Early Christian Views on the Occult and Demons
Early Christians taught that magic, divination, and sorcery belonged with demons and should be rejected. Writers like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, and Cyprian say these practices deceive people and turn them from God. Key Bible passages include Ephesians 6:12, Acts 19:19, and Deuteronomy 18:10-11. The witness is broad across the second and third centuries.
119 early-church witnesses · 193 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about the Occult and Demonic Powers?
Early Christian writers consistently taught that magic, sorcery, divination, and idol worship were tied to demons and must be avoided. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tatian, Origen, Lactantius, Cyprian, and the Apostolic Constitutions all describe occult practices as deceptive powers, false worship, or works of evil spirits.
The Bible passages most often used with this teaching are Ephesians 6:12, Revelation 16:14, James 3:15, Acts 8:9-11, Acts 16:16, Acts 19:13-19, and texts like Deuteronomy 18:10-11. The evidence is broad and steady across the second and third centuries, though a few cards are only background or loose matches and are not central to the main claim. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christian writers usually linked occult practices with demons, deception, and idolatry.
- They treated magic, sorcery, divination, and necromancy as things Christians should avoid.
- Bible passages used most often include Deuteronomy 18, Acts 8, Acts 16, Acts 19, Ephesians 6:12, and Revelation 16:14.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians say magic and sorcery were powered by demons?
The strongest sources say magic and sorcery were not neutral techniques but were tied to demons, false divination, and deceptive spiritual powers. Early Christian writers repeatedly describe these practices as wicked and as part of demonic fraud.
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Tertullian, Apology Direct teaching
...have answered well enough the charges of the many crimes on which these fierce demands are made for Christian blood. We have fully presented our case. We have shown how we can prove that what we say is true, from the trustworthiness and antiquity of our sacred writings, and also from the confession of the powers of spiritual wickedness themselves. Who will dare to refute us, not with skill in words, but, as we have made our demonstration, on the basis of reality? But while the truth we hold is made clear to all, unbelief meanwhile, even at the very time when it is convinced of the worth of Christianity, now well known both for its benefits and from the intercourse of life, takes up the idea that it is not really something divine, but rather a kind of philosophy. "These are the very things," it says, "that the philosophers advise and profess: innocence, justice, patience, sobriety, and chastity." Why then are we not allowed the same freedom and immunity for our teachings that they have, when we are compared with them in what we teach? Or why are they not also forced to the same acts, by refusing which our lives are put in danger, if they are so much like us? For who forces a phil
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...s, since he says the very things in which we boast. But then he recovers himself and again turns to demonic frauds. For after he had been forced to speak the truth, he now seemed to be betraying both the gods and himself, unless by a deceitful lie he hid what the truth had forced out of him. Therefore he says that He really did perform wonderful works, but not by divine power, rather by magic. What wonder is it if Apollo persuaded people who did not know the truth in this way, when even the Jews, worshipers, as they seemed to be, of the Most High God, held the same opinion? They had those miracles before their eyes every day, miracles the prophets had foretold would happen. Yet they could not be led by seeing such powers to believe that the One whom they saw was God. For this reason, David, whom they especially read more than the other prophets, condemns them in Psalm 28:4 in these words: "Render to them what they deserve, because they do not regard the works of the Lord." Both David himself and the other prophets declared that Christ would be born in the flesh from the house of this same David. So it is written in Isaiah, Isaiah 11:10: "And in that day there shall be a root of
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Direct teaching
...d, and all spiritual excellence. Instead, they are completely full of deceit, apostate inspiration, demonic work, and phantoms of idolatry, and are actually the precursors of that dragon who, through similar deception, will cause a third of the stars to fall from the sky with his tail and will cast them to the earth. We must avoid them just as we would avoid him; and the more spectacular their claimed marvels, the more carefully we should watch them, as they possess a greater spirit of wickedness. If anyone considers the prophecy mentioned and the daily actions of these men, they will find that their behavior is identical to that of demons.
