μαγεύω

From the study of Acts 8:9

Range of meaning

Literally "to act as a magos." Originally a magos was a member of the Persian priestly caste, known for astrology, dream interpretation and ritual lore. By the Hellenistic and Roman period the word family (magos, mageia, mageuō) had spread to cover any practitioner of ritual power outside approved religion: casting spells, binding enemies, love charms, healing by incantation, divination, calling on spirits and gods by secret names. It could be neutral or even respectful (the Persian sages), but in ordinary Greek and Roman use it most often carried a charge of deception, charlatanism or illegitimate power.

Against the English

KJV, BSB and NIV say "sorcery"; ESV and NASB say "magic." Both are fair. "Sorcery" can make modern readers think of fantasy wizards or Satanism. The first-century picture is more ordinary and more commercial: a local holy man or wonder-worker who sold or displayed access to divine power.

How it drifted

Modern English "sorcery" and "magic" have split. "Magic" now suggests stage illusion or fiction, and "sorcery" suggests the dark occult. Neither matches the everyday ritual-power trade of the Roman East, where the dividing line between "religion" and "magic" was mostly a matter of who held the authority to call something legitimate.

Used elsewhere in the period

Matthew 2:1 uses magoi respectfully for the eastern sages. Acts 13:6–8 calls Bar-Jesus/Elymas a magos and a false prophet. Acts 19:19 describes Ephesians burning their magical books. Philo (Special Laws 3.100–101) distinguishes the "true magic" of Persian science from a debased magic of beggar-priests and charlatans. Josephus (Antiquities 20.142) mentions a Cypriot Jew named Atomos, "pretending to be a magos," whom the governor Felix used. The Greek Magical Papyri show what such practitioners actually did. The cognate noun mageia comes in Acts 8:11.