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Mandaic Literature
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Legal Notice).Subscriber: Cornell University; date: 15 April 2019
Subject:
 
Classical Studies, Middle Eastern Languages and Culture, Classical Religions
andMythologiesOnline Publication Date:
 
May 2016DOI:
 
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199699445.013.9
Mandaic Literature
 
 Jorunn J. BuckleyThe Oxford Handbook of the Literatures of the Roman
Empire
 Edited by Daniel L. Selden and Phiroze Vasunia
 
Oxford Handbooks Online
 Abstract and Keywords
Still extant, the Mandaeans are the longest-surviving Gnostic people from the
era of lateantiquity. Belonging to the rubric of Gnostic Baptists, the Mandaeans may have
had ahistorical connection to John the Baptist before they emigrated to Iraq and
Iran in the
first century. In terms of sheer bulk, their enormous literary canon—which
exists in a variety of forms, and in their own language, Mandaic—has no rival
among Gnostic
groups. This literature, including the
 
Ginza
 
(The Book of Adam), their holy book, isdescribed, with an emphasis on the most
prominent documents and with reference to theprincipal western scholars and
translators of Mandaean texts.
Keywords:
 
Hellenistic Religions,
 
Gnosticism,
 
Ginza,
 
Manda d-Hiia,
 
The Book of John
 Who are the Mandaeans?
The last Gnostics surviving from the time of late antiquity, the Mandaeans have lived in
southern Iraq and in south/southwest Iran since the middle—or end—of the first
century
 
CE. They are probably not indigenous to those regions, but precisely
 
how
 
early theyarrived there, and from
 
where
, are matters of scholarly dispute. If the Mandaeans camefrom the West (still the
favoured theory), they may have left from present-day northernIsrael or from
Syria, keeping to seasonal rivers (
wadis
) where available and followed theEuphrates into Babylonia and beyond.
1
 
If the Mandaeans had a historical connection toohn the Baptist, and were already
baptizers when they emigrated, rivers would havebeen essential to their survival
and religious identity. In recent decades, Mandaeanpopulations have declined
drastically in Iraq and Iran, due to persecutions and wars, andtheir numbers in
diaspora around the world are difficult to assess. Possibly, there areabout 50 000
to 70 000 Mandaeans at present, but acculturation and a dispersed,
limitedreligious leadership provide signs of considerable stress and change.
Inscriptions mandaites des coupes de
Khouabir
https://archive.org/details/inscriptionsmand00pognuoft