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Tatian, Address to the Greeks Direct teaching
.... You accept the rule of many instead of the rule of one, and you have trained yourselves to follow demons as if they were powerful. For just as a cruel robber usually overpowers others like himself by boldness, so the demons, by going to extremes in wickedness, have completely deceived the souls among you that are left on their own through ignorance and false appearances. These beings do not die easily, because they do not share in flesh. But while they live, they practice the ways of death, and they themselves die as often as they teach their followers to sin. Therefore, what is now their main distinction, that they do not die like men, they will still have when they are about to suffer punishment. They will not share in everlasting life, so that they might receive it instead of death in a blessed immortality. And just as we, for whom it now happens easily to die, later receive either immortality with joy or immortality with pain, so the demons, who misuse the present life for wrongdoing, and who die continually even while they live, will later have the same immortality that they had while they lived. But its nature will be like that of men who willingly did what the demons to
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Athenagoras, A Plea for the Christians Direct teaching
... other things, according to the general order of nature, are governed by the law of reason. But the demonic impulses and actions that come from the hostile spirit produce these disorderly outbreaks. They also move people, some in one way and some in another, both as individuals and as nations, separately and together, in keeping with the tendency of matter on the one hand and the attraction to divine things on the other, both from within and from outside. Because of this, some people of no small reputation have thought that this universe has no definite order and is driven here and there by irrational chance. But they do not understand that, among the things that belong to the whole structure of the world, nothing is out of order or neglected. Each thing has been made by reason, and therefore does not go beyond the order appointed for it. And man himself also, as far as his Maker is concerned, is well ordered: by his original nature, which has one character common to all; by the constitution of his body, which does not go beyond the law imposed on it; and by the end of his life, which remains the same and common to all alike. But according to the character that is peculiar to ea
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching
... with anger, give them a chance to defend themselves. Let them bring forward and test their natural powers, to take revenge for their offended dignity. By heat, by harmful cold, by destructive winds, and by the most hidden diseases, they can kill us, they can destroy us, and they can drive us completely away from all contact with men. Or, if it is unwise to attack us by force, let them give some sign of their anger, by which it may be clear to all that we live under heaven subject to their great displeasure.
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
...men, or that there is any reasoning different from sophistry. But if we once admit that, along with magic and sorcery, which get their power from evil demons who are bound by elaborate incantations and made subject to sorcerers, there must also be found among men some works that come from a power that is divine, why should we not test those who claim to do them by their lives and morals, and by the results of their miracles? We should ask whether these things tend to harm men or to reform their conduct. For example, what servant of evil demons can do such things? By what incantations and magical arts can he do them? And on the other hand, who is the person who, with his soul and spirit, and, I think, also his body, kept pure and holy, receives a divine spirit and does such works in order to benefit men and lead them to believe in the true God? But if we must examine, without being swept away by the miracles themselves, who performs them with the help of a good power and who with the help of an evil power, so that we may neither slander everyone without distinction nor admire and accept everything as divine, will it not be clear from what happened in the times of Moses and Jesus,
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Direct teaching
...ondrous tricks, making things appear which are not, or making things not appear which are. Of those magicians, Sosthenes, first both in eloquence and in deed, not only describes the true God with fitting majesty, but also the angels who are the ministers and messengers of the true God. And he knew that it enhanced His veneration, that they trembled in awe at the very nod and glance of their Lord. The same man also declared that demons were earthly, wandering, and hostile to humanity. What did Plato say, he who believed that finding God was difficult? Does he not also plainly speak of both angels and demons? And in his Symposium, does he not also try to explain the nature of demons? For he says that a demon is a substance between mortal and immortal—that is, between body and spirit—compounded by mingling earthly weight and heavenly lightness. For this reason also he warns us about the desire of love, and says that it is molded and slips into the human breast, stirs the senses, molds the affections, and infuses the ardor of lust.
