Bonner, SMA, 28.
Bonner, SMA – PDF, 28.Yet there are magical documents in which Jewish influence is unmistakable. A Florentine papyrus of the fifth century might have been written by a Jew whom an interest in magic had drawn away from strict doctrine and practice.26 Almost every magical papyrus bears some marks of Judaism here and there, in its ideas or in the sacred names invoked, and so do scores of magical gems; but there is no reason to follow certain writers who prefer to call the magic of the Graeco-Egyptian papyri and amulets “ Judaeo-Alexandrian,” for the Egyptian influence is paramount, and we have to reckon with other elements besides the Jewish and Egyptian.
On our amulets Jewish influence is mainly confined to the inscriptions, because monotheism and the prohibition of images restrained the Jews from developing figure designs comparable to the divine and demonic types carved on Graeco-Egyptian gems (D. 275–276, 342). It is true that the Second Commandment was not strictly observed by all Jewish communities, as the paintings of the Dura synagogue and the mosaics of Beth Alpha show.27 The temptation to break the commandment would be particularly strong when circumstances reminded the Jews of the benefits which their Gentile neighbors claimed to draw from their idols, and there were probably a good many Jews who wore images of heathen gods as amulets. There is an interesting example of this custom in 2 Maccabees 12, 39–40. After a successful campaign against the Idumaean general Gorgias, Judas and his men, on taking up the bodies of their dead for burial, found that every one of the slain warriors wore under his tunic ἱερώματα τῶν ἀπὸ Ἰαμνίας εἰδώλων, evidently small figures of heathen deities.28 The discovery convinced Judas that the fallen soldiers had forfeited their lives because of this concession to idolatry.
The need for seals and seal rings in ordinary business seems to have compelled their tacit exemption from the general prohibition, for Jewish seals with figure designs have been known from ancient times; and the line between a seal and an intaglio cut for an amulet is ill defined.29 In the col-
26 PGM XXXV.
27 See Rostovtzeff, Dura-Europos and Its Art, p. 102, and E. L. Sukenik, The Ancient Synagogue of Beth Alpha. The following sentence throws an interesting sidelight upon these discoveries: “Au temps de R. Yohanan on commenςa à avoir des peintures sur les murs, et les rabbins ne les défendirent pas” (Jerusalem Talmud, tr. M. Schwab, XI, 211, Aboda Zara, III, 3).
28 Blau (op. cit., p. 87, n. 3) suggests that ἱερώματα may be a translation of Aramaic qedāshīn, to which he assigns the meaning “amulet.” Whether the word is well attested in this sense I do not know; it ordinarily means “earring,” “nosering,” or some similar ornament.
29 See the article “Seal” in Jewish Encyclopedia. The use of seals to protect food from ritual pollution is assumed as a matter of course in Aboda Zara, II, 3, 5, fol. 31 a (Babylonian Talmud, tr. Goldschmidt, IX, 530). The Jewish teachers discussed the question whether the faithful could use objects bearing various designs that are common on Graeco-Egyptian amulets — the sun, the moon, the nurse (probably Isis with the infant Horus), Sarapis (Aboda Zara, III, 3, 1, fol. 42 b, 43 a; Goldschmidt, IX, 566–567). In a neighboring passage (fol. 43 b, 569–570) there is this sentence: “Es wird nāmlich gelehrt: einen Siegelring mit einer gehöhten Figur darf man nicht anlegen, wohl aber darf man mit ihm siegeln, einen mit vertiefter Figur darf man anlegen, nicht aber mit ihm siegeln.” It is doubtful whether this distinction was observed. Most Graeco-Egyptian amulets are intaglios and were not intended for use as seals. They would be permitted under the rule cited unless exception were taken to the pagan origin of their figures and symbols.
Last modified: 2012-11-05 09:43:08
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