Mandaeism

[Too Few Lions]

I've just finished reading a book on Mandaism, which is an interesting religion, I don't know if anyone else on the forum has ever looked into them. The religion dates from around the same time as Christianity, and is from a similar background to Judaism and Christianity. One of the key differences is that Mandaeism rejects Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed as four false prophets, but reveres John the Baptist as the most important prophet and claims Adam as the first Mandaean, believing that the one true revelation from God to man was given to Adam. They are pacifists and aren't allowed to carry weapons, and also don't proselytize, you can only be a Mandaean by being born one (one reason why there'll never be as many Mandaeans as there are Christians or Muslims!) They believe theirs was the first and true religion as they count Adam as a Mandaean, and see all other religions as corruptions of Mandaeism. Obviously this can't be true as their religion is only 1800 odd years old, but when has historical reality ever come to bear on religious beliefs and mythology?

Mandaeism theology is centred on the belief that the soul is an exiled captive on earth. The Mandaeans believe their religion offers salvation that will allow the soul to leave the world after death and return to its divine source. Like other Gnostic religions, they believe there is a god and realm of light beyond this universe, and that our souls originally come from that realm of light. This universe was created by a lesser demiurge, who they often equate with Jewish god Yahweh, and not the god of light. It shares a lot in common with the Gnostic strains of Christianity, paganism and Judaism that were prevelant 1800 years ago, which in turn heavily borrowed from Platonic philosophy. It's probably more similar to the way religions were 2000 years ago than pretty much any other religion around today, and is a bit of a living relic.

They pray to the pole star, as it's at the centre of the heavens, and was seen as the chief of the stars in many ancient cultures, and also face their churches and the dead towards Polaris. They also believe their soul will ascend through the cosmos after death to become reunited with their god. Their views are most fascinating because they still revolve around the ancient geocentric model of the universe, like all religions did a few thousand years ago. They believe that the material universe is governed by the Seven (the planets of the ancient system - Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) and the Twelve (the signs of the zodiac) These demonic heavenly rulers (archons) try and prevent their souls from exiting the cosmos and returning to their god. Similar beliefs were shared by all religions of the ancient world, just look at how often the numbers seven and twelve appear in the Bible.

I particularly like the Mandaean view of Jesus and Yahweh. They consider Jesus to be a false prophet who John the Baptist opposed in first century Palestine. One of their religious texts has John the Baptist describe him with '...and he called the people to himself and spoke of his death and took away some of the mysteries of the (sacred) meal and abstained from the food. And he took to himself a people and was called by the name of the False Messiah. And he perverted them all and made them like himself who perverted words of life and changed them into darkness and even perverted those accounted mine. And he overturned all the rites. And he and his brother dwell on Mount Sinai, and he joins all races to him, and perverts and joins to himself a people, and they are called Christians'.

The Mandaeans also see themselves in direct opposition to the Jewish god Yahweh, who they consider to be a false god and an evil Demiurge. They turn the stories of the Old Testament on their head, so all the people who were killed by Yahweh in the Old Testament for supposedly being sinful become pious Mandaeans killed by an evil deity. They consider the people destroyed by the Flood as being Mandaeans, along with the populations of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the ancient Egyptians who opposed Moses in the Exodus story.

They're centred in Iran and Iraq, but have recently been subject to intense persecution from Muslims in both those countries. There were an estimated 60,000 Mandaeans in Iraq before Saddam Hussein was toppled from power, but due to persecution from Muslims and resultant mass migration the number now stands at around 5000. Hundreds have been murdered in Iraq over the past decade, and many more have been kidnapped, raped and forcibly converted. The Mandaeans haven't fared much better in Iran. Their faith isn't officially recognised as a religion, they are considered unclean and Muslims don't like to touch or come into contact with them, their churches have been confiscated by the state and their graveyards ploughed up.

Here are some links if anyone's interested;

http://www.essene.com/B'nai-Amen/vbelief.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandaeism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZQ7SlpcID0

http://www.iranian.com/BTW/2005/July/Mandaean/index.html

http://www.genocidewatch.org/images/Iraq4Jun07GenocideWatchIraqMandaeans.pdf

[xSilverPhinx]

I've taken an interest in these gnostics, even though they must live in a strange world with their worldview...

Though I was wonder what a Mandean should do in the Southern hemisphere, Polaris isn't exactly in sight... ??? A bit restrictive, really.

Do they even care that the zodiac constellations weren't even the same 1800 years ago? Right, this is a religion, of course not.

And he and his brother dwell on Mount Sinai, and he joins all races to him, and perverts and joins to himself a people, and they are called Christians'.

LOL! I know of some who would really like Jesus to have been a pervert, then they can emulate him with even less second thought.

[Too Few Lions]

I've taken an interest in these gnostics, even though they must live in a strange world with their worldview...

Though I was wonder what a Mandean should do in the Southern hemisphere, Polaris isn't exactly in sight... ??? A bit restrictive, really.

Do they even care that the zodiac constellations weren't even the same 1800 years ago? Right, this is a religion, of course not.

The gnostics are a really interesting bunch. Precession's the biggie with the zodiac and astrology, as a result the signs are in different places in the night sky than they were 2000+ years ago when the current sytem was formulated. So the Sun now rises in the signs a month later than it did back then, and the whole sytem's out of kilter with the true night sky. I always point this out to anyone who believes in astrology, but I've yet to meet any of them that have ever heard of precession.

The southern hemisphere and Polaris is a really interesting question as there's a sizeable Mandaean community in Australia these days. Of course, people in the Middle East didn't know about the southern hemisphere 2000 years ago.

And he and his brother dwell on Mount Sinai, and he joins all races to him, and perverts and joins to himself a people, and they are called Christians'.

LOL! I know of some who would really like Jesus to have been a pervert, then they can emulate him with even less second thought.

I also love the fact that they see anyone who opposed Yahweh in the OT as heroic Mandaeans, and the goodies in the Bible, rather than the baddies!