Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EJCM (Early Jewish and Christian Magical Traditions in Comparison and Contact)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-02-01 bis 2024-07-31
Two aspects of Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures during late antiquity (ca. III–VIII C.E) have received considerable scholarly attention over the past several decades: magic and early Jewish–Christian relations. Yet, despite this growing interest in late antique magical traditions (including those of early Jews and Christians), on the one hand, and early Jewish–Christian relations, on the other hand, there has been no focused and sustained study of the social and religious dynamics that unfolded at the crossroads of late antique magic, early Judaism, and early Christianity. This scholarly gap is unfortunate since the objects typically deemed “magical” (e.g. inscribed amulets, which were worn on the body, and inscribed incantation bowls, which were buried under houses) from late antiquity relate to issues of everyday concern (e.g. sickness, love, and protection from demons) and conflict with our inherited ideas about the boundaries between early Judaism and Christianity. Several late antique amulets, for instance, include both traditional Christian language (e.g. the Trinity) and traditional Jewish language (e.g. Iâo Sabaôth). These objects raise various, complex questions about their social contexts: do they reflect cooperation between Jewish and Christian ritual experts? Do they reflect the assimilation of originally Jewish terminology into the Christian tradition? How do these local ritual objects fit into the global world of late antiquity, in which Christians and Jews differentiated themselves from one another and even had violent exchanges? To state the problem in more technical terms: how did the dynamics of religious assimilation, cooperation, and differentiation play out in such magical contexts?
EJCM addresses these questions and, therefore, contributes to the study of both Mediterranean magic and Jewish-Christian relations during late antiquity by providing the first sustained, comparative analysis of early Jewish and Christian magical texts and objects (e.g. amulets and incantation bowls). This project will focus on the similarities, differences, and contacts between these traditions in five central aspects of their magical practices:
1. biblical texts and traditions
2. sacred names and titles
3. healing and demonic protection at the interface of literary and material sources
4. the word-image-material relation
5. references to illicit rituals
By detailing the early interactions between Jews and Christians in their everyday concerns about health, love, business, and menacing spirits, this project will help rewrite the history of Judaism and Christianity, two of the world’s most prolific religions.
EJCM addresses these questions and, therefore, contributes to the study of both Mediterranean magic and Jewish-Christian relations during late antiquity by providing the first sustained, comparative analysis of early Jewish and Christian magical texts and objects (e.g. amulets and incantation bowls). This project will focus on the similarities, differences, and contacts between these traditions in five central aspects of their magical practices:
1. biblical texts and traditions
2. sacred names and titles
3. healing and demonic protection at the interface of literary and material sources
4. the word-image-material relation
5. references to illicit rituals
By detailing the early interactions between Jews and Christians in their everyday concerns about health, love, business, and menacing spirits, this project will help rewrite the history of Judaism and Christianity, two of the world’s most prolific religions.
The EJCM team thus far began its work on the comparative relationships and interactions between early Jewish and Christian magical traditions. Until June 2021, the PI (Joseph Sanzo) was the only member of the team. The other current team members began their positions in June 2021 (Paolo Lucca [postdoctoral fellow]), September 2021 (Alessia Bellusci [postdoctoral fellow] and Sandrine Welte [doctoral fellow]), December 2022 (Miruna Belea [researcher]) and February 2024 (Krisztina Hevesi [researcher]).
During this period, the team has made significant progress in analyzing the interface of ancient magic and early Jewish-Christian relations. The PI has completed one of the project’s two monographs, which investigates the diverse ways early Christians constructed their ritual, religious, and textual boundaries as they made and used magical objects. This book was published with the University of California Press in April 2024. In addition, the PI has completed an essay, which examines the relationships between words and images in early Christian prayers and incantations, and another peer-reviewed article that examines the use of the 24 presbyters from Revelation in a late antique magical handbook. Both publications are fully open access. The other team members have likewise made considerable progress on their research for the project. Dr. Alessia Bellusci’s work has focused on the theme of religious interaction in Mesopotamian incantation bowls, with an essay published in 2023 (Open Access). Dr. Paolo Lucca has been working on the relationship between literary and material evidence as it relates to healing and protective rituals. He has placed into dialogue the Greek and Syriac literary works and magical objects with the Armenian literary and material traditions, noting how an Armenian magical tradition includes a unique exoticized view of Jewish magic, implementing pseudo-Hebrew invocations. His research will be published in a monograph. Ms. Miruna Belea and Dr. Krisztina Hevesi are co-publishing a monograph on the conceptions of harmful ritual in magical texts, which will be completed in late 2024. Ms. Sandrine Welte’s dissertation (completed in Fall 2024 and scheduled for defense in early 2025) examines ritual efficacy across verbal, visual, material, spatial, and performative domains. Taken together, the research on the project contributes to the study of both late antique magic and early Jewish–Christian relations from a range of perspectives and with the help of an interdisciplinary methodology, which draws on sociological work on intercultural exchange, history-of-religions research on syncretism, and art-historical/history-of-religions work on words, images, and materials in lived religious contexts.
