INTRODUCTION

Historically, the practice, or allegations of the performing of magic

and divination has resulted in torture, trials and corporeal
punishment. Were one to take a social psychological approach to
the study of mantic practicesloosely defined as the invocation of
the supernaturalwe might conclude that the scholars in this
volume are excavating a trauma linked to a form of persecution
stretching back more than 2,000 years. Even today, there many
academic researchers who bristle at what they perceive as troubling
and unscientific content matter being studied seriously. However, a
growing number of scholars are challenging this mind-set (Klutz
2003, 2). The contributors to this volume are very much in this
vein.
It will quickly become apparent to anyone who reads this
collection that the definition of magic and divination by twentyfirst century biblical scholars is variously interpreted. These essays
are mainly based on presentations given to the research group on
Magic and Divination in the Biblical World at the European
Association of Biblical Studies (EABS) in Tartu, 2010, and
Thessaloniki, 2011. The thematic parameters of the papers were
very wide as the editors defined biblical world to apply to any
text or artefact from any historical period that illuminated or
encompassed the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Some
contributors chose to analyse or interpret certain biblical narratives
where it pertained to magic and divination. Others focused entirely,
or partly, on building theoretical models which could be used to
understand the different nuanced categories of biblical tolerance
and intolerance towards the manipulation of reality.
In order to find a method of introduction, a performative
model might offer a means of drawing the parts together, rather
than simply writing a summary of each chapter within their own
parameters, according to their sequence in the Table of Contents.
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STUDIES IN MAGIC AND DIVINATION

As the texts under study themselves often involve rituals of one

kind or another, one may turn to the rules of drama writing offered
by the playwright Bernard Kops whose classes I attended in
London. He advised his students that the basis of literary theatrical
praxis could be summed up by the principles: Conflict is drama,
(thereby inverting the aphorism, All drama is conflict) and
Character is action (inverting the phrase, Action is character).
Furthermore, audiences must understand dramatic actions from the
point of view, that is, the intellectual perspective, of the characters.
From the point of view of this book, the heart of the
conflict is contained within the laws against magic and divination
canonised in Deut 18:922 and elsewhere. In any theatrical drama
the protagonist must transform from the physical or psychological
state in which she, or he, began in the first scene, to another form
of existence or consciousness in the final scene. The conflict, to
make the play dramatic, consists of obstacles which the protagonist
must overcome. The magic ritual is dramatic because magic is
apparently prohibited in biblical law; hence, there is conflict with
the status quo. From another point of view, magic is dramatic
because the ritual is intended to lead to some kind of change in the
person who is the object of the ritual.
Turning to this books authors, our geographical backgrounds,
mainly from different parts of Europe and the Middle East, means
that the combined experiences, family histories, and intellectual
cultures bring to the table a particular kind of diversity, its own
mix, and flavor. The papers are now summarized thematically in
relation to each other and they are occasionally described within
the context of other scholarly research, which is also part of this
theatre. Applying ritual theory and particular anthropological
concepts to Paul, Anders Petersen argues that if the features of a
magic ritual are preserved and are adopted by a dominant religion,
the concept of magicality, that is, the notion of irrationality and
transformation, is accepted and replaced by a belief in a higher,
supernatural (authorised) agency. Correspondingly, the apparent
biblical prohibition is excised or neutralised; the magic ritual
becomes religious rite. Petersen proposes a new definition of magic
in order to understand it contextually and to comprehend the
thinking of Paul in an insightful way.
He contends that in order to change magic ritual into religious
rite, theologians have had to adjust their definition of magic in

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order to see magic as Other and religion as Us. Similarly,

