Gabriel: Tell this Man the Meaning of his Vision (Daniel, 8:16). Studies in Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography and the Biblical World in Honor of Gabriel Barkay On the Occasion of his 80th Birthday (22 June 2024), 2024
In this study we discuss three hapax legomena in the Babylonian Talmud, גמא “period (of time)” (b... more In this study we discuss three hapax legomena in the Babylonian Talmud, גמא “period (of time)” (bMeg. 29b); אפשח/אפשה “cried out” (bQid. 81a) and מנובייתא “(professional) wailing women” (bBB. 91a), based mainly on evidence from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Syriac magic bowls and Classical Mandaic literature. In an appendix the hapax legomenon קנאסא “parapet” in Midrash Haggadol Deuteronomy is discussed in the light of a Syriac magic bowl.
REVIEWS Notes on the Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum J. B. Segal, with a contribu... more REVIEWS Notes on the Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum J. B. Segal, with a contribution by E. C. D. Hunter, Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum (British Museum Press, London 2000). 1 To regard Professor J. B. Segal's Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum as a "catalogue" would be a great injustice, for it is actually a detailed edition of the largest corpus ofincantation bowls published to date. The study comprises a translit-eration (into Roman script) and translation of, and commentary on 75 bowls in Jewish Aramaic, 40 bowls and some fragments in Mandaic and 4 bowls in Syriac, most of which have never been published before. 159 plates containing photographs of all the bowls (including 22 additional bowls in pseudoscripts) are also provided. The photographs are of good quality and allow the reader to check most of Segal's readings. Segal has supplemented his study with concordances of the fixed formulae and standard texts, the latter referred to as 'refrains'. Indices of the various types of proper names and glossaries of the vocabulary of each of the languages represented in the bowls (including Hebrew) also facilitate the use of the book. All occurrences of the various forms of each word are cited, except in the case of the most common forms. An in-depth study of the grammar of the various dialects, however, is naturally beyond the scope of such a work. For the Jewish Aramaic bowls, see now H. Juusola, Linguistic Peculiarities in the Aramaic Magic Bowl Texts (Studia Orientalia, 86: Helsinki 1999). The author enjoyed the collaboration of several other scholars, most notably E. C. D. Hunter, who wrote a chapter on the physical features and decorative aspects of the bowls and prepared a Table of Scripts containing examples of the script of all the legible bowls. Hunter also added introductory comments concerning the physical features of the individual bowls at the beginning of each commentary and provided scaled drawings of the cross-sections of the bowls and hand-copies of 1 It is a great pleasure and priviledge to dedicate this review to the master of incantation bowls, Professor Shaul Shaked. May there be healing and sealing and arming and protection for his body and his spirit and his soul and for his house and his dwelling and his residence and his building and for his spouse and his sons and his daughters and for all his undertakings.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Among the incantation bowls in the British Museum recently pub... more Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Among the incantation bowls in the British Museum recently published by J. B. Segal is an interesting Mandaic specimen from Kutha (BM 91715) which contains two independent incantations separated by a line: a historiola relating the expulsion of a particular lilith and the report of a dream purportedly dreamt by the client, Ba s niray daughter of S ahafrid. 1 The historiola also occurs in another Mandaic bowl from Kutha written in a different hand for the same client (BM 91780:1ff.) 2 and in a Mandaic bowl of unknown provenance in the Martin Schøyen collection soon to be published by S. Shaked (MS 2054/122:14ff.). A late version of the dream report occurs in DC (= MS. Drower) 37(R). The parallel suggests that this was not an actual dream, but a once well-known magical motif. Segal's edition of the two British Museum bowls contains a number of inaccuracies in both the transcriptions and the translations. The present author will thus propose a new transcription and annotated translation of BM 91715 based on the published photographs. A new transcription and translation of BM 91780 based on the published photographs and an edition of the parallel section of DC 37(R) will be presented in appendices. 3 For photographs of the bowls, the reader is requested to refer to Segal's study. 1. J. B. Segal, Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum (Lon-don, 2000), Bowl 084M (pp. 111–13 and plates 88 and 89). Segal, p. 112, claims that the text comprises three incantations, but what he considers to be the second incantation (line 12) is actually the closing statement of the first, as is indicated by the dividing line after line 12. 2. Ibid., Bowl 085M (pp. 113–14 and plates 90 and 91). The final portion of the text is poorly preserved, but it does not appear to parallel BM 91715. 3. The corrections to the readings of both bowls and a translation of BM 91715 may also be found in my review article of Segal (J. N. Ford, " Notes on the Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum, " Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 26 [2002], 246–49). After the present study was submitted for publication , a transcription of BM 91715:14–16 by Ch. Müller-Kessler apud S. Shaked, " 'Peace be Upon You, Exalted Angels': On Hekhalot, Liturgy and Incantation Bowls, " Jewish Studies Quarterly 2 (1995), I would like to thank Professor S. Shaked of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for kindly discussing a number of problems relating to the texts studied below and for permission to cite from unpublished bowls in the Martin Schøyen collection. I would also like to thank Dr. M. Morgenstern of the University of Haifa for several helpful comments. The present author is solely responsible for the views expressed herein. This study was supported by grants from the Department of Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Kreitman Foundation of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The photograph of DC 37(R):399–414 is published with the kind permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. The following museum/collection abbreviations have been used: BM = British Museum; DC (= MS. Drower) = Drower Collection, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; Louvre AO = Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités Orientales; MS = Martin Schøyen collection.