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Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching
... consecrated images. They breathe into the hearts of their prophets, stir the inner organs used for divination, direct the flight of birds, control the casting of lots, and give power to oracles. They are always mixing falsehood with truth, because they are both deceived and deceivers. They trouble people's lives and disturb their sleep. These spirits also creep into their bodies, secretly terrify their minds, twist their limbs, damage their health, and stir up diseases in order to force them to worship them. Then, after they have been fed with the smoke of altars and the heaps of sacrificed cattle, they loosen what they had bound, and so seem to have brought about a cure. The only relief from them comes when their own harm stops. They have no other desire than to call people away from God and turn them from understanding the true religion to superstition toward themselves. And since they themselves are under punishment, they want to find companions in punishment for themselves, making others share in their guilt through their deception. However, when we command them by the true God, they immediately give way and confess, and they are forced to go out from the possessed bodies.
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Lactantius, The Epitome of the Divine Institutes Direct teaching
... reward of immortality from which they had fallen. They also brought forward astrology, augury, and divination. Although these things are false in themselves, they, being the authors of evils, manage and direct them in such a way that people believe they are true. They also invented the tricks of magic to deceive the eyes. By their help, it happens that what is seems not to be, and what is not seems to be. They themselves invented necromancies, responses, and oracles, to mislead the minds of people with false divination through ambiguous outcomes. They are present in temples and at all sacrifices. By showing certain deceptive wonders, to the amazement of those who are present, they deceive people so completely that they believe a divine power is present in images and statues. They even secretly enter into bodies, since they are slight spirits. They stir up diseases in corrupted limbs, and then, when they have been appeased with sacrifices and vows, they remove them again. They send dreams filled with terror, so that they themselves may be called on, or dreams whose outcomes match the truth, so that they may increase the honor paid to themselves. Sometimes they also show some act
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
... flesh are manifest, which are these: adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, witchcraft, murders, hatred, quarrels, jealousies, anger, strife, seditions, divisions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revelries, and such like: of which I tell you beforehand, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, magnanimity, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control, chastity." Galatians 5:17-22 And therefore we make this our prayer every day, yes, in continual supplications: that the will of God concerning us should be done both in heaven and on earth. Because this is the will of God: that earthly things should give way to heavenly things, and that spiritual and divine things should prevail.
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
...ent certain things or for many other purposes. For this is the method they use: by incantations and magical arts they call on demons and lead them to help carry out their wishes. Therefore, the worship of all demons would be inconsistent for us who worship the Supreme God. And the service of demons is the service of so-called gods, for all the gods of the heathen are demons. The same thing is also clear from the fact that the dedication of the most famous so-called sacred places, whether temples or statues, was accompanied by elaborate magical incantations, performed by those who eagerly served the demons through magical arts. So we are determined to avoid the worship of demons just as we would avoid death. And we hold that the worship that the Greeks think is offered to gods at altars, images, and temples is really offered to demons.
More related quotations from this section 17 shown
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
Then the Jews, when they saw these things, claimed that they were done by demonic power, even though it was written in their secret writings that all these things would happen just as they did. They did read the words of the other prophets, and of Isaiah, who says: "Be strong, you hands that are weak; and you weak knees, be comforted. You who are fearful in heart, do not fear, do not be afraid: our Lord will carry out judgment; He Himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will speak clearly. For water has burst forth in the wilderness, and a stream in the thirsty land." But the Sibyl also foretold the same things in these verses:
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...ey trouble them through men and persecute them by the hands of others. And if they admit that these demons exist, we have won. For the true religion must be the one that understands the nature of demons, understands their craftiness, and compels them, once conquered and subdued, to yield to it. If they deny it, they will be refuted by the testimony of poets and philosophers. But if they do not deny the existence and malice of demons, what remains except for them to say that there is a difference between gods and demons? Let them then explain to us the difference between the two kinds, so that we may know what should be worshiped and what should be held in execration, and whether they agree with each other or are truly opposed to one another. If they are joined together by some necessity, how shall we distinguish them? Or how shall we join the honor and worship of each kind? But if, on the other hand, they are enemies, why is it that the demons do not fear the gods, or that the gods cannot drive away the demons? Look, someone stirred by the impulse of a demon is out of his senses, raving, and mad. Let us lead him into the temple of the excellent and mighty Jupiter, or, since Jupi
