The Evil Eye?

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My husband is a Coptic Orthodox Christian and a big believer in the Evil Eye. Well, translated from Arabic it would literally be the “envious” eye.

He is convinced that whenever things go bad for him that someone has cast the Evil Eye on him. He says that the Coptic Orthodox Church supports this belief.

Now I know that Muslims are big on the Evil Eye and that this belief is prevalent among all religions in the Middle East. He swears that the belief is supported by the Bible and the teachings of the Coptic Orthodox Church. This practice leads him to be very suspicious of others when things go well and afraid to share his happiness over a new job, a new car or even a new baby.

Coptic Christians usually pin crosses and hang pictures of saints over their babies’ cribs to ward off the Evil Eye.

How does one refute this belief? My parish priest suggested prayer and holy water. Doesn’t this just lend validity to the superstition?
 
Cairech,

Difficult to refute, as it’s a cultural as much as religious belief, very common among both Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholics, as well as their Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox and Catholic neighbors (to say nothing of all the other Middle Easterners, the Greeks, the Italians, many East Europeans, most Asians, etc).

I checked out My Coptic Church which is a great online Coptic website that has an “Ask a Copt” discussion board because I thought I saw a reference to it on a post there a while back. Found the post, the gist of which supports the “envious eye” concept that you mentioned. The agreement among those posting about it was, essentially, learn to live with it.

I’ll raise the issue with a Coptic Orthodox friend who posts with me on the Byzantine Forum and see if he has any ideas.

Many years,

Neil
 
Dear Neil:

I too have checked the My Coptic Church website. There was no doctrinal or scriptural discussion of it. One girl who had asked simply wondered if her mother was being “Egyptian” for believing in it.

The response was, yes, she was just being “Egyptian.” I guess hubby is just being “Egyptian” too? It’s too bad, too. The Evil Eye concept places the blame for bad things on your friends and relatives.

One is not challenged to explore the notion that perhaps one’s own decisions in the past lead up to “unlucky” events now.

Nor is one challenged to explore the notion that perhaps God is allowing some bad thing to happen to you for your spiritual benefit.

Thank you for checking with your Coptic friends. The few Copts I know (that speak English) do not know their religion well enough to have a discussion about it.

And the Coptic priest assigned to our area does not speak English. (Which supports my basic beef with Orthodox churches: that they are national churches with no claim to catholicity.)

Cairech
 
Hi, Cairech.

Your husband should talk to his priest in the Coptic Orthodox Church. I know next to nothing about the Coptic Orthodox Church. My ex and his family are Muslims and I’m familiar with the belief of the evil eye.

I was told never to praise a little baby. Actually the best thing was to say that the baby was ugly, had cauliflower ears, potato nose and so on. In South East Asia it’s common to place a black dot on their children’s faces and dress them in old and ragged clothes. This is to avoid the “evil eye”. I know that in the Nordic traditions we have something not so different from this. It was believed that newborn and especially non-baptized children could attract the attention of evil spirits and/or trolls. The evil spirits and/or trolls were envious because the human children were so beautiful and their own offspring was so hideous. They would try to change the human child for their own child.

I remember my grandmother told that when she was a child they placed a knife, preferably a knife made of iron or steel, in the crib under the mattress. After the child was properly baptized and the mother churched the danger was over. If a child later was discovered to be retarded and had some kind of affliction it was believed that the trolls had been successful and exchanged their troll child with the human child. This belief varies from region to region in the Nordic countries.

This is very much a cultural phenomenon, but have over the years melted in to people’s beliefs, Islam, Christian and other local faiths in certain areas.

Even practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FMG) have become embedded in the various religions and faiths in certain areas of the world, mostly African and North-African. Christians and Muslims say that it’s written in the Bible and the Quran women should go though FMG. This is however wrong, but it illustrates how ancient cultural practices and beliefs like FMG and “the evil eye” can over time be perceived by people to be something that their religion command or condone.

***Sunniva :tiphat: ***
 
BobCatholic,

I agree. This is superstition, but unfortunately such superstition often is embedded in the local culture and religion. That makes it hard to get rid of.
 
Somebody gave me the Evil Nose once. Couldn’t smell anything but pet waste and Limburger cheese for a month.

I don’t know what the Evil Eye does, but it couldn’t possibly be as bad.
 
