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Author: Joseph E. Sanzo
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Published: 2014-02-24
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9783161529658
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOriginally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral - Los Angeles) under the title: In the beginnings: the apotropaic use of scriptural incipits in late antique Egypt.
Author: Joseph Emanuel Sanzo
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 251
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis dissertation examines the ritual use of scriptural incipits (i.e., opening lines of biblical books and texts) on apotropaic devices (e.g., amulets) from late antique Egypt. There are three primary objectives of this study. First, I develop a typology of the scriptural incipits. Through analyses of metonymy, scriptural usage in apotropaic contexts more generally, and ancient historiolae (i.e., narratives used for ritual power), I demonstrate that the scriptures were invoked in ritual practice as individual thematic units. Accordingly, I divide the scriptural incipits into two types: incipits of multiunit corpora (e.g., the Gospel incipits) and incipits of single-unit texts (e.g., LXX Ps 90:1). This two-fold distinction not only challenges the dominant assumption in scholarship that scriptural incipits should be treated as a uniform phenomenon, but it also orients the remaining two objectives. Second, I provide the first extensive survey of potential incipits from late antique Egypt. I divide this survey into two major parts, corresponding to the two types of incipits: incipits of multiunit corpora and incipits of single-unit texts. In addition to providing a preliminary corpus of scriptural incipits to assist with future work, this survey also highlights the diverse forms of scriptural incipits, exposes the difficulty in identifying an incipit, and offers a unique challenge to the assumed relationship between faithfulness to established protocols and ritual efficacy. Third, I propose the first sustained theory of scriptural incipits. I challenge the assumption that incipits operated uniformly according to the metonymic transfer pars pro toto ("part for whole"). Rather, incipits of multiunit corpora operated solely according to the metonymic transfer pars pro parte/partibus ("part for part/parts"), attaining the power associated with select narratives and sayings from their respective corpora (and possibly beyond). By contrast, incipits of single-unit texts invoked material either pars pro parte/partibus, focusing attention on particular words, phrases, or lines of the unit, or pars pro toto, attaining the power of the whole unit. A concluding analysis highlights the possible implications of the apotropaic use of scriptural incipits for two other areas of study: incipits as classificatory rubrics in late antique book culture and late antique relics.
Author: Brice C. Jones
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-03-24
Total Pages: 240
ISBN-13: 056766628X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKBrice C. Jones presents a comprehensive analysis of Greek amulets from late antique Egypt which contain New Testament citations. He evaluates the words they contain in terms of their text-critical value. The use of New Testament texts on amulets was common in late antiquity. These citations were extracted from their larger Biblical contexts and used for ritual purposes that have traditionally been understood in terms of the ambiguous category of 'magic'. Often, these citations were used to invoke the divine for some favour, healing or protection. For various reasons, however, these citations have not played a significant role in the study of the text of the Greek New Testament. As such, this is the first systematic treatment of Greek New Testament citations on amulets from late antique Egypt. Jones' work has real implications for how amulets and other such witnesses from this era should be treated in the future of the discipline of New Testament textual criticism.
Author: Mattias Brand
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2022-10-17
Total Pages: 327
ISBN-13: 1000735761
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume provides novel social-scientific and historical approaches to religious identifications in late antique (3rd–12th century) Egyptian papyri, bridging the gap between two academic fields that have been infrequently in full conversation: papyrology and the study of religion. Through eleven in-depth case studies of Christian, Islamic, “pagan,” Jewish, Manichaean, and Hermetic texts and objects, this book offers new interpretations on markers of religious identity in papyrus documents written in Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. Using papyri as a window into the lives of ordinary believers, it explores their religious behavior and choices in everyday life. Three valuable perspectives are outlined and explored in these documents: a critical reflection on the concept of identity and the role of religious groups, a situational reading of religious repertoire and symbols, and a focus on speech acts as performative and efficacious utterances. Religious Identifications in Late Antique Papyri offers a wide scope and comparative approach to this topic, suitable for students and scholars of late antiquity and Egypt, as well as those interested in late antique religion. A PDF version of this book is available for free in Open Access at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Author: David Frankfurter
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2019-03-19
Total Pages: 817
ISBN-13: 9004390758
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume seeks to advance the study of ancient magic through separate discussions of ancient terms for ambiguous or illicit ritual, the ancient texts commonly designated magical, and contexts in which the term magic may be used descriptively.