This study comprises a new edition of the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl IM , first pu... more This study comprises a new edition of the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl IM , first published in by S.A. Kaufman (as Nippur N ) and recently re-edited by A.H. Faraj, together with an edition of a new parallel bowl in a private collection. The bowls contain a number of new additions to the JBA lexicon, namely, éâéøåñ (var. é÷øåö) 'hemorrhoids'; àúëåô 'languor'; éàîø 'aches' // éãéø 'afflictions'; the cognate verbs ïîø and ïéãéøéî; and possibly àúåçô 'rot/weakness'. Almost all the new words have cognates in Mandaic and/or Syriac. In addition, IM proves to be the most important source for the phonetic spelling of the subordinating particle (relative pronoun) as ú discovered to date. In an appendix the meanings of ïéðãéò úùéà 'periodic fever' and other terms for types of fever are discussed. *) I would like to thank Dr. Matthew Morgenstern of Haifa University for reading and commenting on a draft of the article and for photographs of JNF and MS /. My appreciation is likewise extended to Prof. Shaul Shaked of the Hebrew University for permission to quote from unpublished bowls in the Martin Schøyen (MS) collection and to Dr. Joachim Marzahn of the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin for permission to publish a photograph of VA (taken by Dr. Dan Levene of the University of Southampton). Bowls labeled JNF or Wolfe are in private collections and are being prepared for publication by the present author. Partially preserved (but in my opinion certain) letters are marked with a ring above the letter. The new book by Ali H. Faraj, Coppe magiche dall'antico Iraq con testi in aramaico giudaico di età ellenistica (Milano: Lampi di Stampa, ) became available to me only after the present article was initially submitted for publication. Faraj's study contains a new edition of IM with a better photograph than that previously published. An unforeseen delay in publication has afforded me the opportunity to examine the new photograph and to incorporate references to Faraj's interpretation into the article, J.N. Ford / Aramaic Studies . () –
Gabriel: Tell this Man the Meaning of his Vision (Daniel, 8:16). Studies in Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography and the Biblical World in Honor of Gabriel Barkay On the Occasion of his 80th Birthday (22 June 2024), 2024
In this study we discuss three hapax legomena in the Babylonian Talmud, גמא “period (of time)” (b... more In this study we discuss three hapax legomena in the Babylonian Talmud, גמא “period (of time)” (bMeg. 29b); אפשח/אפשה “cried out” (bQid. 81a) and מנובייתא “(professional) wailing women” (bBB. 91a), based mainly on evidence from Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Syriac magic bowls and Classical Mandaic literature. In an appendix the hapax legomenon קנאסא “parapet” in Midrash Haggadol Deuteronomy is discussed in the light of a Syriac magic bowl.
