Beware the Evil Eye The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World - Vol.3

360 Pages·2016·3.41 MB·English

by  John H. Elliott

Beware the Evil Eye
The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World
—Volume 3—
The Bible and Related Sources
JOHN H. ELLIOTT
BEWARE THE EVIL EYE
The Evil Eye in the Bible and the Ancient World
Volume 3: The Bible and Related Sources
Copyright © 2016 John H. Elliott. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or
reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the
publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
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PAPERBACK ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-0500-9
HARDCOVER ISBN 13: 978-1-4982-8578-0
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-5326-0103-3
Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Name: Elliott, John Hall.
Title: Beware the evil eye : the evil eye in the Bible and the ancient world / John H. Elliott.
Volume 3: The Bible and Related Sources
Description: Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2016 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN: 978-1-4982-0500-9 (paperback) | ISBN: 978-1-4982-8578-0 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-5326-
0103-3 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Evil eye—Biblical teaching. | Evil eye—Mediterranean region. | ENVY. | Title.
Classification: GN475.6 E45 2016 V. 3 (print) | GN475.6 (ebook)
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
For
Norman K. Gottwald,
socialist pioneer and activist exegete extraordinaire,
fellow BASTARD (Bay Area Seminar on Theology and Related
Disciplines),
co-founder and fellow-officer of the Center and Library for the Bible
and Social Justice,
faithful friend
“Remember that an Evil Eye is a wicked thing.What has been created
more evil than an Evil Eye?”
(S 31:13)
IRACH
“Is your Evil Eye envious because I am generous”?
(M 20:15)
ATTHEW
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
ANCIENT PRIMARY SOURCES
APOCRYPHA
PSEUDEPIGRAPHA
NEW TESTAMENT
PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA
JOSEPHUS, FLAVIUS
DEAD SEA SCROLLS
RABBINIC WRITINGS
GREEK AND ROMAN WRITINGS
PAPYRI, INSCRIPTIONS, EPIGRAPHA
EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITINGS
BIBLE TRANSLATIONS/VERSIONS
ENCYCLOPEDIAS, LEXICA, SERIES,
PERIODICALS
OTHER ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGLA
Chapter 1: The Old Testament, Parabiblical Literature, and
Related Material Evidence Concerning the Evil Eye
Introduction
The Matrix of Biblical Evil Eye Belief and
Behavior
Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments
Israel’s Parabiblical Literature
Anti-Evil Eye Apotropaics in Israel:The Material
Evidence
Conclusion
Chapter 2: The New Testament Concerning the Evil Eye
Introduction
The Evil Eye Sayings of Jesus
Paul, Galatians, and Evil Eye Accusations
Implicit References to the Evil Eye in the New
Testament?
Evil Eye Belief and Practice in the New Testament
—Conclusion
Evil Eye Belief and Practice in the Bible—
Conclusion
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Secondary Studies and Reference Works
ILLUSTRATIONS
Illus. 1: Sketch of a crescent amulet for wearing, depicting a horned bull’s head
and a phallus (from Seligmann 1910 1:341, fig. 61) | 21
Illus. 2: Jewish phylacteries (from Jewish Encyclopedia 1906 10:24, reproducing
an engraved drawing from Bernard Picart, 1725) | 22
Illus. 3: Blue apotropaic tassels (tzitzit) on the four corners of the prayer shawl
(tallit) worn by observant Jewish males during weekday morning services |
22
Illus. 4: Mezuzah at the entrance to the Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue, Old
Jerusalem | 23
Illus. 5: Sketch of a mythological basilisk, African style (from Seligmann 1910,
1:113, fig.) | 72
Illus. 6: Byzantine silver Seal of Solomon medallion amulet portraying on the
obverse (left) King Solomon as a cavalier spearing a prostrate demoness
and on the reverse (right) an Evil Eye (alias phthonos/Envy) attacked
(from Seligmann 1910 2:443, fig. 230, description in vol 2:313-14) | 87
Illus. 7: King Solomon as cavalier spearing the prostrate demon Asmodeus (from
Perdrizet 1922:12, fig. 5; cf. Gollancz, The Book of Protection 1912,
Codex A, p. 55) | 87
Illus. 8: Sketch of Perseus decapitating Medusa/Gorgo, Metope of Temple C,
Selinus (modern Selinunte), Sicily, 6th century BCE (from Seligmann
1910, 1:76. fig. 2) | 88
Illus. 9: Two Bronze composite amulets of winged phalluses with bells,
