Zone1 The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People (An American Academy of Religion Book)

DudleySmith

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Another Abrahamic religion that dates from the 1st Century, allegedly disciples of John The Baptist.

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United States​

Main article: Mandaean Americans

In the United States, Mandaean communities are centered in San Antonio (c. 2,500),[12] New York City, San Diego,[63] Winnetka, California, Austin, Texas,[120] Worcester, Massachusetts (c. 2,500),[9][10] Warren, Michigan,[121] Chicago,[122] and other major metropolitan areas. There is a mandi in Detroit.[123]

The status of the Mandaeans has prompted a number of American intellectuals and civil rights activists to call upon the US government to extend refugee status to the community. In 2007, The New York Times ran an op-ed piece in which Swarthmore professor Nathaniel Deutsch called for the Bush administration to take immediate action to preserve the community.[29] Iraqi Mandaeans were given refugee status by the US State Department in 2007. Since then, more than 2500 have entered the US, many settling in Worcester, Massachusetts.[15][1] The community in Worcester is believed to be the largest in the United States and the second largest community outside the Middle East.[10] About 2,600 Mandaeans from Iran have been settled in Texas since the Iraq War.[124]


....

Mandaeans are a closed ethno-religious community, practicing Mandaeism, which is a monotheistic, Gnostic, and ethnic religion[63]: 4 [125][126] (Aramaic manda means "knowledge," and is conceptually related to the Greek term gnosis.)[126] Its adherents revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist.[126][30][127] Mandaeans consider Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem and John the Baptist to be prophets with Adam the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and final prophet.[45]: 45 [128]

An article discussing their writings relevant to John, the Jews and Christians of the 1st Century for historical interests.


ABSTRACT
New Testament scholars, drawing on Mandaean sources to shed light on the Gospel of John, may have done more harm than good to both Johannine and Mandaean studies. Nonetheless, approaches to the Gospel of John developed over the past 50 years have shed light on the Gospel’s Jewish context and the clues its polemical emphases can provide about the time and setting in which it was written. J. L. Martyn’s suggestion that the Gospel of John can be read on “two levels”, telling us about the context in which it was written while telling a story set in the time of Jesus, has the potential for fruitful application to Mandaean literature as well. As in the case of the Gospel of John, there is good reason to think that the anti-Jewish features of some Mandaean literature may ultimately provide evidence of the Jewish origins, or at the very least context, of the community that produced it. This article examines the story of Miriai, and what it presupposes about the relationship between Jews and Mandaeans and the nature of conversion at the time of its writing.


A lot of their texts have yet to be translated into English.
 
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Another Abrahamic religion that dates from the 1st Century, allegedly disciples of John The Baptist.

Amazon product


United States​

Main article: Mandaean Americans

In the United States, Mandaean communities are centered in San Antonio (c. 2,500),[12] New York City, San Diego,[63] Winnetka, California, Austin, Texas,[120] Worcester, Massachusetts (c. 2,500),[9][10] Warren, Michigan,[121] Chicago,[122] and other major metropolitan areas. There is a mandi in Detroit.[123]

The status of the Mandaeans has prompted a number of American intellectuals and civil rights activists to call upon the US government to extend refugee status to the community. In 2007, The New York Times ran an op-ed piece in which Swarthmore professor Nathaniel Deutsch called for the Bush administration to take immediate action to preserve the community.[29] Iraqi Mandaeans were given refugee status by the US State Department in 2007. Since then, more than 2500 have entered the US, many settling in Worcester, Massachusetts.[15][1] The community in Worcester is believed to be the largest in the United States and the second largest community outside the Middle East.[10] About 2,600 Mandaeans from Iran have been settled in Texas since the Iraq War.[124]


....

Mandaeans are a closed ethno-religious community, practicing Mandaeism, which is a monotheistic, Gnostic, and ethnic religion[63]: 4 [125][126] (Aramaic manda means "knowledge," and is conceptually related to the Greek term gnosis.)[126] Its adherents revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist.[126][30][127] Mandaeans consider Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem and John the Baptist to be prophets with Adam the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and final prophet.[45]: 45 [128]

An article discussing their writings relevant to John, the Jews and Christians of the 1st Century for historical interests.


ABSTRACT
New Testament scholars, drawing on Mandaean sources to shed light on the Gospel of John, may have done more harm than good to both Johannine and Mandaean studies. Nonetheless, approaches to the Gospel of John developed over the past 50 years have shed light on the Gospel’s Jewish context and the clues its polemical emphases can provide about the time and setting in which it was written. J. L. Martyn’s suggestion that the Gospel of John can be read on “two levels”, telling us about the context in which it was written while telling a story set in the time of Jesus, has the potential for fruitful application to Mandaean literature as well. As in the case of the Gospel of John, there is good reason to think that the anti-Jewish features of some Mandaean literature may ultimately provide evidence of the Jewish origins, or at the very least context, of the community that produced it. This article examines the story of Miriai, and what it presupposes about the relationship between Jews and Mandaeans and the nature of conversion at the time of its writing.


A lot of their texts have yet to be translated into English.


Absolutely fascinating.
 
Absolutely fascinating.

I find them interesting because they're Gnostics, pretty rare in real life for a sect like that to have survived so many centuries. Same with the Samaritans, who published an English version of their Torah for the first time in 2008 or so; they were targeted by the Babylonians cultists for genocide at least as viciously as the Evul Xians were. I haven't got around to reading it yet, but will soon.



Until the 1950s, Bible scholars turned to the Jewish Masoretic text as the definitive version of the Torah, virtually ignoring the Samaritan text. However, in the winter of 1947, a group of archeological specialists searching through 11 caves in Qumran happened upon the Dead Sea Scrolls. After rigorous study of the scrolls, researchers have come to believe there were several versions of the Torah being studied throughout Jewish history, according to Eugene Ulrich, a theology professor at University of Notre Dame.
The scrolls they found in Qumran matched the Samaritan text more closely than the Masoretic text, leading some researchers to believe the Samaritan text held validity in the minds of Jews during the Second Temple period and that both texts were once studied together.
“Finding the Dead Sea Scrolls proved that there were two versions, if not more, of the Torah circulating within Judaism, but they were all dealt with with equal validity and respect,” said Ulrich, who served as one of the chief editors on the Dead Sea Scrolls International Publication Project. “The Samaritan Torah and Masoretic Torah used to be studied side by side. The Masoretic text wasn’t always the authoritative version. They were both seen as important during the Second Temple time period.”


It would be interesting to see if the Christian sect was influenced the Samaritan Torah as well, given the geographical of Galilee, with Samaria between it and Judah; the Samaritans stayed with the real Torah and didn't add a lot of fictitious rubbish to theirs like tthe rabbinical scammers did. Same with these Mandaeans sect..

I wonder if this recent swing in pandering to the hard care racist ultra-Orthodox in Israel will end up promoting purges and massacres like in 'the good old days' of Babylonian cultist rule. It ties in with the new buddy buddy gropefest with their NBFF right wing Muslims, as in the days of yore. Won't know until I read their stuff, obviously.
 
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