Shawna Dolansky (2008, 86) gives the example of the scapegoat
ritual of Lev 16, arguing that the lack of causal connection between
the confession and the banishment of the scapegoat means there is
a belief in the power of the ritual, thus a belief in magic. The result
is that the sins are banished and moral purity is restored in the
Us universe.
Petersens applied theoretical model echoes the paradigm put
forward by Heiko Wenzel on the internal biblical distinction
between true and false prophets. Wenzel analyses the criteria in
Deut 13:26 and Deut 18:915 to identify legitimate and
illegitimate prophecy. He argues that there is a fine line between
prophecy and divination and that it is unclear from the biblical
texts how one is to distinguish between the two. Wenzels analysis
is in many ways at the theoretical heart of this books collective
argument that magic and divination in the biblical world are
defined politically, and are not defined intrinsically by the actions
themselves.
His discussion recalls that of Thomas C. Rmer (2003, 22)
who examined the paradox of approved and unapproved magic
through the lens of the contest between Moses and Aaron and the
Egyptian magicians before Pharoah (Exod 7:813). Here, Kopss
rule, Character is action comes into play, since the characters
status rather than the role, a magician, is significant in Jewish
literature on magic. Rmer concluded that the difference between
magic and miracles was that the latter, by definition, were related to
a belief in YHWH; not so with magic. He also noted that magical
knowledge was not denigrated in late antique Jewish tradition. One
might add that the object of the ritual was Pharoah whom Moses
and Aaron wished to change, but who the Egyptian magicians did
not.
In his article that won the Graduate Student essay prize from
the European Association of Biblical Studies in 2010, Chaim Natan
Marx explores the use of two biblical verses (Gen 48:16; 49:22)
which appear in different forms in the Babylonian Talmud
(Berakhot 20a, 55b). The verses can used to protect the
descendants of Joseph against the evil eye, thus unquestionably,
an unproblematic acceptance of magic. The essay supports the
statement by Swartz (2003, 161), there is ample evidence that the
rabbis were no strangers to divination practices and their status as

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magical practitioners is well known. What makes Marx s

contribution appealing is its momentum and writing style, the
description of the characters in the stories, and what they do to
make themselves targets of the evil eye. The dramatic conflict is
reversed: the senders of the evil eye are also the receivers of
protection and blessing. The essay reminds us that content, conflict
and character are not the only factors in our exploration of biblical
magic and divination; context in time and space, the setting, is
another kind of character. It is enjoyable if the reader can be taken
into a different, intriguing and unfamiliar place.
Marxs paper is complemented by the selection of a particular
kind of Aramaic apotropaic incantation bowls of the late Sassanidperiod compiled by Christa Mller-Kessler. The Jewish bowls
witness the use of Deut 6:4 and Psalm 91, amongst other texts.
Some verses are written in reverse order, possibly to give them
amuletic power and some bowls carry crude drawings of demons.
This magic bowl catalogue echoes another recurring theme in
this book, that of Jewish and Mesopotamian preventative magic.
Mller-Kesslers contribution is a valuable resource of these
primary sources on Jewish magic and a fascinating introduction to
this specialist field. The artefacts reflect an earlier use of a similar
practice in early Judaism: writing in reverse order can be found in
the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the astrological physiognomic text, 4Q186.
Furthermore, Deut 6:4 and Psalm 91 are known in apotropaic
contexts from Qumran (see Frhlichs discussion this psalm, and
also Goldsteins exploration of it).
The question of drama, conflict and character is explored by
Kaspar Dalgaard in his essay on the portrayal of Simon Magus in
the third century C.E apocryphal book, Acts of Peter. Simon Magus
appears elsewhere in early Christian writings, representing the
magician, the Other (Tuzlak 2002, 425), or to use Wenzelss
terminology, the illegitimate face of the manipulation of the
supernatural. Dalgaard presents probably one of the most detailed
studies of Simon Magus in this complex, early Christian book. Here
is another magic contest: between a character who is represented as
a sorcerer, Simon Magus, and Peter, a true magician or miracle
worker. Simons magic is represented as the work of the devil.
Dalgaard states that the conflict is between God and Satan and
between light and darkness. In a memorable scene Simon

