Researchers have deciphered an ancient Egyptian book that contains the texts of prayers and spells, calling it the "Handbook of Ritual Power." Among other things, the book includes spells for love spells, exorcism of demons and the treatment of "black jaundice" - a disease that could lead to death. The parchment code, written in Coptic, is approximately 1,300 years old.
Malcolm Choat and Iain Gardner, both McCouri and Sydney scientists, wrote in the introduction to A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power (Brepols, 2014):
For example, to obey someone, the code recommends reading a magic formula over two nails, and then driving them into the doorframe on the right and left.
Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power / Photo: Ms. Effy Alexakis, copyright Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Center
Scientists believe that the codex may date back to the 7th-8th centuries. At this time, most Egyptians were Christians, and there are many references to Jesus in the book. Some of the prayers are possibly associated with a Gnostic group called the Sethians. The Sethians flourished in Egypt during the first centuries of our era and revered Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. One of the prayers in the codex is called "Seth, Seth, the Living Christ."
The codex begins with the mention of the divine name of Bachtiof, the explanation of which remains a mystery. “I thank you and appeal to you Bakhtiof. You are the great, unshakable, lord of forty and nine kinds of snakes,”says the spell book.
"Bakhtiofa is a dual figure, he is a great power and ruler of the forces of the material cosmos," Choat and Gardner shared their opinion at a press conference dedicated to the publication of the book.
Sources indicate that the church hierarchy considered the Sethians to be heretics, and by the 7th century they had almost completely disappeared.
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Researchers believe that the codex, which contains a mixture of Sethian and Orthodox Christian prayers, could be a transitional document written before all Sethian prayers were excluded from magical texts. They also point out that there are other texts of a similar nature, but they have fewer Sethian and more orthodox features. According to researchers, the origins of prayers and 27 spells are different, but later they were combined to create a "tool of ritual power."
Coptic codex of magic spells of the 5th-6th centuries from the Milan Archaeological Museum
Who used the code? There is no definite answer. But it didn't have to be a monk or a priest. Speech turns make one assume that the book was written by a man, but women could also use it. Professor Malcom Choat noted:
The origin of the code also remains a mystery. McCowrey University bought it in 1981 from Michael Fakelman, an antiquities dealer in Vienna, but where he got the code is unknown. The writing style shows that the book comes from Upper Egypt. It may have been written in the vicinity of Hermopolis. The code is currently housed in the Museum of Ancient Cultures at McCowrie University in Sydney.