Books by Daniel James Waller
This document represents a provisional update of “The Bible in the Bowls: A Catalogue of Biblical... more This document represents a provisional update of “The Bible in the Bowls: A Catalogue of Biblical Quotations in Published Jewish Babylonian Aramaic Magic Bowls” (2022). It includes the biblical quotations found in five JBA magic bowls published between November 2022 and June 2024, as well as an updated Table of Distribution and bibliography. “The Bible in the Bowls” itself represents a complete catalogue of Hebrew Bible quotations found in the published corpus of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic magic bowls. It is an open-access publication that is available to download at www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0305
Theories of biblical Hebrew verse are many and varied and fraught with dispute and difficulty, an... more Theories of biblical Hebrew verse are many and varied and fraught with dispute and difficulty, and the post-biblical commentator is confronted with any number of hurdles. In particular there is the problem of rhythm or metre. However one chooses to measure regularity in biblical verse, there is the difficulty that biblical poetry often diverges from any kind of strict metrical set or pattern. Taking biblical Hebrew verse to be an accentual system of versification, the present work suggests a cognitive approach to the accentual irregularities of biblical verse. It shows that such an approach can account without strain for the relationship between the structure of the biblical verse - even when its accentual pattern runs irregular - and its perceived rhythmic effect. It gives a shape to our understanding of Hebrew verse and how it is that we see its chief markers - parallelism, rhythmic patterning and terseness - to interact.
Articles by Daniel James Waller
The apotropaic objects known to scholars as Aramaic magic bowls were used by many people in late ... more The apotropaic objects known to scholars as Aramaic magic bowls were used by many people in late antique Mesopotamia to protect themselves against demons and other malevolent forces. Focusing on the bowls written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, this article examines a set of first-person narrative spells used in these bowls that recount various supernatural journeys. It argues that these spells worked to embed the ‘I’ of the bowl writer deep within the supernatural realm and to establish them as powerful agents across the super/natural divide. It then turns to examine a selection of bowls where the ‘I’ of these spells is reassigned to the owners of the magic bowls. In a world where people were confronted by a range of invisible harms and beset by various abstract fears, this rhetorical technique worked to transform these fears by repositioning the bowl owners as active and powerful protagonists within the supernatural realm: as people to be feared by demons, and not the other way around.
Sympathy for a Gentile King: Nebuchadnezzar, Exile, and Mortality in the Book of Daniel. Biblical Interpretation 28:3, pp. 327-346.
Nebuchadnezzar II sacked Jerusalem and destroyed its temple. Yet he emerges in Daniel 1-4 as a co... more Nebuchadnezzar II sacked Jerusalem and destroyed its temple. Yet he emerges in Daniel 1-4 as a compelling and sometimes sympathetic hero-villain. Indeed, Daniel himself even expresses compassion and solicitude for the architect of his exile in Dan 4:16, 24. Drawing upon the concept of the story-collection, this article considers the implications of this genre for (Nebuchadnezzar’s) character formation, examines the further thematic means by which Nebuchadnezzar’s sympathetic characterization is generated in the book of Daniel, and explains his character in terms that make his often contradictory nature understandable across the text of the book. This article argues that Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams reflect deep-seated anxieties about his own mortality and it relates these anxieties about death and time to Daniel’s broader themes of time, mortality, and exile. It suggests an analogy between the death of the self and the death of one’s state, and suggests that Nebuchadnezzar’s portrayal in Daniel has a role to play in our understanding of Daniel as a reflection upon life in exile.
This article considers the interface between orality and textuality in the Aramaic incantation bo... more This article considers the interface between orality and textuality in the Aramaic incantation bowls, as well as the use of illocutionary acts in the texts of their spells. It argues that the written spell was central to the perceived efficacy of bowl praxis as a whole, and suggests that the bowls may reflect a growing understanding of written spells as performative in themselves (in much the same way as a geṭ or divorce bill, for example). In light of this, it suggests that the use of illocutionary acts in the bowl texts reflects the (gradual and ongoing) transfer of performativity from speech to writing in Sasanian Mesopotamia. Such acts of "word magic" in the bowls as oaths and curses may then be seen to represent a kind of thick "oral residue" rather than a record or verbatim transcription of speech or spoken acts. In this view, writing is not just the act of recording a (potentially spoken) spell text; it is an act that encompasses a material medium and a performative situation and which extends it in time through the permanency afforded by writing.
The Fabulist’s Art: Some Brief Remarks on Solomon’s Lions (1 Kings 10:18–20). Journal of Semitic Studies 61:2, pp. 403-411.
In the description of King Solomon’s throne in 1 Kgs 10:19–20, the author of this passage employs... more In the description of King Solomon’s throne in 1 Kgs 10:19–20, the author of this passage employs two different plural endings (one masculine and one feminine) for the lions which line the steps of this throne. This article suggests that a semantic distinction may have been intended by the use of these two different forms. It considers the wider aesthetic project of 1 Kgs 9:10–10:29 and suggests that, in light of this wider project, we may fruitfully consider interpreting some of these lions as living creatures. It then briefly considers several midrashic passages which lend some support to this interpretation.
Narrative incantations known as historiolae appear frequently in many magical traditions, but sch... more Narrative incantations known as historiolae appear frequently in many magical traditions, but scholarship on the subject is sparse, and current descriptions of the historiola’s mechanism are inadequate. This study addresses this lacuna. It examines and synthesizes the existing scholarly literature and develops a theory of echo in relation to the historiola. It explores two unusual ‘transubstantiative’ historiolae that demonstrate the value of this theory. The concept of echo advanced by this study not only expands upon our current understanding of the historiola but-together with the two case-studies-allows for several conceptual, formal, and pragmatic distinctions to be made within the primary literature.
Book Reviews by Daniel James Waller
Review. M. Ahuvia. On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture. AJS Review 46:2, pp. 410-412.
Encyclopedia Entries by Daniel James Waller
Conferences by Daniel James Waller
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Books by Daniel James Waller
Articles by Daniel James Waller
Book Reviews by Daniel James Waller
Encyclopedia Entries by Daniel James Waller
Conferences by Daniel James Waller