Читать книгу The True Story vs. Myth of Witchcraft - William Godwin - Страница 124

We are now brought down to the era of the Christian religion; and there is repeated mention of sorcery in the books of the New Testament.

One of the most frequent miracles recorded of Jesus Christ is called the “casting out devils.” The Pharisees in the Evangelist, for the purpose of depreciating this evidence of his divine mission, are recorded to have said, “this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.” Jesus, among other remarks in refutation of this opprobrium, rejoins upon them, “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?” ¹¹⁸ Here then we have a plain insinuation of sorcery from the lips of Christ himself, at the same time that he appears to admit that his adversaries produced supernatural achievements similar to his own.