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Justin Martyr, The First Apology Direct teaching
...e the accusations made against us. Instead, driven by unreasoning passion and the influence of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth must be told: since ancient times, these evil demons, creating apparitions of themselves, defiled women, corrupted boys, and showed such terrifying sights to men that those who did not use reason to judge their actions were struck with terror. Carried away by fear and unaware that these were demons, they called them gods and gave each demon the name it chose for itself. When Socrates tried, through true reason and examination, to expose these truths and free men from the demons, the demons themselves, using men who delighted in iniquity, orchestrated his death, branding him an atheist and a profane person on the charge that "he was introducing new divinities." In our case, they show similar intent. For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, became man, and was called Jesus Christ. In obedience to Him, we not only deny that those who did such things
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Direct teaching
...hey give, make people believe that they are true. In this way they deceive human credulity by false divination, because it is not useful for them to reveal the truth. These are the ones who taught men to make images and statues. In order to turn the minds of men away from worshiping the true God, they cause the faces of dead kings, made and decorated with great beauty, to be set up and consecrated. Then they took those kings' names for themselves, as if they were putting on certain roles. But the magicians, and those whom the people rightly call enchanters, when they practice their hateful arts, call on them by their true names, those heavenly names that are read in the sacred writings. Moreover, these impure and wandering spirits, so that they may throw everything into confusion and cover the minds of men with errors, mix false things in with true ones. For they themselves invented the idea that there are many heavenly beings, and one king over all, Jupiter, because there are many spirits of angels in heaven, and one Father and Lord of all, God. But they have hidden the truth under false names and taken it out of sight.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Direct teaching
They use exorcisms and incantations. Love-potions, too, and charms, as well as those beings who are called “Paredri” (familiars) and “Oniropompi” (dream-senders), and whatever other curious arts can be had recourse to, are eagerly pressed into their service.
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Ephesians 6:12 Direct teaching
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
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Revelation 16:14 Direct teaching
For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
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James 3:15 Direct teaching
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
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Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness
...Its own worth supports it. No ground remains for the least suspicion. Do you say that it is done by magic, or some trick of that sort? You will say nothing of the kind if you have been allowed the use of your ears and eyes. For what argument can you bring against something that is shown to the eye in its bare reality? If, on the one hand, they really are gods, why do they pretend to be demons? Is it from fear of us? In that case, your divinity is put under Christians. And surely you can never ascribe deity to that which is under the authority of man — no, and, if that adds anything to the disgrace, of its very enemies. If, on the other hand, they are demons or angels, why do they, against all consistency, dare to set themselves forth as acting the part of gods? For beings who set themselves out as gods would never willingly call themselves demons, if they really were gods, lest by doing so they should in fact give up their dignity. So too, those whom you know to be no more than demons would not dare to act as gods if those whose names they take and use were really divine. For they would not dare to treat with disrespect the higher majesty of beings whose displeasure they would k
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
These were the inventors of astrology, and soothsaying, and divination, and those productions which are called oracles, and necromancy, and the art of magic, and whatever evil practices besides these men exercise, either openly or in secret.
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Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness
For, though the whole power of demons and kindred spirits is subject to us, yet still, as ill-disposed slaves sometimes conjoin contumacy with fear, and delight to injure those of whom they at the same time stand in awe, so is it here.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
But the magicians, and those whom the people truly call enchanters, when they practice their detestable arts, call upon them by their true names, those heavenly names which are read in the sacred writings.
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
These impure spirits, therefore — the demons— as is shown by the Magi, by the philosophers, and by Plato, consecrated under statues and images, lurk there, and by their afflatus attain the authority as of a present deity;
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2 Thessalonians 2:9 Supporting witness
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
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1 Timothy 4:1 Supporting witness
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
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1 Corinthians 10:20 Supporting witness
Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
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Revelation 16:13 Supporting witness
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Did early Christians tell believers to avoid divination, necromancy, and witchcraft?
