Abstrakt
This article deals with written Aramaic magic of Mesopotamia of Late Antiquity and focuses mainly on Mandaic and Jewish magic bowls and metal amulets. It tries to prove the connection between these Jewish texts and Mandaic texts, since the Mandaic ones use terms of Jewish theology and legislation as well as the forms of the name of God of Judaism.
Using the translations from Mandaic and Judeo-Aramaic the author compares magic artifacts and proves the influence of Jewish tradition on Mandaic magic and also points to a possible connection of hekhalot literature with these Jewish and Mandaic magic texts. The first part focuses briefly on the history of research on Mandaic magic texts, on their basic forms and also on their praxis and treating.
Author's original observation on the possible presence of "magical puns" in magic texts is demonstrated on translation from original Mandaic language. Author points out the potential inspiration of text in Haršia Bišia collection by The Testament of Solomon.
The second part of the article deals with the term get (טג) used in Judaism for a divorce bill. Same document is treated also in Mandaic written magic as is seen on several translations.
Author also compares synoptically one Mandaic and one Jewish magic bowl to emphasize their linguistic and religious similarities. The final part consists of retracing the names of Jewish angels and God in the Mandaic texts, illustrated again by various translations.
Thus we can find angels Gabriel and Raphael in Mandaic amulets and the God's names as Adonai or Iahu. Author searches also for the names of Mandaic supernatural beings in Jewish texts and apparently finds the name of Abatur on one Jewish magic bowl and maybe the name of Ptahil in the hekhalotic text Sefer ha-Razim.