In addition a number of instances of the use of magic are reported in the Talmud. The reference in Sanhedrin 67a is particularly pertinent. Goetes
"Here goetia (what goetes ['magicians'] do...seems to have been a sort of Greek shamanism, a form of mourning for the dead in which the goetes became ecstatic and were thought to accompany the dead on their journey to the underworld."
In classical times the scope of goetia came to include "accounts of the underworld, practice as mediums, necromancy, charms, curses, and therefore, by extension, any deceitful persuasion.. By New Testament times we find Josephus describing as goetia men who do or promise to do miracles - divide the Jordan, make the walls of Jerusalem fall down, overpower the Romans, and give the people 'salvation and rest from troubles.' Here Josephus' use of goetia is abusive. The word had lower class connotations and was widely used of political orators and the like to mean approximately 'spellbinder,' or just plain 'fraud'."
Similar accusations were leveled against Jesus. Celsus charged that the teachings of Jesus and his followers were dualistic (similar to Zoroastrian doctrine of the magis).
In the early Roman empire, the title "magus" "might mean anything from a genuine Median priest or potentate to a fellow who peddled amulets or poisons to superstitious or jilted serving girls. In general however the term was pretentious. A man's enemies would probably call his a goes ['magician'], though they might refer to his practices as mageia, but there was no fixed rule."
Divine Man
"Nevertheless, the friends of a higher class practitioner would be apt to claim that he was not a magus, but rather, a 'divine man.' The 'divine man' was a god or demon in disguise, moving about the word in an apparently human body. He could do all the beneficent things a magus could, and he could also curse effectively - though of course he would curse only the wicked. He did his miracles by his indwelling divine power and therefore did not need rituals or spells."
"The magical papyri describe a number of rites by which one can obtain a spirit as a constant companion. A magician who has such a spirit at his service can also dispense with rites and spells; he need only give his orders and they will be obeyed. Moreover, there were some magical rites that were supposed to deify the magician, either by joining him with some god in a permanent and perfect union (as Paul claimed to be joined with Jesus), or by changing the form, nature, or power of his soul so as to make it divine. A magician who had been so defied would thereafter be a divine man and would perform miracles by his own power, not by a spirit's."
To charges that they practiced magic "the defenders of Apollonius and Jesus made similar replies. They asserted that their heroes were truly divine, and to support these assertions they tried to distinguish their deities form magicians. Magicians used animal sacrifices, strange materials, and elaborate spells often containing barbarous words and the names of demons. They were out for money and were commonly cheats, their miracles usually illusory, commonly trivial, and sometimes harmful. They had no moral teaching, were often themselves conspicuously immoral, and could not offer men a say to salvation. In contrast therefore the traditions about Apollonius and Jesus minimize the ritual aspect of their miracles, represent them as indifferent or hostile to money, emphasize the reality, importance, and beneficence of their cures, emphasize their moral teachings, and represent them as bringing salvation."
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