How do you feel about the probability that Christians are falsely editing Classic Literature?

Question

On Page 1691 of the Oxford English Dictionary the word Magick appears. The first use they list in literature is John Milton's Comus. Since I don't have an e-text of Comus, I went looking at some modern text. In the version being published now, they have changed Magick to Magic.

The reason I was looking in the first place is that I'm sick of the--Never do research just be negative about anything Pagans write--Christians. I was going to use the OED cite and an excerpt from Milton to prove Crowley did not insert Magick into Paganism. It's been in use since much earlier times.

An aside, Chaucer uses the spelling Magicke in the 14th century.

Answer 1

+PAX

The same way I feel about the rewriting of history. It should not be done.

I've lived through events that are portrayed completely inaccurately in today's history books.

I pray we will come to our senses and stop this form of censorship on all levels.

In His Love,
J.

Answer 2

It seems that comes from the fact that the spelling of quite a few words has changed over the centuries. Even a casual glance at a 17th century text will find many words that are spelled slightly differently today. It seems magic was spelled magicke in Chaucer's day (That was Middle English, not modern English by the way) and then the "e" was dropped and eventually the "k" as well. Crowley seems to have simply used an old spelling of the word. The texts of Milton, Shakespeare, etc. are rendered into modern English simply to make them easier to read for the modern reader and for no other reason.

Texts using the original spelling are easily found at any university library that's even half-way decent and quite a few public libraries as well.

Answer 3

It has long been the practice of the Catholics (and now Christians) to record literature as the scribe interprets it. The words, manuscript, script, and scripture all come from the word scribe, those in charge of manually coping written works, including the bible. Even after the invent of the printing press it should be remembered that most folks could not afford one. The church on the other hand could and used them to their best advantage. It should also be remembered that until very recent times most world citizens were illiterate, leaving the integrity of the written word in charge of the rich, the rulers, and the church.
Rev. Bruce Richards, Priest of the Correllian Tradition

Answer 4

Woah easy tiger!You're falling under a similar missapprehension. Paganism by which I mean Classical Greeco-Roman Paganism, possibly sent as many practitioners of magic to the lions as they did Christians!

Classical Paganism was/is about a reciprocal relationship between mankind and the Gods. Magic was frowned upon and they didn't see practices associated with the Gods as magic, they were as sacramental.

The word magic may indeed have been introduced at a much later date, because it was originally associated with the Magi, Zorosatrian priests.

Yes you are right, research the original texts!

Answer 5

Christians have always pushed aside the facts of the "old religion" Magic. However, many of the holidays the Christians observe are based upon Pagan origin.

Answer 6

It's a bit like that auld game "Telephone" where one person whispers in the ear of another something simple like "peas in a pod" and at the end of the line the message gets twisted into something such as "socks are shod" Makes no sense, is in no way close to the original message, but yet, each person in the line whispering what they heard from one to the other would SWEAR they passed along word-for-word exactly as it was told to them. There is no way to know.
Remember who used to write the first books: Monks. Not Pagan monks, most Pagans used oral tradition, and when they would write, they would write things in runic/ogham script more as a link to a specific site than to write their stories down! The Bards were expected to pass the stories down without having to write them down - so to then have the stories passed down (as per the game Telephone) to the monks who would then transfer the stories to vellum or whatever they were using at the moment, very often you can see exactly where the Christian influence was slipped in, ie: Legends of Osian and his meeting with St. Patrick detailing how he'd been in love with the Faerie woman, etc. Then how he turned to dust upon falling off his horse - though another monk's rendition tells that he'd aged more slowly, was put on a litter and told MORE stories as he aged and finally died in St. Patrick's presence.......I don't know about you, but I somehow doubt that Osian ever truly met up with Patrick or any other Saint, but that he was slipped in there to give the idea of a Pagan Hero/God-like figure switching over to Christiainty a positive light thus making it a more palateable thing for the every-man/woman who will have perhaps their doubts about walking away from a path that reveres the earth and brings them good crops if they respect nature, etc.......the Bible and Christian literature is FILLED with examples of this, even Constantine the Great took to using Pagan holidays and calling them Christian - you don't really think Jesus was born on Christmas day, do you? Lambs aren't born in December, they're spring-babes, much like the Young God and according to OLDER CHRISTIAN legend, Jesus himself.....but to pull the beliefs together and make it all "fit" somehow, Constantine chose to celebrate the birth of Christ on the birth of Mithras (who he was Dedicated to before he switched teams) - Monks particularly in the early days would of course put their spin on whatever they wrote - many were famous for it - how do I feel about this? Well, as the grand-daughter of an Oral Historian, I'm sad for the traditions lost to the twists and turns of those who have written things down - but I do believe if we can read between the lines, we can get a taste of what the original legends - to be honest, that drives me to learn more and continue reading and trying to read between those lines still more - and imagine what the original tales would have been.
Imagine the Mabinogion without the Christian bits here and there, I doubt very much the likes of Rhiannon and Bran the Blessed would have approved! So I choose to omit the spin and seek the wee bits of truth hidden within - just makes each tome an exciting puzzle/treasure to explore is all. The Christian "spin" is the soot/dirt on top of it all.........there's treasure under that thar dogma!

Answer 7

You're actually going back to Milton and Chaucer to prove a point? You really are reaching, arent you? What happened to that time away you were going to take?

Answer 8

What?

You can purchase Chaucer's works rewritten for normal modern reading..

Or you can purchase Chaucer's works in the original middle english from an academic publisher - including a dictionary which you will require to read the text..

years ago i read Chaucer in middle english..

conspiracy?

Answer 9

What makes you think Christians are doing it!

According to Muslims, Jewish people run the media. That's the people who publish books! You know Simon and Schuester are not Anglo names.

And don't blame me for this agrument, it's comes from all the Muslims here who say Hollywood, TV, newscasts, books and magazines are all Zionist backed propeganda machine.

Answer 10

You're blaming Christians for the changes in a word's spelling with the passage of time? That's pretty far-fetched, Terry, even for you.