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Author: Gideon Bohak Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521180986 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Gideon Bohak gives a pioneering account of the broad history of ancient Jewish magic, from the Second Temple to the rabbinic period. It is based both on ancient magicians' own compositions and products in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and on the descriptions and prescriptions of non-magicians, to reconstruct a historical picture that is as balanced and nuanced as possible. The main focus is on the cultural make-up of ancient Jewish magic, and special attention is paid to the processes of cross-cultural contacts and borrowings between Jews and non-Jews, as well as to inner-Jewish creativity. Other major issues explored include the place of magic within Jewish society, contemporary Jewish attitudes to magic, and the identity of its practitioners. Throughout, the book seeks to explain the methodological underpinnings of all sound research in this demanding field, and to highlight areas where further research is likely to prove fruitful.
Author: Gideon Bohak Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521180986 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Gideon Bohak gives a pioneering account of the broad history of ancient Jewish magic, from the Second Temple to the rabbinic period. It is based both on ancient magicians' own compositions and products in Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek, and on the descriptions and prescriptions of non-magicians, to reconstruct a historical picture that is as balanced and nuanced as possible. The main focus is on the cultural make-up of ancient Jewish magic, and special attention is paid to the processes of cross-cultural contacts and borrowings between Jews and non-Jews, as well as to inner-Jewish creativity. Other major issues explored include the place of magic within Jewish society, contemporary Jewish attitudes to magic, and the identity of its practitioners. Throughout, the book seeks to explain the methodological underpinnings of all sound research in this demanding field, and to highlight areas where further research is likely to prove fruitful.
Author: Joshua Trachtenberg Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 0812208331 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 393
Book Description
Alongside the formal development of Judaism from the eleventh through the sixteenth centuries, a robust Jewish folk religion flourished—ideas and practices that never met with wholehearted approval by religious leaders yet enjoyed such wide popularity that they could not be altogether excluded from the religion. According to Joshua Trachtenberg, it is not possible truly to understand the experience and history of the Jewish people without attempting to recover their folklife and beliefs from centuries past. Jewish Magic and Superstition is a masterful and utterly fascinating exploration of religious forms that have all but disappeared yet persist in the imagination. The volume begins with legends of Jewish sorcery and proceeds to discuss beliefs about the evil eye, spirits of the dead, powers of good, the famous legend of the golem, procedures for casting spells, the use of gems and amulets, how to battle spirits, the ritual of circumcision, herbal folk remedies, fortune telling, astrology, and the interpretation of dreams. First published more than sixty years ago, Trachtenberg's study remains the foundational scholarship on magical practices in the Jewish world and offers an understanding of folk beliefs that expressed most eloquently the everyday religion of the Jewish people.
Author: John H. Walton Publisher: Baker Academic ISBN: 1493414364 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
Leading evangelical scholar John Walton surveys the cultural context of the ancient Near East, bringing insight to the interpretation of specific Old Testament passages. This new edition of a top-selling textbook has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout to reflect the refined thinking of a mature scholar. It includes over 30 illustrations. Students and pastors who want to deepen their understanding of the Old Testament will find this a helpful and instructive study.
Author: Scott Noegel Publisher: Penn State Press ISBN: 9780271046006 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 274
Book Description
In the religious systems of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, gods and demigods were neither abstract nor distant, but communicated with mankind through signs and active intervention. Men and women were thus eager to interpret, appeal to, and even control the gods and their agents. In Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, a distinguished array of scholars explores the many ways in which people in the ancient world sought to gain access to--or, in some cases, to bind or escape from--the divine powers of heaven and earth. Grounded in a variety of disciplines, including Assyriology, Classics, and early Islamic history, the fifteen essays in this volume cover a broad geographic area: Greece, Egypt, Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Persia. Topics include celestial divination in early Mesopotamia, the civic festivals of classical Athens, and Christian magical papyri from Coptic Egypt. Moving forward to Late Antiquity, we see how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam each incorporated many aspects of ancient Near Eastern and Graeco-Roman religion into their own prayers, rituals, and conceptions. Even if they no longer conceived of the sun, moon, and the stars as eternal or divine, Christians, Jews, and Muslims often continued to study the movements of the heavens as a map on which divine power could be read. The reader already familiar with studies of ancient religion will find in Prayer, Magic, and the Stars both old friends and new faces. Contributors include Gideon Bohak, Nicola Denzey, Jacco Dieleman, Radcliffe Edmonds, Marvin Meyer, Michael G. Morony, Ian Moyer, Francesca Rochberg, Jonathan Z. Smith, Mark S. Smith, Peter Struck, Michael Swartz, and Kasia Szpakowska. Published as part of Penn State's Magic in History series, Prayer, Magic, and the Stars appears at a time of renewed interest in divination and occult practices in the ancient world. It will interest a wide audience in the field of comparative religion as well as students of the ancient world and late antiquity.
