What's the magic word?
Fun with biblical languages and translation
Anagrammed Countries (J-Archive)
Don't Do This (J-Archive)
Sun-Potpourri (J-Archive)
100
In the 1958 song "Witch Doctor", this incantation was suggested to the protagonist as a spell to make a girl fall in love with him.
What is oo ee oo ah ah ting tang walla walla bing bang?
100
When this king commissioned his translation of the Bible, he did not have a commentary included because he believed that it might contain anti-monarchist sentiment as had its predecessor the Geneva Bible.
Who is King James VI & I?
Alter, Robert (2019). The Art of Bible Translation. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. xii. ISBN 978-0-691-18149-3.
100
PAINS
SPAIN
100
Richard Josephson got 6 months for joking he had these while on a USAir flight, forcing it to land
What are Bombs?
100
It describes a fried egg with the yolk on top
Sunny-side up
200
This two-word phrase indicates the suddenness of a change or transformation, as a magic trick in which one object appears to be suddenly transformed into another.
What is Presto Chango?
200
Though the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Koine Greek was a gradual process starting in the 2nd or 3rd century BC, a legend that seventy separate translators all produced identical texts simultaneously inspired this Latin name for the translation as a whole.
What is the Septuagint? (often abbreviated LXX) (From the Latin for "seventy")
200
RAIN
IRAN
200
In February 1998 the Pentagon said its computers had been invaded by these, the title of a 1995 film
hackers
200
Its official name, "Nihon", means "Land Of The Rising Sun"
Japan
300
Used often as a reference to the actions of magicians, this two-word pseudo-Latin phrase, like many magic words, has an unknown etymology; one theory suggests it is a corruption of the liturgical phrase, "Hoc est corpus meum", meaning "Here is my body"
What is Hocus Pocus?
300
This Northwest Semitic language most likely spoken by Jesus still has speakers today and is considered endangered, with several varieties used manly by the older generations.
What is Aramaic?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic
Several modern varieties of Aramaic are still spoken. The modern eastern branch is spoken by Assyrians, Mandeans, and Mizrahi Jews.[6][7][8][9] Western Aramaic is still spoken by the Muslim and Christian Arameans (Syriacs) in the towns of Maaloula, Bakh'a and Jubb'adin in Syria.[10] Classical varieties are used as liturgical and literary languages in several West Asian churches,[11][12] as well as in Judaism,[13][14] Samaritanism,[15] and Mandaeism.[16] The Aramaic language is considered endangered, with several varieties used mainly by the older generations.[17] Researchers are working to record and analyze all of the remaining varieties of Neo-Aramaic languages in case they become extinct.[18][19]
300
MARKED N
DENMARK
300
A man released as many as 50 guinea pigs into this New York City area March 11, 1998
Central Park
300
Shamash, Mithras, Sol & Ra
sun gods
400
According to the Pokedex (the encyclopaedia for Pokemon), this final-form psychic type Pokemon is rumored to remember everything that ever happens to it, from birth till death. Its name: a four syllable word often used in stage magic.
What is Alakazam?
400
Some scholars argue that the poetic opening to this gospel is a Greek translation of an Aramaic hymn.
John
400
PANEL
NEPAL
400
The owner of Crystal Glass of Brooklyn was doing this around New York City to increase business
Breaking windows
400
The Earth's northern & southern lights result in part from the effects of these solar prominences
solar flares
500
Is it Aramaic? Greek? Latin? We don't know! But the first known mention of this word now common stage magic was in a second century AD book by a physician to Roman emperor Caracalla, who prescribed that malaria sufferers wear an amulet containing it written in the form of a triangle.
What is Abracadabra?
500
Ge'ez, an ancient South-Semitic language originating in Ethiopia and Eritrea, is the only language in which this ancient Jewish apocalyptic religious text traditionally ascribed to the great-grandfather of Noah survives in its entirety, though sections were preserved in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves.
What is the Book of Enoch?
500
It made news that a London burglar was caught by using these prints he left while listening at doors & windows
What are Ear-prints?
500
Around 1610 Galileo determined the sun's rotational rate by watching these dark areas shift position