Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EJCM (Early Jewish and Christian Magical Traditions in Comparison and Contact)
Período documentado: 2021-08-01 hasta 2023-01-31
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 team members began their positions in June 2021 (Paolo Lucca [postdoctoral fellow]), September 2021 (Alessia Bellusci [postdoctoral fellow] and Sandrine Welte [doctoral fellow]), and October 2021 (Rivka Elitzur-Leiman). Rivka Elitzur-Leiman left the project in August 2022 to begin a fellowship at Harvard University. The PI decided to hire two new fellows to carry forward Dr. Elitzur-Leiman's activities: Miruna Belea and Nina Speransky, who joined the staff in December 2022 and January 2023 respectively.
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 is now under contract with the University of California Press. In addition, the PI has completed an essay, which examines the relationships between words and images in early Christian prayers and incantations. This publication is 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 Mesopotamia, emphasizing the magical use of names, such as Yehoshua bar Peraḥyia, Jesus, and the Trinity, within the corpus of published Babylonian incantation bowls in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac. 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. Dr. Rivka Elitzur-Leiman is in the process of publishing a previously unpublished Jewish amulet from late antique Palestine, which constructs ritual efficacy in part by “othering” the goyim (non-Jews). Ms. Sandrine Welte’s dissertation 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. Miruna Belea and Nina Speransky will focus on the study of Proper and Improper Ritual, with Miruna Belea focusing on the Jewish Tradition and Nina Speransky engaging with the Christian Tradition.
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 is now under contract with the University of California Press. In addition, the PI has completed an essay, which examines the relationships between words and images in early Christian prayers and incantations. This publication is 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 Mesopotamia, emphasizing the magical use of names, such as Yehoshua bar Peraḥyia, Jesus, and the Trinity, within the corpus of published Babylonian incantation bowls in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac. 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. Dr. Rivka Elitzur-Leiman is in the process of publishing a previously unpublished Jewish amulet from late antique Palestine, which constructs ritual efficacy in part by “othering” the goyim (non-Jews). Ms. Sandrine Welte’s dissertation 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. Miruna Belea and Nina Speransky will focus on the study of Proper and Improper Ritual, with Miruna Belea focusing on the Jewish Tradition and Nina Speransky engaging with the Christian Tradition.
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 another team member, Rivka Elitzur-Leiman, who is editing a previous unpublished Jewish amulet from Palestine that draws particular attention to the “goyim” (non-Jews). An essay that Alessia Bellusci is preparing for publication demonstrates how the Christian appropriation of Jewish magical names in Mesopotamia was likely a reflection of local religious factors and not an exoticized view of Jewish 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 2 monographs, 9 refereed articles and essays, and 2 conferences.
The results of this project will be communicated to scholars and the public through a series of outputs, including 2 monographs, 9 refereed articles and essays, and 2 conferences.