1. Hebrew Bible, Exodus, 20.24 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 113; Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 | 29. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons as a due for ever from the children of Israel; for it is a heave-offering; and it shall be a heave-offering from the children of Israel of their sacrifices of peace-offerings, even their heave-offering unto the LORD.,And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron, and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded thee; seven days shalt thou consecrate them.,And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him; and he and his garments shall be hallowed, and his sons and his sons’garments with him.,And thou shalt set the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre.,And thou shalt take them from their hands, and make them smoke on the altar upon the burnt-offering, for a sweet savour before the LORD; it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD.,and one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD.,And I will sanctify the tent of meeting, and the altar; Aaron also and his sons will I sanctify, to minister to Me in the priest’s office.,And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God.,And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and bind head-tires on them; and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute; and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.,It shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout your generations at the door of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak there unto thee.,And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the lobe above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and make them smoke upon the altar.,And thou shalt cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its inwards, and its legs, and put them with its pieces, and with its head.,And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the tent of meeting.,And thou shalt take the ram of consecration, and seethe its flesh in a holy place.,And thou shalt bring his sons, and put tunics upon them.,And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.,And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram.,And there I will meet with the children of Israel; and [the Tent] shall be sanctified by My glory.,And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tent of meeting, and shalt wash them with water.,And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto Me in the priest’s office: take one young bullock and two rams without blemish,,And they shall eat those things wherewith atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.,and unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened mingled with oil, and wafers unleavened spread with oil; of fine wheaten flour shalt thou make them.,And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the tunic, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the skilfully woven band of the ephod.,And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger; and thou shalt pour out all the remaining blood at the base of the altar.,And thou shalt kill the bullock before the LORD, at the door of the tent of meeting.,And with the one lamb a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink-offering.,And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take its blood, and dash it round about against the altar.,And thou shalt put the whole upon the hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave-offering before the LORD.,The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at dusk.,And thou shalt take the breast of Aaron’s ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave-offering before the LORD; and it shall be thy portion.,And the holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, to be anointed in them, and to be consecrated in them.,And if aught of the flesh of the consecration, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire; it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.,Thou shalt also take the one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram.,And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave-offering, and the thigh of the heave-offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of consecration, even of that which is Aaron’s, and of that which is his sons’.,And every day shalt thou offer the bullock of sin-offering, beside the other offerings of atonement; and thou shalt do the purification upon the altar when thou makest atonement for it; and thou shalt anoint it, to sanctify it.,And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.,And thou shalt bring the bullock before the tent of meeting; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock.,Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him.,But the flesh of the bullock, and its skin, and its dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp; it is a sin-offering.,Seven days shall the son that is priest in his stead put them on, even he who cometh into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place.,And thou shalt make the whole ram smoke upon the altar; it is a burnt-offering unto the LORD; it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.,Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar: two lambs of the first year day by day continually.,And the other lamb thou shalt offer at dusk, and shalt do thereto according to the meal-offering of the morning, and according to the drink-offering thereof, for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.,Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of its blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and dash the blood against the altar round about.,Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right thigh; for it is a ram of consecration;,Seven days thou shalt make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; thus shall the altar be most holy; whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy. |
|
2. Hebrew Bible, Leviticus, 8 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 113 | 8. And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them.,And he took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right thigh.,And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the laver and its base, to sanctify them.,And the bullock of the sin-offering was brought; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock of the sin-offering.,As hath been done this day, so the LORD hath commanded to do, to make atonement for you.,And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.,And the other ram was presented, the ram of consecration, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.,And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses made it smoke upon the altar.,And when the ram was cut into its pieces, Moses made the head, and the pieces, and the suet smoke.,And when it was slain, Moses took of the blood thereof, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.,And Aaron and his sons did all the things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.,And ye shall not go out from the door of the tent of meeting seven days, until the days of your consecration be fulfilled; for He shall consecrate you seven days.,And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye burn with fire.,And when it was slain, Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured out the remaining blood at the base of the altar, and sanctified it, to make atonement for it.,And at the door of the tent of meeting shall ye abide day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD, that ye die not; for so I am commanded.,And he put upon him the tunic, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the skilfully woven band of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.,’Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bullock of the sin-offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread;,And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and clothed them with tunics, and girded them with girdles, and bound head-tires upon them; as the LORD commanded Moses.,And when the inwards and the legs were washed with water, Moses made the whole ram smoke upon the altar; it was a burnt-offering for a sweet savour; it was an offering made by fire unto the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses.,And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons: ‘Boil the flesh at the door of the tent of meeting; and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of consecration, as I commanded, saying: Aaron and his sons shall eat it.,and assemble thou all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting.’,And Aaron’s sons were brought, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot; and Moses dashed the blood against the altar round about.,But the bullock, and its skin, and its flesh, and its dung, were burnt with fire without the camp; as the LORD commanded Moses.,And he put the whole upon the hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons, and waved them for a wave-offering before the LORD.,And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave-offering before the LORD; it was Moses’portion of the ram of consecration; as the LORD commanded Moses.,And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and the congregation was assembled at the door of the tent of meeting.,And Moses took them from off their hands, and made them smoke on the altar upon the burnt-offering; they were a consecration-offering for a sweet savour; it was an offering made by fire unto the LORD.,And Moses said unto the congregation: ‘This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded to be done.’,And the ram of the burnt-offering was presented; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.,And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:,And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.,And out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before the LORD, he took one unleavened cake, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat, and upon the right thigh.,And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons’garments with him, and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’garments with him.,And when it was killed, Moses dashed the blood against the altar round about.,And he set the mitre upon his head; and upon the mitre, in front, did he set the golden plate, the holy crown; as the LORD commanded Moses.,And he placed the breastplate upon him; and in the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim. |
