Deutsch Intern
  • Extracts from magical texts in antiquity (Greek, Hieratic, Demotic, Akkadian): British Library P 122; British Museum P Chester Beatty 7 and P Leiden/London, British Museum BM 34065
DFG Centre for Advanced Studies MagEIA

Gideon Bohak

Research Interests

  • Jewish magic
  • "practical Kabbalah"
  • Jewish mysticism
  • the Cairo Genizah
  • Hekhalot literature
  • Toledot Yeshu
  • Jewish literature of the Second Temple period

Curriculum Vitae

2021-2023 Member of the appointments and promotions committee (History and Jewish Studies)
2020-2021 Member of the doctoral studies committee, Jewish Studies and Archaeology
2019- Member of the interuniversity committee organizing the Menahem Stern Memorial Lectures
2018-2019 Member of the university-wide appointments and promotions committee
2016- Co-organizer (with Yakir Paz, Hebrew University, and Avigail Manekin-Bamberger, TAU and Hebrew University), of the Annual Workshop on Ancient Jewish magic 
2016-2020 Co-organizer (with Jonathan Price, TAU, and Martin Goodman, Oxford) of the TAU-Oxford Graduate Students’ Workshops in Ancient History (two workshops in TAU, two in Oxford)
2016-2018 Member of the appointments and promotions committee (History and Jewish Studies)
2017- Holder of the Jacob M. Alkow Chair for the History of the Jews in the Ancient World
2013-  Full Professor, Tel Aviv University
2007-2013 Associate Professor, Tel Aviv University
2008-2010 Chair, Department of Jewish Culture, Tel Aviv University
2003-2007 Chair, Program in Religious Studies, Tel Aviv University
1997-2007 Senior Lecturer, Tel Aviv University (Jewish Philosophy and Religious Studies)

1994-1997

 Postdoctoral Studies, The University of Michigan
1994 Ph.D., Princeton University (Religion & Program for the Study of the Ancient World)
1992 M.A., Princeton University (Religion & Program for the Study of the Ancient World)
1988-1990 Graduate studies, Hebrew University (Institute for Jewish Studies), Jerusalem
1987-1990 Talmudic Studies, Shalom Hartmann Institute, Jerusalem
1987 B.A., cum laude, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (Jewish History and Classical studies)
1982/3-1983/4 B.A. studies, Tel Aviv University (Jewish History and Classical Studies)

 

fellowships, honors and research grants (last 10 years)

2023-2028 European Research Council (ERC), Advanced Grant, “The Jewish Library in Late Antiquity: Forgotten Texts and Non-Rabbinic Jews", (Grant #101097998)
19-30 September 2022 Erasmus+ visiting scholar at LMU Munich
2019-2022 Israel Science Foundation, research grant on “Reconstructing the “Pilate” Recension of Toledot Yeshu”, (Grant #2290/19)
2019-2022 German-Israeli Foundation, research grant on “Between Materiality and Scribal Magic: West-Semitic Textual Amulets from the First Millennium BCE to the Rise of Islam,”  (Grant #G-1481-111.4-2018, with Prof. Angelika Berlejung, Leipzig)
28 Mai - 2 Juni 2017 Erasmus+ visiting scholar at the University of Leipzig
23-30 Oktober 2016 Erasmus+ visiting scholar at the University of Granada
5-9 Juli 2015 Organizer (with Rita Lucarelli) of a Minerva-Gentner conference on “Egyptian and Jewish Magic in Antiquity”
2014-2018 Israel Science Foundation, research grant on “The Aramaic Scientific Texts from the Cairo Genizah and their Historical Significance,” (Grant #986/14)

Publikationen

A. Monographs

  • Gideon Bohak, Joseph and Aseneth and the Jewish Temple in Heliopolis, [SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature, 10], Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1996
  • Gideon Bohak, Ancient Jewish Magic: A History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008 [Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title -- 2009]
  • Gideon Bohak, A Fifteenth-Century Manuscript of Jewish Magic: MS New York Public Library, Heb. 190 (Formerly Sassoon 56) - Introduction, Annotated Edition and Facsimile, [Sources and Studies in the Literature of Jewish Mysticism 44], 2 vols., Los Angeles: Cherub Press, 2014 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak and Charles Burnett, Thābit ibn Qurra On Talismans, Pseudo-Ptolemy On Images 1-9, Liber prestigiorum Thebidis of Adelard of Bath, [Micrologus Library, 106], Florence: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2021

