Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:42:19.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On some readings and interpretations in the Aramaic incantation bowls and related texts*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2017

Matthew Morgenstern  and
James Nathan Ford
Matthew Morgenstern*
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
James Nathan Ford*
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study takes a new look at a number of obscure passages in the Aramaic incantation bowls and related texts discussed in Christa Müller-Kessler's article “More on puzzling words and spellings in Aramaic incantation bowls and related texts”, published in BSOAS 75/1, 2012, 1–31. Among the words discussed are ברזא ‘wild boar’, מנוביא ‘wailing’, מסחיפתא ‘overthrower (type of demon)’, ספסיפא ‘burning’ and פרהזני ‘protectors’, all new to the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic lexicon, ככא ‘tusk’ and תברי “‘broken’ sounds of the shofar (as a maleficent force)”, which show new meanings for previously attested lexemes, and the new plural form שולניתא ‘maidservants’. Additional evidence for the words or expressions פגיתא ‘attack (a type of demon)’, אידיורא ‘helper’ / אידיורותא ‘help’, חי חי מץ (a divine epithet), מרוביא (a type of demon), נירבא (a hard metal) and שיפורי ‘shofars (a type of demon)’ is also adduced and a preliminary edition of the magic bowl Nippur 12 N 387 is presented.

Keywords

Aramaic magic bowlsIncantation bowlsJewish Babylonian AramaicMandaicSyriac
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 80 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 191 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Bowls labelled JNF, Wolfe, Davidovitz, DS, DCG and PC are in various private collections and are being prepared for publication by J.N. Ford. All are presently unpublished unless otherwise noted. We would like to thank the present or former owners for access to the texts and, in particular, Ms Lisa Marie Knothe, Mr L. Alexander Wolfe, Mr Gil Davidovitz and Ms Ester Davidovitz and Mr David Sofer. We would also like to thank Prof. Shaul Shaked for permission to quote from unpublished bowls in the Martin Schøyen collection (labelled MS) and the late Dr Shlomo Moussaieff for access to the bowls in his collection (labelled Moussaieff). The photographs of the unpublished bowls in the aforementioned collections were taken by M. Morgenstern with the exception of Figs 2 and 11 (L.M. Knothe) and 12 and 54 (J.N. Ford), as were the photographs of the bowls in the British Museum (published with the permission of the trustees) and the Frau Hilprecht Collection, Jena (published with the permission of Prof. Manfred Krebernik), and the photographs reproduced here from the Moussaieff Collection. We wish to thank Dr Dan Levene for providing us with the photographs of bowls in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (published with the permission of Prof. Joachim Marzahn), the family of the late Professor Joseph Naveh for the original photographs of the bowls published in Naveh and Shaked 1985, and Prof. Tapani Harviainen for original photographs of the Borsippa bowl. Prof. Shaked also provided us with several additional photographs of bowls in the Moussaieff Collection. CAD = Ignace J. Gelb et al. (eds), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Chicago, 1956–2010). The research of Matthew Morgenstern for this article was supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant No. 38/10, while that of James Nathan Ford was supported by the Israel Science Foundation grant No. 1306/12.

References

Abousamra, G. 2010. “A Syriac magic bowl”, The Harp 25, 1–16.Google Scholar
Audo, T. 1897. Sīmṯā d-Leššānā Suryāyā. Mosul [in Syriac].Google Scholar
Bohak, G. 2012. “From Qumran to Cairo: the lives and times of a Jewish exorcistic formula (with an appendix by Shaul Shaked)”, in Csepregi, Ildikó and Burnett, Charles (eds), Ritual Healing: Magic, Ritual and Medical Therapy from Antiquity until the Early Modern Period. (Micrologus’ Library 48.) Florence, 31–52.Google Scholar
Bohak, G. and Morgenstern, M.. 2014. “A Babylonian Jewish Aramaic magical booklet from the Damascus Genizah”, Ginzei Qedem 10, 9*–44*.Google Scholar
Ciancaglini, C.A. 2008. Iranian Loanwords in Syriac. (Beiträge zur Iranistik 28.) Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
de la Fuÿe, F.-M. A. 1924. “Une coupe magique en écriture manichéenne”, Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres 68/5, 388–99.Google Scholar
Drower, E.S. 1937. “S̱h̲afta ḏ Pis̲h̲ra ḏ Ainia”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 589–611.Google Scholar
