Forbidden Oracles?: The Gospel of the Lots of Mary

by AnneMarie Luijendijk

In this volume, Anne-Marie Luijendijk presents for the first time a new early Christian divinatory text, preserved in a fifth-or sixth-century Coptic miniature codex, entitled The Gospel of the Lots of Mary , and places it within the context of practices of and debates about divination in the ancient Mediterranean world. Casting lots to obtain answers was applied in decision-making on all levels of ancient society. As a religious practice, lot divination was also highly contested, as access to these practices and thus to the divine meant control of powers, religiously and socially. The text, replete with biblical phrases but fundamentally materialistic in worldview, disrupts our concepts of what is religious in the ancient world. Luijendijk contributes to discussions in the study of religion that question the categories of religion and magic. She also contributes to scholarship on the production and use of books.

Genres: Religion

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 2013