|
3. Homer, Iliad, 4.49 (8th cent. BCE - 7th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 9| 4.49. λοιβῆς τε κνίσης τε· τὸ γὰρ λάχομεν γέρας ἡμεῖς. | 4.49. wherein men that dwell upon the face of the earth have their abodes, of these sacred Ilios was most honoured of my heart, and Priam and the people of Priam, with goodly spear of ash. For never at any time was mine altar in lack of the equal feast, the drink-offering, and the savour of burnt-offering, even the worship that is our due. |
|
4. Herodotus, Histories, 2.171, 7.114 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2, 7| 2.171. ἐν δὲ τῇ λίμνῃ ταύτῃ τὰ δείκηλα τῶν παθέων αὐτοῦ νυκτὸς ποιεῦσι, τὰ καλέουσι μυστήρια Αἰγύπτιοι. περὶ μέν νυν τούτων εἰδότι μοι ἐπὶ πλέον ὡς ἕκαστα αὐτῶν ἔχει, εὔστομα κείσθω. καὶ τῆς Δήμητρος τελετῆς πέρι, τὴν οἱ Ἕλληνες θεσμοφόρια καλέουσι, καὶ ταύτης μοι πέρι εὔστομα κείσθω, πλὴν ὅσον αὐτῆς ὁσίη ἐστὶ λέγειν· αἱ Δαναοῦ θυγατέρες ἦσαν αἱ τὴν τελετὴν ταύτην ἐξ Αἰγύπτου ἐξαγαγοῦσαι καὶ διδάξασαι τὰς Πελασγιώτιδας γυναῖκας· μετὰ δὲ ἐξαναστάσης πάσης Πελοποννήσου 1 ὑπὸ Δωριέων ἐξαπώλετο ἡ τελετή, οἱ δὲ ὑπολειφθέντες Πελοποννησίων καὶ οὐκ ἐξαναστάντες Ἀρκάδες διέσωζον αὐτὴν μοῦνοι. 7.114. φαρμακεύσαντες δὲ ταῦτα ἐς τὸν ποταμὸν καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ πρὸς τούτοισι ἐν Ἐννέα ὁδοῖσι τῇσι Ἠδωνῶν ἐπορεύοντο κατὰ τὰς γεφύρας, τὸν Στρυμόνα εὑρόντες ἐζευγμένον. Ἐννέα δὲ ὁδοὺς πυνθανόμενοι τὸν χῶρον τοῦτον καλέεσθαι, τοσούτους ἐν αὐτῷ παῖδάς τε καὶ παρθένους ἀνδρῶν τῶν ἐπιχωρίων ζώοντας κατώρυσσον. Περσικὸν δὲ τὸ ζώοντας κατορύσσειν, ἐπεὶ καὶ Ἄμηστριν τὴν Ξέρξεω γυναῖκα πυνθάνομαι γηράσασαν δὶς ἑπτὰ Περσέων παῖδας ἐόντων ἐπιφανέων ἀνδρῶν ὑπὲρ ἑωυτῆς τῷ ὑπὸ γῆν λεγομένῳ εἶναι θεῷ ἀντιχαρίζεσθαι κατορύσσουσαν. | 2.171. On this lake they enact by night the story of the god's sufferings, a rite which the Egyptians call the Mysteries. I could say more about this, for I know the truth, but let me preserve a discreet silence. ,Let me preserve a discreet silence, too, concerning that rite of Demeter which the Greeks call |
|
| 5. Dead Sea Scrolls, Hodayot, 10.10-10.11 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 45 |
| 6. Dead Sea Scrolls, Community Rule, 2.25-3.9, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.10, 4.21, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 7.10, 7.11, 7.12, 7.13, 7.14, 7.15, 7.16, 7.17, 7.18, 7.19, 7.20, 7.21, 7.22, 7.23, 7.24, 7.25 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 45 |
7. Septuagint, 4 Maccabees, 17.5 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 65 | 17.5. The moon in heaven, with the stars, does not stand so august as you, who, after lighting the way of your star-like seven sons to piety, stand in honor before God and are firmly set in heaven with them. |
|
| 8. Dead Sea Scrolls, Hodayot, 10.10-10.11 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 45 |
| 9. Philo of Alexandria, Questions On Exodus, 40 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 65 |
10. Philo of Alexandria, On The Life of Moses, 2.68 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 53 | 2.68. But, in the first place, before assuming that office, it was necessary for him to purify not only his soul but also his body, so that it should be connected with and defiled by no passion, but should be pure from everything which is of a mortal nature, from all meat and drink, and from all connection with women. |
|
11. Strabo, Geography, 16.2.43 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 | 16.2.43. Such are the phenomena. But Posidonius says, that the people being addicted to magic, and practising incantations, (by these means) consolidate the asphaltus, pouring upon it urine and other fetid fluids, and then cut it into pieces. (Incantations cannot be the cause), but perhaps urine may have some peculiar power (in effecting the consolidation) in the same manner that chrysocolla is formed in the bladders of persons who labour under the disease of the stone, and in the urine of children.It is natural for these phenomena to take place in the middle of the lake, because the source of the fire is in the centre, and the greater part of the asphaltus comes from thence. The bubbling up, however, of the asphaltus is irregular, because the motion of fire, like that of many other vapours, has no order perceptible to observers. There are also phenomena of this kind at Apollonia in Epirus. |
|
12. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 30.11, 30.13 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 | 30.11. I find that a heavy cold clears up if the sufferer kisses a mule's muzzle. Pain in the uvula and in the throat is relieved by the dung, dried in shade, of lambs that have not yet eaten grass, uvula pain by applying the juice of a snail transfixed by a needle, so that the snail itself may be hung up in the smoke, and by the ash of swallows with honey. This also gives relief to affections of the tonsils. Gargling with ewe's milk is a help to tonsils and throat, as is a multipede beaten up, gargling with pigeon's dung and raisin wine, and also an external application of it with dried fig and soda. Sore throat and a running cold are relieved by snails — they should be boiled unwashed and with only the earth taken off crushed and given to drink in raisin wine; some hold that the snails of Astypalaea are the most efficacious — by their ash, and also by rubbing with a cricket or if anybody touches the tonsils with hands that have crushed a cricket. 30.13. Good treatment for pains in the shoulder is weasel ash and wax. Rubbing with ants' eggs prevents hair in the armpits of children, and dealers, to delay growth of downy hair on adolescents, use blood that comes from the testicles of lambs when they are castrated. Applications of this blood after the hair has been pulled out also do away with the rank smell of the armpits. |
|
13. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 18.117 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 53| 18.117. κτείνει γὰρ δὴ τοῦτον ̔Ηρώδης ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα καὶ τοῖς ̓Ιουδαίοις κελεύοντα ἀρετὴν ἐπασκοῦσιν καὶ τὰ πρὸς ἀλλήλους δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν εὐσεβείᾳ χρωμένοις βαπτισμῷ συνιέναι: οὕτω γὰρ δὴ καὶ τὴν βάπτισιν ἀποδεκτὴν αὐτῷ φανεῖσθαι μὴ ἐπί τινων ἁμαρτάδων παραιτήσει χρωμένων, ἀλλ' ἐφ' ἁγνείᾳ τοῦ σώματος, ἅτε δὴ καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς δικαιοσύνῃ προεκκεκαθαρμένης. | 18.117. for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness. |
|
14. Suetonius, Nero, 16.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 | 16.2. During his reign many abuses were severely punished and put down, and no fewer new laws were made: a limit was set to expenditures; the public banquets were confined to a distribution of food; the sale of any kind of cooked viands in the taverns was forbidden, with the exception of pulse and vegetables, whereas before every sort of dainty was exposed for sale. Punishment was inflicted on the Christians, a class of men given to a new and mischievous superstition. He put an end to the diversions of the chariot drivers, who from immunity of long standing claimed the right of ranging at large and amusing themselves by cheating and robbing the people. The pantomimic actors and their partisans were banished from the city. |
|
15. Suetonius, Augustus, 100.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 65 | 100.4. There was even an ex-praetor who took oath that he had seen the form of the Emperor, after he had been reduced to ashes, on its way to heaven. His remains were gathered up by the leading men of the equestrian order, bare-footed and in ungirt tunics, and placed in the Mausoleum. This structure he had built in his sixth consulship between the Via Flaminia and the bank of the Tiber, and at the same time opened to the public the groves and walks by which it was surrounded. 101 |
|
16. New Testament, Acts, 2.38 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 131| 2.38. ἄνδρες ἀδελφοί; Πέτρος δὲ πρὸς αὐτούς Μετανοήσατε, καὶ βαπτισθήτω ἕκαστος ὑμῶν ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν, καὶ λήμψεσθε τὴν δωρεὰν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος· | 2.38. Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. |
|
17. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 2.129, 2.150 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 53| 2.129. καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πρὸς ἃς ἕκαστοι τέχνας ἴσασιν ὑπὸ τῶν ἐπιμελητῶν διαφίενται, καὶ μέχρι πέμπτης ὥρας ἐργασάμενοι συντόνως πάλιν εἰς ἓν συναθροίζονται χωρίον, ζωσάμενοί τε σκεπάσμασιν λινοῖς οὕτως ἀπολούονται τὸ σῶμα ψυχροῖς ὕδασιν, καὶ μετὰ ταύτην τὴν ἁγνείαν εἰς ἴδιον οἴκημα συνίασιν, ἔνθα μηδενὶ τῶν ἑτεροδόξων ἐπιτέτραπται παρελθεῖν: αὐτοί τε καθαροὶ καθάπερ εἰς ἅγιόν τι τέμενος παραγίνονται τὸ δειπνητήριον. | 2.129. After this every one of them are sent away by their curators, to exercise some of those arts wherein they are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence till the fifth hour. After which they assemble themselves together again into one place; and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe their bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they every one meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it is not permitted to any of another sect to enter; while they go, after a pure manner, into the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, 2.150. 10. Now after the time of their preparatory trial is over, they are parted into four classes; and so far are the juniors inferior to the seniors, that if the seniors should be touched by the juniors, they must wash themselves, as if they had intermixed themselves with the company of a foreigner. |
|
18. New Testament, James, 4.7-4.9 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 113| 4.7. Ὑποτάγητε οὖν τῷ θεῷ· ἀντίστητε δὲ τῷ διαβόλῳ, καὶ φεύξεται ἀφʼ ὑμῶν· 4.8. ἐγγίσατε τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἐγγίσει ὑμῖν. καθαρίσατε χεῖρας, ἁμαρτωλοί, καὶ ἁγνίσατε καρδίας, δίψυχοι. 4.9. ταλαιπωρήσατε καὶ πενθήσατε καὶ κλαύσατε· ὁ γέλως ὑμῶν εἰς πένθος μετατραπήτω καὶ ἡ χαρὰ εἰς κατήφειαν· | 4.7. Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 4.8. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 4.9. Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. |
|
| 19. Juvenal, Satires, 6.546 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 |
20. Josephus Flavius, Life, 11 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 53| 11. σκληραγωγήσας οὖν ἐμαυτὸν καὶ πολλὰ πονηθεὶς τὰς τρεῖς διῆλθον, καὶ μηδὲ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐμπειρίαν ἱκανὴν ἐμαυτῷ νομίσας εἶναι πυθόμενός τινα Βάννουν ὄνομα κατὰ τὴν ἐρημίαν διατρίβειν, ἐσθῆτι μὲν ἀπὸ δένδρων χρώμενον, τροφὴν δὲ τὴν αὐτομάτως φυομένην προσφερόμενον, ψυχρῷ δὲ ὕδατι τὴν ἡμέραν καὶ τὴν νύκτα πολλάκις λουόμενον πρὸς ἁγνείαν, ζηλωτὴς ἐγενόμην αὐτοῦ. | |
|
21. Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, 85.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 1, 15| 85.3. Ἐὰν δὲ κατὰ παντὸς ὀνόματος τῶν παρ᾿ ὑμῖν γεγενημένων ἢ βασιλέων ἢ δικαίων ἢ προφητῶν ἢ πατριαρχῶν ἐξορκίζητε ὑμεῖς, οὐχ ὑποταγήσεται οὐδὲν τῶν δαιμονίων· ἀλλ᾿ εἰ ἄρα ἐξορκίζοι τις ὑμῶν κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ θεοῦ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ θεοῦ Ἰακώβ, ἴσως ὑποταγήσεται. Ἢδη μέντοι οἱ ἐξ ὑμῶν ἐπορκισταὶ τῇ τέχνῃ, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ ἔθνη, χρώμενοι ἐξορκίζουσι καὶ θυμιάμασι καὶ καταδέσμοις χρῶνται, εἶπον. | |
|
| 22. Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 6.4 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 125 |
| 23. Justin, First Apology, 14.2 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 |
| 24. Lucian, Gout, 171, 173, 172 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 |
25. Irenaeus, Refutation of All Heresies, 1.13.1, 1.21.4 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2, 16 | 1.21.4. But there are some of them who assert that it is superfluous to bring persons to the water, but mixing oil and water together, they place this mixture on the heads of those who are to be initiated, with the use of some such expressions as we have already mentioned. And this they maintain to be the redemption. They, too, are accustomed to anoint with balsam. Others, however, reject all these practices, and maintain that the mystery of the unspeakable and invisible power ought not to be performed by visible and corruptible creatures, nor should that of those [beings] who are inconceivable, and incorporeal, and beyond the reach of sense, [be performed] by such as are the objects of sense, and possessed of a body. These hold that the knowledge of the unspeakable Greatness is itself perfect redemption. For since both defect and passion flowed from ignorance, the whole substance of what was thus formed is destroyed by knowledge; and therefore knowledge is the redemption of the inner man. This, however, is not of a corporeal nature, for the body is corruptible; nor is it animal, since the animal soul is the fruit of a defect, and is, as it were, the abode of the spirit. The redemption must therefore be of a spiritual nature; for they affirm that the inner and spiritual man is redeemed by means of knowledge, and that they, having acquired the knowledge of all things, stand thenceforth in need of nothing else. This, then, is the true redemption. |
|
26. Clement of Alexandria, Excerpts From Theodotus, 81, 14 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 125 | 14. The demons are said to be incorporeal, not because they have no bodies (for they have even shape and are, therefore, capable of feeling punishment), but they are said to be incorporeal because, in comparison with the spiritual bodies which are saved, they are a shade. And the angels are bodies; at any rate they are seen. Why even the soul is a body, for the Apostle says, 'It is sown a body of soul, it is raised a body of spirit.' And how can the souls which are being punished be sensible of it, if they are not bodies? Certainly he says, 'Fear him who, after death, is able to cast soul and body into hell.' Now that which is visible is not purged by fire, but is dissolved into dust. But, from the story of Lazarus and Dives, the soul is directly shown by its possession of bodily limbs to be a body. |
|
| 27. Censorinus, De Die Natali, 7 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 14 |
| 28. Albinus, Introduction To Plato, 3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 17 |
29. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 56.46.2 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 65 | 56.46.2. they also permitted her to employ a lictor when she exercised her sacred office. On her part, she bestowed a million sesterces upon a certain Numerius Atticus, a senator and ex-praetor, because he swore that he had seen Augustus ascending to heaven after the manner of which tradition tells concerning Proculus and Romulus. |
|
30. Philostratus The Athenian, Life of Apollonius, 7.38, 8.30 (2nd cent. CE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 15, 65| 7.38. διαλέγεσθαι μὲν δὴ τὸν ̓Απολλώνιον πλείω τοιαῦτα, ἑαυτὸν δὲ ὁ Δάμις ἀπορεῖν μὲν ὑπὲρ τῶν παρόντων φησί, λύσιν δὲ αὐτῶν ὁρᾶν οὐδεμίαν, πλὴν ὅσαι παρὰ τῶν θεῶν εὐξαμένοις τισὶ κἀκ πολλῷ χαλεπωτέρων ἦλθον, ὀλίγον δὲ πρὸ μεσημβρίας “ὦ Τυανεῦ,” φάναι, σφόδρα γὰρ δὴ χαίρειν αὐτὸν τῇ προσρήσει “τί πεισόμεθα;” “ὅ γε ἐπάθομεν,” ἔφη “πέρα δ' οὐδέν, οὐδὲ ἀποκτενεῖ ἡμᾶς οὐδείς.” “καὶ τίς” εἶπεν “οὕτως ἄτρωτος; λυθήσῃ δὲ πότε;” “τὸ μὲν ἐπὶ τῷ δικάσαντι” ἔφη “τήμερον, τὸ δὲ ἐπ' ἐμοὶ ἄρτι.” καὶ εἰπὼν ταῦτα ἐξήγαγε τὸ σκέλος τοῦ δεσμοῦ καὶ πρὸς τὸν Δάμιν ἔφη “ἐπίδειξιν πεποίημαί σοι τῆς ἐλευθερίας τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ θάρρει.” τότε πρῶτον ὁ Δάμις φησὶν ἀκριβῶς ξυνεῖναι τῆς ̓Απολλωνίου φύσεως, ὅτι θεία τε εἴη καὶ κρείττων ἀνθρώπου, μὴ γὰρ θύσαντα, πῶς γὰρ ἐν δεσμωτηρίῳ; μηδ' εὐξάμενόν τι, μηδὲ εἰπόντα καταγελάσαι τοῦ δεσμοῦ καὶ ἐναρμόσαντα αὖ τὸ σκέλος τὰ τοῦ δεδεμένου πράττειν. | 7.38. Damis says that though Apollonius uttered many more discourses of the same kind, he was himself in despair of the situation, because he saw no way out of it except such as the gods have vouchsafed to some in answer to prayer, when they were in even worse straits. But a little before midday, he tells us that he said: O man of Tyana, — for he took a special pleasure, it appears, in being called by that name, — what is to become of us? Why what has become of us already, said Apollonius, and nothing more, for no one is going to kill us. And who, said Damis, is so invulnerable as that? But will you ever be liberated? So far as it rests with the verdict of the court, said Apollonius, I shall be set at liberty this day, but so far as depend upon my own will, now and here. And with these words he took his leg out of the fetters and remarked to Damis: Here is proof positive to you of my freedom, to cheer you up. Damis says that it was then for the first time that he really and truly understood the nature of Apollonius, to wit that it was divine and superhuman, for without sacrifice — and how in prison could he have offered any? — and without a single prayer, without even a word, he quietly laughed at the fetters, and then inserted his leg in them afresh, and behaved like a prisoner once more. 8.30. Now there are some who relate that he died in Ephesus, tended by two maid servants; for the freedmen of whom I spoke at the beginning of my story were already dead. One of these maids he emancipated, and was blamed by the other one for not conferring the same privilege upon her, but Apollonius told her that it was better for her to remain the other's slave, for that would be the beginning of her well-being. Accordingly after his death this one continued to be the slave of the other, who for some insignificant reason sold her to a merchant, from whom she