B. Edited Volumes

  • Gideon Bohak, Yuval Harari, and Shaul Shaked (eds.), Continuity and Innovation in the Magical Tradition, [Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture, 15], Leiden: Brill, 2011
  • Roger Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, and Sabine R. Huebner (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, 13 vols., Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013 (area editor, Jewish History)
  • Gideon Bohak, Ron Margolin and Ishay Rosen-Zvi (eds.), Myth, Ritual, and Mysticism: A Festschrift for Ithamar Gruenwald, [TE’UDA 26], Tel Aviv: Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University, 2014 (Heb.)
  • Angelika Berlejung and Gideon Bohak (eds.), Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity, [Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 57], Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024

C. Exihibition catalogues

D. Articles (selection from the past 10 years)

  • Gideon Bohak, “Jewish Magic in the Middle Ages,” in David Collins (ed.), The Cambridge History of Magic and Witchcraft in the West, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015, pp. 268-299, 711-719
  • Gideon Bohak, “Amulets,” in Rubina Raja and Jörg Rüpke (eds.), A Companion to the Archaeology of Religion in the Ancient World, [Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World], Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2015, pp. 83-95
  • Gideon Bohak and Ortal-Paz Saar, “Genizah Magical Texts Prepared for or Against Named Individuals,” Revue des Études Juives 174 (2015), pp. 77-110
  • Gideon Bohak, “The Diffusion of the Greco-Egyptian Magical Tradition in Late Antiquity,” in Ian Rutherford (ed.), Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BC-AD 300, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. 357-381
  • Gideon Bohak, “Bereshit Reshit in Gematria: New Sources for the Study of the Jewish Esoteric Tradition in the Talmudic and Gaonic Periods,” Tarbiz 83 (2015), pp. 513-529 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “Foreword,” in Flavia Buzzetta, Liber de homine: Edizione del MS. Vat. Ebr. 189, ff. 398r-509v, Lavis (Trento): La Finestra, 2015, pp. 7-12
  • Ada Yardeni and Gideon Bohak, “A Pregnancy Amulet for Marian, Daughter of Esther,” in Joseph Aviram, Shmuel Ahituv, Israel Eph‘al, Ada Yardeni and Anat Mendel-Geberovich (eds.), Eretz-Israel 32 (2016) [Joseph Naveh Volume], Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, pp. 100-107 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “Manuals of Mantic Wisdom: From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Cairo Genizah,” in Hindy Najman, Jean-Sébastien Rey and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar (eds.), Tracing Sapiential Traditions in Ancient Judaism, [JSJ Supplements, 174], Leiden: Brill, 2016, pp. 191-216
  • Gideon Bohak, “Conceptualizing Demons in Late Antique Judaism,” in Siam Bhayro and Catherine Rider (eds.), Demons and Illness from Antiquity to the Early-Modern Period, [Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity, 5], Leiden: Brill, 2017, pp. 111-133
  • Gideon Bohak, “Magic in the Cemeteries of Late-Antique Palestine,” in Oren Tal and Zeev Weiss (eds.), Expressions of Cult in the Southern Levant in the Greco-Roman Period, [Contextualizing the Sacred, 6], Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, pp. 163-180
  • Gideon Bohak, “Neologisms in Hekhalot Literature,” Jewish Studies 52 (2017), pp. 77-96 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “A Jewish Charm for Memory and Understanding,” in George J. Brooke and Renate Smithuis (eds.), Jewish Education from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Studies in Honour of Philip S. Alexander, [Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity, 100], Leiden: Brill, 2017, pp. 324-340
  • Geza Vermes z”l and Gideon Bohak, “Jewish Miracle Workers and Magic in the Late Second Temple Period,” in Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler (eds.), The Jewish Annotated New Testament, (2nd, revised ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 680-682
  • Gideon Bohak, “God’s Right Eye and Its Angel in Jewish and Christian Magic,” in Flavia Buzzetta (ed.), Anges et démons d’Orient et d’Occident, Paris: Éditions Kimé, 2017, pp. 63-89
