Most potent of all names in these spells was that of ἄρά, expressed in every conceivable form, sometimes as ov'n, sometimes as the tetragrammaton itself. This subject, as well as the great variety of modes in which the sacred Hebrew name appears in Egyptian magic papyri, will be found fully set forth in Blau’s instructive work, pp. 117-144.
The survey of this strange world of abject super- stition and triviality enables us to realize in some measure the nature of those methods whereby the Pharisees professed to exorcize demons in the days of our Lord (Mt 12”), and of those arts which Elymas Ὁ the sorcerer employed (Ac 13°) and Simon Magus (Ac 8°). In Ephesus the Apostle Paul was confronted with this realm of 5 superstition In its most aggravated form, for Ephesus was the
* ξαρμαχία belonged to the ipye τῆς σαρκός (Gal 5%) Of. the language of Rev 921 1823 (ref. to Babylon) 215 2916 with 2 Th 261 i
1 Probably the Arabic ‘alim ‘knowing.’ Moses in Koran, Bur. vii. 106, is called sdhirun ‘alimun ‘wise magician.’
MAGIC, MAGICIAN
greatest centre of Greco-Oriental life in Asia linor. From this city came the famous ᾿Εφέσια γράμματα, frequently employed in conjurations.* Probably these and a vast number of other magic formulz of incantation, resembling those found in recently discovered Egyptian papyri, were recorded in the magic treatises, worth 50,000 drachmas, which were publicly burned in Ephesus through the in- fluence of St. Paul’s preaching (Ac 1919), Deissmann in his Bibelstudien, p. 261i., has published a long inscription of singular interest engraved on a leaden tablet (of which he gives a facsimile) dis- covered in 1890 in the necropolis of the ancient Hadrumetum, in which a spirit is conjured by Domitiana, daughter of Candida, to cause Urbanus to be united to her in marriage speedily. The most remarkable characteristic of this long docu- ment of 47 lines is that we have not a single heathen deity invoked, but only Jehovah under the forms Jao, Aoth, and Abaoth, and many others.+ The origin of the first form Iaw as an abbreviation of ma’ can hardly be doubted in this case and in those of the Abraxast gems and amulets. Aoth and Abaoth are obviously abbreviations taken from the name nix3s (see Blau, p. 102 ff.).
Another remarkable feature in this and in other documents is the powerful influence exercised by Judaism and afterwards by Christianity on the Hellenistic and Roman heathen world. In an in- structive chapter on this subject in Schiirer’s GJV* iii. p. 297 ff, useful citations may be found (n. 86) from Origen, c. Cels. iv. 33, to prove that in the closing years of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd cent. A.D., nearly every one (σχεδὸν καὶ πάντας) who used spells and incantations invoked the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in order to avert the power of demons, From Hippolytus, Philosophumen. iv. 28, we learn that the magicians made use of Hebrew words as well as Greek, stress being evidently laid on the original form of the name or word, no translation having any efficacy. Further illustrations of this literature will be found in Schiirer (see esp. the citation from Kenyon’s Greek papyri in the British Museum, and from the Carthage tablets on p. 298, footn. 88). Jewish literature of the Christian era abounded in magical works. In the Book of Jubilees, ch. 10, mention is made of a pseudepigraphic treatise by Noah on healing, and Gaster's recently published magical book, The Sword of Moses, is another striking illustration. The name of Solomon is constantly associated with magic prescriptions and formule (comp. Kohut, Jiidische Angelol. p. 81 δὲ, and Joseph. Ant. vit. ii. δ), and this tradition survived to the Middle Ages. We find an echo of it in Goethe’s drama, in the words addressed to Faust’s poodle—
‘On this mongrel brood of Hell The charm of Solomon worketh well.’
Will magic ever die? Lehmann’s instructive treatise exhibits its present wide prevalence. Even with the marvellous advance of modern culture, its power does not disappear as rapidly as might be expected. In pre-Christian times the growth of civilization only produced more
* See Schirer, GJV% iii. 297, ἡ. 88, where citations are given from Plutarch, Sympos. vii. 6. 4; and Hesychius, the translation
of which is here appended. ‘The magi bid those possessed with demons recite to themselves and name the Ephesian formulas.’ Hesych. says respecting these: ‘They were once [sic) in number, but subsequently others were deceptively added.
It is sald that these are the names of the first : ἄσαι, xaraex:, αἷξ, τιτράξ, δαμναμενιύς, αἴσιον." Explanations of these names follow, based evidently on etymological guesswork.
ἡ The names of the patriarchs occur under the forms ASpaar, ἴακου, ἴσραμα.
t This refers to a special series of amulets inscribed with the word Αβρασαξ or Αβραξας, either alone or in combination with others. On this subject the student should consult Drexler’s elaborate article in PRES, vol. i. s. * Abrasax.’
MAGISTRATE
highly developed forms of magic. Religion and religinits philosophy were accompanied by hosts of γοῆτες. Modern spiritualism points to a factor in human life which nothing will eradicate unless man is to become ultimately an acquiescent machine. As long as he continues to live, he will attempt to defy the limitations that surround him. It is this very sense of limitations that stimulates these abnormal endeavours to transcend them in modes that lie beyond the ascertained lines of cause and effect.