This article explores a cluster of late antique Coptic magical papyri commonly referred to in scholarship as “spells for a good singing voice.” Based on detailed analysis of the discursive practices, gestures, and material media employed in their ritual procedures, I argue that these texts emerged from monastic contexts. References to visionary-apocalyptic motifs, as well as to preparatory acts designed to facilitate communion with divine intermediaries, support this claim. The ritual mechanics of these spells hinge on the invocation of celestial beings upon a chalice infused with a concoction of potent substances (e.g., water, oil, honey). This ritual dynamic bears striking affinities to the Eucharistic epiclesis, the central prayer of the Christian liturgy, while also drawing upon ritual strategies operative in the Graeco-Egyptian “rituals of apparition.” The latter involve summoning supernatural intermediaries to assist practitioners in obtaining certain benefits, either through human intermediaries or material media such as lamps, bowls, or similar vessels. On these grounds, the article argues that the “spells for a good singing voice” reflect the creativity of monastic ritual experts that adroitly navigated the intersections of magic and liturgy, adapting elements of the Eucharistic epiclesis to preexisting ritual frameworks concerned with divine manifestation. As a result, these spells illustrate the creative ways in which Christian ritual experts engaged with inherited ritual technologies and readapted them to the emerging Christian discourse. By situating these spells within the broader cultural landscape of Egyptian monasticism, this study aims to contribute to broader discussions on the complex interplay between liturgy and magic in Late Antiquity.
This article attempts to explain why the Muslims of the first two hijri centuries came to view as martyrs those who died of a mysterious illness that they called the Stabber (al-ṭāʿūn). It finds the answer to that question at the intersection of the unique social pressures attendant on the Arab conquests, the presence of endemic Yersinia pestis in Greater Syria, the prior inheritance of Jewish and Christian ideas about the meaning of disease, and the distinctive view of salvation history found in the Qurʾan. Early Muslims simultaneously affirmed the ancient Jewish and Christian theory of epidemic disease as divine punishment and gave it a separate meaning for their own community, as a martyrdom and a mercy, which set the conquering minority of Muhajirun apart in death as well as in life. In illuminating this process, the article writes a new cultural history of epidemic disease in the late antique world and revisits some of our fundamental assumptions about retrospective diagnosis and the discourse of disease in premodern culture. Its findings should be relevant to scholars of Christianity and Islam, to Syriacists, scholars of premodern disease, and to anyone invested in the current conversation about Yersinia pestis, epidemic disease, and environmental history in Late Antiquity.
Ancient Greek literature transmits two episodes in which a petitioner before a king performs a fake act of prostration. The deceiver creates the appearance of a submissive bow, but he actually executes a different gesture unrelated to court protocol—or so he tells himself. A parallel tradition in late antique Jewish literature deploys the same motif: A persecutorial ruler urges a Jewish martyr to perform a fake bow in order to create the illusion of idol worship. Jointly considering these three cases for the first time, this article interprets the collective fake bowing tradition as a late antique meditation on the theatrics of royal power and their ability to coopt resistance. This reading is guided by Lisa Wedeen’s Ambiguities of Domination, which advances a theory of how autocratic regimes employ public ceremonies as instruments of social control. Wedeen argues that authoritarians stage spectacles that are widely regarded as preposterous nonsense by their producers and consumers, but that nevertheless prove effective disciplinary mechanisms by inculcating habits of submission. It is of no avail to privately dissent from the meaning of such ceremonials, as their power comes from the choreography of compliance, not the manufacture of belief. Applied to the fake prostration scenes of late antique literature, Wedeen’s theory enjoins a critical view of the fake bow as a form of resistance to imperial domination.
This article explores the social and economic significance of bars—food and drink retail establishments—in the late antique Levant. By analyzing a wide range of textual, archaeological, and artistic data produced in this region, the study positions bars as vibrant, central features of Levantine cities, shaping the everyday lives and identities of diverse populations. Hagiographic sources, as well as rabbinic literature, provide valuable insights into these establishments, often echoing Roman moralistic views of bars as venues of immoral behavior associated with lower classes. This study challenges these concepts of bars, seeking to contextualize their discussion in the materiality of social and economic daily life in ancient cities. To this end, the architectural features of bars are explored, as are other aspects of social and economic significance, including economic organization and operation, identities of owners and customers, menus, and the roles and agency of women in retailing. By adopting a broad geographic scope, the study aims to explore attributes of bars throughout the Levant, offering a more holistic view of these establishments as vital urban enterprises. The findings highlight bars as microcosms of urban life, where individuals from various social classes and genders interacted. Bars were cultural markers adopted by provincials in the Levant, displaying regional variability alongside shared commonalities with similar establishments elsewhere in the Mediterranean world. Ultimately, the study shows how diverse provincial populations actively participated in broader Mediterranean sociocultural and economic trends, while continuously adapting to suit their changing needs and lifestyles.
