THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
MAND^ANS.
Origin and Names (§1).
Recent Reports. The System Outlined (§ 2).
The Earliest Theogony and Cosmogony (§ 3).
Later Theogony and Cosmogony (§ 4).
Mandaean Cosmology (§5).
Chronology and Eschatology (§ 6).
The many Gnostic sects against which the Church Fathers strove left little literature to survive till the present. The Mandseans, who still are found in scanty numbers in Persia and the region of southern Babylonia, are an exception; and their rich literature is very suggestive of the varied sources of Gnostic systems. This sect, belonging to ophitic Gnosticism, to form its system combined elements from Judaism, early Chrisi. Origin tianity, and Sassanian Parseeism with and an original Babylonian and early Names. Aramaic basis of religion. Connection is to be found also with the heretical sect of disciples of John the Baptist, and derivation is allowed by the Mandseans themselves from the Sabians of pre-Mohammedan Arabia (Koran, ii. 59. v. 73, xxii. 17). Indeed, " Sabian " is an Arabized word meaning " baptist." In their principal sacred work, the Ginza or the Sidra Rabba (" Great Book "), the Mandseans call themselves Nasorayya, the " Nazarenes." In the same source the name Mandayya is also employed, from the word madda', " knowledge," with which is combined hayya, " life," in the sense of gnosis or knowledge of life (see Gnosticism). Theodore bar Choni gives them other names, as Mashkenayye, from Mashkena, the Mandasan word for church; Dosti, from Persian dost, " friend "; and Adonaeans, from their assumed founder, Ado, who was perhaps a reformer or leader of a party. Theodore makes Ado come from Adiabene to the district of Maishan (Mesene) on the lower Euphrates and Tigris, where he lived as a mendicant (perhaps like the Brahmanic bhikshu or fakir), surrounded by disciples. Ado is then said to have heard of a man named Papa on the upper course of the river Ulai (the modern Karun), of whom he sought shelter. There he settled by the wayside to beg from travelers. Theodore gives also the names of Ado's father, mother, and brothers, which names all have significance in the Mandaean religion. On account of the honor which they pay to John the Baptist, the Mandaeans bear also the name Christians of St. John, though there is little in their life and nothing in their dogma which merits the name Christian, their doctrine of redemption going back to the god Marduk (see Babylonia, VII., 2, § 10).
The first knowledge of this sect in modern times was brought to Europe by the Carmelite missionary Ignatius a Jesu, who in the middle of the seventeenth century lived many years in 2. Recent Basra and converted some of the Reports, adherents to Christianity (see bibliog- The raphy below for his book). He re- System garded them as descendants of disci- Outlined, pies of John the Baptist, who had fled thither from persecution, being led to this view by the honors paid by them to the Baptist, their many legends of him, and their practise
System of Ceremonial (§ 7).
The Clergy (§ 8).
Last Rites; the Soul's Hap (§ 9).
Present Conditions; the Language (10).
Sources of Mandaean Doctrines (§ 11).
Babylonian and Manichean Ideas Borrowed (§ 12).
of baptizing only in rivers. He gave their number as from 20,000 to 25,000 families, scattered through Babylonia, Persia, Goa, Ceylon, and India, in the latter country reckoning to them the Thomas-Christians (Nestorians). Further information came through Abraham Ecchellensis (q.v.), the missionary Angelus a Sancto Josepho, Pietro della Valle, Jean Thevenot, Carsten Niebuhr, and others. The reports of these writers have considerable value, dealing as they do with a time when the sect was relatively large. The sources of first importance for knowledge of the Mandseans are their own writings, especially the Ginza, which are, however, only fragments of a once large religious literature. The older parts of the Ginza date back to the early Mohammedan period, 700-900 a.d. Besides the great collections of the sect, there are many tracts for priests and for laity, dealing with sickness and demoniacal possession, often employed as amulets and worn on the breast. The present Mandaean religion has, under Mohammedan influence, taken on a monotheistic form. But study of the Ginza shows that this is the result of development; the early form was polytheistic (cf. W. Brandt, Die manddische Religion, Leipsic, 1889) and dealt with theogony and cosmogony; this was succeeded by a combination of Jewish-Christian sources under Indian influence. The next stage appears to have been under the ascendancy of Persian thought, especially in its eschatology, followed by a period of confusion, which in turn gave way to a monotheistic type of theology with a " Great King of Light " as the chief deity, from which the step to Allaha as God was easy.
The earliest priestly form of the religion dealt, as did the systems of Phenicia and Babylonia, with the origins of gods and of the world. There stand out in this two forms, now distinct, now united, the " Great Fruit " (cf. Hebr. periy), Pira Rabba, and Mana Rabba, " Great Spirit."
Pira Rabba is the All, the comprehensive basis
of things, bounded only by itself, from which all
things came. It is the " golden egg "
3. The of the Brahmanic cosmogony which,
Earliest at first a unit in which rests Brahma Theogony or Purusha, divides into heaven and and earth. It is regarded as an independ- Cosmogony. ent and spontaneous deity and as creator. This is a conception not peculiar to India and the Mandjeans. With Pira Rabba is closely connected Ayar Ziwa Rabba, " Great Lustrous Ether " (cf. Syr. o'ar, Gk. aer), or Yora Rabba, 'Great Brilliance," from which last sprang the " Great Jordan " or stream of heaven. In Pira Ayar appears as a personal spirit Mana Rabba de ekara, " Great Spirit of Excellence," usually called in the system Mana Rabba (ut sup.). While the origin and meaning of this last term are not clear, derivations are given from the Indo-Persian man,