was purchased. Her new master, although she was not good-looking, nevertheless fell in love with her; and being a fairly rich man, made her his legal wife and had legitimate children with her. Others again say that he died in Lindus, where he entered the sanctuary of Athena and disappeared within it. Others again say that he died in Crete in a much more remarkable manner than the people of Lindus relate. For they say that he continued to live in Crete, where he became a greater center of admiration than ever before, and that he came to the sanctuary of Dictynna late at night. Now this sanctuary is guarded by dogs, whose duty it is to watch over the wealth deposited in it, and the Cretans claim that they are as good as bears or any other animals equally fierce. None the less, when he came, instead of barking, they approached him and fawned upon him, as they would not have done even with people they knew familiarly. The guardians of the shrine arrested him in consequence, and threw him in bonds as a wizard and a robber, accusing him of having thrown to the dogs some charmed morsel. But about midnight he loosened his bonds, and after calling those who had bound him, in order that they might witness the spectacle, he ran to the doors of the sanctuary, which opened wide to receive him; and when he had passed within, they closed afresh, as they had been shut, and there was heard a chorus of maidens singing from within the doors, and their song was this. Hasten thou from earth, hasten thou to Heaven, hasten. In other words: Do thou go upwards from earth. |
|
| 31. Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation To The Greeks, 1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 |
| 32. Clement of Alexandria, Christ The Educator, 3.4 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 |
33. Origen, Against Celsus, 1.25-1.26 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 | 1.25. And perhaps there is a danger as great as that which degrades the name of God, or of the Good, to improper objects, in changing the name of God according to a secret system, and applying those which belong to inferior beings to greater, and vice versa. And I do not dwell on this, that when the name of Zeus is uttered, there is heard at the same time that of the son of Kronos and Rhea, and the husband of Hera, and brother of Poseidon, and father of Athene, and Artemis, who was guilty of incest with his own daughter Persephone; or that Apollo immediately suggests the son of Leto and Zeus, and the brother of Artemis, and half-brother of Hermes; and so with all the other names invented by these wise men of Celsus, who are the parents of these opinions, and the ancient theologians of the Greeks. For what are the grounds for deciding that he should on the one hand be properly called Zeus, and yet on the other should not have Kronos for his father and Rhea for his mother? And the same argument applies to all the others that are called gods. But this charge does not at all apply to those who, for some mysterious reason, refer the word Sabaoth, or Adonai, or any of the other names to the (true) God. And when one is able to philosophize about the mystery of names, he will find much to say respecting the titles of the angels of God, of whom one is called Michael, and another Gabriel, and another Raphael, appropriately to the duties which they discharge in the world, according to the will of the God of all things. And a similar philosophy of names applies also to our Jesus, whose name has already been seen, in an unmistakeable manner, to have expelled myriads of evil spirits from the souls and bodies (of men), so great was the power which it exerted upon those from whom the spirits were driven out. And while still upon the subject of names, we have to mention that those who are skilled in the use of incantations, relate that the utterance of the same incantation in its proper language can accomplish what the spell professes to do; but when translated into any other tongue, it is observed to become inefficacious and feeble. And thus it is not the things signified, but the qualities and peculiarities of words, which possess a certain power for this or that purpose. And so on such grounds as these we defend the conduct of the Christians, when they struggle even to death to avoid calling God by the name of Zeus, or to give Him a name from any other language. For they either use the common name - God - indefinitely, or with some such addition as that of the Maker of all things, the Creator of heaven and earth - He who sent down to the human race those good men, to whose names that of God being added, certain mighty works are wrought among men. And much more besides might be said on the subject of names, against those who think that we ought to be indifferent as to our use of them. And if the remark of Plato in the Philebus should surprise us, when he says, My fear, O Protagoras, about the names of the gods is no small one, seeing Philebus in his discussion with Socrates had called pleasure a god, how shall we not rather approve the piety of the Christians, who apply none of the names used in the mythologies to the Creator of the world? And now enough on this subject for the present. 1.26. But let us see the manner in which this Celsus, who professes to know everything, brings a false accusation against the Jews, when he alleges that they worship angels, and are addicted to sorcery, in which Moses was their instructor. Now, in what part of the writings of Moses he found the lawgiver laying down the worship of angels, let him tell, who professes to know all about Christianity and Judaism; and let him show also how sorcery can exist among those who have accepted the Mosaic law, and read the injunction, Neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them. Moreover, he promises to show afterwards how it was through ignorance that the Jews were deceived and led into error. Now, if he had discovered that the ignorance of the Jews regarding Christ was the effect of their not having heard the prophecies about Him, he would show with truth how the Jews fell into error. But without any wish whatever that this should appear, he views as Jewish errors what are no errors at all. And Celsus having promised to make us acquainted, in a subsequent part of his work, with the doctrines of Judaism, proceeds in the first place to speak of our Saviour as having been the leader of our generation, in so far as we are Christians, and says that a few years ago he began to teach this doctrine, being regarded by Christians as the Son of God. Now, with respect to this point - His prior existence a few years ago - we have to remark as follows. Could it have come to pass without divine assistance, that Jesus, desiring during these years to spread abroad His words and teaching, should have been so successful, that everywhere throughout the world, not a few persons, Greeks as well as Barbarians, learned as well as ignorant, adopted His doctrine, so that they struggled, even to death in its defense, rather than deny it, which no one is ever related to have done for any other system? I indeed, from no wish to flatter Christianity, but from a desire thoroughly to examine the facts, would say that even those who are engaged in the healing of numbers of sick persons, do not attain their object - the cure of the body - without divine help; and if one were to succeed in delivering souls from a flood of wickedness, and excesses, and acts of injustice, and from a contempt of God, and were to show, as evidence of such a result, one hundred persons improved in their natures (let us suppose the number to be so large), no one would reasonably say that it was without divine assistance that he had implanted in those hundred individuals a doctrine capable of removing so many evils. And if any one, on a candid consideration of these things, shall admit that no improvement ever takes place among men without divine help, how much more confidently shall he make the same assertion regarding Jesus, when he compares the former lives of many converts to His doctrine with their after conduct, and reflects in what acts of licentiousness and injustice and covetousness they formerly indulged, until, as Celsus, and they who think with him, allege, they were deceived, and accepted a doctrine which, as these individuals assert, is destructive of the life of men; but who, from the time that they adopted it, have become in some way meeker, and more religious, and more consistent, so that certain among them, from a desire of exceeding chastity, and a wish to worship God with greater purity, abstain even from the permitted indulgences of (lawful) love. |
|
| 34. Origen, Selecta In Exodum (Fragmenta E Catenis), pg 12.284b (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 14 |
| 35. Papyri, Papyri Graecae Magicae, 1 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13 |
| 36. Anon., Pistis Sophia, 116, 115 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 125 |
| 37. Plotinus, Enneads, 1.6, 1.6.9, 2.9.14, 4.4.26, 4.4.43 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 15, 16, 17 |
| 38. Porphyry, Against The Christians Fragments, 88 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 131 |
