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Professor Kozlowski Lectures · August 19 · 1 hr 49 min

HBM - Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphica

Today we get as close as we're going to get to reading actual magical grimoires and practical magic instruction - we're looking at three famous texts with differing relationships to the Judeo-Christian Canon and theology. Namely, 1. The Book of Tobit, an Intertestimental book included in some Biblical traditions and not in others, about driving off a demon with some fish parts. 2. The Apocryphon of John, a key text associated with Gnosticism, supposedly written by John the apostle, but which presents a very different interpretation of the Genesis creation story. 3. The Testament of Solomon, a catalogue of demons that continues to baffle scholars, insofar as it invokes a tradition as old as Christianity, and bears some of the hallmarks of ancient composition, but probably didn't exist in its present form until the Renaissance.

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Today we get as close as we're going to get to reading actual magical grimoires and practical magic instruction - we're looking at three famous texts with differing relationships to the Judeo-Christian Canon and theology. Namely,

1. The Book of Tobit, an Intertestimental book included in some Biblical traditions and not in others, about driving off a demon with some fish parts.

2. The Apocryphon of John, a key text associated with Gnosticism, supposedly written by John the apostle, but which presents a very different interpretation of the Genesis creation story.

3. The Testament of Solomon, a catalogue of demons that continues to baffle scholars, insofar as it invokes a tradition as old as Christianity, and bears some of the hallmarks of ancient composition, but probably didn't exist in its present form until the Renaissance.

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