Author: Todd Klutz Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 056731801X Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 278
Book Description
The category 'magic' , long used to signify an allegedly substantive type of activity distinguishable from 'religion', has nearly been dismantled by recent historical and social-scientific approaches to religious studies. While recognising and at times reinforcing this stance, the essays in this collection show that there is still much to be learned about the cultural context of early Judaism and Christianity by analysing ancient texts which either use 'magic' as a category for purposes of deviance labelling or promote behaviour of a broadly magico-religious variety. Through sustained engagement with texts ranging from Exod. 7-9 and Acts 8 to the Testament of Solomon and the Late Antique alchemical treatise known as the Cyranides, this volume focuses chiefly on materials that challenge the familiar boundaries between miracle and magic and medicine; yet it also heightens awareness of the way unsuspecting use of a sick sign (e.g. 'magic') can impede critical understanding of texts and their respective contexts of production and reception. Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement Series, Volume 245.
Author: Nadav Naʼaman Publisher: Eisenbrauns ISBN: 1575061287 Category : Bible Languages : en Pages : 498
Book Description
Reflecting the breadth and interconnectedness of Professor Na'aman's research areas, this volume contains contributions on archaeology, ancient Near East (other than ancient Israel), Israel's ancient history and historiography, and biblical studies. --from publisher description.
Author: Leda Ciraolo Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004497366 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 164
Book Description
This collection of essays focuses on divination across the Ancient World from early Mesopotamia to late antiquity. The authors deal with the forms, theory and poetics of this important and still poorly understood ancient phenomenon.
Author: Nina Nikki Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht ISBN: 364752218X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 332
Book Description
Magic in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean: Cognitive, Historical, and Material Perspectives brings together articles with the shared conviction that the category of magic remains useful in religious studies and provides new insights to biblical and related texts and artifacts. Historically, magic has been considered in both scholarly and popular discourse to be questionable, obscure, and potentially subversive. 19th century scholars of religion viewed magical beliefs and practices as primitive and inferior compared to Judeo-Christian forms of worship, which were considered true "religion". More recently, the category has been defended especially by scholars of the cognitive science of religion, who find it useful for delineating a set of beliefs and practices fundamental to all forms of religion. The volume joins current scholarship in refraining from using the concept as an othering device and in arguing that it can still serve as a helpful analytical tool. In addition to analyzing the discourse on magic in both ancient literature and modern scholarship, the articles provide individual examples of how literary and material culture attest to the existence of magical beliefs and practices in sources from the Ancient Near East to the Byzantine Period. The book is divided into three parts. The contributions in the first part approach magic from the theoretical perspective of cognitive studies, ritual studies, and cultural evolution, while the rest of the book focuses on how magic and magicians are understood in ancient sources. The second part discusses a specific set of textual material dealing with blessings and curses. The third part of the volume discusses the world of various destructive celestial beings, from which one and one's loved ones had to be defended, as well as the multitude of protective beings such as angels.
Author: Jack M. Sasson Publisher: ISBN: Category : Middle East Languages : en Pages : 744
Book Description
Consists of articles organized in eleven parts: the ancient Near East in Western thought; the environment; population; social institutions; history and culture; economy and trade; technology and artistic production; religion and science; language, writing, and literature; visual and performing arts; and retrospective essays.
Author: Solomon Nigosian Publisher: Liverpool University Press ISBN: 1782847626 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 166
Book Description
Explores the practices and rituals associated with magic and divination among the ancient Israelites as documented in the Old Testament.
Author: Gideon Bohak
Author: Gideon Bohak
Author: Joshua Trachtenberg
Author: John H. Walton
Author: Scott Noegel
Author: Todd Klutz
Author: Nadav Naʼaman
Author: Leda Ciraolo
Author: Nina Nikki
Author: Jack M. Sasson
Author: Solomon Nigosian