39. Porphyry, Life of Plotinus, 10 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 16, 17 | 10. Among those making profession of Philosophy at Rome was one Olympius, an Alexandrian, who had been for a little while a pupil of Ammonius. This man's jealous envy showed itself in continual insolence, and finally he grew so bitter that he even ventured sorcery, seeking to crush Plotinus by star-spells. But he found his experiments recoiling upon himself, and he confessed to his associates that Plotinus possessed 'a mighty soul, so powerful, as to be able to hurl every assault back upon those that sought his ruin'. Plotinus had felt the operation and declared that at that moment Olympius' 'limbs were convulsed and his body shrivelling like a money-bag pulled tight'. Olympius, perceiving on several attempts that he was endangering himself rather than Plotinus, desisted. In fact Plotinus possessed by birth something more than is accorded to other men. An Egyptian priest who had arrived in Rome and, through some friend, had been presented to the philosopher, became desirous of displaying his powers to him, and he offered to evoke a visible manifestation of Plotinus' presiding spirit. Plotinus readily consented and the evocation was made in the Temple of Isis, the only place, they say, which the Egyptian could find pure in Rome. At the summons a Divinity appeared, not a being of the spirit-ranks, and the Egyptian exclaimed: 'You are singularly graced; the guiding-spirit within you is not of the lower degree but a God.' It was not possible, however, to interrogate or even to contemplate this God any further, for the priest's assistant, who had been holding the birds to prevent them flying away, strangled them, whether through jealousy or in terror. Thus Plotinus had for indwelling spirit a Being of the more divine degree, and he kept his own divine spirit unceasingly intent upon that inner presence. It was this preoccupation that led him to write his treatise upon Our Tutelary Spirit, an essay in the explanation of the differences among spirit-guides. Amelius was scrupulous in observing the day of the New-Moon and other holy-days, and once asked Plotinus to join in some such celebration: Plotinus refused: 'It is for those Beings to come to me, not for me to go to them.' What was in his mind in so lofty an utterance we could not explain to ourselves and we dared not ask him. |
|
| 40. Pseudo-Justinus, Quaestiones Et Responsiones Ad Orthodoxos, 24 (3rd cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 15 |
| 41. Pseudo Clementine Literature, Homilies, 5.4-5.7 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 2 |
| 42. Iamblichus, Concerning The Mysteries, 1.12, 2.11, 3.4, 3.25, 4.2, 5.7-9, 5.8, 5.11, 6.4, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 10 |
| 43. Arnobius, Against The Gentiles, 1.43-1.44 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 15 |
44. Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, 67b (3rd cent. CE - 6th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 14| 67b. מיתה אחת,בן עזאי אומר נאמר (שמות כב, יז) מכשפה לא תחיה ונאמר (שמות כב, יח) כל שוכב עם בהמה מות יומת סמכו ענין לו מה שוכב עם בהמה בסקילה אף מכשף בסקילה,אמר לו רבי יהודה וכי מפני שסמכו ענין לו נוציא לזה בסקילה אלא אוב וידעוני בכלל מכשפים היו ולמה יצאו להקיש עליהן ולומר לך מה אוב וידעוני בסקילה אף מכשף בסקילה,לרבי יהודה נמי ליהוו אוב וידעוני שני כתובים הבאים כאחד וכל שני כתובין הבאין כאחד אין מלמדין,אמר רבי זכריה עדא אמרה קסבר ר' יהודה שני כתובין הבאין כאחד מלמדין,אמר רבי יוחנן למה נקרא שמן כשפים שמכחישין פמליא של מעלה:,(דברים ד, לה) אין עוד מלבדו אמר רבי חנינא אפילו לדבר כשפים,ההיא איתתא דהות קא מהדרא למשקל עפרא מתותי כרעיה דרבי חנינא אמר לה אי מסתייעת זילי עבידי אין עוד מלבדו כתיב,איני והאמר רבי יוחנן למה נקרא שמן מכשפים שמכחישין פמליא של מעלה שאני רבי חנינא דנפיש זכותיה,אמר רבי אייבו בר נגרי אמר רבי חייא בר אבא בלטיהם אלו מעשה שדים בלהטיהם אלו מעשה כשפים וכן הוא אומר (בראשית ג, כד) ואת להט החרב המתהפכת,אמר אביי דקפיד אמנא שד דלא קפיד אמנא כשפים,אמר אביי הלכות כשפים כהלכות שבת יש מהן בסקילה ויש מהן פטור אבל אסור ויש מהן מותר לכתחלה,העושה מעשה בסקילה האוחז את העינים פטור אבל אסור מותר לכתחלה כדרב חנינא ורב אושעיא כל מעלי שבתא הוו עסקי בהלכות יצירה ומיברי להו עיגלא תילתא ואכלי ליה,אמר רב אשי חזינא ליה לאבוה דקרנא דנפיץ ושדי כריכי דשיראי מנחיריה,(שמות ח, טו) ויאמרו החרטומים אל פרעה אצבע אלהים היא אמר ר' אליעזר מיכן שאין השד יכול לבראות בריה פחות מכשעורה,רב פפא אמר האלהים אפילו כגמלא נמי לא מצי ברי האי מיכניף ליה והאי לא מיכניף ליה,א"ל רב לרבי חייא לדידי חזי לי ההוא טייעא דשקליה לספסירא וגיידיה לגמלא וטרף ליה בטבלא וקם אמר ליה לבתר הכי דם ופרתא מי הואי אלא ההיא אחיזת עינים הוה,זעירי איקלע לאלכסנדריא של מצרים זבן חמרא כי מטא לאשקוייה מיא פשר וקם גמלא דוסקניתא אמרו ליה אי לאו זעירי את לא הוה מהדרינן לך מי איכא דזבין מידי הכא ולא בדיק ליה אמיא:,ינאי איקלע לההוא אושפיזא אמר להו אשקין מיא קריבו שתיתא חזא דקא מרחשן שפוותה שדא פורתא מיניה הוו עקרבי אמר להו אנא שתאי מדידכו אתון נמי שתו מדידי אשקייה הואי חמרא רכבה סליק לשוקא אתא חברתה פשרה לה חזייה דרכיב וקאי אאיתתא בשוקא,(שמות ח, ב) ותעל הצפרדע ותכס את ארץ מצרים אמר ר' אלעזר צפרדע אחת היתה השריצה ומלאה כל ארץ מצרים,כתנאי רבי עקיבא אומר צפרדע אחת היתה ומלאה כל ארץ מצרים אמר לו רבי אלעזר בן עזריה עקיבא מה לך אצל הגדה כלה מדברותיך ולך אצל נגעים ואהלות צפרדע אחת היתה שרקה להם והם באו:,אמר ר' עקיבא כו': | 67b. one type of death penalty, namely, decapitation. Since that is the only type of capital punishment that applies to gentiles, it cannot be derived through a verbal analogy that the same type applies to a Jewish sorceror.,The baraita continues: Ben Azzai says that it is stated: “You shall not allow a witch to live” (Exodus 22:17), and it is stated in the following verse: “Whoever lies with an animal shall be put to death” (Exodus 22:18). The fact that the Torah juxtaposes this matter to that matter is to teach that just as one who lies with an animal is executed by stoning (see Leviticus, chapter 20), so too, a warlock is executed by stoning.,With regard to this derivation, Rabbi Yehuda said to him: And because the Torah juxtaposes this matter with that matter, shall we take this person out to be stoned? Should he be sentenced to the most severe type of capital punishment on that basis? Rather, the source is as follows: A necromancer and a sorcerer were included in the general category of warlocks, and why were they singled out from the rest, with their prohibition and punishment stated independently? This was done in order to draw an analogy to them and say to you: Just as a necromancer and a sorcerer are executed by stoning, so too, a warlock is executed by stoning.,The Gemara asks: According to the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda as well, let the punishment with regard to a necromancer and a sorcerer be considered two verses that come as one, i.e., that teach the same matter, and therefore the halakha of other cases cannot be derived from it, according to the principle that any two verses that come as one do not teach about other cases. In other words, if a halakha is taught with regard to two individual cases in the Torah, the understanding is that this halakha applies only to those cases. Had this halakha applied to all other relevant cases as well, it would not have been necessary for the Torah to teach it twice. The fact that two cases are mentioned indicates that they are the exceptions rather than the rule.,Rabbi Zekharya says: This means that Rabbi Yehuda holds that two verses that come as one do teach about other cases.,§ Rabbi Yoḥa says: Why is sorcery called keshafim? Because it is an acronym for: Contradicts the heavenly entourage [shemakhḥishin pamalia shel mala]. Sorcery appears to contradict the laws of nature established by God.,The verse states: “To you it was shown, so that you should know that the Lord is God; there is none else besides Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35). Rabbi Ḥanina says: This is true even with regard to a matter of sorcery; sorcery is ineffective against a righteous person.,The Gemara relates: There was a certain woman who was attempting to take dust from under the feet of Rabbi Ḥanina in order to perform sorcery on him and harm him. Rabbi Ḥanina said to her: If you succeed, go and do it. I am not concerned about it, as it is written: “There is none else besides Him.”,The Gemara asks: Is that so? But doesn’t Rabbi Yoḥa say: Why are sorcerers called mekhashefim? Because it is an acronym for: Contradicts the heavenly entourage. This indicates that one should be wary of sorcery. The Gemara answers: Rabbi Ḥanina is different, as his merit is great, and sorcery certainly has no effect on such a righteous person.,Rabbi Aivu bar Nagri says that Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba says that in the verse: “And the magicians of Egypt did in that manner with their secret arts [belateihem]” (Exodus 7:22), these words are describing acts of employing demons, which are invisible, and their actions are therefore hidden [balat]. With regard to the similar term “belahateihem” (Exodus 7:11), these are acts of sorcery, which sorcerers perform themselves, without using demons. And likewise it says: “And the flaming [lahat] sword that turned every way” (Genesis 3:24), referring to a sword that revolves by itself.,Abaye says: A sorcerer who is particular about using a certain utensil for his sorcery is employing a demon; one who is not particular about using a certain utensil is performing an act of sorcery.,Abaye says: The halakhot of sorcery are like the halakhot of Shabbat, in that their actions can be divided into three categories: There are some of them for which one is liable to be executed by stoning, and there are some of them for which one is exempt from punishment by Torah law but they are prohibited by rabbinic law, and there are some of them that are permitted ab initio.,Abaye