The Origin and Antiquity of the Mandeans

The old saw from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night about those who have greatness thrust upon them applies quite happily, it would seem, to the Mandeans, for in all probability no one would be more surprised at the widespread discussion which they have latterly occasioned than the Mlandaic artisans of modern Bagdad and the Mandaic farmers, if such there still be, in the lower Euphrates valley. The Mandeans may go on with their normal mode of life and disregard the discussions of their own significance. We, fortunately or unfortunately, can avoid neither the issue they have raised in the minds of scholars, nor the increasing flow of literature produced by the issue, particularly in Germany. The literature so far as it is not already listed in my Mandaic Bibliography I will be referred to below. The issue might be formulated in the words: Have we in the religious tradition and thought of the Mlandaic sect the key to the origin and development of the conception of redemption as it found expression in nascent Christianity and in Hellenistic syncretism ? Now it is indeed a far cry from modern Iraq to the hellenistic Orient. The first task which anyone dealing with the theories of the religionsgeschichtliche Schule on the subject of the Mandeans should therefore set himself is the study of the history of the sect. Only after we have to the best of our ability fixed a place for them in the history of the religious development of the Orient can we discuss the nature and the value of their contribution to the study of Christian antiquity. 1. The Mandeans of modern Iraq first came to the attention of the western world in the late sixteenth century. It was a Jesuit mission, working under cover of the Portuguese domination of the Indian Ocean, that discovered them living in extensive communities in and about Basra of the Iraq-al-Arabi, where they are said to have numbered approximately fifteen thousand souls, as well as in the neighboring Persian province of Khuzistan. Because they called themselves Nasoraij d'Yahya (Nasoreans of John) and

Ancient history · Late Antiquity · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Philosophy

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