  • Gideon Bohak, “Dangerous Books: The Hekhalot Texts as Physical Objects,” Henoch 39 (2017), pp. 306-324
  • Gideon Bohak, “Expelling Demons and Attracting Demons in Jewish Magical Texts,” in Gert Melville and Carlos Ruta (eds.), Experiencing the Beyond: Intercultural Approaches, [Challenges of Life: Essays on Philosophical and Cultural Anthropology, vol. 4], Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018, pp. 170-185
  • Gideon Bohak, “A Palestinian-Jewish Aramaic Planetary Horologion from the Cairo Genizah,” Aleph: Historical Studies in Science & Judaism 18 (2018), pp. 7-26
  • Gideon Bohak, “Magic in the Land of Israel in the Period of the Mishna and the Talmud,” in Vered Noam, Menahem Kahana, Menahem Kister and David Rosenthal (eds.), Rabbinic Literature in the Land of Israel, 2 vols., Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2018, pp. 705-728 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “From Babylonian Astrology to Palestinian Poetry: A Chapter in the History of Ancient Jewish Astrology,” Pe‘amim 154-155 (2018), pp. 41-70 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “A New Genizah Fragment of Toledoth Yeshu in Aramaic,” Tarbiz 85 (2018), pp. 643-656 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak and Christopher A. Faraone, “‘Pay heed, o heaven, and I will speak’ (Deut. 32:1): A Greek Amulet with Biblical and Angelic Names,” MHNH 18 (2018), pp. 5-14
  • Gideon Bohak, “Mystical Texts, Magic, and Divination,” in George J. Brooke and Charlotte Hempel (eds.), T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2019, pp. 457-466
  • Gideon Bohak, “How Jewish Magic Survived the Disenchantment of the World,” Aries – Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 19 (2019), pp. 7-37
  • Gideon Bohak, “Babylonian Jewish Magic in Late Antiquity: Beyond the Incantation Bowls,” in Yohanan Friedmann and Etan Kohlberg (eds.), Studies in Honor of Shaul Shaked, Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2019, pp. 70-122
  • Gideon Bohak, “The Use of Engraved Gems and Rings in Ancient Jewish Magic,” in Kata Endreffy, Árpád M. Nagy and Jeffrey Spier (eds.), Magical Gems in their Contexts, Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2019, pp. 37-45
  • Gideon Bohak, “Jewish Amulets, Magic Bowls, and Manuals in Aramaic and Hebrew,” in David Frankfurter (ed.), Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic, [Religions of the Graeco-Roman World, 189], Leiden: Brill, 2019, pp. 388-415
  • Gideon Bohak, “An Ancient Babylonian Text on a Modern Jewish Amulet,” in Shalom Sabar, Emile Schrijver and Falk Wiesemann (eds.), Windows on Jewish Worlds: Essays in Honor of William Gross Collector of Judaica, on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2019, pp. 350-361
  • Gideon Bohak and Alessia Bellusci, “The Greek Prayer to Helios in Sefer Ha-Razim, in Light of New Textual Evidence,” in Ljuba Merlina Bortolani, William D. Furley, Svenja Nagel, and Joachim Friedrich Quack (eds.), Cultural Plurality in Ancient Magical Texts and Practices: Graeco-Egyptian Handbooks and Related Traditions, [Oriental Religions in Antiquity, 32], Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019, pp. 259-275
  • Gideon Bohak, “The Jewish Texts from the Qubbat al-Khazna,” in Arianna D’Ottone Rambach, Konrad Hirschler and Ronny Vollandt (eds.), The Damascus Fragments: Towards a History of the Qubbat al-khazna Corpus of Manuscripts and Documents, [Beiruter Texte und Studien, 140], Baden-Baden: Ergon Verlag, 2020, pp. 223-243
  • Gideon Bohak, “Jesus the Magician in the “Pilate” Recension of Toledoth Yeshu,” in Daniel Barbu and Yaacov Deutsch (eds.), Toledot Yeshu in Context: The Jewish “Life of Jesus” in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History, [Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism, 182], Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020, pp. 81-98
  • Gideon Bohak and Judith Olszowy-Schlanger, “A Hebrew-Old French Biblical Glossary from the Cairo Genizah: Manuscript, Text, and Old French le‘azim,” Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 130 (2020), pp. 234-284
