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| A Greek magical papyrus text. |
- A SHARED MAGICAL TRADITION -
INTRODUCTION:
In this article, we will explore some ancient non-Jewish
(pagan) papyrus magical texts which are, surprisingly, interwoven with early
rabbinical magic themes. We will see how some obscure magical spells in these pagan papyri texts
– ironically – can only be understood through a knowledge of corresponding
themes in early Jewish mystical literature.
I have drawn from Rabbi Professor Daniel Sperber
who is a Talmud professor at Bar Ilan University, who gives us a window into
the 3rd-century world of Jewish mysticism.
PAGAN INFLUENCE ON EARLY JEWISH MYSTICAL LITERATURE:
A number of Greek, Coptic and Gnostic papyrus texts dealing with
magical charms and incantations have been discovered. The interesting thing
about this discovery is that Jewish names and rabbinic themes were interwoven
with pagan names and themes - as if a common magical culture existed.
Sperber writes:
“One of the outstanding
features of this material is the welter of Jewish and pagan names which are
used almost interchangeably, indicating the degree to which Jews and pagans
were profoundly influencing one another...
[Furthermore] elements of
Hellenistic magical lore penetrated the Jewish world, leaving their traces in
Rabbinic literature, most especially in the early Jewish mystical literature.”
This interwovenness, according to Sperber, is so profound
that clearer pagan texts can sometimes explain difficult and unclear rabbinic mystical texts – as can these rabbinic texts elaborate on obscure pagan texts. This
leads one to the conclusion that Jews and non-Jews shared the same cultural
magic and mystical tradition.
Not only did they apparently share mystical traditions but Sperber even maintains he may have uncovered some 'lost' rabbinic writings scattered within these pagan texts! We will analyse two such examples in Part 1 and 2 which follow.
PART 1:
INTERCONNECTEDNESS BETWEEN RABBINIC TEXTS AND POPULAR MAGICAL
TEXTS:
Here is one example of how an existing rabbinic text can shed light on one of these difficult popular magical texts dealing with various spells. In the collection
of papyri housed in the Paris Library
there is a spell which reads:
“For I adjure thee by him that
revealed the hundred and forty tongues and divided them by his command.”
Secular scholars were at a loss to explain this text.
They
assumed it referred to 140 languages which were somehow divided by G-d’s
command. They assumed, based on a reading of Genesis Ch. 10, that after the flood,
the generation of Noah’s descendants numbered seventy and spoke seventy
languages becoming the 'Seventy Nations of the World'. But why not just say 70
instead of 140 being divided by 2?
Fascinatingly, there is a rabbinic text which can explain
this obscure papyrus text. A rabbinic textual tradition in the Sifre,
dating back to the second century CE, maintains that there were 140 nations of
the world (not 70 as commonly understood)!
This Sifre is later discussed in Shir haShirim
Rabba:
“Seventy of them [i.e., the
nations of the world] know their paternal ancestry but not their maternal
ancestry, and seventy of them know their maternal ancestry but not their
paternal ancestry...”
This is why 140 is divided by 2 to make 70. Evidently, the Shir haShirim Rabba text is an attempt
at reconciling the common understanding that there are 70 nations of the world
with the earlier Sifre claiming that there are 140.
A LOST RABBINIC TEXT?
Sperber suggests that this Paris text may, in fact, be a lost
rabbinic text:
“It would appear that our
passage from the Paris papyrus is based upon a (lost) homily which similarly
grappled with the apparent contradiction between the two sets of numbers.”
Amazingly, this papyrus text seems to be dealing with exactly the
same problem as, and presents the same solution to, that expressed in the Shir
haShirim Rabba.
If this text is indeed a lost piece of rabbinic magical
tradition, it is interesting that it comfortably formed part of the general pagan
magical literature. This shows just how interconnected some of these early
Jewish and non-Jewish magical texts were. There does appear to have been a common
mystical tradition or certainly one which overlapped in multiple areas.
PART 2:
ANOTHER LOST MIDRASH?
Following similar patterns, Sperber continues with the
suggestion that we can trace another lost rabbinic statement, in another spell
mentioned in the Paris texts.
THE ‘SEAL’ ON THE TONGUE:
The same section of our magical papyrus text contains the
following spell which also confounded the scholars:
“For I adjure thee by the seal
which Solomon laid upon the tongue of Jeremiah and he spake.”
One scholar, Adolf Deissmann (d. 1937), a German Protestant theologian
who specialized in the ancient Greek language writes:
“I do not know what this
refers to. The tradition is probably connected with the LXX Jer. 1:6-10."
[The LXX is a reference to the Septuagint, which means
‘seventy’ or in Roman numerals LXX,
after the 70 (or 72) scholars who translated the Torah into Greek.]
Sperber explains that it does indeed correspond to a
reference in the Book of Jeremiah (although not to the Septuagint version).
The reference is to the prophet Jeremiah’s inauguration into the world of
prophecy, where a ‘seal’ of some sort was placed on his tongue.
According to rabbinic tradition, this ‘seal’ or 'signet ring' alludes to the renowned ‘seal of Solomon’
which is alleged to have had the power to produce prophetic oracles.
Sperber writes:
“If our reconstruction be
correct, we have here the traces of a lost Midrash...”
