Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered - The Preterist Archive

Fragment 6 (2) . . . be reddish . . . (3) [cl]ear and will [be] round . . . (4) the hair of his head . . .
47. An Amulet Formula Against Evil Spirits (4Q560)
The discovery of this text among the Dead Sea Scrolls is significant not least because it is the earliest
known Jewish example, antedating its closest rivals for that honour by several centuries. It is not clear
whether this text was part of a larger scroll used as a kind of 'recipe book' by a scribe or magician, or
whether it was wrapped up and placed in a case. The reader will also note the several uncertainties in
the Translation. In part the difficulties arise from the genre of these texts - they intentionally use
strange or unusual vocabulary. Many such texts use previously unknown words. The other major
difficulty of this text is its broken condition; if we had more context we could gain an improved
understanding of several points.
This kind of conjuring or incantation is known in apocryphal literature like the Book of Tobit
(Chapters 6, 8, and 11) and the Book of Enoch (Chapter 7), both of which are extant in fragments at
Qumran. The Mishnah (San. 7:7), like the Old Testament, specifically condemns it. We have already
seen how Josephus considered the magicians, imposters and religious frauds (among whom he would
clearly include some of the 'prophets and teachers' pictured in Acts) more dangerous even than the
revolutionaries.
Apparently, in his time, this kind of knowledge and activity was ascribed, like so much bearing on the
provenance of Secret Wisdom, to Solomon, and he actually gives us a picture of such a person (Ant.
8.45-9). He describes how a 'countryman' of his named Eleazar in 'the presence of Vespasian and his
sons' cured men possessed of demons by putting a ring having under its seal roots prescribed by
Solomon under their noses 'and reciting that he (Solomon) had composed it'. To prove to Vespasian,
who according to Suetonius was very susceptible to these kinds of superstitions, that he had this
power, he instructed the demon to turn over a basin of water which he had left a little way off for this
purpose when it departed. It did.
It was a group of people like this around Vespasian, including Josephus and interestingly enough
Philo's nephew, Tiberius Alexander, who seem to have convinced Vespasian by 'signs and wonders' of
this kind - particularly curing the lame and making the blind see - that he was the real 'Star' called
from Palestine to rule the world. For Acts 4:6 Tiberius Alexander appears as a persecutor of so-called
'Christians'. Josephus describes him as a turncoat and an apostate from Judaism (War 2.220), and
Vespasian left him behind to help his somewhat impetuous son Titus as general in charge of the siege
that ended in the destruction of the Temple.
Exorcisms and conjuring of this kind were also very popular activities in the Gospels and the Book of
Acts.