The supplied sources show a clear Christian rejection of divination, witchcraft, necromancy, soothsaying, and related practices. The Didache and Apostolic Constitutions give direct prohibitions, and the Bible cards reinforce the same warnings.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
...f the Gentiles, to your own deceit and destruction. For there is no fellowship between God and the devil. He who joins himself with those who favor the things of the devil will be considered one of them, and will inherit woe. Also avoid indecent spectacles. I mean the theaters and the pomps of the heathens, their enchantments, observations of omens, soothsayings, purgations, divinations, observations of birds, their necromancies, and their invocations. For it is written, "There is no divination in Jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel," Numbers 23:23. And again, "Divination is iniquity." And elsewhere, "You shall not be soothsayers, and follow observers of omens, nor diviners, nor dealers with familiar spirits. You shall not preserve alive wizards," Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10. Therefore Jeremiah exhorts, saying, "Walk not according to the ways of the heathen, and be not afraid of the signs of heaven." So it is the duty of a believer to avoid the assemblies of the ungodly, of the heathen, and of the Jews, and of the rest of the heretics, lest by joining ourselves to them we bring snares on our own souls, so that by joining in their feasts, which are celebrated in honor of demo
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Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles Direct teaching
...ornication. You shall not steal, Exodus 20:15. You shall not practice magic. You shall not practice witchcraft. You shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill the child that has been conceived. You shall not covet the things of your neighbor, Exodus 20:17. You shall not forswear yourself, Matthew 5:34. You shall not bear false witness, Exodus 20:16. You shall not speak evil. You shall bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded or double-tongued, for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false or empty, but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbor. You shall not hate any man. But some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own life.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
Do not be a diviner, for that leads to idolatry. For Samuel says, "Divination is sin," in 1 Samuel 15:23, and, "There shall be no divination in Jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel," in Numbers 23:23. You shall not use enchantments or purifications for your child. You shall not be a soothsayer or a diviner by great or small birds. Nor shall you learn wicked arts, for the law has forbidden all these things. Do not be one who wishes for evil, for you will be led into unbearable sins. You shall not speak obscenely, or use lustful glances, or be a drunkard, for from such things come whoredoms and adulteries. Do not be a lover of money, lest you serve mammon instead of God, as in Matthew 6:24. Do not be vainglorious, or haughty, or high-minded. For arrogance springs from all these things. Remember him who said, "Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty. I have not occupied myself with great matters, nor with things too high for me. But I was humble."
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Direct teaching
You shall not use magic. You shall not use witchcraft, for He says, "You shall not allow a witch to live." You shall not kill your child by abortion, nor kill what is begotten. For everything that is formed and has received a soul from God, if it is killed, will be avenged, because it was unjustly destroyed. You shall not covet the things that belong to your neighbor, such as his wife, his servant, his ox, or his field. You shall not swear falsely, for it is said, "You shall not swear at all," Matthew 5:34. But if that cannot be avoided, you shall swear truthfully, for everyone who swears by Him shall be commended. You shall not bear false witness, for he who falsely accuses the needy provokes to anger Him who made him, Proverbs 14:31.
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Deuteronomy 18:10 Supporting witness
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
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Leviticus 20:27 Supporting witness
A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.
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2 Kings 21:6 Supporting witness
And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
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Leviticus 20:6 Supporting witness
And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
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2 Kings 17:17 Supporting witness
And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
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Deuteronomy 18:11 Supporting witness
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
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Leviticus 19:31 Supporting witness
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
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Isaiah 19:3 Supporting witness
The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.
More related quotations from this section 4 shown
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Isaiah 3:3 Supporting witness
the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.
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Galatians 5:20 Supporting witness
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
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Micah 5:12 Supporting witness
And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
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Exodus 22:17 Supporting witness
Ye shall not save the lives of sorcerers.
Did early Christians think demons could produce signs, apparitions, and false wonders?