THE ARRAY OF RABBINIC REFERENCES TO A MAGICAL ITEM PLACED IN
THE MOUTH:
As further support for Sperber's interpretation, we
will now look at an array of parallel rabbinic teachings concerning the placing
of ‘magical’ items on the tongue to produce some form of prophecy or
supernatural outcome.
1) PLACING AMULETS ON (OR UNDER) THE TONGUE:
Placing amulets on (or under) the tongue to achieve certain
required outcomes became a common custom in the Jewish mystical world.
In one instance we read about a practice to send dreams to one's
neighbour by writing a spell “upon a plate of silver” and placing
in the mouth of a rooster.
2) PLACING A RING IN THE MOUTH:
According to Sefer haRazim, sometimes a special ring
was placed in a person’s mouth to achieve certain results.
3) HOW TO MAKE ‘TERAFIM’:
When Yakov and Rachel (Leah, Bilah and Zilpah) left Lavan’s
house to return to Canaan, Rachel took (stole) her father’s (Lavan’s) terafim
while he was out. These terafim, also referred to as ‘household goods’
were in fact idols. The common reason given for taking her father’s idols is
that she didn’t want him to worship them.
The Midrash Tanchuma
describes how these terafim were made:
“And how did they make [them]?
They would bring a first-born man, slaughter him, and salt him with salt and
oils. Then they wrote on a golden plate the name of an unclean spirit, and
placed the plate with magic under his tongue. Then they placed him in (a niche
in?) a wall, and lit before him candles, and prostrated themselves before him,
and he would speak with them in oracles – (or: in a magical manner).”
The Targum Yerushalmi
states that the golden plate which was placed under the tongue was endowed with
‘kismin’ or ‘magic powers’.
This Midrash and Targum, again, indicate the widespread and
common belief held by Jews and non-Jews that golden and silver plates
and certain ‘seals’ or rings placed in the mouth can produce supernatural outcomes.
4) NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S AMULET:
According to Shir haShirim Rabba,
Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed the First Temple, also used a similar technique:
“What did that wicked man
(Nebuchadnezzar) do? He took the diadem [headpiece] of the High Priest and
placed it into the mouth (of the idol - cf. Daniel 3:1), and it began to speak
[saying]: I am the Lord, thy God...”
The Zohar
writes similarly:
“[Nebuchadnezzar] took a
vessel of the Temple vessels on which was engraved the Holy Name, and placed it
in the mouth of the idol, and from that moment it began to speak wondrous
things...”
As does the Tikkunei Zohar:
“[A]nd afterwards they would place the
Ineffable Name (Shem haMeforash) in the mouths of the images (of the zodiacal
constellations-the Mazzalot), and they would speak...”
From all these sources it is clear that it was commonly believed
that placing a ‘magic item’ in the mouth could cause a person or object to
speak in an oracular or prophetic manner.
However, based on the Paris papyri,
we now know that this was not just a rabbinic idea but one held to be similarly
true by the general non-Jewish mystical culture at that time.
Thus Sperber is able to speculatively reconstruct two lost rabbinic homilies positioned comfortably within a general papyrus text of pagan magic.
ANALYSIS:
Sperber’s research is fascinating although even he admits that he has not conclusively shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that he discovered
lost rabbinic teachings.
Nevertheless, regardless of how one chooses to read Sperber, what we do see and what is abundantly evident is that there were large
swathes of common areas of overlap between the early rabbinic position on magic
and that of the Greek, Coptic and Gnostic pagan world.
This muddies the waters and
makes it extremely difficult to know the difference between an original Jewish
idea and that stemming from the outside pagan magical and mystical community.
Jewish mysticism, as presented today, is a far cry from the
original style of mysticism and magic as presented in the older Jewish texts.
Today’s mysticism is portrayed as a clean and sophisticated philosophical
system of lofty spiritual ideas and concepts - but this wasn’t always the case.
At some point, the system was radically changed from a very
raw and folk-rooted magical and superstitious tradition common to the
non-Jewish world, to the well-polished theosophy which we find today.
Rambam (1135-1204) was against mysticism and, as we know,
presented an alternate system of spiritual rationalism. This began a series of
religious controversies which still continue to this day because, despite the
theological makeover, we still see an unwillingness to let go of elements of
basic theurgy (magic) as was practiced in earlier times.
Thus, for example, the manner in which we teach our children
about angels in our contemporary Torah schools, stands in sharp
contradistinction to way Rambam understood them. In his view, angels did not
manifest as supernatural beings but were rather states of human perception.
Rambam did not believe that the Jewish mystical tradition (as
practiced in his day and by extension, certainly thereafter) went all the way back to Sinai.
This was to become one of the main points of mystical contention between
Maimonides and Nachmanides who did believe that the mystical roots originated
at Sinai. [See Who
Owned the Early Kabbalah?]
Rambam believed that he knew the origins of Jewish mysticism
and that he understood that, to a large extent, it simply reflected some of the
common superstitions of the ancient world.
One of the great ironies of the Maimonidean controversies is that it is Rambam himself who the mystics accuse of misrepresenting Judaism by incorporating an overly Greek (Aristotelian) worldview.
FURTHER READING:
