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Footnotes
According to Jewish law, worn-out documents bearing the name of God cannot be destroyed; instead, they are stored in a genizah prior to burial. The Cairo Genizah was the genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, built in the 11th century C.E. in old Cairo (Fostat).
Endnotes
Recent archaeological excavations have been conducted at Sepphoris by teams from the University of South Florida, Duke University, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University. The amulets discussed in this article were found by the team from the University of South Florida, under the direction of Professor James F. Strange.
The copper case appears to have been incised (not an uncommon practice), but these incisions could not be deciphered.
Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1987), p. 45.
Robert Daniel and Franco Maltomini, eds., Supplementum Magicum, 2 vols. (Oplanden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1990–1992), pp. 47–48, 1.27.
Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked, Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1993), p. 60.
John G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992), p. 11.
See H.S. Versnel, “Beyond Cursing: The Appeal to Justice in Judicial Prayer,” in Magica Hiera, ed. C.A. Faraone and D. Obbink (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991), pp. 60–106.
We are aware that the text of Amos 7:7–8 is problematic and that this translation is not universally accepted.
A discussion of the relevant text can be found in S. Miller, “The Minim of Sepphoris Reconsidered,” Harvard Theological Review 86:4 (1993), pp. 377–402.
Philip R. Amidon, S.J., trans. and ed., The Panarion of St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990), 30.7–8.