  • Gideon Bohak, “A Spell to Open All Locks and the Place of Magic in Medieval Jewish Society,” in Jesper Sørensen and Anders Klostergaard Petersen (eds.), Theoretical and Empirical Investigations of Divination and Magic: Manipulating the Divine, [Numen Book Series, 171], Leiden: Brill, 2021, pp. 178-204
  • Gideon Bohak, “Stars without a Table: Planetary Horocrators from the Cairo Genizah,” Jewish Quarterly Review 111 (2021), pp. 380-388
  • Ada Yardeni z”l and Gideon Bohak, “Five Amulets for the Protection of Kyra Marian and the Fetus in Her Womb,” in Shmuel Aḥituv, Hannah Cotton and Moshe Morgenstern (eds.), Eretz-Israel 34 [Ada Yardeni Volume], Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2021, pp. 80-105 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “Magic,” in Philip I. Lieberman (ed.), The Cambridge History of Judaism, Vol. 5: Jews and Judaism in the Islamic World, Seventh through Fifteenth Centuries, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 864-890
  • Gideon Bohak, “Specimens of Judaeo-Arabic and Arabic Magical Texts from the Cairo Genizah,” in Marcela A. Garcia Probert and Petra M. Sijpesteijn (eds.), Amulets and Talismans of the Middle East and North Africa in Context: Transmission, Efficacy and Collections, Leiden: Brill, 2022, pp. 15-46
  • Gideon Bohak, “I Beg You: Appeals to Angels in the Talmudic and Gaonic Periods,” Tarbiz 89 (2022), pp. 39-72 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “The Book of Twitches of Shem Son of Noah and Other Manuals of Palmomancy from the Cairo Genizah and from al-Quṣayr,” in Andreas Kaplony and Matt Malczycki (eds.), From Samarqand to Toledo: Greek, Sogdian and Arabic Documents and Manuscripts from the Islamicate World and Beyond, [Islamic History and Civilization, 201], Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp. 139-161
  • Rivka Elitzur-Leiman, Robert Daniel, Dalia Marx and Gideon Bohak, “A Hebrew-Greek Amulet for Nonna, Daughter of Marcellina,” Israel Exploration Journal 73 (2023), pp. 73-87
  • Gideon Bohak, “Power in Absence: Two Notes on the Jewish High Priestly Vestments,” in N.B. Bogdanovich Yu.V. Ivanova (eds.), Миф Ритуал Литература (=Myth, Ritual, Literature): A Festschrift for Prof. Nina V. Braginskaya, Moscow: High School of Economics, 2023, pp. 53-65
  • Gideon Bohak, “Divination and Eschatology in Late Antique Judaism,” in Ra'anan Boustan, David Frankfurter and Annette Yoshiko Reed (eds.), Above, Below, Before, and After: Studies on Judaism and Christianity in Dialogue with Martha Himmelfarb, [TSAJ 188], Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023, pp. 493-517
  • Eriola Jakoel and Gideon Bohak, “An Aggressive Magical Figurine from Caesarea,” Israel Exploration Journal 73 (2023), pp. 227-240
  • Gideon Bohak, “Shimmush Tehillim,” “A Book of Fates (Goralot),” “The Book of Twitches,” “The Book of Shem,” “Magical Prescriptions,” and “Interpretation of Dreams,” in Joshua Blau and Simon Hopkins, Early Judaeo-Arabic in Phonetic Spelling: Texts from the End of the First Millennium, Part II: Non-Biblical Texts, Literary and Popular, Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi, 2024, pp. 358-429 (Heb.)
  • Gideon Bohak, “Scribal Overkill: Textual Density on Ancient Jewish Amulets,” in Angelika Berlejung and Gideon Bohak (eds.), Amulets of Protection and Texts for Fears in Antiquity, [Orientalische Religionen in der Antike, 57], Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024, pp. 219-237
  • Gideon Bohak, “A Renaissance Manuscript of Jewish Magic,” in Yuval Harari, Gerold Necker and Marco Frenschkowski (eds.), Magic and Language: Perspectives of Jewish and Christian Magic in Early Modern Europe, [Studies in Magic and Kabbalah, 1], Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2024, pp. 1-17
  • Ohad Abudraham and Gideon Bohak, “A Jewish Aramaic Amulet on Papyrus,” Oqimta: Studies in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature 11 (2025), pp. 119-131
  • Gideon Bohak and Fred Niessen, “A Judaeo-Arabic Fragment of the Book of John of the Golden Gospel,” forthcoming in Maria Angeles Gallego and Juan Pedro Monferrer Sala (eds.), The Semitic Languages of Jewish Intellectual Production: Memorial volume for Dr. Friedrich Niessen, Leiden: Brill