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Signs and Meanings explores the range of divinatory techniques that appear in Jewish texts of the Greco-Roman era, from lot oracles and death oracles to human physiognomy and use of the Scriptures. Pushing back against the view of divination as irrational and superstitious, Hanna Tervanotko looks beyond the Hebrew Bible to a broader range of ancient Jewish texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Pseudepigrapha, and draws on anthropological frameworks that consider divination as a knowledge system in its own right. Considering Jewish divinatory practices in the broader context of ancient Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures, this book demonstrates that ancient Jews did not live in isolation from neighboring cultures, but rather in a cultural continuum of the ancient Eastern Mediterranean world. This book's lived religion approach focuses on individuals instead of institutions: By highlighting marginalized ancient practices and people, including women, and lived traditions that show the efficacy of these practices even in today's world, Tervanotko provides a fuller and more equitable representation of divinatory practices in the ancient world.
Hanna Tervanotko is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McMaster University and author of Denying Her Voice: The Figure of Miriam in Ancient Jewish Literature.