We meet with this name but once in Scripture, (Deut. 18: 11.) but that once is enough to shew, that from the earliest days there have been characters of such awfulness. The word is derived from Nekros, Greek, and signifies one who pretends to discourse with the dead. By the law, all that exercised this art were condemned to punishment; yea, the Lord said, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." (Lev. xx. 6.) The woman at Endor practised this art, and made Saul in his horrors of mind, a dupe to her delusion. (1 Sam. 28. 5, &c.) The prophet Isaiah hath described the character of such, Isa. 29. 4. Is it not astonishing that in the days of the gospel any should be found daring enough to exercise such an art, and still more that any should be found so foolish as to give credit to such persons?
One who pretended to discover unknown and future events by summoning and interrogating the dead, Deu 18:10,11, a crime punishable by stoning to death, Lev 20:27 . See SORCERER. No good reason can be given for believing that such pretended communications with departed spirits are less offensive to God now than in the time of Moses.\par
Necromancer. Deu 18:11. One who professed to reveal future events by pretended converse with the dead.
See DIVINATION.