elaborates: One who performs a real act of sorcery is liable to be executed by stoning. One who deceives the eyes is exempt from punishment, but it is prohibited for him to do so. What is permitted ab initio is to act like Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya: Every Shabbat eve they would engage in the study of the halakhot of creation, and a third-born calf would be created for them, and they would eat it in honor of Shabbat.,Rav Ashi said: I saw Karna’s father perform a magic trick in which he would blow his nose and cast rolls of silk from his nostrils by deceiving the eye.,With regard to the verse: “And the magicians said to Pharaoh: This is the finger of God” (Exodus 8:15), Rabbi Eliezer says: It is derived from here that a demon cannot create an entity smaller than the size of a barley grain. Consequently, the magicians were not capable of duplicating the plague of lice, and they realized that this was not an act of sorcery but was performed by God.,Rav Pappa said: By God! They cannot create even an entity as large as a camel. They do not create anything. Rather, they can gather these large animals, leading them from one place to another, but they cannot gather those small animals.,Rav said to Rabbi Ḥiyya: I myself saw a certain Arab who took a sword and sliced a camel and then beat a drum [betavla], and the camel arose from the dead. Rabbi Ḥiyya said to him: Was there blood and excretion afterward in that place, which flowed from the camel when it was sliced? Rather, since there was none, that was clearly a deception of the eyes and not sorcery.,The Gemara relates: Ze’eiri happened to come to Alexandria of Egypt. He bought a donkey. When he was about to give it water to drink the magic thawed when the donkey touched the water and it was revealed that it was not a donkey, and it turned into the plank of a bridge. The ones who sold it to him said to him: If you were not Ze’eiri, a distinguished person, we would not refund you the money for the donkey. Is there anyone who buys an item here and does not examine it first with water? Since sorcery was widespread there, anyone who bought an item examined it in order to find out if it was affected by sorcery, and if one did not examine an acquired item by exposing it to water and it turned out to be under a spell, he suffered the loss.,The Gemara relates: A man named Yannai arrived at a certain inn. He said to the innkeepers: Give me water to drink. They brought him flour mixed with water. He saw that the lips of the innkeeper woman were moving, and he cast a bit of the drink to the ground, and it turned into scorpions, and he understood that the innkeepers performed sorcery on the drink. Yannai said to them: I drank from yours; you too drink from mine, and he also performed sorcery on the drink. He gave it to her to drink and she turned into a donkey. He rode upon her and went to the marketplace. Her friend came and released her from the sorcery, and people saw him riding on a woman in the marketplace.,It is stated with regard to the plagues of Egypt: “And the frog came up and covered the land of Egypt” (Exodus 8:2). Noting that the term “the frog” is written in the singular, Rabbi Elazar says: At first it was one frog; it spawned and filled the entire land of Egypt with frogs.,The Gemara comments: This matter is subject to a dispute between tanna’im: Rabbi Akiva says: It was one frog, and it spawned and filled the entire land of Egypt with frogs. Rabbi Elazar ben Azarya said to him: Akiva, what are you doing occupying yourself with the study of aggada? This is not your field of expertise. Take your statements to the tractates of Nega’im and Oholot. In other words, it is preferable that you teach the halakhot of the impurity of leprosy and the impurity imparted in a tent, which are among the most difficult areas of halakha and are within your field of expertise. Rather, the verse is to be understood as follows: It was one frog; it whistled to the other frogs, and they all came after it.,§ In the mishna, Rabbi Akiva says in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua that two people can each gather cucumbers by sorcery, one of whom is exempt, as he merely deceives the eyes, and one of whom is liable, as he performs real sorcery. |
|
45. Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah, 28a (3rd cent. CE - 6th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 18 28a. התם הוא דמבטל אבל הכא דלא מבטל לא,ת"ר מעשה ברבי אליעזר ששבת בגליל העליון ושאלוהו שלשים הלכות בהלכות סוכה שתים עשרה אמר להם שמעתי שמונה עשר אמר להם לא שמעתי ר' יוסי בר' יהודה אומר חילוף הדברים שמונה עשר אמר להם שמעתי שתים עשרה אמר להם לא שמעתי,אמרו לו כל דבריך אינן אלא מפי השמועה אמר להם הזקקתוני לומר דבר שלא שמעתי מפי רבותי מימי לא קדמני אדם בבית המדרש ולא ישנתי בבית המדרש לא שינת קבע ולא שינת עראי ולא הנחתי אדם בבית המדרש ויצאתי ולא שחתי שיחת חולין ולא אמרתי דבר שלא שמעתי מפי רבי מעולם,אמרו עליו על רבן יוחנן בן זכאי מימיו לא שח שיחת חולין ולא הלך ד' אמות בלא תורה ובלא תפילין ולא קדמו אדם בבית המדרש ולא ישן בבית המדרש לא שינת קבע ולא שינת עראי ולא הרהר במבואות המטונפות ולא הניח אדם בבית המדרש ויצא ולא מצאו אדם יושב ודומם אלא יושב ושונה ולא פתח אדם דלת לתלמידיו אלא הוא בעצמו ולא אמר דבר שלא שמע מפי רבו מעולם ולא אמר הגיע עת לעמוד מבית המדרש חוץ מערבי פסחים וערבי יום הכפורים וכן היה ר' אליעזר תלמידו נוהג אחריו,תנו רבנן שמונים תלמידים היו לו להלל הזקן שלשים מהן ראוים שתשרה עליהן שכינה כמשה רבינו ושלשים מהן ראוים שתעמוד להם חמה כיהושע בן נון עשרים בינונים גדול שבכולן יונתן בן עוזיאל קטן שבכולן רבן יוחנן בן זכאי,אמרו עליו על רבן יוחנן בן זכאי שלא הניח מקרא ומשנה גמרא הלכות ואגדות דקדוקי תורה ודקדוקי סופרים קלים וחמורים וגזרות שוות תקופות וגימטריאות שיחת מלאכי השרת ושיחת שדים ושיחת דקלים משלות כובסין משלות שועלים דבר גדול ודבר קטן,דבר גדול מעשה מרכבה דבר קטן הויות דאביי ורבא לקיים מה שנאמר (משלי ח, כא) להנחיל אוהבי יש ואוצרותיהם אמלא וכי מאחר שקטן שבכולן כך גדול שבכולן על אחת כמה וכמה אמרו עליו על יונתן בן עוזיאל בשעה שיושב ועוסק בתורה כל עוף שפורח עליו מיד נשרף:,| 28a. The Gemara answers: There is a difference between the case of the shutter and the case of the sheet. There, in the case of the shutter, where he negates it by shuttering the window, it is considered part of the building and it is therefore prohibited. However, here, in the case of the sheet, where he does not negate it, as he plans on removing it, no, it is not necessarily prohibited.,The Gemara relates a similar incident. The Sages taught: There was an incident involving Rabbi Eliezer, who stayed in the Upper Galilee, and the people there asked him thirty halakhot in the halakhot of sukka. In response to twelve, he said to them: I heard an answer from my teachers, and he related what he heard. In response to the other eighteen, he said to them: I did not hear an answer. Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Yehuda, says: It was the reverse of these matters. In response to eighteen he said to them: I heard an answer; in response to the other twelve he said to them: I did not hear an answer.,They said to him: Are all the matters that you know only from what you heard? Don’t you say any matters on your own? He said to them: Now you forced me to say a matter that I did not hear from my teachers, as I must describe my character traits and the manner in which I conduct myself. In all my days, no person ever preceded me into the study hall, as I am always first to arrive; and I never slept in the study hall, neither substantial sleep nor a brief nap; and I never left anyone in the study hall and exited, as I was always last to leave; and I never engaged in idle conversation; rather, I discussed only necessary matters or matters of Torah; and I never said anything that I did not hear from my teacher. That is why he did not answer those questions that his teacher did not address.,Apropos the character traits of Rabbi Eliezer, the Gemara cites character traits of his teacher. The Sages said about Rabban Yoḥa ben Zakkai, the teacher of Rabbi Eliezer: In all his days he never engaged in idle conversation; and he never walked four cubits without engaging in Torah study and without donning phylacteries; and no person ever preceded him into the study hall; and he never slept in the study hall, neither substantial sleep nor a brief nap; and he never contemplated matters of Torah in alleyways filthy with human excrement, as doing so is a display of contempt for the Torah; and he never left anyone in the study hall and exited; and no person ever found him sitting and silent, i.e., inactive; rather, he was always sitting and studying; and only he opened the door for his students, disregarding his own eminent standing; and he never said anything that he did not hear from his teacher; and he never said to his students that the time has arrived to arise and leave the study hall except on Passover eves, when they were obligated to sacrifice the Paschal lamb, and Yom Kippur eves, when there is a mitzva to eat and drink abundantly. And Rabbi Eliezer, his student, accustomed himself to model his conduct after his example.,The Gemara continues to praise the Sages. The Sages taught: Hillel the Elder had eighty students. Thirty of them were sufficiently worthy that the Divine Presence should rest upon them as it did upon Moses our teacher, and thirty of them were sufficiently worthy that the sun should stand still for them as it did for Joshua bin Nun, and twenty were on an intermediate level between the other two. The greatest of all the students was Yonatan ben Uzziel, and the youngest of them was Rabban Yoḥa ben Zakkai.,The