Sortes in Practice: Constructing Contexts for the Use of Sortilege Materials in Late Antique Christianity
Although divination was common in the ancient world, our understanding of how the most common divinatory practices typically worked for the client or inquirer is very limited. In the case of text-based divination, we get some clues about usage from the instructions that accompany the tools, as with...
| 主要作者: | |
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| 格式: | 電子 Article |
| 語言: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| 出版: |
2025
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| In: |
Early christianity
Year: 2025, 卷: 16, 發布: 2, Pages: 191-206 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
預言
/ 筆跡
/ Astrampsychus, Sortes
/ Bibel
/ 敘利亞語
|
| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture HA Bible KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity TB Antiquity ZA Social sciences |
| Further subjects: | B
manuscript culture
B Gospel of John B 占卜 B Material Philology B Syriac B ordinary religion |
| 在線閱讀: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| 總結: | Although divination was common in the ancient world, our understanding of how the most common divinatory practices typically worked for the client or inquirer is very limited. In the case of text-based divination, we get some clues about usage from the instructions that accompany the tools, as with the Sortes Astrampsychi. Yet many tools have no such aids, as is the case with the distinctly Christian book on which this study focuses: a sixth-century Syriac biblical manuscript designed for divination. This study analyzes the specific features of the book in question in light of late antique divinatory practice, putting the analysis into conversation with anthropological studies of contemporary divination - studies that emphasize the significance of the relationship between clients and practitioners rather than the mechanisms of ritual - in order to depict more clearly how late antique Christian text-based divinization actually worked in context. |
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| ISSN: | 1868-8020 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Early christianity
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1628/ec-2025-0015 |