The last decade saw the excavation of a monumental late antique synagogue in the Galilean village of Huqoq. In addition to the unexpected size, scholars remain baffled by the unearthed mosaic panels that covered the synagogue’s floor. Although several panels are damaged beyond recognition, a considerable number endured the ravages of time and are preserved well enough to allow analysis or reconstruction due to labels or otherwise obvious links to motifs and stories from the Hebrew Bible. With few exceptions, the panels depict extraordinary and paradoxical events, animals, and humans—content typically of interest to authors of miracle collections, so-called paradoxographies. This article suggests that the content of the Huqoq mosaic panels was chosen based on a biblical paradoxography or that it was part of the endeavor to put such a (pictorial) work together. Not only can most of the panels be associated with one of the paradoxographical subgenres, but they also underline and amplify the content of liturgy. The latter was, of course, a product of the same prevalent confrontation with the miraculous.
The Homilies on the Song of Songs by the late antique Christian author Gregory of Nyssa are commonly studied for their spiritual interpretations and mystical theology. At the same time, his Homilies also are a rich resource for Gregory’s knowledge of and assumptions about the natural world. This article concentrates on a list of spices and perfumes in Song of Songs 4:13–14, to the qualities and significance of which Gregory pays close attention. Cinnamon especially fascinates him. He reports that it cools boiling water at once, has an antiseptic effect, and enables people to answer questions while asleep. Gregory qualifies these wondrous effects as implausible and beyond belief. However, he is unwilling to reject the stories about cinnamon in spite of their doubtfulness. This article investigates why. What is at stake for Gregory in thinking with cinnamon and other stories that go against expectation? It is argued that Gregory, by comparing the case of cinnamon to the appearance of the Greek mythological figure of Amaltheia in the book of Job, aims to convince his audience that stories of doubtful credibility can be used to speak about moral and spiritual progress, as long as they are interpreted figuratively. By focusing on Gregory’s “reading” of nature and scripture, this article aims to show for what polemical and pedagogical purposes stories about the unexpected and extraordinary could be used in late antique Christian biblical interpretation.
In the many fictional stories about the disciples of Christ that circulated in the ancient world, there is an undeniable interest in strange, exotic, and wondrous phenomena such as when the apostle Thomas fights a giant serpent in India, when the apostle Matthew is said to have encountered savage cave dwellers in Ethiopia, and when the apostle Matthias is almost eaten by murderous man-eaters in Scythia. These and similar features have regularly been regarded as proof of these stories’ affinities with ancient novels but have rarely been discussed in the context of ancient nonfiction including paradoxography, a genre focused on collecting precisely such strange and wondrous phenomena from around the world. This article analyzes how three early Christian apostle stories from the Acts of Philip, the Acts of Andrew and Matthias, and the Acts of Thomas make use of ancient paradoxography for characterization and plot construction, and it discusses how their authors adapt paradoxographical data to integrate them in a biblically informed Christian worldview and use them to promote their own theological outlook.
This study examines the extent of rabbinic influence on Jewish communities in late antique Egypt by analyzing papyrological evidence. While previous scholarship, particularly that of Victor Tcherikover, posited significant rabbinic influence on Egyptian Jewry, Tal Ilan and others have challenged this view. This article reassesses the debate by exploring Jewish papyri in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The findings suggest that traces of rabbinization in Egypt are minimal and largely inconclusive, often reflecting broader Jewish cultural trends rather than a systematic adoption of rabbinic law and practice. The study concludes that rabbinic influence on Egyptian Jews in Late Antiquity was marginal, supporting a more cautious approach to claims of widespread rabbinization.
Among Old Testament figures, Moses enjoyed a unique status from the perspective of late antique Christian writers. He was recognized as a lawgiver, prophet, leader, priest, and miracle-working holy man whose guidance of the Israelites toward an earthly salvation prefigured the mission of Christ. Yet, while patristic theologians defined for Moses a common stock of characteristics and themes, a considerable degree of fluidity in defining the prophet’s significance for contemporary Christians remained. This is particularly apparent in the depictions of Moses authored in post-Roman Gaul between the sixth and mid-eighth centuries. These “Merovingian Moseses” were united by a common store of biblical stories, symbols, and themes, as well as by their collective debt to patristic tradition, but also were distinct in their embodiment and representation of a selective choice of these tropes. While characterizations of Moses by Bishops Avitus of Vienne and Caesarius of Arles offered two possible models for understanding the Israelite prophet—hero and imperfect embodiment of the Old Law, respectively—neither model dominated contemporary discourse, and depictions of Moses continued to be shaped by differences in genre, authorial program, and in a number of cases a specific concern with contemporary Jews. Collectively, these Merovingian Moseses thus signify a socioreligious milieu that was confident in its Christian identity but also still somewhat ill at ease with both a biblical Jewish heritage and, even more so, the continued presence of living Jews within a professed Christian regnum.
