My Lots are in Thy Hands. Sortilege and Its Practitioners in Late Antiquity

Sortilege--the Making Of Decisions By Casting Lots--was Widely Practiced In The Mediterranean World During The Period Known As Late Antiquity, Between The Third And Eighth Centuries Ce. In My Lots Are In Thy Hands: Sortilege And Its Practitioners In Late Antiquity, Annemarie Luijendijk And William Klingshirn Have Collected Fourteen Essays That Examine Late Antique Lot Divination, Especially But Not Exclusively Through Texts Preserved In Greek, Latin, Coptic, And Syriac. Employing The Overlapping Perspectives Of Religious Studies, Classics, Anthropology, Economics, And History, Contributors Study A Variety Of Topics, Including The Hermeneutics And Operations Of Divinatory Texts, The Importance Of Diviners And Their Instruments, And The Place Of Faith And Doubt In The Search For Hidden Order In A Seemingly Random World.-- The Literature Of Lot Divination / Annemarie Luijendijk And William E. Klingshirn -- The Instruments Of Lot Divination / William E. Klingshirn -- Fateful Spasms : Palmomancy And Late Antique Lot Divination / Salvatore Costanza -- Hermēneiai In Manuscripts Of John's Gospel : An Aid To Bibliomancy / Kevin Wilkinson -- Hermeneutics And Divination : A Unique Syriac Biblical Manuscript As An Oracle Of Interpretation / Jeff W. Childers -- Secondhand Homer / Michael Meerson -- Sortes Biblicae Judaicae / Pieter W. Van Der Horst -- The Sortes Barberinianae Within The Tradition Of Oracular Texts / Randall Stewart -- Oxyrhynchus And Oracles In Late Antiquity / Alexander Kocar -- Sortes, Scribality, And Syncretism: Ritual Experts And The Great Tradition In Byzantine Egypt / David Frankfurter -- Sortilege Between Divine Ordeals And Secular Justice : Aspects Of Jurisdiction In (ritual) Texts From Ptolemaic And Roman Egypt / Franziska Naether -- Freakonomika : Oracle As Economic Indicator In Roman Egypt / David M. Ratzan -- I Do Not Wish To Be Rich : The 'barbarian' Christian Tatian Responds To Sortes / Laura Salah Nasrallah -- Only Do Not Be Of Two Minds : Doubt In Christian Lot Divination / Annemarie Luijendijk. Edited By Annemarie Luijendijk, William E. Klingshirn, With The Assistance Of Lance Jenott. This Volume Originated In A Two-day Symposium On Sortilage In Late Antiquity Held At Princeton University In November, 2011--preface, Page Ix. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 331-374) And Indexes.