Drower, E.S. 1938. “A Mandaean phylactery”, Iraq 5, 31–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drower, E.S. 1946. “A phylactery for rue (an invocation of the personified herb)”, Orientalia n.s. 15, 324–46.Google Scholar
Drower, E.S. and Macuch, R.. 1963. A Mandaic Dictionary. Oxford.Google Scholar
Duval, R. (ed.). 1901. Lexicon Syriacum auctore Hassano bar Bahlule, 2 vols. Paris.Google Scholar
Faraj, A.H. and Moriggi, M.. 2005. “Two incantation bowls from the Iraq Museum (Baghdad)”, Orientalia n.s. 74, 71–82, Tab. I–II.Google Scholar
Fassberg, S. 2002. “Why doesn't melex appear as ma:lex in pause in Tiberian Hebrew?”, Leshonénu 64, 207–19 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. 2002. “Another look at the Mandaic incantation bowl BM 91715”, Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society 29, 31–47.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. 2006. “Review of D. Levene, A Corpus of Magic Bowls ”, Journal of Semitic Studies 51, 207–14.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. 2014a. “Notes on some recently published magic bowls in the Schøyen Collection and two new parallels”, Aula Orientalis 32, 235–64.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. 2014b. “The Ancient Mesopotamian motif of kidinnu ‘divine protection (of temple cities and their citizens)’ in Akkadian and Aramaic magic”, in Gabbay, U. and Secunda, S. (eds), Encounters by the Rivers of Babylon: Scholarly Conversations Between Jews, Iranians and Babylonians in Antiquity. (Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 160.) Tübingen, 271–83.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. Forthcoming. “Aramaic anti-witchcraft literature I: a new parallel to the Talmudic Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl BM 135563”.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. In press. “Three hapax legomena in the Babylonian Talmud”, Le Muséon 130.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. and Abudraham, O., in press. “Syriac and Mandaic incantation bowls”, in Regev, Dalit (ed.), Finds Gone Astray: ADCA Confiscated Items. Jerusalem: Keter.Google Scholar
Ford, J.N. and Ten-Ami, A.. 2012. “An incantation bowl for Rav Mešaršia son of Qaqay”, Tarbiẓ 80, 213–30.Google Scholar
Geller, M.J. 1980. “Four Aramaic incantation bowls”, in Rendsburg, G. et al. (eds), The Bible World. Essays in Honor of Cyrus H. Gordon. New York, 47–60.Google Scholar
Geller, M.J. 1997. “The last wedge”, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 87, 43–95.Google Scholar
Gibson, M. 1978. Excavations at Nippur. Twelfth Season (OIC 23). Chicago.Google Scholar
Gignoux, P. 1986. Noms propres sassanides en moyen-perse épigraphique. (Iranisches Personennamenbuch.) Vienna.Google Scholar
Goldenberg, G. 2000. “Early Neo-Aramaic and present-day dialectal diversity”, Journal of Semitic Studies 45, 69–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, C.H. 1934. “Aramaic magical bowls in the Istanbul and Baghdad museums”, Archiv Orientální 6, 319–34, pls X–XV.Google Scholar
Gordon, C.H. 1937. “Aramaic and Mandaic magical bowls”, Archiv Orientální 9, 84–106.Google Scholar
Gordon, C.H. 1941. “Aramaic incantation bowls (continued)”, Orientalia n.s. 10, 272–84.Google Scholar
Gordon, C.H. 1984. “Magic bowls in the Moriah Collection”, Orientalia n.s. 53, 220–41.Google Scholar
Greenfield, J.C. 1994. “The Babylonian forerunner of a Mandaic formula”, in Rainey, A. (ed.), kinattūtu ša dārâti. Raphael Kutscher Memorial Volume. Tel Aviv, 11–14.Google Scholar
Greenfield, J.C. and Naveh, J.. 1985. “A Mandaic lead amulet with four incantations”, Eretz Israel 18, 97–107, pls 21–2 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Harari, Y. 1997. The Sword of Moses — A New Edition and Study. Jerusalem [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Harari, Y. 2012. “The sword of Moses (Ḥarba de-Moshe): a new translation and introduction”, Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 7, 58–98.Google Scholar
Harviainen, T. 1981. “An Aramaic incantation bowl from Borsippa: another specimen of Eastern Aramaic ‘Koiné’”, Studia Orientalia 51/14, 3–28.Google Scholar
Herrmann, K. 1988. “Die Gottesnamen כוזו und מצפץ in der Hekhalot-Literatur”, Frankfurter Judaistische Beiträge 16, 75–87.Google Scholar
Horn, P. 1895–1901. “Neupersische Schriftsprache”, in Geiger, W. and Kuhn, E. (eds), Grundriss der iranischen Philologie I/2. Strasbourg (repr. Berlin 1974), 1–200.Google Scholar
Isbell, C.D. 1975. Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls. Missoula, Montana.Google Scholar
