“Cutting of roots and plants”… I assumed that was a callback to witchcraft and why we see witches dumping all those kinds of things into their cauldrons.
Cutting roots isn't mentioned in the biblical text. I found cultural context only in the Greek-English Lexicon by Liddell and Scott, where there are a handful of words related to the practice. All are related either to medicine or magic, two fields that overlapped much more in the ancient world that in ours. In First Enoch the magical connotation was likely quite strong. I'm not sure when plant hybridization became a common practice. It may have been later than the First Century, though my intuition is that it might have already been practiced in the viniculture of Rome. Even if it were, I think your assumption here is likely accurate.
I just finished Reversing Hermon last week. Fantastic book.
It really is! I dip into Unseen Realm for topical reference, but I read every page of Reversing Hermon.
“Cutting of roots and plants”… I assumed that was a callback to witchcraft and why we see witches dumping all those kinds of things into their cauldrons.
Cutting roots isn't mentioned in the biblical text. I found cultural context only in the Greek-English Lexicon by Liddell and Scott, where there are a handful of words related to the practice. All are related either to medicine or magic, two fields that overlapped much more in the ancient world that in ours. In First Enoch the magical connotation was likely quite strong. I'm not sure when plant hybridization became a common practice. It may have been later than the First Century, though my intuition is that it might have already been practiced in the viniculture of Rome. Even if it were, I think your assumption here is likely accurate.