My Lots are in Thy Hands: Sortilege and its Practitioners in Late Antiquity

AnneMarie Luijendijk, ThD (2005), Harvard University, is Professor of Religion at Princeton University. She researches early Christianity and late antique manuscript culture. Her publications include a new Coptic divinatory text: Forbidden Oracles: The Gospel of the Lots of Mary.William Klingshirn, Ph.D. (1985), Stanford University, is Professor of Greek and Latin at the Catholic University of America. He has published numerous articles on divination in the Mediterranean world and is currently writing a book on diviners in late antiquity. Contributors are: Jeff Childers, Salvatore Costanza, David Frankfurter, William E. Klingshirn, Alexander Kocar, AnneMarie Luijendijk, Michael Meerson, Franziska Naether, Laura S. Nasrallah, David M. Ratzan, Randall Stewart, Pieter W. van der Horst, Kevin W. Wilkinson

"The present volume with contributions from well-established scholars of the field is a timely addition to the scholarship of sortition in late antiquity and middle ages and a valuable instrument for further research." - Florin Filimon, University of Münster, in: The Byzantine Review 2019.009"The volume offers several important correctives to prevailing scholarly biases about sortes, especially their relationship to late antique Christianity (...) the editors ought to be congratulated for producing an excellent volume that will certainly serve as an essential guide for future scholarship on late antique sortilege and its practitioners." - Joseph E. Sanzo, University of Warwick, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review, September 2019"En conclusion, ce volume collectif présente habilement les différentes facettes de la divination par le sort." - Fabio Spadini, in: Kernos 32, 2019"This volume offers a necessary and helpful roadmap for the study of sortilege in late antiquity. (...) It compiles ancient lot texts and bibliography and addresses the subfield’s status quaestionis from various angles." - Carson Bay, in: Review of Biblical Literature 12, 2020

• PrefaceList of Figures AbbreviationsNotes on ContributorsIntroduction1 The Literature of Lot DivinationAnneMarie Luijendijk and William E. Klingshirn2 The Instruments of Lot DivinationWilliam E. Klingshirn3 Fateful Spasms: Palmomancy and Late Antique Lot DivinationSalvatore Costanza4 Hermēneiai in Manuscripts of John’s Gospel: an Aid to BibliomancyKevin Wilkinson5 Hermeneutics and Magic: a Unique Syriac Biblical Manuscript as an Oracle of InterpretationJeff W. Childers6 Secondhand HomerMichael Meerson7 Sortes Biblicae JudaicaePieter W. van der Horst8 The Sortes Barberinianae within the Tradition of Oracular TextsRandall Stewart9 Oxyrhynchus and Oracles in Late AntiquityAlexander Kocar10 Sortes, Scribality, and Syncretism: Ritual Experts and the Great Tradition in Byzantine EgyptDavid Frankfurter11 Sortilege between Divine Ordeals and “Secular” Justice: Aspects of Jurisdiction in (Ritual) Texts from Ptolemaic and Roman EgyptFranziska Naether12 Freakonomika: Oracle as Economic Indicator in Roman EgyptDavid M. Ratzan13 “I Do Not Wish to Be Rich”: The ‘Barbarian’ Christian Tatian Responds to SortesLaura Salah Nasrallah14 “Only Do Not Be of Two Minds”: Doubt in Christian Lot DivinationAnneMarie LuijendijkBibliographyIndex