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xiii

endeavors to make a dead man rise, a common biblical theme. He

fails where Peter succeeds.
There is a sense that Deuteronomy 18:922, the underlying
anti-magic and divination rule-book, is consistently being
dramatised using the techniques of theatre writing, and that magic
contests are a recurring biblical motif. According to Erkki
Koskenniemi (2005, 2), a miracle is a fortuitous breaking of what
we (although not the writers) call the laws of nature and which
God or his agent allegedly causes. The miracle here is the
legitimate, divine supernatural power, God, channeled by a
character with official status, Peter.
Of course, biblical legal texts are not necessarily performative,
but they can describe rituals. Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme
handles ritual theory in relation to the ordeal of the Law of Jealousy
in Numbers 5:1130, one of the most challenging ritualistic biblical
laws. This is an example of where the definition of magic as a
biblically prohibited performance is overturned. Gudme supports
the view that the drinking of the bitter waters, the ordeal to which
the accused wife is subjected, was physically harmless to her and
that it functioned as a psychological release valve for the jealous
husband. Gudme suggests that the passage is itself a literary
technique and that the ordeal is a metaphor for the breakdown in
the relationship between YHWH and his people, Israel. Thus, the
text operates on several levels. The legalistic ritual owes much to
the ordeal in the ancient Near East, a kind of magic, as Gudme
explains, and the recurring theme in biblical literature of
faithfulness to one God. Gudme, thus takes an original multifaceted theoretical approach to her subject.
Philippe Guillaume also discusses a drinking ordeal, but
within the context of biblical literary narrative and character,
outside of the legal material. He examines the contradiction
between the stories of the sin of the Golden Calf in Exod 32 and
Deut 9:821, in particular the differing accounts of Aarons role as
an actor in the events and the extent of his culpability. Aaron the
person, character and brother of Moses is separate from his role as
the High Priest. Guillaume concurs with the argument that there is
a relationship between the narratives of the Golden Calf and the
Law of Jealousy; however, Gudme does not share the view that the
trial of the Israelites for making the Golden Calf was an ordeal.
The disagreement illustrates the problem of how exactly magic

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can be defined (Brooke 2003, 66), and indeed, divination.

Guillaume examines the redactive processes in the biblical accounts
and traces the different versions of the Golden Calf narratives in
the work of later commentators. The result is an absorbing textual
paper-trail of tradition and transmission.
A different perspective on the sin of the Golden Calf is taken
by Marion Broida who examines the technical construction of
direct speech in the case of an appeal to God in a form that she
terms apotropaic intercession. She is interested in Mosess
representations to YHWH in the context of ancient Near East
verbal ritual texts, arguing that biblical writers used ordinary speech
for human intercessors, and causative, or magical, speech for
YHWH (with the exception of Josh 10:1213). By taking a
comparative philological approach to theological performative
techniques, Broida casts fresh light on the nuances of biblical ritual
dialogues between God and his human prophets. She shows that
with one exception, mentioned above, the biblical intercessors were
careful not to use miracle-working language in their speech. This is
in contrast to the invocations by priests in a number of oral ancient
Near East intercessionary rites addressed to the gods that Broida
explores in detail. Her linguistic study of these fascinating mantic
texts complements Francesca Rochbergs analysis (Rochberg 2003)
of various procedures used by Mesopotamian diviners to persuade
the deities to prevent the occurrence of predicted evil events that
have been foretold from celestial omens.
Scholarship in magic and divination in the combined areas of
ancient Near East and biblical studies benefits from Ronnie
Goldsteins expertise in identifying Hebrew-Akkadian wordplays
and the use of Akkadian loan-words in poetic biblical texts.
Goldsteins study of Isa 14:29, Isa 2:1821 and Ps 91:7, 8, 11
illuminates multiple layers of meanings, metaphors and imagery,
effecting what he describes as smoother interpretations of these
verses. He references ancient Near Eastern magical ritual texts,
arguing that these would explicate the etymology of unclear,
curious, or ambiguous Hebrew words or phrases. In some cases
Goldstein produces a complete re-reading of the poetry in the light
of Akkadian literature or magical rituals. In terms of progressing
current literary theory, Goldsteins study is a contribution to the
discourse of what the writer writes and how the reader, or
audience, reads or hears poetry over time, geographical space and

