Cleromancy
For the use of random selection as a way to make a fair form of selection see Sortition.
Cleromancy is a form of divination using sortilege, casting lots or casting bones in which an outcome is determined by random means, such as the rolling of dice.
In Western culture
Casting of lots occurs frequently in the Bible.
In the Old Testament, there are three cases where casting lots was invoked as a legitimate means of determining God's wishes:
- In the Book of Joshua, God commands that a thief be found by casting lots, first among the tribes of Israel, then among the families of that tribe, etc. Akan, the person identified in this way, confesses his guilt, and shows where he has buried the loot.
- In the First book of Samuel, lots are cast to determine who has angered God. It is determined that it was Jonathan, Saul's son, who broke the Oath that Saul made,"Cursed be the man who eats food until its evening and I am avenged on my enemies." (1 Samuel 14:24)
- In the Book of Jonah, casting of lots is used to determine by Jonah's crew that he was, in fact, the source of the storm they were enduring. He was subsequently cast overboard, causing the storm to dissipate.
Other places in the Old Testament relevant to divination:
- Book of Proverbs (16:33): "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD." and (18:18): "The lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty." Both quotations seem to approve of such lotteries.
- Leviticus 19:26: "Do not practise divination." - pointing in the opposite direction. (Note: That Lev. 19:26 refers to the casting of lots is a crass generalization. The Hebrew word translated as divination does not mean the same thing as the Hebrew word translated as lots. Divination, or nachash, is the same word as serpent and means literally to hiss when used as a verb. The idea of divination, or fortune-telling, is conveyed through association with the breath [fig. spirit] of a serpent [fig. deceiver] and implicitly declares diviners as con artists. However, the casting of lots, or gowral, merely means to assign portions, or allotments. To say that these two Hebrew concepts are equivalent is inaccurate. Although lots can be cast with the intention of divining, that is not always the case. Moreover, as a general rule, the word choices of translators have no bearing on the meanings of original texts whatsoever.)
In the New Testament, one notable example of casting lots is the soldiers who cast lots for Jesus' clothes (John 19:24) as he was dying on the cross. In this case, the casting of lots was implicitly looked down upon by the biblical authors.[citation needed] This, however, does not appear to be the case in the Acts of the Apostles, where the eleven remaining apostles draw lots to determine whether Matthias or Barsabas (surnamed Justus) would be chosen to replace Judas.
In the Book of Mormon, the sons of Lehi cast lots in the First Book of Nephi to determine who will obtain the plates of brass, a record containing the Israelite scriptures, from the merchant Laban. Laman is selected to represent the brothers by this method, but he fails to do so and barely escapes with his life (the brothers successfully retrieve the plates through other means, however). [1][2]
In Eastern culture
In China, and especially in Chinese Taoism, various means of divination through random means are employed, such as use of the I Ching. In Japan, omikuji is one form of drawing lots.
See also
External links
- Halliday, Greek Divination (1913), full online edition. Chapter 10 is on Kleromancy.