This essay is a case study in the modern emergence of the “supernatural.” I argue that pre-modern understandings of the evil eye were predominantly naturalistic, based on extramissionist, haptic concepts of vision. The need to believe in the evil eye first arises when sight becomes universally understood as the result of light entering rather than emerging from the eyes. In the Jewish context, rabbis then begin to develop alternative explanations for its existence and efficacy. These novel etiologies were, for the first time, supernatural. Furthermore, an under-appreciated consequence of the emergence of the modern category of the supernatural is here revealed: rather than signifying the opprobrium of rejected knowledge, for certain religious communities, its embrace has come to represent spiritual conviction.

本文是对“超自然”的现代出现的一个案例研究。我认为，前现代对邪恶之眼的理解主要是自然主义的，基于超视主义的，触觉的视觉概念。当视力被普遍理解为光进入而不是从眼睛出来的结果时，首先需要相信邪恶之眼。然后在犹太人的语境下，拉比开始对它的存在和功效提出另一种解释。这些新颖的病因首次是超自然的。此外，这里揭示了现代超自然现象的出现的一种被低估的结果：对于某些宗教团体而言，它的寓意不是代表被拒绝的知识，而是对某些宗教团体的拥护，它代表了精神上的信念。