REVIEWS Notes on the Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum J. B. Segal, with a contribu... more REVIEWS Notes on the Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum J. B. Segal, with a contribution by E. C. D. Hunter, Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum (British Museum Press, London 2000). 1 To regard Professor J. B. Segal's Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum as a "catalogue" would be a great injustice, for it is actually a detailed edition of the largest corpus ofincantation bowls published to date. The study comprises a translit-eration (into Roman script) and translation of, and commentary on 75 bowls in Jewish Aramaic, 40 bowls and some fragments in Mandaic and 4 bowls in Syriac, most of which have never been published before. 159 plates containing photographs of all the bowls (including 22 additional bowls in pseudoscripts) are also provided. The photographs are of good quality and allow the reader to check most of Segal's readings. Segal has supplemented his study with concordances of the fixed formulae and standard texts, the latter referred to as 'refrains'. Indices of the various types of proper names and glossaries of the vocabulary of each of the languages represented in the bowls (including Hebrew) also facilitate the use of the book. All occurrences of the various forms of each word are cited, except in the case of the most common forms. An in-depth study of the grammar of the various dialects, however, is naturally beyond the scope of such a work. For the Jewish Aramaic bowls, see now H. Juusola, Linguistic Peculiarities in the Aramaic Magic Bowl Texts (Studia Orientalia, 86: Helsinki 1999). The author enjoyed the collaboration of several other scholars, most notably E. C. D. Hunter, who wrote a chapter on the physical features and decorative aspects of the bowls and prepared a Table of Scripts containing examples of the script of all the legible bowls. Hunter also added introductory comments concerning the physical features of the individual bowls at the beginning of each commentary and provided scaled drawings of the cross-sections of the bowls and hand-copies of 1 It is a great pleasure and priviledge to dedicate this review to the master of incantation bowls, Professor Shaul Shaked. May there be healing and sealing and arming and protection for his body and his spirit and his soul and for his house and his dwelling and his residence and his building and for his spouse and his sons and his daughters and for all his undertakings.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Among the incantation bowls in the British Museum recently pub... more Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Among the incantation bowls in the British Museum recently published by J. B. Segal is an interesting Mandaic specimen from Kutha (BM 91715) which contains two independent incantations separated by a line: a historiola relating the expulsion of a particular lilith and the report of a dream purportedly dreamt by the client, Ba s niray daughter of S ahafrid. 1 The historiola also occurs in another Mandaic bowl from Kutha written in a different hand for the same client (BM 91780:1ff.) 2 and in a Mandaic bowl of unknown provenance in the Martin Schøyen collection soon to be published by S. Shaked (MS 2054/122:14ff.). A late version of the dream report occurs in DC (= MS. Drower) 37(R). The parallel suggests that this was not an actual dream, but a once well-known magical motif. Segal's edition of the two British Museum bowls contains a number of inaccuracies in both the transcriptions and the translations. The present author will thus propose a new transcription and annotated translation of BM 91715 based on the published photographs. A new transcription and translation of BM 91780 based on the published photographs and an edition of the parallel section of DC 37(R) will be presented in appendices. 3 For photographs of the bowls, the reader is requested to refer to Segal's study. 1. J. B. Segal, Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum (Lon-don, 2000), Bowl 084M (pp. 111–13 and plates 88 and 89). Segal, p. 112, claims that the text comprises three incantations, but what he considers to be the second incantation (line 12) is actually the closing statement of the first, as is indicated by the dividing line after line 12. 2. Ibid., Bowl 085M (pp. 113–14 and plates 90 and 91). The final portion of the text is poorly preserved, but it does not appear to parallel BM 91715. 3. The corrections to the readings of both bowls and a translation of BM 91715 may also be found in my review article of Segal (J. N. Ford, " Notes on the Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum, " Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 26 [2002], 246–49). After the present study was submitted for publication , a transcription of BM 91715:14–16 by Ch. Müller-Kessler apud S. Shaked, " 'Peace be Upon You, Exalted Angels': On Hekhalot, Liturgy and Incantation Bowls, " Jewish Studies Quarterly 2 (1995), I would like to thank Professor S. Shaked of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for kindly discussing a number of problems relating to the texts studied below and for permission to cite from unpublished bowls in the Martin Schøyen collection. I would also like to thank Dr. M. Morgenstern of the University of Haifa for several helpful comments. The present author is solely responsible for the views expressed herein. This study was supported by grants from the Department of Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Kreitman Foundation of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The photograph of DC 37(R):399–414 is published with the kind permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. The following museum/collection abbreviations have been used: BM = British Museum; DC (= MS. Drower) = Drower Collection, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; Louvre AO = Musée du Louvre, Département des Antiquités Orientales; MS = Martin Schøyen collection.
