Mandaic Incantation Texts

433 Pages·1967·6.242 MB·English

by  Edwin M. Yamauchi

AMERICAN ORIENTAL
SERIES
VOLUME 49
EDITOR
ERNEST BENDER
AssociATE EDITORS
WILLIAM W. HALLO GEORGE F. HOURANI
EDWARD H. SCHAFER
AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
NEW HAYEN, CONNECTICUT
1967

MANDAIC INCANTATION TEXTS
BY
EDWIN M. YAMAUCHI
AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
NEW HAYEN, CONNECTICUT
1967
To
KIMIE YAMAUCHI
COPYRIGHT 1967
BY AMERICAN ORIENT.\L SOCIETY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CUSHING•MALLOY, INC., ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS • • viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS •
X
Chapter
. . . . . . . . . .
I. INTRODUCTION 1
. . . .
A. Aramaic Magical Bowls 2
.
B. Mandaic Magical Incantations 4
. . . . . .
c. The Clients 12
. . . .
D. The Magicians 14
E. The Cursers 17
. . . . . . . . . . . .
F. The Maleficent Agents 22
. . . .
G. The Propitious Agents 35
H. The Incantations 44
. . . .
I. The Praxis 54
. . . .
J. Cultural Affinities 62
THE MANDAIC ALPHABET • 68
II. ORTHOGRAPHY 69
III. PHONETICS 75
IV. NUMERALS 84
v.
PRONOUNS • 87
VI. NOUNS 95
VII. PARTICLES 103
. . . .
VIII. PARADIGMATIC OUTLINE • 109
IX. VERBS 115
x. . . . .
SYNTAX 136
v
. . . . . . . .
XI. TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS • 153
. . . . . . . . .
1. Pognon, 1898, 1 154
. . . .
2. Pognon, 1898, 2 156
. . . . .
3. Pognon, 1898, 3 158
.
4. Pognon, 1898. 7 162
. . . .
5. Pognon, 1898, 13 164
. . . .
6. Pognon, 1898, 14 168
. . . . .
7. Pognon, 1898, 15 172
. . . .
8. Pognon, 1898, 16 176
. . . . . . . .
9. Pognon, 1898, 18 182
. . . . . . . . .
10. Pognon, 1898, 22 186
. . . .
11. Pognon, 1898, 23 190
. . . . . . . . . . . .
12. Pognon, 1898, 24 194
. .. . .
13. Pognon, 1898, 27 198
. . . .
14. Pognon, 1898, 28 202
15. Pognon, 1898, 29 204
. . . .
16. Pognon, 1898, 31 208
. . . . . . . . .
17. Pognon, 1892 212
. . . . . . . . . . . .
18. Lidzbarski, 1902, I 216
. . . . .
19. Lidzbarski, 1902, II 222
20. Lidzbarski, 1902, IV 226
. . . . . .
21. Liazbarski, 1902, v 230
. . . . . . . . .
22. Lidzbarski, 1909 234
23. Montgomery, 1913, 38 256
. . . .
24. Montgomery, 1913, 39 260
25. Montgomery, 1913, 40 262
. . . . . . . .
26. Gordon, 1937. M 266
. . . . . . . . .
27. Gordon, 1937. N • 272
vi
. . . . . .
28. Gordon, .1,.937, 0 276
. .
29. Gordon, 1941, Fitzwilliam 280
.
.
30. Gordon, 1941, Hilprecht 284
. .
31. Gordon, 1941, MalmB 288
. . . . .
32. Gordon, 1941, Princeton 292
33. Yamauchi, 1966, Yale 296
GLOSSARIES
A. General Glossary 306
B. Angels, Gods, and Demons 364
C. Proper Names 368
D. Magical Formulae 372
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
I. MANDAICA
A. Sources 373
B. Discussions • 374
II. MAGIC
A. Mandaic 378
B. Aramaic and Syriac 379
C. Mesopotamian 383
D. Egyptian 387
E. Graeco-Egyptian 388
F. Coptic and Ethiopic • 39C
G. Greek and Roman • 391
H. Ancient • 392
Isra~lite
I. Jewish 393
J. Muslim· 395
SELECTED PLATES 39E
INDEX OF AUTHORS • 41{
vii
ABBREVIATIONS AND SYJI1BOLS
£.f0 Archiv f~r Orientforschugg.
ArO Archiv Orientalnl.
~ Bullet~! the American Schools of Oriental Research.
Ges. Gesenius, W., Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch and A. E.
Cowley, (1960).
Harvard Theological Review.
Hebrew Union College Annual.
Journal of the American Oriental Socie1I.
Journal of Egyptian Archaeologl•
Journal of Near Eastern Studies.
Journal of the Rolal Asiatic Societl·
Ma. Macuch, Rudolf, Handbook of Classical and Modern Man
daic.
Mo. Montgomery, James, Aramaic Incantation Texts from
Nipnur.
MANL Memorie dell'Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
Hitteilungen de£ altorientalischen Gesellschaft.
Monatsschrift fUr Geschichte und Wissenschaft des
Judentums.
MIO Mitteilungen des Instituts fUr Orientforschugg.
N. NBldeke, Theodor, Mandaische Grammatik.
Or Orientalia.
P. Pognon, Henri, Inscriptions mandaites des Coupes
d~
Khouabir.
viii
Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeologl·
~~
Res. Rossell, William H., A Handbook of Aramaic Magical Texts.
~~ssyriologie et d'archeologie orientale.
a a
Recueil de travaux relatifs la philolog!e et
.! 'archeologie egyptie!ill_!Let a.§_§,yri~.
Studia Biblica et Orientalia.
~
Tidi Theologische Literaturzeitung.
Transactions of the of Biblical ArchaeoloSl•
~ Socie~
ZA Zeitschrift fUr Assyriologie und verwandte Gebiete.
Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenlAndischen Gesellschaft.
~
[ ] Restorations. [N.B. When a superscribed x
( ) Scribal omissions. appears, see pp. 418 ff. for
( } Scribal plusses. addenda and errata.]
M Uncertain readings.
Text references in brackets, e.g. [1:13] are to the Man
daic texts in the writer's doctoral dissertation, Mandaean Incan
tation Text2, which forms the basis for the present work. Copies
of the latter, which incorporates all of the hitherto published
Mandaic magic bowl texts, may be obtained from University Micro
films, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Mandaic alphabet and our system of transcription into
Hebrew letters may be found on p. 68. Just before the MS. went
to the printers, Professor Macuch pointed out that my arbitrary
use of n instead of ~ for Mandaic Ha, and my use of ~ instead of
~ for final Eh may cause confusion. For a clarification of both
the phonology and the orthography involved see sections 2.3 and
3.16.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I should like to acknowledge my indebtedness to those who
have helped to make this study possible. My greatest debt has
been to Professor Cyrus H. Gordon for his stimulating instruction
and for his expert guidance in the field of Mandaic and Aramaic
magical texts.
I should also wish to thank my other professors for their
rewarding instruction: Dr. Dwight Young in Akkadian and in
E~yp­
tian, Dr. Joseph de Somogyi in Arabic, and Dr. Baruch Levine in
Aramaic and in Syriac.
My thanks go also to Dr. William W. Rallo and Dr. Franz
Rosenthal of Yale University, and to Dr. Ferris J. Stephens of
the American Oriental Society for their encouragement and advice
during the preparation of this manuscript for publication.
I am grateful to the Rutgers Research Council for subvention
funds to aid in the publication of this work.
X