The sources say demons could produce apparitions, false reports, and lying wonders that deceive people. Early Christian authors present these signs as misleading rather than confirming divine truth.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Direct teaching
Simon the Samaritan was the magician whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, mentions: "But there was a certain man named Simon, who previously practiced magic in that city and misled the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, and everyone listened to him, from the smallest to the greatest, saying, 'This man is the great power of God.' They paid attention to him because for a long time he had astonished them with his sorceries." Simon then pretended to believe, assuming that the apostles performed their healings through magic and not by God's power. Regarding their ability to fill believers with the Holy Spirit through laying on of hands, which was preached by them in Christ Jesus, he suspected this was done through a greater knowledge of magic. He offered money to the apostles, thinking he might also receive the power to give the Holy Spirit to anyone he chose. Peter said to him, "May your money perish with you, because you thought the gift of God could be bought with money. You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God; for I see that you are full of bitterness and a captive to sin." He did not place any more faith
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
Next, he speaks about those who use the arts of magic and sorcery, and who call on the foreign names of demons. He says that such people are like those who, in these same matters, perform wonders before people who do not know that the names of demons are different among the Greeks from what they are among the Scythians. He then quotes a passage from Herodotus, saying that Apollo is called Gongosyrus by the Scythians, Poseidon Thagimasada, Aphrodite Argimpasan, and Hestia Tabiti. Now, anyone who is able may examine whether Celsus and Herodotus are not both mistaken in these matters. For the Scythians do not understand the same thing as the Greeks in regard to those beings that are thought to be gods. For how can it be believable that Apollo should be called Gongosyrus by the Scythians? I do not think that Gongosyrus, when put into the Greek language, has the same etymology as Apollo, or that Apollo, in the dialect of the Scythians, means Gongosyrus. Nor has any such claim been made before now about the other names. For the Greeks, from different circumstances and etymologies, gave to those whom they think are gods the names they bear. And the Scythians did the same from another set
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Justin Martyr, The First Apology Supporting witness
...ayer to the gods of my country. But, as they did not respond, I called upon those among us known as Christians. Upon investigation, I found a great number and multitude of them and initially acted against them, which was quite inappropriate, as I later understood their power. They began the battle, not with weapons, armor, or bugles, as such preparations are detestable to them because of the God they carry in their conscience. Therefore, it appears that those we think are atheists have God as their guiding force entrenched in their conscience. Throwing themselves on the ground, they prayed not only for me but for the entire army, that we might be saved from the current thirst and hunger. We had been without water for five days because there was none, being deep in Germany, in enemy territory. Simultaneously as they threw themselves on the ground and prayed to God (a God unknown to me), water poured from the sky, refreshingly cool upon us but as withering hail upon Rome's enemies. Immediately we acknowledged the presence of God following their prayer—a God unconquerable and indestructible. Based on this, let us pardon such individuals who are Christians, lest they pray for and ac
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
...e had become acquainted with a man named Dionysius, an Egyptian musician. Dionysius told him, about magic arts, that they had power only over the uneducated and over men of corrupt morals. But over philosophers they could have no effect, because philosophers were careful to keep a healthy way of life. Now if our purpose had been to discuss magic, we could have added a few remarks besides what we have already said on this subject. But since we need to address only the more important matters in answering Celsus, we will say this about magic: anyone who wants to inquire whether philosophers were ever led captive by it can read what Moiragenes wrote about the memoirs of Apollonius of Tyana, the magician and philosopher. In that work, this man, who was not a Christian but a philosopher, says that some philosophers of no small reputation were won over by the magical power possessed by Apollonius, and went to him as a sorcerer. Among these, I think, he especially mentioned Euphrates and a certain Epicurean. But we, on the other hand, declare, and have learned by experience, that those who worship the God of all things in agreement with the Christianity that comes through Jesus, and who
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Tertullian, De Anima (On the Soul) Direct teaching
...eothanati, those who suffered violent deaths. I may be allowed to use the very words and names that magic itself repeats, that inventor of all these strange ideas, with its Ostanes, and Typhon, and Dardanus, and Damigeron, and Nectabis, and Berenice. There is a well-known popular writing that claims to call up from the dwelling of Hades the souls of those who had actually slept out their full age, had passed away by an honorable death, and had even been buried with full rites and proper ceremony. After this, what shall we say about magic? Say, to be sure, what almost everybody says about it: that it is an imposture. But it is not only we Christians who notice this system of imposture. We have discovered these evil spirits, not by joining with them, but by a kind of knowledge that is against them. Nor do we deal with them by any method that attracts them, but by a power that brings them under control. I mean their miserable system, that many-sided plague on the mind of man, that maker of all error, that destroyer of our salvation and our soul at one stroke. In this way, even in magic, which is really only a second idolatry, they pretend that after death they become demons, just a
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
But if we once admit that it is consistent with the existence of magic and sorcery (which derive their power from evil demons, who are spell-bound by elaborate incantations, and become subject to sorcerers) that some works must be found among men which proceed from a power that is divine, why shall we not test those who profess to perform them by their lives and morals, and the consequences of their miracles, viz., whether they tend to the injury of men or to the reformation of conduct?