This study comprises a new edition of the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl IM , first pu... more This study comprises a new edition of the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowl IM , first published in by S.A. Kaufman (as Nippur N ) and recently re-edited by A.H. Faraj, together with an edition of a new parallel bowl in a private collection. The bowls contain a number of new additions to the JBA lexicon, namely, éâéøåñ (var. é÷øåö) 'hemorrhoids'; àúëåô 'languor'; éàîø 'aches' // éãéø 'afflictions'; the cognate verbs ïîø and ïéãéøéî; and possibly àúåçô 'rot/weakness'. Almost all the new words have cognates in Mandaic and/or Syriac. In addition, IM proves to be the most important source for the phonetic spelling of the subordinating particle (relative pronoun) as ú discovered to date. In an appendix the meanings of ïéðãéò úùéà 'periodic fever' and other terms for types of fever are discussed. *) I would like to thank Dr. Matthew Morgenstern of Haifa University for reading and commenting on a draft of the article and for photographs of JNF and MS /. My appreciation is likewise extended to Prof. Shaul Shaked of the Hebrew University for permission to quote from unpublished bowls in the Martin Schøyen (MS) collection and to Dr. Joachim Marzahn of the Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin for permission to publish a photograph of VA (taken by Dr. Dan Levene of the University of Southampton). Bowls labeled JNF or Wolfe are in private collections and are being prepared for publication by the present author. Partially preserved (but in my opinion certain) letters are marked with a ring above the letter. The new book by Ali H. Faraj, Coppe magiche dall'antico Iraq con testi in aramaico giudaico di età ellenistica (Milano: Lampi di Stampa, ) became available to me only after the present article was initially submitted for publication. Faraj's study contains a new edition of IM with a better photograph than that previously published. An unforeseen delay in publication has afforded me the opportunity to examine the new photograph and to incorporate references to Faraj's interpretation into the article, J.N. Ford / Aramaic Studies . () –
Online versions (YouTube files) of the Lectures presented at the 2nd day of the 2nd Annual Confer... more Online versions (YouTube files) of the Lectures presented at the 2nd day of the 2nd Annual Conference of the RIAB Minerva Center, which took place at the Israel Institute of Advanced Studies (on the Givat Ram Campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, on March 2nd, 2017), can now be watched online.
The Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities at Friedrich-Schiller-Universit... more The Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena houses one of the major European collections of incantation bowls. Forty bowls bear texts written in the Jewish, Manichaean Syriac or Mandaic scripts, and most of the rest (some twenty-five objects) in the Pahlavi script or in various pseudoscripts. The present volume comprises new editions of the Aramaic (and Hebrew) bowl texts based on high-resolution photographs taken by the authors, together with brief descriptions and photographs of the remaining material. New readings are often supported with close-up photographs. The volume is intended to serve as a basis for further study of magic in late Antiquity and of the Late Eastern Aramaic dialects in which the texts were composed.
The collection of Aramaic magic bowls and related objects in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berl... more The collection of Aramaic magic bowls and related objects in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin is one of the most important in the world. This book presents a description of each object and its contents, including details of users and other names, biblical quotations, parallel texts, and linguistic features. Combined with the detailed indices, the present volume makes the Berlin collection accessible for further research.
Furthermore, sixteen texts, which are representative of the whole collection, are edited. This book results from an impressive collaboration between Siam Bhayro, James Nathan Ford, Dan Levene, and Ortal-Paz Saar, with further contributions by Matthew Morgenstern, Marco Moriggi, and Naama Vilozny, and will be of interest for all those engaged in the study of these fascinating objects.
https://brill.com/abstract/title/38176
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Furthermore, sixteen texts, which are representative of the whole collection, are edited. This book results from an impressive collaboration between Siam Bhayro, James Nathan Ford, Dan Levene, and Ortal-Paz Saar, with further contributions by Matthew Morgenstern, Marco Moriggi, and Naama Vilozny, and will be of interest for all those engaged in the study of these fascinating objects.
https://brill.com/abstract/title/38176