In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus of Nazareth makes reference to one of the oldest beliefs in the ancient world--the malignity of an Evil Eye. The Holy Scriptures in their original languages contain no less than twenty-four references to the Evil Eye, although this is obscured by most modern Bible translations. John H. Elliott's Beware the Evil Eye describes this belief and associated practices, its history, its voluminous appearances in ancient cultures, and the extensive research devoted to it over the centuries in order to unravel this enigma for readers who have never heard of the Evil Eye and its presence in the Bible.
John H. Elliott is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies
at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Conflict, Community, and Honor (2007).
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus of Nazareth makes reference to one of the oldest beliefs in the ancient world--the malignity of an Evil Eye. The Holy Scriptures in their original languages contain no less than twenty-four references to the Evil Eye, although this is obscured by most modern Bible translations. John H. Elliott's Beware the Evil Eye describes this belief and associated practices, its history, its voluminous appearances in ancient cultures, and the extensive research devoted to it over the centuries in order to unravel this enigma for readers who have never heard of the Evil Eye and its presence in the Bible.
John H. Elliott is Professor Emeritus of Theology and Religious Studies
at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Conflict, Community, and Honor (2007).
John H. Elliott is Professor of New Testament Emeritus at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of Conflict, Community, and Honor (2007).
"Evil Eye beliefs and practices are founded on coherent pre- modern
theories of vision and make sense in cultural situations where the
vagaries of chance, accidents, disease, and death impinge on all
aspects of human life. Elliott's two volumes offer the teacher an
invaluable resource for helping students think about practices that
have had salience from the times of the Sumerians until our
day."
"It is impossible in a review adequately to describe the breadth of
Elliott's work, since he seems to have ferreted out of 2000 years
of ancient cultures practically every instantiation of Evil Eye
belief and practice, of which there seem to be hundreds of
variations. The two volumes are splendidly illustrated throughout
with photographs and drawings of hundreds of amulets, gurines,
mosaics, and inscriptions. This collection will become a standard
reference work in ethnography."
---John S. Kloppenborg,
Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, ON
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