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The Ring of Shamḥiza: �The Aramaic Nachleben of Enoch and Enochic Tradition in Incantation Bowls��

Matthew Goff

Florida State University

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A Powerful Curse on (of?) Mount Hermon

Text 1: Again I come, I Pabak bar Kufithai, in my own might, on my person polished armor of iron, my head of iron, my figure of pure fire. (2) I am clad with the garment of Armasa (Hermes), Dabya (the One who is with Yah) (Dabya) and Mamlala (the Talker?), and my strength is in him who created heaven and earth. I have come and I have smitten (3) the evil Fiends and the malignant Adversaries. I have said to them that if at all you sin against Abuna bar Geribta and against Ibba bar Zawithai, I will lay a spell upon you, the spell (4) of the Sea and the spell of the monster Leviathan. (I say) that if at all you sin against Abuna bar Gerbita, and against his wife and his sons, I will bend the bow against you (5) and stretch the bow-string at you. Again, wherever you sin against the house of Pabak and against his property and all the people of his house, in my own right I Abuna bar Geribta—or against Ibba bar Zawithai—(6) will bring down upon you the curse and the proscription and the ban (’ahrmt’) which fell upon Mount Hermon (hyrmwn) and upon the monster Leviathan and upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah. (CBS 2945; Montgomery, Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur [1913], p. 121)

Text 2: They called the mountain Hermon (hrmwn) because they swore and bound one another with a curse (’ahrmw) on it (4Q201 1 iii 4-5; 1 En. 6:6)

Text 3: … from the mountain on which they swore, and bound themselves by a curse to the one next to him, that he would not abandon him for eternity: “May frost and snow and rime and dew not descend upon it, unless it come down as a curse, until the day of the great judgment. At that time, it will be burnt and crushed. And it will be consumed by fire and melted like wax by fire.” And now I say to you, sons of men, “There is great wrath against you, against your sons, and this wrath will not cease from you until the time of the slaughter of your sons. And your beloved will be destroyed and all those you cherish will perish from all the earth, because all the days of their life henceforth will not more than 120 years. … And this is from the First Book of Enoch concerning the Watchers (Syncellus, Adler/Tuffin translation)

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Three Angels and a Missing Link?

  • Text 4: Just as (18) those who transgressed the command of their Lord, Azael and Uzael and Azaziel, were pressed, and angels were sent against them from the presence of God and pressed them upon the mountain [of darkness] and their faces were turned towards the face of darkness. (…)—just so (19) may this Isha son of Ifra Hurmiz be pressed. And may his hateful words and hateful thoughts and stars and star signs and lot and magic be pressed (ll. 17-18, Bowl M163, published by Dan Levene in 1999)
  • Text 5: May all of them be stopped and nullified by the command of the zealous and vengeful God—he who sent Uzza and Azael and Metatron, the great prince of the throne (ll. 10-11 of Bowl D, published by Cyrus Gordon in 1934)
  • Text 6: Then three of the ministering angels, Uzzah, Azzah, and Azael, came and laid charges against me (Metatron-Enoch) in the heavenly height. They said before the Holy One, blessed be he, did not the primeval ones (a prior company of angels) give you good advice when they said, “Do not create man!”? … (3 Enoch 4:6).
  • Text 7: What did the men of Enosh’s generation do? They roamed the world from end to end, and each of them amassed silver, gold, precious stones, and pearls in mountains heaps and piles. In the four quarters of the world they fashioned them into idols … They brought down the sun, the moon, the stars and the constellations and stationed them before their idols. … How was it that they had the strength to bring them down? It was only because Uzzah, Azzah and Azael taught them sorceries that they brought them down and employed them (3 Enoch 5:7-8).