Curses Against Violation of the Grave in Jewish Epitaphs of Asia Minor

Under the Judgement of the Living God: The Early Christian Funerary Imprecations of Phrygian Eumeneia

“…13 The Eumeneian formula, in its call for revenge upon or the "reckoning" of a potential grave robber with the Christian God, mirrors a grassroots approach to theodicy (here understood not in the technical sense as it is used in Christian theology but rather simply as the relationship regarding the functions of divinities in the administration of justice), which is as much a by-product of Anatolian indigenous religion, 14 and perhaps also beliefs about magic, as it is of a Christian (or Jewish) milieu. That it is linked to the more common curses on those who desecrate graves found throughout Asia Minor (and conveniently collected by Johan Strubbe 1997) shows not only the commonality of these formulae but also how a previously held religious conviction could fairly easily be reinterpreted, assimilated, or "Christianized" with minimal fuss. All scholars agree on this, but few tend to take the religious aspect further than this, instead focusing their attention on the social implications (e.g., questions surrounding concealment of religious identity to avoid persecution).…”

“…The most common reason for the disturbing of graves in Asia Minor, however, was that a grave was preserved for a family alone, and given the nature of burials, it was often possible for an unregistered corpse to be interred without anyone being the wiser. Given the likely cost of erecting a monument for one's family, Strubbe (1994), the foremost authority on these imprecations, has suggested that the poor were the most likely desecrators. For my exploratory purposes here, however, I would like to point to another, less wholesome reason (if the idea of grave desecration can ever be called wholesome) found in the fascinating, and often softly spoken of world of ancient magic, in particular the phenomena of defixiones.…”

“…Since this time, most scholars have accepted, along with Calder (1955, p. 26), that "this formula, having been in pagan use at an earlier period in Lycia and Pisidia, was adapted by the Christians of the upper Maeander and used by them (as dated tombstones show) at least from A.D. 249 to 273". Subsequent discussions of the formula, however, have concentrated on a handful of potentially Jewish examples from surrounding regions (especially Apamea and Acmonia) and on challenging one or more aspects of the criterion-based ap-proach adopted by Ramsay and Calder (see, e.g., Bij de Vaate and van Henten 1996;van der Horst 2009;Mitchell 1993;Sheppard 1979;Strubbe 1994;Trebilco 2002Trebilco , 2004. While these have been by no means unfruitful debates, what all this scholarly discussion has largely overlooked is the Phrygian, and wider Anatolian pagan, religious context which informs these inscriptions.…”

Grafinscripties

“…39 McLean (2002: 271-276). 40 Voor een mooie verzameling, zie Strubbe (1997). 41 Lees ἐξὸν ἔσται ἀνοῖξαι: de uitspraak van het Grieks in deze periode maakte geen onderscheid meer tussen wat gespeld wordt door de combinatie AI en de E, of tussen de combinaties OI/EI/U en I, met als gevolg dat de opstellers van inscripties deze door elkaar konden gebruiken.…”

Household and Family in Diaspora Judaism

“…62 See Horst 1991, 54--60;Strubbe 1994;Ameling 2004 (IJO II), pp. 345--8. might come from a burial liturgy, although these probably come from the later period.…”