The Mandaeans

by Lupieri, Edmondo

• ISBN13: 9780802839244
• ISBN10: 080283924X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-29
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

This fascinating book presents for the first time a complete introduction to Mandaeanism, a branch of Gnosticism that has survived to the present day.

In an engaging style that mirrors the interesting nature of his subject, Edmondo Lupieri portrays the traditional way of life of the Mandaeans, still found living today in Iraq and Iran, and introduces readers to the world of Mandaean ideas -- including the view that they are the only ones on earth who possess the true and oldest faith.

Lupieri reconstructs the history of the interaction between Mandaeanism and the Western world, beginning with Ricoldo da Montecroce, a thirteenth-century Italian monk who is the first known European to write about the Mandaeans, and continuing on to present scholarship. He also offers a critical analysis of the Mandaean written and oral traditions concerning their origin, history, and self-understanding.

The book is made even more valuable by the inclusion of an extensive anthology of translated Mandaean texts, complete with notes. This collection of writings presents the sp

Author Biography

Edmondo Lupieri is professor of the history of Christianity at the University of Udine, Italy. He is the author of seven books in Italian on such subjects as John the Baptist, Jesus, and early Christian history, and he has written numerous journal articles and essays

Table of Contents

Preface to the Italian Edition	ix
Preface to the American Edition	xiii
Prologue	xvi
PART I: HISTORY
The Mandaeans	3	(58)
Life, Customs, and Religious Rituals	3	(30)
The Ideas	33	(20)
Gnosticism	33	(5)
Mandaeanism	38	(15)
The Literature	53	(8)
Instruments	53	(1)
List of the Principal Published Mandaean Texts, Together with Information on Some Unpublished Ones	54	(5)
Bibliographical Suggestions	59	(2)
The Mandaeans and the West: A History of Interaction	61	(66)
Initial Contact	61	(6)
The Rediscovery	67	(16)
The Mission	83	(22)
The Failure	105	(5)
The Erudite and Travelers	110	(4)
Professors and Diplomats	114	(8)
The ``Mandaean Question''	122	(5)
Legends and History	127	(48)
Between Egypt and India	129	(15)
Jerusalem, John the Baptist, and the Others	144	(21)
Genealogies of Scribes	165	(10)
PART II: THE TEXTS (AN ANTHOLOGY)
Abstracts of Theology	175	(12)
The First Man	187	(12)
From the Creation to the Flood	199	(4)
The Religions of Others	203	(10)
The Jews, Jerusalem, and Miriai	213	(11)
John, a True Mandaean	224	(16)
Jesus, the ``False Messiah''	240	(14)
The ``Son of the Arab Butcher''	254	(7)
Glossary	261	(5)
Index	266