Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EJCM (Early Jewish and Christian Magical Traditions in Comparison and Contact)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-08-01 bis 2025-07-31
The project offered a unique contribution to the study of Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures during late antiquity (ca. III–VIII C.E) by bringing together two fields of study (magic and early Jewish–Christian relations) which have previously been treated independently. Over the five years of the project, EJCM addressed the interface of these respective fields of studies by analyzing early Jewish and Christian magical texts and objects (e.g. amulets and incantation bowls) comparatively through the lens of five shared 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
The analysis of these five aspects worked in dialogue with the project's four primary objectives:
1. To synthesise insights from ancient magical studies, comparative history and religion, art history, and sociology in order to illuminate the local and global features of early Jewish and Christian magical objects and to assess their implications for the study of early Jewish–Christian relations.
2. To offer unique insight into the dynamics of religious assimilation, cooperation, and differentiation in late antique lived religion.
3. To reconfigure the ways historians of antiquity approach key terms in the field, especially Judaism, Christianity, magic, syncretism, and communal boundaries.
4. To provide new readings of patristic, rabbinic, and legal texts, which describe or complain about Christians and Jews participating in illicit rituals.
The analysis of these five aspects worked in dialogue with the project's four primary objectives:
1. To synthesise insights from ancient magical studies, comparative history and religion, art history, and sociology in order to illuminate the local and global features of early Jewish and Christian magical objects and to assess their implications for the study of early Jewish–Christian relations.
2. To offer unique insight into the dynamics of religious assimilation, cooperation, and differentiation in late antique lived religion.
3. To reconfigure the ways historians of antiquity approach key terms in the field, especially Judaism, Christianity, magic, syncretism, and communal boundaries.
4. To provide new readings of patristic, rabbinic, and legal texts, which describe or complain about Christians and Jews participating in illicit rituals.
The engagement with these objectives is perhaps most apparent in the primary publications of the project and in the three project conferences. Most importantly, Joseph Emanuel Sanzo (the PI) published a project monograph, Ritual Boundaries: Magic and Differentiation in Late Antique Christianity (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2024). The book challenges the idea that religious differentiation was primarily an “elite” concern by demonstrating that the Christian magical objects were in fact concerned with religious identification and, more importantly, with religious differentiation from Jews (Objectives 1 and 2). This latter insight has much broader implications for the study of pre-modern history since the magical objects are typically understood as one of the main sets of evidence supporting the idea that religious differentiation was primarily a concern of religious elites. The book reorients longstanding categories in the study of religion, such as syncretism, magic, and Christianity (Objective 3), and provides a new hermeneutical lens through which scholars might reread late antique patristic and monastic sources (Objective 4). This book has already been recognized as one of the pioneering studies of a new approach to early Jewish-Christian relations (see Simcha Gross, "Beyond Coexistence: Social Boundaries and Violence Between Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity," Studies in Late Antiquity 9 [2025]: 379–400, especially 390–96). In addition, the dissertation of Sandrine Welte and an article by Alessia Bellusci' have detailed how the textual, visual, and material features of early Jewish and Christian magical objects participated in the construction of religious identity in lived religion (see Objectives 1 and 2).
The EJCM's three international conferences also directly engaged with the four objectives. The papers presented in the first two conferences focused on how ancient magical sources can help us assess inter-religious contact between Jews and Christians (and others) in lived religion, utilising and synthesising methods drawn from a range of disciplines (see Objective 1). Several papers engaged with Objective 2 by examining the relationship between magic and sacred history (Jacques van Der Vliet), by assessing similar practices among Babylonian Jews and Syriac Christians (Simcha Gross and Ra'anan Boustan), by bringing for the first time the Mandaean evidence to bear on discussions of early Jewish-Christian relations (Matthew Morgenstern), and by comparing Jewish and Christian approaches to harmful magical rituals in the material evidence (Miruna Belea). Other papers engaged with Objective 3 by critically engaging with fundamental categories in religious studies such as syncretism (Roxanne Belanger-Sarrazin) and liturgy (Giovanni Bazzana and Michele Scarlassara). Finally, some papers frontally dealt with Objective 4 by assessing how the works of patristic writers and hagiographers might be reread in light of the magical evidence (Julie Van Pelt and Paolo Lucca). The final conference brought together scholars of ancient Mediterranean religion and magic with scholars of Armenian magic to address the use of short stories (historiolae) in magical practice. This conference thus drew from a broad array of researchers, with interests in the visual, textual, and material features of the Armenian magical materials (see Objective 1) as a way of grappling with the relationship between magical texts and intercultural contacts (see Objective 2) as well as assessing the interface of an important ritual practice—the magical historiola (see Objective 3)—and literary genres (see Objective 4).
The EJCM's three international conferences also directly engaged with the four objectives. The papers presented in the first two conferences focused on how ancient magical sources can help us assess inter-religious contact between Jews and Christians (and others) in lived religion, utilising and synthesising methods drawn from a range of disciplines (see Objective 1). Several papers engaged with Objective 2 by examining the relationship between magic and sacred history (Jacques van Der Vliet), by assessing similar practices among Babylonian Jews and Syriac Christians (Simcha Gross and Ra'anan Boustan), by bringing for the first time the Mandaean evidence to bear on discussions of early Jewish-Christian relations (Matthew Morgenstern), and by comparing Jewish and Christian approaches to harmful magical rituals in the material evidence (Miruna Belea). Other papers engaged with Objective 3 by critically engaging with fundamental categories in religious studies such as syncretism (Roxanne Belanger-Sarrazin) and liturgy (Giovanni Bazzana and Michele Scarlassara). Finally, some papers frontally dealt with Objective 4 by assessing how the works of patristic writers and hagiographers might be reread in light of the magical evidence (Julie Van Pelt and Paolo Lucca). The final conference brought together scholars of ancient Mediterranean religion and magic with scholars of Armenian magic to address the use of short stories (historiolae) in magical practice. This conference thus drew from a broad array of researchers, with interests in the visual, textual, and material features of the Armenian magical materials (see Objective 1) as a way of grappling with the relationship between magical texts and intercultural contacts (see Objective 2) as well as assessing the interface of an important ritual practice—the magical historiola (see Objective 3)—and literary genres (see Objective 4).
The research over the past five years has illuminated both the study of late antique magic and early Jewish–Christian relations. Our 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. Furthermore, the research of Miruna Belea and Krisztina Hevesi (in a forthcoming book) demonstrates the complex ways that harmful ritual was integrated into the sources we call magical. Similarily, Paolo Lucca examines in another forthcoming 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 have been/will be communicated to scholars and the public through a series of outputs, including 3 monographs (one of which is already published), a series of refereed articles and essays, and 3 conferences (in May 2023, June 2024 and June 2025).
The results of this project have been/will be communicated to scholars and the public through a series of outputs, including 3 monographs (one of which is already published), a series of refereed articles and essays, and 3 conferences (in May 2023, June 2024 and June 2025).