John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 18

And if a Levite come. This third point more clearly explains what is elsewhere more obscurely declared, for God seemed to withhold from the Levites whatever He gave to the priests. But He now more distinctly places the priests in the first rank, yet in such a way that they should admit the Levites, in recognition of their labors, to a share of the offerings. This is the essence of the law: that the Levites who remained at home should be content with the tithes and touch nothing of the other offerings; but that wherever they should come to the sanctuary, they were to be regarded as ministers and take their proper place.

By this law, then, it was provided that none should be excluded on the ground of an interruption of their duties, and that the condition of those who lived elsewhere should not be worse than that of those who lived at Jerusalem. For although they might reside in other cities, they did not entirely cease from their ministry, since they had other duties to perform besides that of sacrificing the victims.

Yet those who entirely devoted themselves to the work of the sanctuary were endowed by God with double honor, since it was by no means just that they should be defrauded of their maintenance, who gave up domestic cares and labors and occupied themselves entirely with holy duties. That this distribution was not unnecessary will be most evident from the narrative of Josephus, who relates that the ²²⁶ priests seized the tithes by violence and deprived the Levites of their livelihood by hostile measures.

There shall not be found among you. This horrible and altogether monstrous infatuation, by which the Gentiles had been possessed, afterwards invaded the Jews also, that they should immolate and even burn their children in honor of the gods to which they had devoted themselves; although it is probable that most of them were not inflamed by such an excess of madness but satisfied their superstition more easily by merely making their children pass through the fire.

This was for them a kind of lustration to purge away all impurity. But their cruel zeal impelled many of them even to murder, so as not to spare their own flesh and blood. Yet in this, they pleaded the example of Abraham, as if there were any similarity between the obedience of that holy man—who, led by God’s command, was ready to slay his son Isaac—and this barbarous act of violence in people who murdered their children, though God prohibited and opposed it.

In this horrible spectacle, we perceive how much more fervently people engage in impious rites that their own rashness has dictated than in efforts to worship God rightly when He openly and expressly enjoins on them what is good. Indeed, the first care of parents should be to consecrate their children to God; but the only rite of initiation for the Jews was circumcision, and with this they should have been content.

Moses then enumerates the various kinds of divination to which the pagan nations were addicted, in order to satisfy their foolish desire to know more than was lawful. I do not, however, disapprove of the view that some prefer,²⁸² that the general term is first used, and the various specific kinds are then added. I will explain these briefly and not waste time refuting particular opinions, although it is evident that even some of the rabbis are grossly mistaken about them.

1. The word מעונן,²⁸³ magnonen, I willingly admit to be derived from (a word signifying) clouds; and therefore it may properly mean augurs, or judicial astrologers. There are some who are rather of the opinion that its root is מגון, magnon, which in Hebrew means a place; and this etymology would not be ill-suited to the fanatics who divine all things from the position of the stars, and assign their stations both to the planets and the signs of the zodiac for their respective aspects. At any rate, it is fully agreed that auguries, as well as frivolous observations of the stars, are here condemned, when people, in their preposterous curiosity, suppose all events and circumstances to be under the dominion of the stars.

2. The word that follows מנחש,²⁸⁴ menachesh, means a diviner or soothsayer, (ariolum,) which sufficiently appears from Genesis 44:5, where Joseph pretends that he divined by his cup, because it was commonly believed that he possessed the art of soothsaying; and hence the name has been given to serpents on account of their subtlety.

3. Some interpret the word מכשף,²⁸⁵ mekasheph, as a juggler, (praestigiatorem,) one who dazzles and deceives the eyes by optical illusions.

4. Next follows the fifth²⁸⁶ term, which I have translated “tying knots,” (colligans colligationes,) by which some understand enchanters, who by magic arts gather serpents together into one place. But this, in my judgment, is a poor explanation, and I, therefore, rather agree with those who conceive the calling together of evil spirits to be alluded to. But since it may be correctly translated “collecting, or gathering an assembly,” I do not altogether reject the opinion of others that it relates to those imaginary assemblies—to which unhappy people, whom the devil has bewitched, fancy themselves to be transported to feast and dance together, and to join in wicked conspiracies—and which are commonly called “synagogues.”