Jeruzalmi, I. 1963. “Les coupes magiques araméennes de Mésopotamie”, PhD thesis, Université de Paris.Google Scholar
Justi, F. 1895. Iranisches Namenbuch. Marburg.Google Scholar
Kaufman, S.A. 1974. The Akkadian Influences on Aramaic (AS 19) . Chicago.Google Scholar
Kwasman, Th. 2007. “The demon of the roof”, in Finkel, I.L. and Geller, M.J. (eds), Disease in Babylonia. (Cuneiform Monographs 36.) Leiden, 160–86.Google Scholar
Levene, D. 2003a. A Corpus of Magic Bowls: Incantation Texts in Jewish Aramaic from Late Antiquity. London.Google Scholar
Levene, D. 2003b. “ Heal O’ Israel: a pair of duplicate magic bowls from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin”, Journal of Jewish Studies 54, 104–21.Google Scholar
Levene, D. 2007. “‘If you appear as a pig’: Another incantation bowl (Moussaieff 164)”, Journal of Semitic Studies 52, 59–70, pls 1–3.Google Scholar
Levene, D. and Bohak, G.. 2012. “A Babylonian Jewish Aramaic incantation bowl with a list of deities and toponyms”, Jewish Studies Quarterly 18, 1–17.Google Scholar
Levene, D. 2013. Jewish Aramaic Curse Texts from Mesopotamia in Late Antiquity. (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 2.) Leiden.Google Scholar
Levene, D. and Bohak, G.. 2012. “Divorcing Lilith: from the Babylonian incantation bowls to the Cairo Genizah”, Journal of Jewish Studies 63, 197–217.Google Scholar
Lidzbarski, M. 1915. Das Johannesbuch der Mandäer. Einleitung, Übersetzung, Kommentar. Gießen.Google Scholar
MacKenzie, D.N. 1986. A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary. London.Google Scholar
Macuch, R. 1965. Handbook of Classical and Modern Mandaic. Berlin.Google Scholar
Margoliouth, J.P. 1927. Supplement to the Thesaurus Syriacus of R. Payne Smith, S.T.P. Oxford.Google Scholar
Montgomery, J.A. 1913. Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur. (Publications of the Babylonian Section 3.) Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Morag, S. 1972–73. “Some notes on the grammar of Babylonian Aramaic as reflected in the Geniza manuscripts”, Tarbiẓ 42, 60–78 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Moreshet, M. 1980. A Lexicon of the New Verbs in Tannaitic Hebrew [in Hebrew]. Ramat Gan.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, M. 2004. “Notes on a recently published magic bowl”, Aramaic Studies 2, 207–22.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, M. 2005. “Linguistic notes on magic bowls in the Moussaieff Collection”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 68, 349–67.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, M. 2007a. “The Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl BM 91767 reconsidered”, Le Muséon 120, 5–27.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, M. 2007b. “On some non-standard spellings in the Aramaic magic bowls and their linguistic significance”, Journal of Semitic Studies 52, 245–77.Google Scholar
Morgenstern, M. 2010a. “Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Classical Mandaic – some points of contact”, Leshonénu 72, 451–73 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Morgenstern, M. 2010b. “Review of C. Müller-Kessler, Die Zauberschalentexte in der Hilprecht-Sammlung, Jena und weitere Nippur-Texte anderer Sammlungen ”, Journal of Semitic Studies 55, 282–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moriggi, M. 2004. La lingua delle coppe magiche siriache. Florence.Google Scholar
Moriggi, M. 2014. A Corpus of Syriac Incantation Bowls: Syriac Magical Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia. (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 3.) Leiden.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 1996. “The story of Bguzan-Lilit, daughter of Zanay-Lilit”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 116, 185–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 1998. “Aramäische Koine – Ein Beschwörungsformular aus Mesopotamien”, Baghdader Mitteilungen 29, 331–48.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 1999. “Puzzling words and spellings in Babylonian Aramaic magic bowls”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 62, 111–14.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 1999–2000. “Phraseology in Mandaic incantations and its rendering in various Eastern Aramaic dialects: a collection of magic terminology”, Aram 11/12, 293–310.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2001–02. “Die Zauberschalensammlung des British Museum”, Archiv für Orientforschung 48/49, 115–45.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2003. “Aramaic ʾkʾ, lykʾ and Iraqi Arabic ʾaku, māku: The Mesopotamian particles of existence”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 123, 641–6.