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xv

changing linguistic knowledge. While uncovering the bilingual

wordplays and references to ANE literary and ritual texts, he does
not underestimate the ancient-to-contemporary audiences
experience of the literature, which has its own value. However, the
point is made that the philological insights presented here would, in
antiquity, have enhanced the understanding of the verses and the
audiences appreciation of the literary skills and cultural knowledge
of the composer, and that this intellectual depth needs to be
recovered today.
Andrs Bcskays study of demonology in Mesopotamia offers
some background to understanding the way that demons are
reflected in biblical literature. In terms of the conflict paradigm, it
is shown that demons are implicitly associated with disease,
echoing a struggle between heaven and earth, a recurrent topos in
ancient Near Eastern ritual texts and mythology. Bcskay argues
that more attention should be paid to the context of demonology
within the Bible, in particular, to the different demons that were
well-known in Mesopotamia, in order to perceive allusions to them
in biblical texts. He argues that this view should be integrated
within the current scholarly movement to re-evaluate the literary
use of Near Eastern demonology in biblical literature (see also Blair
2009, 216).
Ida Frhlich continues the interest in the theme of
demonology and sickness by offering a new study of four psalms
from Qumran 11QApocryphal Psalms (11Q11), three of which were
not known before the scroll was discovered. They are generally
accepted to be the four songs for the stricken, which are
understood to mean possession by demons that are referred to in
the Qumran hymn known as Davids Compositions, (11Q5 col. 27),
also a previously unknown work. The four songs of 11QApocryphal
Psalms are taken to mean that each may be used specifically at a
different time of the year. However, due to their fragmentary state,
scholars have not been able to assess when these songs may have
been ritually performed by a priest. Using references from
Mesopotamia, Frhlich assigns the four psalms to particular
seasons, suggesting that they may have been recited by a healer,
possibly according to the 364-day calendar known from the book
of Jubilees (Jub. 6:2338) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Talmon et al,
2001).

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Exploring the calendar theme in the Book of Esther, Helen R.

Jacobus claims that the ancient Jewish calendars had significance in
ways other than simply to mark time and the festivals. The essay
argues that apotropaic number manipulation was mediated by an
intercessor (echoing Broidas modelwith modifications, as God
is not mentioned in this Book), that is, by Esther, in order to save
the Jews from destruction. The magic contest between Esther and
Haman takes the form of Esther changing the calendar so that the
number 13 prevailed. This is a lucky number in the hands of a
righteous Jew. The contribution also argues that one of the farce,
or carnivalesque, elements in the book (see Jackson 2012, 198220)
is that the Jews of Sushan were fighting while the Jews in the
provinces were celebrating Passover. The study includes an
examination of the Persian king lists, Babylonian astronomy, and a
new theory about the calendars used in the Book of Esther and the
Jubilees-Qumran 364-day calendar that is described in Frhlichs
essay.
Eleni Soumanis study on biblical dream divination and
interpretation argues that it is unclear whether oneiromancy is
forbidden under the list in Deuteronomy 19 of prohibited mantic
practices. It is scorned in some parts of the Hebrew Bible, which is
not the same thing as being a capital crime, or one deserving of
exile. Elsewhere in the Bible it is part of the narrative if the
dreamer or dream interpreter is divinely authorised. Soumani
explains that ancient audiences may have been familiar with the
practice of sleeping at a sacred site in order to receive a divine
revelation in a dream. Using comparative literary narratives in
ancient Near Eastern texts, the essay distinguishes between
different types of dream messages and oracles in the Bible, and
dream interpreters, including narratives relevant to Abraham,
Jacob, Joseph, Pharoah, Daniel and Ben Sirach.
Hadi Ghantous offers his own theory on the practice of
bibliomancyselecting an oracle from the lists of oracles recorded
in the prophetic bookspostulating that this form of divination
replaced prophecy after Elijah. He argues that the prophetic acts of
Elisha were a diminution of that of his predecessor, Elijah, and
supports his ideas with exegetical accounts of narratives within the
Elijah and Elisha cycles. His essay is imaginative and challenging,
using philology and his own interpretation of the symbolic action
of Elijah in passing his mantle to Elisha. On the way, he discusses

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other less well known divinatory practices, such as the reading of

urine on the wall.
In his second contribution here, Philippe Guillaume puts
forward an intriguing new hypothesis of how the High Priests
ephod and mounted onyx stones and decorations described in
Exod 28 and Exod 39 functioned mantically. He approaches his
subject in meticulous detail using comparative texts to analyse the
vocabulary and to argue for a new interpretation of the artefacts
and the High Priests actions.
Both individually and collectively the essays in this volume
illuminate the ways in which drama theory can be used in biblical
studies to reveal the significance of conflict, character, status and
context connected with magic and divination. These often bold,
original or radical readings of the texts reflect the heterogeneity of
the authors contributing to this volume and our differing
perspectives, departures and convergences. The field is clearly
dynamic and, we hope, will provide a springboard, perhaps even
some inspiration, for further exploration, discussion and
interpretations.
Helen R. Jacobus
London
March 2013