Gemara relates: The Sages said about Rabban Yoḥa ben Zakkai that he did not neglect Bible; Mishna; Gemara; halakhot and aggadot; minutiae of the Torah and minutiae of the scribes; the hermeneutical principles of the Torah with regard to a fortiori inferences and verbal analogies; the calculation of the calendrical seasons; and numerology [gimmatreyaot]. In addition, he did not neglect esoteric matters, including the conversation of ministering angels; the conversation of demons, and the conversation of palm trees; parables of launderers, which are folk tales that can be used to explain the Torah; parables of foxes; and more generally, a great matter and a small matter.,The Gemara elaborates: A great matter is referring to the secrets of the Design of the Divine Chariot, the conduct of the transcendent universe. A small matter is, for example, halakhot that were ultimately formulated in the framework of the disputes of Abaye and Rava. He did not neglect any of these disciplines so as to fulfill that which is stated: “That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance and that I may fill their treasuries” (Proverbs 8:21), as Rabban Yoḥa was filled with the disciplines of Torah and wisdom. And if the youngest of them was so prolific, the greatest of them was all the more so prolific. The Gemara relates that the Sages said of Yonatan ben Uzziel, the greatest of Hillel’s students, that when he sat and was engaged in Torah study, the sanctity that he generated was so intense that any bird that flew over him was immediately incinerated.,one whose head and most of his body were in the sukka and his table was in the house, Beit Shammai deem it unfit, and Beit Hillel deem it fit. Beit Hillel said to Beit Shammai: And wasn’t there an incident where the Elders of Beit Shammai and the Elders of Beit Hillel went to visit Rabbi Yoḥa ben HaḤoranit and they found him such that he was sitting with his head and most of his body in the sukka and his table in the house, and they said nothing to him? Even Beit Shammai did not object. Beit Shammai said to them: Is there proof from there? That is not what happened; rather, they said to him: If you were accustomed to act in this manner, you have never fulfilled the mitzva of sukka in your life.,The mishna continues: Women, slaves, and minors are exempt from the mitzva of sukka. A minor who does not need his mother any longer is obligated in the mitzva. There was an incident where the daughter-in-law of Shammai the Elder gave birth just before Sukkot, and Shammai removed the coat of plaster from the roof, leaving the beams, and roofed with the beams over the bed for the newborn minor.,halakha that women, slaves, and minors are exempt from the mitzva of sukka, the Gemara asks: From where are these matters derived? The Gemara answers that it is as the Sages taught in a baraita that it is stated: “All the homeborn in Israel shall reside in sukkot” (Leviticus 23:42). Had the verse stated only: Homeborn, it would have been derived that any homeborn member of the Jewish people is obligated to observe this mitzva. However, the term with the addition of the definite article: “The homeborn,” indicates that only certain homeborn members are obligated, i.e., men, to the exclusion of the women. The word “all” in the phrase: “All the homeborn,” comes to include the minors capable of performing this mitzva.,§ The Gemara analyzes the baraita. The Master said: “The homeborn” is to the exclusion of women. Is that to say that the term homeborn without the definite article indicates both men and women? Isn’t it taught in a baraita with regard to Yom Kippur that it is stated: “And it shall be a statute forever unto you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls and shall do no manner of work, the homeborn, or the stranger that sojourns among you” (Leviticus 16:29). And the term “the homeborn” in that verse comes to include homeborn women, who are obligated in the mitzva of affliction on Yom Kippur. In that case, the definite article comes to include women. Therefore, apparently, the term homeborn, without the definite article, indicates only men. Rabba said: They are each a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai, and the Sages merely supported them with verses as a mnemonic device. Therefore, it is not surprising that the derivations are contradictory.,The Gemara asks: Which of them is derived from the verse and which is a halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai and merely supported by a verse? And furthermore, why do I need the verse and why do I need the halakha? Isn’t sukka a positive, time-bound mitzva, and the principle is that women are exempt from all positive, time-bound mitzvot? There is no need for a special derivation to exempt women from the mitzva of sukka.,And there is no need for a derivation with regard to their obligation to fast on Yom Kippur, as that can be derived from that which Rav Yehuda said that Rav said, as Rav Yehuda said that Rav said, and it was likewise taught in the school of Rabbi Yishmael: The verse says: “When a man or woman shall commit any sin that a person commits, to commit a trespass against the Lord, and that soul be guilty” (Numbers 5:6). | |
|
| 46. Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation For The Gospel, 5.10 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 10 |
| 47. John Chrysostom, Commentarius In Job, 1.6, 8.8 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 1, 15 |
48. Augustine, The City of God, 10.9-10.10 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 9, 13 | 10.9. These miracles, and many others of the same nature, which it were tedious to mention, were wrought for the purpose of commending the worship of the one true God, and prohibiting the worship of a multitude of false gods. Moreover, they were wrought by simple faith and godly confidence, not by the incantations and charms composed under the influence of a criminal tampering with the unseen world, of an art which they call either magic, or by the more abominable title necromancy, or the more honorable designation theurgy; for they wish to discriminate between those whom the people call magicians, who practise necromancy, and are addicted to illicit arts and condemned, and those others who seem to them to be worthy of praise for their practice of theurgy - the truth, however, being that both classes are the slaves of the deceitful rites of the demons whom they invoke under the names of angels. For even Porphyry promises some kind of purgation of the soul by the help of theurgy, though he does so with some hesitation and shame, and denies that this art can secure to any one a return to God; so that you can detect his opinion vacillating between the profession of philosophy and an art which he feels to be presumptuous and sacrilegious. For at one time he warns us to avoid it as deceitful, and prohibited by law, and dangerous to those who practise it; then again, as if in deference to its advocates, he declares it useful for cleansing one part of the soul, not, indeed, the intellectual part, by which the truth of things intelligible, which have no sensible images, is recognized, but the spiritual part, which takes cognizance of the images of things material. This part, he says, is prepared and fitted for intercourse with spirits and angels, and for the vision of the gods, by the help of certain theurgic consecrations, or, as they call them, mysteries. He acknowledges, however, that these theurgic mysteries impart to the intellectual soul no such purity as fits it to see its God, and recognize the things that truly exist. And from this acknowledgment we may infer what kind of gods these are, and what kind of vision of them is imparted by theurgic consecrations, if by it one cannot see the things which truly exist. He says, further, that the rational, or, as he prefers calling it, the intellectual soul, can pass into the heavens without the spiritual part being cleansed by theurgic art, and that this art cannot so purify the spiritual part as to give it entrance to immortality and eternity. And therefore, although he distinguishes angels from demons, asserting that the habitation of the latter is in the air, while the former dwell in the ether and empyrean, and although he advises us to cultivate the friendship of some demon, who may be able after our death to assist us, and elevate us at least a little above the earth - for he owns that it is by another way we must reach the heavenly society of the angels - he at the same time distinctly warns us to avoid the society of demons, saying that the soul, expiating its sin after death, execrates the worship of demons by whom it was entangled. And of theurgy itself, though he recommends it as reconciling angels and demons, he cannot deny that it treats with powers which either themselves envy the soul its purity, or serve the arts of those who do envy it. He complains of this through the mouth of some Chald an or other: A good man in Chald a complains, he says, that his most strenuous efforts to cleanse his soul were frustrated, because another man, who had influence in these matters, and who envied him purity, had prayed to the powers, and bound them by his conjuring not to listen to his request. Therefore, adds Porphyry, what the one man bound, the other could not loose. And from this he concludes that theurgy is a craft which accomplishes not only good but evil among gods and men; and that the gods also have passions, and are perturbed and agitated by the emotions which