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2005a. Die Zauberschalentexte in der Hilprecht-Sammlung, Jena und weitere Nippur-Texte anderer Sammlungen. (Texte und Materialien der Hilprecht Collection 7.) Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2005b. “Of Jesus, Darius, Marduk … Aramaic magic bowls in the Moussaieff Collection”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 125, 219–40.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2006. “Review of M. Moriggi, La lingua delle coppe magiche siriache (Firenze 2004)”, Welt des Orients 36, 265–72.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2010. “A Mandaic incantation against an anonymous dew causing fright (Drower Collection 20 and its variant 43 E)”, Aram 22, 453–76.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2011. “Beiträge zum Babylonisch-Talmudisch-Aramäischen Wörterbuch”, Orientalia n.s. 80, 214–51.Google Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. 2012. “More on puzzling words and spellings in Aramaic incantation bowls and related texts”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 75, 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller-Kessler, C. and Kwasman, Th. 2000. “A unique talmudic Aramaic incantation bowl”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 120, 159–65.Google Scholar
Muraoka, T. 2011. A Grammar of Qumran Aramaic. Leuven.Google Scholar
Naveh, J. and Shaked, S.. 1985. Amulets and Magic Bowls. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Naveh, J. and Shaked, S.. 1993. Magic Spells and Formulae. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Naveh, J. 1997. “A Syriac amulet on leather”, Journal of Semitic Studies 42, 33–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nitzan, B. 1986. “Hymns from Qumran לפחד ולבהל Evil Ghosts (4Q, 510; 4Q, 511)”, Tarbiẓ 55, 19–46 [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Nöldeke, Th. 1875. Mandäische Grammatik. Halle.Google Scholar
Nöldeke, Th. 1898. Kurzgefasste Syrische Grammatik. Leipzig.Google Scholar
Payne Smith, R. 1879–1901. Thesaurus Syriacus. Oxford (repr. Hildesheim 1981).Google Scholar
Sabar, Y. 2002. A Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dictionary: Dialects of Amidya, Dihok, Nerwa and Zakho, Northwestern Iraq. Wiesbaden.Google Scholar
Schäfer, P. 1984. Geniza-Fragmente zur Hekhalot-Literatur. Tübingen.Google Scholar
Schäfer, P. 1986. Konkordanz zur Hekhalot-Literatur, 2 vols. Tübingen.Google Scholar
Schäfer, P. and Shaked, S.. 1999. Magische Texte aus der Kairoer Geniza III . Tübingen.Google Scholar
Scholem, G. 2004. “ Havdalah de-Rabbi Aqiva: a source for the tradition of Jewish magic during the Geonic Period”, in Liebes, E. (ed.), Devils, Demons and Souls: Essays on Demonology by Gershom Scholem. Jerusalem, 145–82 (repr. of Tarbiẓ 50 [1980–81], 243–81, with editorial notes) [in Hebrew].Google Scholar
Segal, J.B. 2000. Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum. London.Google Scholar
Shaked, S. 1995. “‘Peace be upon you, exalted angels’: on Hekhalot, liturgy and incantation bowls”, Jewish Studies Quarterly 2/3, 197–219.Google Scholar
Shaked, S. 2006. “ Dramatis Personae in the Jewish magic texts: some differences between incantation bowls and Geniza magic”, Jewish Studies Quarterly 13, 363–87.Google Scholar
Shaked, S. 2010. “Time designations and other recurrent themes in Aramaic incantation bowls”, in Stackert, J. et al. (eds), Gazing on the Deep: Ancient Near Eastern and other Studies in Honor of Tzvi Abusch. Bethesda, 221–34.Google Scholar
Shaked, S., Ford, J.N. and Bhayro, S.. 2013. Aramaic Bowl Spells: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Bowls. Volume 1. (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity 1.) Leiden.Google Scholar
Shaked, S., Ford, J.N. and Bhayro, S.. Forthcoming. Aramaic Bowl Spells: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Bowls, Volume 2. (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity.) Leiden.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, M. 1971. “Notes on some Mandaic magical texts”, Orientalia n.s. 40, 448–58.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, M. 2002. A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. Ramat-Gan.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, M. 2009. A Syriac Lexicon. Winona Lake/Piscataway.Google Scholar
Wohlstein, J. 1894. “Ueber einige aramäische Inschriften auf Thongefässen des Königlichen Museums zu Berlin”, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 9, 11–41.Google Scholar