Author: Monika Amsler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2023-04-30
Total Pages: 295
ISBN-13: 1009297333
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA new theory of the Talmud's formation based on comparison with late antique intellectual and material standards of book production.
Author: Philip Jenkins
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2022
Total Pages: 257
ISBN-13: 0197605648
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Jews and Christians alike have made Psalm 91 one of the most commonly used and cited parts of the Bible. The psalm has shaped theories of politics and government, not to mention influencing medicine and mysticism. In different ages, the psalm has borne many different names: the Song of Evil Spirits, the Soldier's Psalm, and most concisely, the Protection Psalm. As the Song of Plagues, it has gained a whole new relevance in an age of global pandemic. In the New Testament, Satan himself quotes the psalm, and ever since, that text has both reflected and shaped changing concepts of evil and the demonic. It was and still is used for magical and superstitious purposes, including for exorcism and demon-fighting. As perils and threats have changed and evolved in various societies, so interpretations of Psalm 91 have developed to accommodate each new reality. A biography of Psalm 91 is also a history of critical themes in Western religion"--
Author: Theodore de Bruyn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-01-26
Total Pages: 294
ISBN-13: 0191075906
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMaking Amulets Christian: Artefacts, Scribes, and Contexts examines Greek amulets with Christian elements from late antique Egypt in order to discern the processes whereby a customary practice--the writing of incantations on amulets--changed in an increasingly Christian context. It considers how the formulation of incantations and amulets changed as the Christian church became the prevailing religious institution in Egypt in the last centuries of the Roman empire. Theodore de Bruyn investigates what we can learn from incantations and amulets containing Christian elements about the cultural and social location of the people who wrote them. He shows how incantations and amulets were indebted to rituals or ritualizing behaviour of Christians. This study analyzes different types of amulets and the ways in which they incorporate Christian elements. By comparing the formulation and writing of individual amulets that are similar to one another, one can observe differences in the culture of the scribes of these materials. It argues for 'conditioned individuality' in the production of amulets. On the one hand, amulets manifest qualities that reflect the training and culture of the individual writer. On the other hand, amulets reveal that individual writers were shaped, whether consciously or inadvertently, by the resources they drew upon-by what is called 'tradition' in the field of religious studies.
Author: Fabrizio Conti
Publisher: Trivent Publishing
Published: 2020-12-31
Total Pages: 385
ISBN-13: 615816898X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCivilizations of the Supernatural: Witchcraft, Ritual, and Religious Experience in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Traditions brings together thirteen scholars of late-antique, medieval, and renaissance traditions who discuss magic, religious experience, ritual, and witch-beliefs with the aim of reflecting on the relationship between man and the supernatural. The content of the volume is intriguingly diverse and includes late antique traditions covering erotic love magic, Hellenistic-Egyptian astrology, apotropaic rituals, early Christian amulets, and astrological amulets; medieval traditions focusing on the relationships between magic and disbelief, pagan magic and Christian culture, as well as witchcraft and magic in Britain, Scandinavian sympathetic graphophagy, superstition in sermon literature; and finally Renaissance traditions revolving around Agrippan magic, witchcraft in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and a Biblical toponym related to the Friulan Benandanti's visionary experiences. These varied topics reflect the multifaceted ways through which men aimed to establish relationships with the supernatural in diverse cultural traditions, and for different purposes, between Late Antiquity and the Renaissance. These ways eventually contributed to shaping the civilizations of the supernatural or those peculiar patterns which helped men look at themselves through the mirror of their own amazement of being in this world.
Author: Robert J. V. Hiebert
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2024-01-25
Total Pages: 464
ISBN-13: 056770551X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume of essays is focused on the significance of the book of Exodus for studies in the Septuagint, Second Temple Jewish literature, the New Testament, and Christian theology. A diverse group of scholars from various parts of the world, many of whom are well-known in their fields, employs a range of methodologies in the treatment of text-critical, linguistic, literary, historical, cultural, exegetical, intertextual, and theological topics. Parts of the relevant literary corpus that are dealt with in relation to the book of Exodus include Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Zechariah, 3 Maccabees, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Epistles of 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews, and 1 Peter, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. This book will be a valuable resource for scholars and students in the areas of biblical and theological studies, as well as clergy. The distinguished contributors include Emanuel Tov, Albert Pietersma, Daniela Scialabba, Craig A. Evans, James M. Scott, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Wolfgang Kraus.
