Demons in the Details : Demonic Discourse and Rabbinic Culture in Late Antique Babylonia / Sara Ronis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ronis, Sara, 1984- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jewish demonology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (285 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2022]

Summary:

The Babylonian Talmud is full of stories of demonic encounters, and it also includes many laws that attempt to regulate such encounters. In this book, Sara Ronis takes the reader on a journey across the rabbinic canon, exploring how late antique rabbis imagined, feared, and controlled demons. Ronis contextualizes the Talmud's thought within the rich cultural matrix of Sasanian Babylonia, placing rabbinic thinking in conversation with Sumerian, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Syriac Christian, Zoroastrian, and Second Temple Jewish texts about demons to delve into the interactive communal context in which the rabbis created boundaries between the human and the supernatural, and between themselves and other religious communities. Demons in the Details explores the wide range of ways that the rabbis participated in broader discussions about beliefs and practices with their neighbors, out of which they created a profoundly Jewish demonology.

Contents:

Cover

Series Editors

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Origin Stories

2. Classification Matters

3. How to Avoid Demonic Dangers

4. Legal Demons

5. Serving the Rabbinic Project

6. Exorcising Demons

Conclusion

Bibliography

Subject Index

Index of Jewish Sources

Series List.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-520-38618-3

OCLC:

1321802210