Hmmm…

The evil eye is 100% real. Eastern Orthodox believe in it. Oriental Orthodox believe in it,. Catholics from Hispanic countries and Southern Europe believe in it. Who doesn’t believe in it? Christians from places like America, Britain, etc. In other words, people from nations whose cultures are characterised by anti-supernaturalism and strong tendencies of thinking everything has a scientific explanation. Westerners try to make their religions as minimally supernatural as possible. Granted, while the evil eye is real, a lot of people do go overboard with fear of the evil eye. I won’t deny that, but being over-skeptical like Westerners isn’t any better.

EDIT: And I clarify by pointing out that obviously not everything bad is a result of an evil eye, though some may think that. Plus, while the evil eye is real, a devout Christian shouldn’t really have to worry about it. Have faith in God’s protection. And yes, if God allows any bad, whatever the source, to befall a Christian (or anyone for that matter), it is for the person’s own good. Oftentimes we don’t understand it though, since God’s will is a mystery that is not fully revealed to us. As Paul says, what right does a vessel have to question the Potter?
 
Angels_Unaware said:
How do you know? (Not a rhetorical question)
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  1. I know of at least one case of an evil eye affecting someone.
  2. The Orthodox Church’s prayer’s address the evil eye, meaning that Holy Tradition attests to its existence.
 
Zabdi_Premjit said:
  1. I know of at least one case of an evil eye affecting someone.
  2. The Orthodox Church’s prayer’s address the evil eye, meaning that Holy Tradition attests to its existence.
Click to expand...
I am sincerely interested in you telling the story. Seriously. I am not being snide, I would like to know what happened. I am open to the possibility of the evil eye.
 
Angels_Unaware said:
I am sincerely interested in you telling the story. Seriously. I am not being snide, I would like to know what happened. I am open to the possibility of the evil eye.
Click to expand...
It happened to an infant. She was perfectly healthy, but suddenly she stopped eating. She just become unresponsive and would stare into space while making this noise like “eeeeeeee”. This went on for a couple of days, so the parents brought the child to a church and told the pastor what was happening. He looked at the child and told the parents that the infant had been “overlooked by a spirit” (“overlooking” being an old-fashioned English term for casting an evil eye). He then said a prayer asking God to deliver her from the effects of the evil eye. By the time the prayer was done and they opened their eyes, the child was normal and smiling at them.
 
Cairech said:
My husband is a Coptic Orthodox Christian and a big believer in the Evil Eye. Well, translated from Arabic it would literally be the “envious” eye.

He is convinced that whenever things go bad for him that someone has cast the Evil Eye on him. He says that the Coptic Orthodox Church supports this belief.

Now I know that Muslims are big on the Evil Eye and that this belief is prevalent among all religions in the Middle East. He swears that the belief is supported by the Bible and the teachings of the Coptic Orthodox Church. This practice leads him to be very suspicious of others when things go well and afraid to share his happiness over a new job, a new car or even a new baby.

Coptic Christians usually pin crosses and hang pictures of saints over their babies’ cribs to ward off the Evil Eye.

How does one refute this belief? My parish priest suggested prayer and holy water. Doesn’t this just lend validity to the superstition?
Click to expand...
Funny thought just entered my head as I read. There is in Ireland, I believe, an ancient being, like a god/chief called Balor. Now Balor, unless I’m confusing my mythologies, had one eye, and it was enormous and if he cast his baleful glare of this eye at anyone they would instantly die. Balor lived on Tory Island off the north west coast of Ireland, he had a castle there; and the very same Tory Island that the legendary or mythical Formorians lived on and from which they terrorised the coastal regions of Ireland. The Formorians were one of the ‘Invaders’ of Ireland according to the Annals of the Four Masters which is a history of Ireland from the Flood to the 16th century or so. Anyway, the Formorians came from North Africa and were a pirate race who looted and pillaged from their base on Tory Island. And I just thought it was interesting that you said the evil eye was from the middle-east and someone else said it was strong in Africa and here it is, maybe, as Balor or the evil eye on Tory Island, a tiny island off the Irish coast. The Formorians lived around the Bronze age or early iron age in Ireland, I believe. So there, not much help, but thats all I could think of when I read your post!
 
Cairech said:
My husband is a Coptic Orthodox Christian and a big believer in the Evil Eye. Well, translated from Arabic it would literally be the “envious” eye.

