Article November 23, 1940 Issue

Bible Notes

[The Biblical citations given in the Christian Science Quarterly are from the Authorized King James Version. The Bible Notes in this column can be used, if deemed necessary, to elucidate some of the words or passages contained in the Bible Lessons.]

"Look unto me, and be ye saved" (Isa. 45:22)—The primary meaning of the Hebrew verb which is here translated "look" is to "turn," and so it might well be taken as suggesting definite activity, rather than passive contemplation or even expectation. Thus the early Septuagint Version had: "Turn ye to me and ye shall be saved;" while Smith suggests: "Turn to me, and be saved."

"There shall not be found among you any that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire" (Deut. 18:10)—This practice, mentioned in several Old Testament passages, is often associated with the rites used in connection with pagan deities (compare Lev. 18:21), but we posses no specific details with regard to it. Some contend that in Deuteronomy 18:10 it is denounced as a form of superstition rather than as some species of idolatry.

"Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer" (Deut. 18:11)—The phrase rendered "a consulter with familiar spirits" might be represented in modern English by "a spiritualistic medium"; while a "necromancer" is in effect one who chaims to obtain information from the alleged "spirits of the dead." Moffatt renders: "No one who weaves spells, no medium or magician, no necromancer."

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