{"id":764,"date":"2019-02-15T19:20:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T18:20:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de\/?p=764"},"modified":"2019-02-22T01:19:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-22T00:19:40","slug":"religion-in-the-coptic-magical-papyri-vii-the-bible-and-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coptic-magic.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de\/index.php\/2019\/02\/15\/religion-in-the-coptic-magical-papyri-vii-the-bible-and-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Religion in the Coptic Magical Papyri VIII: The Bible and Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Codex Sinaiticus<\/a> (4th century): One of the oldest complete copies of the Christian Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, and several books no longer considered canonical, among them the Shepherd of Hermas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In our first post on Christianity in magic<\/a>, we discussed AMS 9, a large book filled with amuletic texts. Among these were the first verses (incipits<\/em>) of five texts from the Bible – the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and Psalm 90 (Western Psalm 91). As we noted then, these were intended to be copied onto smaller objects and worn as a way to protect the body from sickness, demonic attacks, and misfortune. This week, we\u2019ll discuss the use of the Bible in \u201cmagical\u201d practice in a little more detail. This discussion will draw extensively upon a recently published study of such practices, Scriptural Incipits on Amulets from Late Antique Egypt<\/a> <\/em>by Joseph E. Sanzo (2014), which we recommend to anyone looking to learn more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bible was, of course, a vitally important text to Christians, considered as divinely revealed scripture. Ordinary Christians would likely have encountered it regularly as a living text read aloud during the annual liturgical cycle, in which most of the New Testament, and parts of the Old Testament, in particular the Psalms, would have been heard during the sacred rituals which took place in church – the Eucharist, baptism, funerals, and so on. These would have been just one part of a rich and sacred sensory experience accompanied by the smell of incense and glimpses of paintings of saints and angels lit by oil lamps.
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Coptic Museum Inv. 1565<\/a> (1424 CE): A casket used to hold the Bible, made from wood covered with silver and gilding, with inlaid glass jewels. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Unlike today, the Christian scriptures were not generally collected in a single volume, but rather in smaller collections, such as codices containing the four canonical gospels. Owning even such a smaller book would have been impossible for most Christians, even if they could read – the cost of the materials, copying, and binding of such a book would have been considerably more than a manual worker\u2019s annual income in many cases. They would nonetheless have seen copies of the Bible in church, often richly decorated, with painted illustrations, carried by deacons in jewelled covers, and treated with the respect due to sacred objects. A story from the Life of Shenoute<\/em> describes how, during the Council of Ephesus (431 CE), the heretic archbishop Nestorius revealed his wickedness when he found a copy of the Gospels on his chair and put them on the floor so that he could sit down. Shenoute, a lowly Egyptian abbot, picked up the Gospels and punched the archbishop off his chair, earning the applause of the entire synod. Whether this story is true, or a fiction invented to demonstrate the piety of Shenoute, it shows the respect which Egyptian Christians felt the Scriptures were owed.
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