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
In the next place, speaking of those who employ the arts of magic and sorcery, and who invoke the barbarous names of demons, he remarks that such persons act like those who, in reference to the same things, perform marvels before those who are ignorant that the names of demons among the Greeks are different from what they are among the Scythians.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
Numbers 23:23 And again: Divination is iniquity. And elsewhere: You shall not be soothsayers, and follow observers of omens, nor diviners, nor dealers with familiar spirits.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Supporting witness
and have recourse to familiar spirits, dream-sending demons, and other abominations, declaring that they possess power to rule over, even now, the princes and formers of this world;
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
If there is, then, such a dangerous tendency in this direction, as even the enemy of the truth of God confesses, how much better is it to avoid all danger of giving ourselves too much up to the power of such demons, and of becoming turned aside from higher things, and suffering them to pass into oblivion through an excessive attention to the body;
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
And who, on the other hand, is it that, having his soul and his spirit, and I imagine also his body, in a pure and holy state, receives a divine spirit, and performs such works in order to benefit men, and to lead them to believe in the true God?
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
For wickedness and sorcery would not have led a whole nation to rise not only above idols and images erected by men, but also above all created things, and to ascend to the uncreated origin of the God of the universe.
More related quotations from this section 12 shown
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Acts 16:16 Direct teaching
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
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Acts 8:9 Direct teaching
But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great,
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Tertullian, Apology Supporting witness
if they put dreams into people's minds by the power of the angels and demons whose aid they have invited, by whose influence, too, goats and tables are made to divine, — how much more likely is this power of evil to be zealous in doing with all its might, of its own inclination, and for its own objects, what it does to serve the ends of others!
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Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Supporting witness
And (they are in the habit of invoking the aid of) subordinate demons and dream-senders, and (of resorting to) the rest of the tricks (of sorcery), alleging that they possess power for now acquiring sway over the Archons and makers of this world, nay, even over all the works that are in it.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Supporting witness
And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had driven them mad by his sorceries.” This Simon, then—who feigned faith, supposing that the apostles themselves performed their cures by the art of magic, and not by the power of God;
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Acts 19:13 Supporting witness
Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
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Acts 19:19 Supporting witness
And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
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Acts 10:38 Supporting witness
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
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Mark 3:22 Supporting witness
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
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Acts 19:16 Supporting witness
And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
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Acts 8:11 Supporting witness
And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
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Acts 13:8 Supporting witness
But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Common Questions
Did early Christians believe magic and sorcery were demonic?
Yes. Writers like Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, and Cyprian describe magic, sorcery, and divination as tied to demons and false worship.
Did early Christians think Christians should avoid occult practices?
Yes. The Didache, Apostolic Constitutions, and several early writers warn against magic, witchcraft, divination, and similar practices.
What Bible passages did early Christians use against the occult?
Common passages include Deuteronomy 18:10-11, Acts 8:9-11, Acts 16:16, Acts 19:13-19, Ephesians 6:12, and Revelation 16:14.
Source Index for the Occult and Demonic Powers
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 154 ranked source links from 193 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 154 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 119
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 74 included
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