Greco-Mandaïca (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Mandaeans and the Question of Their Origin, ARAM 16, 2004, pp. 47–50.
ARAM, 2004
Browsing the Internet for the Mandaeans one comes across the website “Mandaean World”, where one can read under the logo of the Uroboros snake, the gnostic serpent encircling the world: “The origins of both the peo- ple, and of the religion are one of the continuing mysteries of Mandaean re- search.” This quotation describes exactly the difficulty by which a hundred and fifty years of scholarly discussion was led mostly within Europe concern- ing the “Mandäerfrage”. A scholarly dispute more at home in theological cir- cles or in research groups whose main interest is the study of the world reli- gions than among linguists.
Mandaic and the Palestinian Question
Journal of the American Oriental Society, 2021
In his 1875 description of the language, Theodor Nöldeke describes Mandaic as among the purest of the Aramaic languages and the furthest from Western Aramaic, particularly with respect to its lexicon. As Mandæans identify their faith with that of John the Baptist and his community of followers, this observation is not without relevance for assessing the veracity of their accounts and reconstructing their history prior to the advent of Islam. Departing from the assumption that these accounts are either inaccurate or willfully dishonest, all recent descriptions of the Mandaic language maintain that it is completely free from any western influences whatsoever, employing a considerably stronger form of Nöldeke’s original claim. This article subjects the strong form of this claim to a critical analysis, surveying the evidence for western influence upon the lexicon of the Mandæan scriptural canon, principally the Canonical Prayerbook, the Great Treasure, and the Mandæan Book of John. It...
Mandaeism in Antiquity and the Antiquity of Mandaeism
Religion Compass 6/5 (2012): 262–276
The evidence for a history of Mandaeism during the period of Late Antiquity (3rd–8th c. CE) and its evolution as a religious tradition prior to and immediately following the advent of Islam is surveyed. This evidence includes the Mandaean manuscript tradition, the testimony of outside witnesses, and the corpus of incantation texts from Late Antique Mesopotamia. It is noted that the study of this evidence has typically been subsumed under the study of related traditions, and that it could benefit from a reassessment. The issues addressed include Mandaeism’s relationship to other religions, such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Manichaeism, the antiquity and authenticity of its traditions, and the extent of Islamic influence upon them.
The Mandaeans' Religious System: From Mythos to Logos
2016
Mandaeans, an ethno-religious group mostly living in Iraq and Iran, are bearers of a Gnostic tradition based on the scriptures written in Mandaic. As a small minority living under the threat of cultural extinction and ethnocide, Mandaeans have developed highly elaborated purification rites as the source of their group identity. The concern for group integrity is well encoded in these rituals that symbolically and practically maintain the boundaries of group identity. In a mutual relation, the rituals and Mandaean world-view comprise a cultural system characteristic of Mandaean religion. However, political instability and wars have led to the emigration of a substantive number of the Mandaeans and the formation of diasporas in Australia, Europe and North America. The Mandaean dispersion is a turning point of the people's history. It liquefies the boundaries of group identity and puts the Mandaean identity challenge in an unprecedented paradigm. Simultaneously, it is bringing about further development in their religious system in terms of accommodation, rationalization and exegeses. These changes can be summarized as pluralism and secularization in the community, especially in the diasporas and an incipient move from mythos towards logos in the religious system.
Neo-Mandaic in Early Mandaean Colophons. Part 2: Texts, Translations and Conclusion
The first part of this article examined the features that distinguish the language of the earliest Mandaean colophons from Classical Mandaic and demonstrated that many of these features are shared with the contemporary Neo-Mandaic dialects recorded in the research literature since the 20th century. Part 2 presents editions and translations of the source texts with some brief philological notes and seeks to identify the origins of the linguistic innovations.
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 2020
Scholars of Mandaic have long been aware of the puzzling usage of the feminine construct form bnat “daughters” in place of the masculine form bnia “sons;” however in the absence of further evidence this phenomenon has not received adequate attention in the reference grammars and lexicons of Classical and Post-Classical Mandaic. In the current paper I present a new interpretation for the development of the constructions bnat anaša and bnat anania in a masculine meaning (“human beings” and “children of clouds”) based on new data from Early Mandaic epigraphic sources and on one forgotten form in a secondary manuscript of the Ginza Rabba.