5. In the sixth word there is no ambiguity, by which the people are forbidden to consult a spirit of Python; for thus we may properly render the Hebrew אוב,²⁸⁷ ob, as St. Luke, a faithful and competent interpreter, has done, when he relates that a spirit of Python was cast out of the damsel at the command of Paul (Acts 16:16). Sometimes the Scripture calls those who allure evil spirits to give replies by the name of אובות, oboth, of which deception a remarkable example is given in sacred history (1 Samuel 28:7), in the case of the witch (Pythonissa) who showed Saul Samuel, although dead. The Greeks translated the word Python because the delusions of Apollo Pythius were particularly famous.

6. The seventh class (in English, wizards) is ידעני,²⁸⁸ yadgnoni, which may correctly be translated gnostics, or knowers. For I make no doubt that they adopted this honorable name for purposes of deceit, which is by no means an uncommon practice with impostors. Thus the Genethliacs, and others like them, boasted of being mathematicians. This is the craft of Satan: to steal the respectable names of virtues and good things and to make them a covering for his lies. For instance, he gave the name of wise men to the Chaldean and Egyptian impostors; and thus, since the Prophets are called seers, he set against them the vain prognostications of false prophets to astonish the minds of the simple.²⁸⁹ For to derive this word from a certain bird, as some do, is too childish a conjecture; and I wonder that in such a plain matter they have been led so utterly astray, while they waste their acuteness upon nothing.

7. Finally, necromancy²⁹⁰ is condemned, i.e., the deceitful and delusive science of prophesying from the answers of the dead. Some improperly restrict this to those who sleep among tombs in order to hear the dead speaking in their sleep, because foolish people have in many ways endeavored to obtain communications from the dead.

But let us learn from this passage with how many monstrous and ridiculous fascinations Satan, whenever God loosens the chain by which he is bound, is able to bewitch unhappy people; and how great a power to deceive the father of lies gains from the just vengeance of God, for the purpose of blinding unbelievers.

As for the notion that some conceited persons entertain, that all these things are fabulous and absurd, it arises from thoughtlessness and presumption, because they do not reflect how severe a judgment is merited by those who willfully extinguish the light and wrap themselves in darkness. For God’s truth is too precious to Him for Him to allow it to be rejected with impunity. Certainly, it would be an impudent blasphemy to deny that magical arts were ever practiced, since this would be to accuse God of oversight, as though He had legislated²⁹¹ concerning things that did not exist.

The objection that it is absurd to extol the power of Satan too highly—as if he had control of prophecies, which God claims for Himself alone, or as if he could cause the living to converse with the dead and change the forms of things—admits of an easy solution. With respect to vaticinations, there is no necessity for a subtle discussion as to how Satan can foreknow secret things (on which point, it seems to me, Augustine troubled himself too anxiously). This is an unnecessary effort if we remember that by God’s just judgment, a certain kind of vaticination is permitted to devils in order to deceive unbelievers more and more, as will be more fully treated elsewhere.

Meanwhile, we know that unbelievers were mocked with²⁹² ambiguous responses by all the oracles of false gods and at length discovered from the outcome that they had been deceived by deadly artifices. Therefore, in Isaiah 41:23, God justly charges every idol with ignorance of the future. Yet this does not prevent Satan from revealing certain hidden matters, by the prediction of which he may ensnare the reprobate, as with a bait.

I admit, indeed, that in the course of time the Roman augurs abandoned the study of their art and abused the credulity of the lower orders with nothing but gross fictions. But if in former times Satan had not led even the most perceptive people into error by this artifice, Xenophon,²⁹³ the disciple of Socrates, would not have so often mentioned among the chief praises of Cyrus²⁹⁴ that he was devoted to augury and had learned to be so from his father. Finally, the experience of all ages teaches us that people of depraved curiosity have often received from Satan, by means of magicians, a knowledge of things that could not have been obtained naturally.

As to the actual operations of Satan—whether he raises the dead, bewitches people and beasts, or invests any substances with new forms through enchantment—we must consider that whatever miracles he appears to work are mere delusions. Since he is the father of darkness, it is clear he has no power except over unbelievers, whose minds are darkened so that they cannot distinguish black from white.

Yet we have already seen how Pharaoh’s magicians rivaled Moses in their miracles. Therefore, we need not wonder if, by God’s permission, Satan should disturb the elements, afflict the reprobate with diseases and other evils, or present phantoms to their sight. On this account, we should more earnestly implore God to restrain from us an enemy armed against us with so many destructive arts.