An Akkadian Demon in the Talmud: Between Šulak and Bar-Širiqa

Manekin-Bamberger, Avigail

doi:10.1163/15700631-12340381

Cited by 3 publications

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“…These trends have led to an increase in more rhetorically-nuanced studies about the role of magic and intermediary beings in different periods of Jewish history. Scholars of ancient Judaism have examined manifestations of ritual power and intermediary beings in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Alexander 1999; Eshel 1999; Lichtenberger 2004), Hekhalot literature (Swartz 1996), the Late Antique Roman Empire as a whole (Bohak 2004, 2009, 2010), and the eastern Jewish communities of Sasanian Babylonia (Elman 2005b; Harari 2006; Rosen-Zvi 2011; A.M. Bamberger 2013; Ahuvia 2014; Ronis 2015).…”

Section: The Modern Study Of Intermediary Beingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geller has noted the survival of Akkadian demon-names, symptoms of demonic attacks and their corresponding treatments, and even the form of diagnostic handbooks into Babylonian Talmudic literature (2000: 13-32). Stol and A. Bamberger have also identified specific demons and diseases in the Babylonian Talmud that are drawn directly from ancient Mesopotamian demonology (A. Bamberger 2013; Stol 1993, 2000: 167).…”

Section: Intermediary Beings In Rabbinic Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Ronis

2015

Currents in Biblical Research

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Recent years have seen a steady rise in the scholarly interest in intermediary beings in Late Antique Judaism. The present article traces developments in the academic study of intermediary beings, and surveys scholarly approaches to angels, demons, and other intermediary beings in (1) rabbinic literature, (2) Late Antique Jewish liturgy, (3) Hekhalot literature, and (4) material artifacts such as metal amulets and clay bowls. It traces a shift from a nineteenth-century discomfort with intermediary beings and a concomitant suggestion that such beings are a foreign import and corruption, to a more recent interest in examining how intermediary beings functioned within a dynamic and transcultural Late Antique Jewish world. The article concludes by proposing new and continued areas of interest for scholars of Late Antique Judaism.

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Section: The Modern Study Of Intermediary Beingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Intermediary Beings In Rabbinic Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Ronis

2015

Currents in Biblical Research

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“…In addition to comparison with relatively contemporaneous literatures, scholars have reached back to sources from thousands of years prior to the Babylonian Talmud. For example, Markham Geller (, , and ) has brought a number of Akkadian medical sources into dialogue with the Babylonia Talmud, Avigail Manekin Bamberger () has identified an Akkadian demon mentioned in the Talmud, and a recent (aforementioned) volume, The Aggada of the Babylonian Talmud and its Cultural World , dedicates its first section to “The Mesopotamian Context” of the Bavli (see especially Ronis, ). Reaching past the likely redaction date of the Talmud, we also find scholars bringing the Bavli into conversation with early Islamic sources (e.g., Azaiez, ; Elman, ; Mazuz, ).…”

Section: Other Literatures and Recent Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Babylonian Talmud in its cultural context

Goldstone

2019

Religion Compass

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The Babylonian Talmud is a foundational work for the development of Jewish law and a centerpiece for the study of rabbinic literature. One of the fastest growing trends in the academic study of the Talmud is the contextualization of this text against the background of Greco–Roman, Sasaniageneration of Talmudic studiesn Persian, and Zoroastrian, as well as Syriac and Christian works. This article surveys the history of the study of the Babylonian Talmud in light of a variety of cultural contexts and provides a close look at some of the major products of this line of research.

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A Seven-Headed Demon in the House of Study: Understanding a Rabbinic Demon in Light of Zoroastrian, Christian, and Babylonian Textual Traditions

Ronis¹

2019

AJS Rev.

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This article examines a narrative about a seven-headed demon in Bavli Kiddushin 29b as an entry point into a much broader conversation about the Talmud's demonology. I first lay out the interpretive challenges of the story, then argue that B. Kiddushin's demonic discourse has more in common with ancient Near Eastern demonologies that it does with contemporaneous Zoroastrian materials. Two particular aspects of the rabbinic depiction of the demon in B. Kiddushin align with Mesopotamian characterizations of demons: (1) the physical description of the demon as a seven-headed serpent, and (2) his demonic nature. At the same time, the way that the rabbis describe the mode of the demon's defeat strongly parallels contemporaneous Syriac Christian modes of exorcism. This article demonstrates that the talmudic story exists at the intersection of more ancient and contemporary concerns and typifies rabbinic selectivity in adopting and adapting available discourses about demons. To conclude, I discuss some of the broader implications of this observation for our study of the Babylonian Talmud in its Sasanian cultural context.

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An Akkadian Demon in the Talmud: Between Šulak and Bar-Širiqa

Cited by 3 publications

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Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

Intermediary Beings in Late Antique Judaism: A History of Scholarship

The Babylonian Talmud in its cultural context

A Seven-Headed Demon in the House of Study: Understanding a Rabbinic Demon in Light of Zoroastrian, Christian, and Babylonian Textual Traditions

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