During this period, the team has made significant progress in analyzing the interface of ancient magic and early Jewish-Christian relations. The PI has completed one of the project’s two monographs, which investigates the diverse ways early Christians constructed their ritual, religious, and textual boundaries as they made and used magical objects. This book was published with the University of California Press in April 2024. In addition, the PI has completed an essay, which examines the relationships between words and images in early Christian prayers and incantations, and another peer-reviewed article that examines the use of the 24 presbyters from Revelation in a late antique magical handbook. Both publications are fully open access. The other team members have likewise made considerable progress on their research for the project. Dr. Alessia Bellusci’s work has focused on the theme of religious interaction in Mesopotamian incantation bowls, with an essay published in 2023 (Open Access). Dr. Paolo Lucca has been working on the relationship between literary and material evidence as it relates to healing and protective rituals. He has placed into dialogue the Greek and Syriac literary works and magical objects with the Armenian literary and material traditions, noting how an Armenian magical tradition includes a unique exoticized view of Jewish magic, implementing pseudo-Hebrew invocations. His research will be published in a monograph. Ms. Miruna Belea and Dr. Krisztina Hevesi are co-publishing a monograph on the conceptions of harmful ritual in magical texts, which will be completed in late 2024. Ms. Sandrine Welte’s dissertation (completed in Fall 2024 and scheduled for defense in early 2025) examines ritual efficacy across verbal, visual, material, spatial, and performative domains. Taken together, the research on the project contributes to the study of both late antique magic and early Jewish–Christian relations from a range of perspectives and with the help of an interdisciplinary methodology, which draws on sociological work on intercultural exchange, history-of-religions research on syncretism, and art-historical/history-of-religions work on words, images, and materials in lived religious contexts.
The research so far has illuminated both the study of late antique magic and early Jewish–Christian relations. For example, project research has shown how the dynamics of religious assimilation, cooperation, and differentiation were at work in late antique Jewish and Christian magical texts and objects. The monograph of Joseph Sanzo (PI) highlights the great extent to which Christians across diverse social strata were interested in creating, maintaining, and policing religious and ritual boundaries. In so doing, this book challenges conventional wisdom in late antique studies, whereby there is an assumption that religious differentiation was primarily a concern of religious elites. This view of late antique boundary demarcation finds further support in the publication of Alessia Bellusci, whose article analyzes the sacred names quoted in the incantations, as well as the interplay between image, text, and materiality, reflecting on dynamics of religious-cultural dissemination, differentiation, and appropriation, and on the role of a shared local sensitivity. In one of the project's planned monographs, Miruna Belea and Krisztina Hevesi demonstrate the complex ways that harmful ritual was integrated into the sources we call magical. Similarily, Paolo Lucca examines in another monograph the use of historiolae (short narratives used for magical effect) in the Christian Armenian tradition, a linguistic tradition understudied in the field of pre-modern magic. What emerges from these studies is a complex world of Jewish–Christian relations that complicates the assumption that the sharing of symbols and traditions necessarily involved irenic relations in lived religions. The extant evidence shows that the interaction of Jews and Christians in daily life could range from exoticization to fierce invective.
The results of this project will be communicated to scholars and the public through a series of outputs, including 3 monographs, 9 refereed articles and essays, and 2 conferences (which took place in May 2023 and June 2024).
The results of this project will be communicated to scholars and the public through a series of outputs, including 3 monographs, 9 refereed articles and essays, and 2 conferences (which took place in May 2023 and June 2024).