Bible Dictionary · W
Witchcraft
(1 Sam 15:23; 2 Kgs 9:22; 2 Chr 33:6; Mic 5:12; Nah 3:4; Gal 5:20). In the popular sense of the word no mention is made either of witches or of witchcraft in Scripture.
The “witch of En-dor” (1 Sam 28:1–25) was a necromancer, i.e., one who feigned to hold converse with the dead. The damsel with “a spirit of divination” (Acts 16:16) was possessed by an evil spirit, or, as the words are literally rendered, “having a spirit, a pithon.” The reference is to the heathen god Apollo, who was regarded as the god of prophecy.
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