Herculaneum (line drawing from Carcani, ed. 1771 2:399, no. 97) | 101
Illus. 10: Bronze amulet of phallus with bells, Herculaneum (line drawing from
Carcani, ed. 1771 2:403, Plate 98) | 101
Illus. 11: Jewish silver Hand of Miriam amulet (Hamesh) with the word Shaddai
in palm (from Seligmann 1910 2:193, fig. 162) | 103
Illus. 12: Images of the Islamic Hand of Fatima (Hamsa) on a modern building,
Andalucia, Spain (photo by John H. Elliott) | 103
PREFACE
T traces evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in the
HIS FOUR VOLUME STUDY
ancient world from Mesopotamia (c. 3000 BCE) to Late Roman Antiquity (c.
600 CE), with particular attention to the Bible and post-biblical traditions of
Israel and early Christianity.
Belief in the Evil Eye is a long-standing and widespread folk concept that
some persons are enabled by nature to injure others, cause illness and loss, and
destroy any person, animal or thing through a powerful noxious glance
emanating from the eye. Also known as “fascination” (Greek: baskania; Latin:
fascinatio), this belief holds that the eye is an active organ that emits destructive
emanations charged by negative dispositions (especially malevolence, envy,
miserliness, and withheld generosity). These emanations arise in the heart or
soul and are projected outward against both animate and inanimate objects. The
full constellation of notions comprising the Evil Eye complex includes the
expectation that various prophylactic words, gestures, images, and amulets have
the power to counter and avert the damaging power of the Evil Eye.
From its likely origin in ancient Sumer (3000 BCE) and its early spread to
Egypt and the Circum-Mediterranean region, to its later movement eastward to
India and westward and northward to Europe, the belief eventually made its way
from “old worlds” to “new.” It now constitutes a cultural phenomenon with
personal, social, and moral implications that has spanned the centuries and
encircled the globe.
Beware the Evil Eye concentrates on the Evil Eye phenomenon in the ancient
world, with new and extensive attention to mention of it in the Bible and the
biblical communities of Israel and early Christianity. Volume 1 opens with an
introductory overview of references to, and research on, the Evil Eye from the
ancient past to the modern present (chap. 1). Chapter 2 of Vol. 1 examines Evil
Eye belief and practice in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Volume 2 is devoted
to the extensive evidence on the subject in ancient Greece and Rome. Within the
geographical and cultural matrix detailed in these first two volumes, the
evidence of Evil Eye belief and practice in the Bible is now examined in the
present volume (Vol. 3). A final volume (4) considers post-biblical evidence of
Evil Eye belief and practice in Rabbinic Israel (chapter 1) and early Christianity
(chap. 2) through Late Antiquity (c. 600 CE). Concluding reflections on the
import and implications of our study (chap. 3) close this final volume.
This study is the first full-scale monograph on the Evil Eye in the Bible and
the biblical communities (Vols. 3 and 4). Its analysis of Evil Eye belief and
practice in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome (Vols. 1 and 2) summarizes
a century of research since the milestone two-volume study of Siegfried
Seligmann, Der böse Blick und Verwandtes (1910) and describes the ecological,
historical, social, and cultural contexts within which the biblical texts are best
understood. Throughout this four-volume work we are treating the Evil Eye in
antiquity, not as an instance of vulgar superstition or deluded magic, but as a
physiological, psychological, and moral phenomenon whose operation was
deemed explicable on rational grounds; for discussion see Vol. 1, pp. 26–27.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
M P Gary Stansell and Dennis C. Duling for their critical
Y THANKS TO ROFESSORS
reading of and feedback on the material for this volume, chaps. 1 and 2
respectively, and to Professor Richard L. Rohrbaugh for reviewing the entire
manuscript. Conversations with Professor Mark Nanos on this subject of
common interest were also most fruitful. Thanks, further, to all the many friends,
students, and colleagues in the USA and abroad for their generous contributions
of Evil Eye anecdotes, Evil Eye bibliography, and Evil Eye amulets for this Evil
Eye project. My gratitude abounds again to K. C. Hanson, peerless editor, and to
Ian Creeger, patient and expert typesetter, for midwifing this third baby to its
final delivery, unscathed by the Evil Eye.