Apuleius attributed to demons and men, but from which he preserved the gods by that sublimity of residence, which, in common with Plato, he accorded to them. 10.10. But here we have another and a much more learned Platonist than Apuleius, Porphyry, to wit, asserting that, by I know not what theurgy, even the gods themselves are subjected to passions and perturbations; for by adjurations they were so bound and terrified that they could not confer purity of soul - were so terrified by him who imposed on them a wicked command, that they could not by the same theurgy be freed from that terror, and fulfill the righteous behest of him who prayed to them, or do the good he sought. Who does not see that all these things are fictions of deceiving demons, unless he be a wretched slave of theirs, and an alien from the grace of the true Liberator? For if the Chald an had been dealing with good gods, certainly a well-disposed man, who sought to purify his own soul, would have had more influence with them than an evil-disposed man seeking to hinder him. Or, if the gods were just, and considered the man unworthy of the purification he sought, at all events they should not have been terrified by an envious person, nor hindered, as Porphyry avows, by the fear of a stronger deity, but should have simply denied the boon on their own free judgment. And it is surprising that that well-disposed Chald an, who desired to purify his soul by theurgical rites, found no superior deity who could either terrify the frightened gods still more, and force them to confer the boon, or compose their fears, and so enable them to do good without compulsion - even supposing that the good theurgist had no rites by which he himself might purge away the taint of fear from the gods whom he invoked for the purification of his own soul. And why is it that there is a god who has power to terrify the inferior gods, and none who has power to free them from fear? Is there found a god who listens to the envious man, and frightens the gods from doing good? And is there not found a god who listens to the well-disposed man, and removes the fear of the gods that they may do him good? O excellent theurgy! O admirable purification of the soul!- a theurgy in which the violence of an impure envy has more influence than the entreaty of purity and holiness. Rather let us abominate and avoid the deceit of such wicked spirits, and listen to sound doctrine. As to those who perform these filthy cleansings by sacrilegious rites, and see in their initiated state (as he further tells us, though we may question this vision) certain wonderfully lovely appearances of angels or gods, this is what the apostle refers to when he speaks of Satan transforming himself into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:14 For these are the delusive appearances of that spirit who longs to entangle wretched souls in the deceptive worship of many and false gods, and to turn them aside from the true worship of the true God, by whom alone they are cleansed and healed, and who, as was said of Proteus, turns himself into all shapes, equally hurtful, whether he assaults us as an enemy, or assumes the disguise of a friend. |
|
| 49. Epiphanius, Panarion, 40.2 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 16 |
| 50. Sallustius, On The Gods, 16 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 17 |
51. Marinus, Vita Proclus, 22 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 12 | 22. Provided with this sort of virtues, without effort, and with a steady stride making constant progress in following the order of the degrees of mystic initiation, he achieved greater and higher [contemplative] virtues, as if led by the hand, first by his fortunate disposition, then by an education founded upon a profound science. For he was already purified from and raised above the world of generation and change, scorning the "many who carry the narthex," who revel therein. He on the contrary intoxicated himself with love for the primary beings. So he had himself achieved seeing directly the really beatific visions from beyond, establishing his assured science not on apodeictic and discursive syllogisms, but on what he could contemplate with his eyes, on the intuitions of intellectual activity, on the models contained within divine reason. So he acquired this virtue whose true and proper name is not science, but rather wisdom, sophia, or any other if possible more reverend name. Conforming all his actions to this virtue, the philosopher had no trouble in understanding the whole Hellenic and foreign mythology, even those revelations which had been obscured by mythical fictions; and these he expounded for those who would or could attain their elevation, giving to all of them profoundly religious interpretations, and relating them all in a perfect harmony. The writings of the most ancient authors he studied thoroughly, and after having subjected them to criticism, he gathered whatever thoughts he therein found to be useful and fruitful; but whatever seemed to lack force or value he set aside, branding them ridiculous puerilities. What however was contrary to true principles, he very energetically discussed, submitting it to thorough-going criticism, in his lectures treating each one of these theories with as much clearness as vigor, and recording all his observations in books. For without stint did he give himself up to his love for work, daily teaching five periods, and sometimes more, and writing much, about 700 lines. Nor did this labor hinder him from visiting other philosophers, from giving purely oral evening lectures, from practicing his devotions during the night, for which he denied himself sleep; and further, from worshipping the sun at dawn, noon, and dusk. |
|
52. Eunapius, Lives of The Philosophers, 475 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 11 | 475. is used by those who exhort and incite athletes contending for a garland, but still in penetrating accents: "Speak, Prohaeresius! Now is the time to make a speech!" He then first delivered a prooemium of some sort. Tuscianus could not exactly recall it, though he told me its purport. It launched out and soon slid into a pitiable account of their sufferings and he inserted an encomium of their teacher. In this prooemium he let fall only one allusion to a grievance, when he pointed out how headlong the proconsular authority had been, since not even after sufficient proof of their guilt was it proper for them to undergo and suffer such treatment. At this the proconsul bowed his head and was overcome with admiration of the force of his arguments, his weighty style, his facility and sonorous eloquence. Meanwhile they all longed to applaud, but sat cowering as though forbidden to do so by a sign from heaven, and a mystic silence pervaded the place. Then he lengthened his speech into a second prooemium as follows (for this part Tuscianus remembered): "If, then, men may with impunity commit any injustice and bring accusations and win belief for what they say, before the defence is heard, so be it! Let our city be enslaved to Themistocles!" Then up jumped the proconsul, and shaking his purple-edged cloak (the Romans call it a "tebennos "), that austere and inexorable judge applauded Prohaeresius like a schoolboy. Even Apsines joined in the applause, not of his own free will, but because there is no fighting against necessity. Julian his teacher could only weep. |
|
| 53. Proclus, Theologia Platonica ( ), 1.25.113, 1.26.63, 1.29.124, 4.26.220 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 11, 12 |
| 54. Proclus, In Platonis Timaeum Commentarii, 1.274.16, 3.20.22, 3.155.18-3.155.25 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 7, 12 |
| 55. Proclus, Commentary On Plato'S Republic, 1.255.19, 2.123.9-2.123.10 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 7, 12 |
| 56. Proclus, In Platonis Cratylum Commentaria, 72 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 12 |
| 57. Proclus, In Platonis Alcibiadem, 357.12 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 17 |
| 58. Suidas Thessalius, Fragments, 15. julianus 1.433-34 Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 6 |
| 59. Anon., Chaldean Oracles, 110, 28, 7, 76-77, 107 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 9 |
| 60. Anon., Maase Merkava, 19 Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 66 |
| 61. Council of Chalcedon, Canons, 35, 37, 36 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 1 |
| 62. Zosimos, On The Body of Magnesium, 3.28.2 Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 8 |
| 63. Dionysius The Areopagite, Celestial Hierarchy, 1.121cd Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 13 |
| 64. John Chrysostom, Homilies On Colossians, 8.5 (col 3.5) Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 15 |
| 65. Psellus, Minor Writings, 1.446.23 Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 7 |
| 66. Anastasius of Sinai, Pg 89, Col. 252Ab, 89 Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 7 |
| 67. Iulius Paulus, Excerpts, 5.23.14-5.23.18 Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 18 |
| 68. Anon., Apocalypse of David, 2.1 Tagged with subjects: •ritual efficacy of Found in books: Blidstein, Purity Community and Ritual in Early Christian Literature (2017) 45 |
| 69. Dionysius The Areopagite, Eccesiastical Hierarchy, 3.5 432b Tagged with subjects: •ritual, efficacy of Found in books: Janowitz, Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late Antiquity (2002b) 13 |
