Description
This study investigates the relationship between previously assumed disparate bodies of evidence for the roles of Jewish women in the practice of magic in the ancient world. One body of evidence is the literary depictions of women engaging in magical actions, including summoning divine beings, expelling demons, speaking directly to God, and using herbs. While previous scholars, especially Rebecca Lesses, have explored Rabbinic and Talmudic literature concerning magic, scholars are generally sparing in their exploration of canonical and non-canonical text for Jewish women’s magic. The second body of evidence-- spells, amulets, and incantation bowls-- answers questions of domesticity. These objects address real issues of love and eroticism, fertility and the wandering womb, protection against evil, medicinal concerns and pharmacological pursuits. Again, this body of evidence has been extensively researched by Gideon Bohak, Christopher Faraone, John Gager, Shaul Shaked and Joseph Naveh however, the scholarship has often treated these objects of magic as divergent phenomena from the literary sources. What is lacking is an attempt to synthesize such knowledge into a composite whole that could demonstrate a continuity within the traditions. A literary analysis of Jewish women’s practice of magic within the Hebrew Bible, and contemporaneous pseudepigraphic texts reveals potential for agency. A comparison to the realia, those objects used for spells and incantations, reveals real-world applications to the canonical and non-canonical concerns of women. Magic from the ancient world fits precisely into the potentiality found within the canonical and non-canonical literature and reveals a shared body of knowledge previously underexplored within ancient Jewish culture. Such analysis demonstrates a depth to the agency of women despite their otherwise restricted roles in the practice of magic. This thesis offers a gendered exploration of Jewish magic where magic serves as a vehicle of agency for Jewish women, whose gender would otherwise proscribe their historical experience to a veritable damnatio memoriae.
