Book Reviews 335

Joseph E. Sanzo
Scriptural Incipits on Amulets from Late Antique Egypt: Text, Typology, and Theory.
Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity 84. Tbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.
Pp. xiv + 219. 64.00.

The use of biblical quotations as a form of efficacious power is a fairly promi-

nent element in many types of ritual objects, ranging from Jewish Babylonian
incantation bowls to manuscripts from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this mono-
graph, a revised version of his 2012 dissertation, Joseph Sanzo explores how
one specific assortment of ritual objectslate antique Egyptian amulets
appropriates one particular category of scriptural citations, mainly the scrip-
tural incipits of the four Gospels and the Septuagint of Psalm 90 (MT Ps. 91).
Surveying over sixty different artifacts, this volume attempts to fill what Sanzo
considers to be a substantial lacuna in the study of antique ritual practices
that is, an in-depth analysis of just how scriptural incipits may have functioned
in apotropaic and curative devices.
In the introduction (117) Sanzo introduces his methodological approach
to these amulets and his deviation from previous research. First, Sanzo chal-
lenges the perspective that the use of scriptural incipits in Egyptian amulets is
a homogenous, pars pro toto ritual practice, suggesting instead that these incip-
its represent at least two different types of metonymic transferspars pro toto
(as a whole) and pars pro parte/partibus (part for part/parts). Second, Sanzo
also briefly contests what he perceives as an imprecise and somewhat careless
use of the term Christian to describe these amulets. For Sanzo, while many of
these amulets may contain features representative of antique Christian tradi-
tions (e.g., citations of the New Testament, the name of Christ), to define them
as Christian improperly prioritizes certain elements over and above others
while presuming the existence of explicit and determined categories differen-
tiating Christian ritual devices from Jewish or Pagan ones.
Following the introduction, chapter one (2053) expands upon Sanzos
initial dispute of the pars pro toto approach to the use of incipits in antique
amulets from Egypt. Using a substantial amount of linguistic theory on meta-
phor and metonymy/synecdoche, Sanzo argues that the pars pro toto model
ultimately fails as a methodological catchall for the use of scriptural incipits
in these amulets insofar as it does not distinguish between the various levels
on which the corpora/texts contiguous with the incipits are placed (2526).
Exploring both how scripture was used in antique Egypt and how scribal cul-
ture treated scriptural texts, Sanzo claims that ritual specialists used incipits
not only in reference to thematic sections of text (e.g., the Gospels) but also as
references to distinct textual units (e.g., the Lords Prayer).

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 6|doi 10.1163/2451859X-12340019

336 Book Reviews

In his second chapter (5472) Sanzo continues to challenge this pars pro
toto model, this time in terms of how ritual experts understood the biblical
corpus in relationship to their particular ritual objectives and techniques.
According to Sanzo, certain biblical passages (e.g., LXX Ps. 90; Matt 4:2324)
were more frequently used by ritual experts than others due to their belief that
these portions of text were especially efficacious in repelling demonic forces
and counteracting their ill-effects. In this fashion, not all sections of scripture
were as ritualistically potent as others, thereby resulting in what Sanzo refers
to as a hierarchical ordering of scriptures (see 55, 60 and esp. 7072). Because
ritual experts only appropriated scriptural texts which fit their specific and
immediate needs, the Bible was appropriated by these individuals as a sort of
miscellany or repository of individual thematic units, of which only some sec-
tions of text held precedent for certain ritual practices.
Chapters three (74104) and four (105135) each consist of Sanzo present-
ing the artifacts of his study which cite (or potentially cite) either a multiunit
Gospel incipit (twenty-five total including the Anchorites Grotto in Nubia; PSI
VI 719 [= PGM 2.22728]; P. Rylands 104) or an incipit of LXX Ps 90 or some other
single-unit text (thirty-seven total including PSI VII 759; the Thebaid Grotto
Chapel) respectively. In both chapters, Sanzo lays out the date, provenance,
material, language, a terse list of overall contents, the editio princeps, and a short
bibliography of each amulet, concluding with a presentation of the portion of
the Greek or Coptic text which contains the relevant incipit(s). After present-
ing this raw data, Sanzo spends chapter five (136148) discerning the certainty
regarding whether some of these amulet scriptural citations were intended to
function as incipits (e.g., P. Berol. 22 235; P. Vindob. G 2313) or merely inde-
pendent textual units (e.g., P. Oxy. LXXVI 5073; SB I 3573). Analyzing the met-
onymic function of some of these more questionable cases, Sanzo concludes
this chapter with a helpful chart (147148) cataloguing all of the ritual artifacts
surveyed in chapters three and four along with their scriptural citations as well
as the probability (on a scale of one to four) that these citations functioned
as incipits.
In the sixth and final chapter (150177), Sanzo returns to his theoretical
work in chapters one and two and offers his overarching theory concerning
how the ritual use of incipits worked within late antique ritual practices. Using
the work of Stanley Tambiah and John Miles Foley, Sanzo proposes that the
Gospel incipits in these amulets serve to invoke only select units from the
known traditions about the life and ministry of Jesus that they felt would
be efficacious (159) for their ritual purposes rather than the Gospels as a
whole. Sanzo next asserts that this ritual-dependent usage of scripture is not
unique to these amulets, but rather reflects how antique people meaningfully

gnosis: journal of gnostic studies 1 (2016) 329344

Book Reviews 337

appropriated scripture, citing Augustine and John Chrysostom as examples.

Finally, Sanzo concludes the chapter by arguing that while other ritual envi-
ronments may have used scriptural incipits as a particular form of ritual power,
the available evidence nevertheless suggests that the use of multiunit incipits
found in amulets surveyed in this volume was limited to Egyptian ritual cul-
ture and exclusive to Greek- and Coptic-speaking communities (175).
As a whole, Sanzos work is careful and well-organized. His critique con-
cerning the metonymic function of scriptural incipits correctly nuances the
imprecise approach of previous scholarship on scriptural incipits in ritual
objects, showing through both literary and archeological evidence that just as
scriptural incipits functioned in different capacities and for different purposes,
so too their subsequent utilization as forms of ritual power rightfully reflect
this scriptural milieu. In this regard, this volume serves as a much needed
corrective.
Arguably, the biggest shortcoming of Sanzos work is its somewhat narrow
engagement with amulets and ritual objects outside of those from late antique
Egypt. Only at the very end of his study (171176) does Sanzo compare the
use of scriptural incipits in antique Egyptian amulets with corpora such as
the Aramaic incantation bowls, and even then his engagement is limited to
only a couple of examples (A12 and A16; B11). Consequently, his argument that
this particular use of scriptural incipits is restricted to Egyptian ritual culture
is, to a degree, an argument from silence. In addition, while Sanzo spends suf-
ficient space addressing the function of scriptural incipits as a type of power
in ritual objects, at no point does he provide a general theoretical summary of
how scripture as a whole was employed in ritual objects, much less how ritual
objects like amulets functioned in antiquity. This would have been especially
helpful for Sanzo, as it would have contextualized the broader implications
of his work within the field, as well as allowed him the opportunity to better
explain just what sort of ritual power these artifacts were thought to possess
and how scriptural incipits contributed to these effects.
Despite his limited engagement with rituals and artifacts outside of his
antique Egyptian corpus, Sanzos monograph nevertheless offers an astute
technical and theoretical examination of these texts and the function of their
incipits, a meaningful contribution which certainly supersedes any previous
studies on the subject.

Blake A. Jurgens
Florida State University

gnosis: journal of gnostic studies 1 (2016) 329344