He is convinced that whenever things go bad for him that someone has cast the Evil Eye on him. He says that the Coptic Orthodox Church supports this belief.

Now I know that Muslims are big on the Evil Eye and that this belief is prevalent among all religions in the Middle East. He swears that the belief is supported by the Bible and the teachings of the Coptic Orthodox Church. This practice leads him to be very suspicious of others when things go well and afraid to share his happiness over a new job, a new car or even a new baby.

Coptic Christians usually pin crosses and hang pictures of saints over their babies’ cribs to ward off the Evil Eye.

How does one refute this belief? My parish priest suggested prayer and holy water. Doesn’t this just lend validity to the superstition?
Click to expand...
Since the “evil eye” isn’t something ever really brought up in American culture at least, people typically assume that it’s a “superstition.” I would probably agree except that as a Muslim I believe in the teachings of Muhammad who said that the evil eye is real. I don’t really know what that means, but count it among the things I don’t really understand.

I too think some people really go to an extreme in worrying about the “evil eye” whenever they get sick or something, blaming someone else instead of acknowledging that maybe they just have a test from God, and that they’ll be purified through their suffering (which is another Muslim belief.)
 
algebra said:
Where in the Quran are you taught that you are purified through your suffering.
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Good question. I’m not sure.

But I looked it up a little, and found this:

3:179 Allaah will not leave the believers in the state in which you are now, until He distinguishes the wicked from the good.

There are lots of ahadith on the subject though, and the site shows some other ayaat.
 
I know the Evil Eye is in the Mexican American culture. I’ve heard it referenced as “giving someone ojo.” “Ojo” (pronounced “O-ho”) is Spanish for “eye.”

I know all about this because as a kid my grandmother’s friends were CONSTANTLY touching my eyes since I was very fair and had green eyes. They’d always put their hands over my eyes. This would even be at “The hall” behind the church (catholic) that they would gather after Mass.

One time I asked grandma why they kept doing that. She said they didn’t want to “give me ojo” and so by touching me, they were dispelling any evil spirits.

One time, I was about 7 or so, and yet again, one of her friends wanted to put their hand over my eyes (they literally covered my eyes with their hand) to not “give me ojo.” I was so annoyed by this practice that I ducked.

hoo boy. Did I get in trouble for that! My grandmother yanked me to her side and told me to stay still while her friend touched my eyes. I was annoyed. But, what could a 7 year old do? One day I finally told her I just didn’t want anyone touching me, period. I don’t care if I get “ojo.”

Finally people did stop.

Another time, a friend had just had a baby and since I was looking at her - the baby - my friend wanted me to touch her baby so I wouldn’t give her “ojo.” I told her I didn’t believe in that superstition. I refused to touch the baby. She was angry. Oh well. I wasn’t about to give that superstition power by touching her baby.

Even now I don’t believe in it. Never did.

BTW, regardless of the fact that I simply don’t believe in it, to practice touching someone to dispell this “ojo” business is, IMO, a kin to putting a superstition above and over God.

Sure, you can say a prayer or a blessing, but to give the superstition of the “evil eye” so much power is to say that it is more powerful than even God. I consider the “evil eye” to new age practices such as tarot cards, ouija boards, etc.

So, no, you cannot touch me so you won’t “give me ojo” and no, I will not touch you or anyone else so I won’t “give them ojo.” Because it’s just not true.
 
‘Evil eye’ can’t be total superstition because Jesus mentions it
Mark 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
I don’t have a clue though what he was talking about…did he mean some sort of viscious googly-eye or something else? I dunno 🤷
 
John7 said:
‘Evil eye’ can’t be total superstition because Jesus mentions it
Mark 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
I don’t have a clue though what he was talking about…did he mean some sort of viscious googly-eye or something else? I dunno 🤷
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It’s envy to the extent one hopes that another person’s blessing be taken away.

Thanks for using this quote, that does indeed render weak anyone’s assertion that the evil eye is just superstition.
 
I render the POWER of the “Evil Eye” over someone else as superstition. i.e. That I can stare at someone and it causes THEM some sort of grief, THAT is the superstition.

Now, if, by the passage that John7 quoted, the “Evil Eye” is being used as a euphemism for “jealousy” within one’s Self, than that is different and a definite distinction apart from what I was talking about.

I still hold that God holds all power. And if He holds all power, then that means I have none, especially over someone else.
 
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