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28* Gideon Bohak and Matthew Morgenstern

8 and in the streets that are full of ‫ובביריאתא דמלין דרדקי קא‬
children; I
‫מקטלאנא בשוקי יניק‬
9 kill an infant in the market places and ‫ובביריאתא‬
children in

Folio 4a

1 the streets.F2773 I turn wine into vinegar ‫דרדקי קא משוינא חמרא חלא‬
‫ואתיקא‬
and old wine 74
37F ‫גאנה חיוריתא קיטמא‬
‫ קמחא‬75‫קיטמא‬
2 into ???,76 white flour into ashes
57F F 74

{ashes}, barley

70 There is a hole in the parchment, here and in the next line, that was clearly present
before the scribe began writing his text.

71 ‫מחי לי‬, “I have fastened,” represents the qəṭīl li syntagm. Compare the Mandaean
Zarazta d-Hibil Ziua: himiana d-birqa mhilia bhalṣai, “I have fastened a girdle of
lightening to my loins” (DC 44: 505-6). For “loins,” JBA commonly employs ‫חרצא‬,
pl. ‫( חרצי‬Sokoloff, DJBA, 484), though the by-form ‫ חצי‬is already found in the Dead
Sea Scrolls (see M. Morgenstern et al., “The Hitherto Unpublished Columns of the
Genesis Apocryphon,” Abr-Nahrain 33 [1999]: 30–54, at 35) and late Mandaic (MD
125) and is the regular form in Classical Syriac (see M. Sokoloff, A Syriac Lexicon
[Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns], 482). Dr. Y. Z. Stampfer has drawn our attention to
the use of ‫ חציה‬in Geonic citation from b. Giṭ 78a. See Z. Stampfer, Laws of Divorce
(Kitāb al-Ṭalāq) by Samuel ben Ḥofni Gaon (Jerusalem: Ben Zvi Institute, 2008), 92.

72 ‫ נאפקאנא‬and the following verbs represent 1 f. participle forms, characteristic of the
best textual witnesses of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. See Morgenstern, Studies,
120–22, and M. Morgenstern, “Rare Forms in Eastern Aramaic,” Language Studies
(Heb., forthcoming).

73 For this section, see Shaked, Ford, and Bhayro, Aramaic Bowl Spells, 202, and
additional parallels in M. Morgenstern and M. Schlüter, “A Mandaic Amulet on
Lead,” Martin Schøyen Collection MS 2087/1 Eretz Israel, (Joseph Naveh Memorial
volume), forthcoming.

74 ‫ ואתיקא‬is a phonetic spelling of ‫ועתיקא‬.

75 Dittography?

76 We are unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for the word ‫גאנה‬, which
presumably refers to some acidic substance into which wine may deteriorate.