ASUTA
The Journal for the Study and Research into the
Mandaean Culture, Religion, and Language.
Volume 4 Special Issue Online edition
The Pre-Christian Nasoraeans
The Mandaeans
RESEARCH DONE BY AJAE COPYRIGHT 2000
Nasoraeans
Epiphanius (367 – 404), a Christian Church father writes of a Pre-Christian sect, the Nasaraeans (Nasaraioi) who he distinguishes from the Christian Nazoraeans (Nazoraioi). This sect lived in the Gilead, Basham, and Transjordan areas.
“They (Christian Nazoraeans) did not call themselves Nasaraeans either; the Nasaraeans sect was before Christ and did not know Christ.”(23)
Epiphanius provides us with more information on the Nasaraeans:
"The Nasaraeans - they were Jews by nationality . . .They acknowledged Moses and believed that he had received laws - not this law, however, but some other. …They considered it unlawful to eat meat or make sacrifices with it…They claim that these Books are fictions, and that none of these customs were instituted by the fathers. This was the difference between the Nasaraeans and the others. . ."(24)
Now this section is interesting -- “they were Jews by nationality” -- does this mean they were not Jews by religion? This could account for the confusion of our Nasoraeans (Mandaeans) as being Jewish by many writers. Epiphanius also says-- “They acknowledged Moses and believed that he had received laws - not this law, however, but some other." --This once again fits the Mandaeans. The Mandaeans believe that they were co-religious with the Egyptians in Egypt and that Moses had learned some of their sacred knowledge. "They considered it unlawful to eat meat or make sacrifices with it" – this again fits in with the theology of the Mandaeans. It is a well-known fact that the Mandaeans do not sacrifice animals and eat meat very rarely. Further on in this discussion it says-- "They claim that these Books are fictions" -- In the Haran Gawaita there is a story about Qiqil and how he had been deceived by Ruha to write a book that was not in compliance with Mandaean theology.
“Bring the writings which I give (gave?) you; burn them with fire, for she (Ruha) deluded me when I knew not from whom she came ". And he took away his writing from such Nasoraeans as practiced the orthodox faith, and they gave it to him and he burnt it in the fire. But all those who were of the Root of the Jews did not bring it back nor give it to Qiqil, and some of those writings remained with them.”(25)
Further in the section on the “Nasaraeans”, Epiphanius says that they "accepted other writings in addition to the law, though they rejected most of the prophets who came afterwards". (26) This also fits into the scenario because the Mandaeans only accept a certain “Old Testament figures” and have their own books. Finally Epiphanius says that Moses, according to the “Nasaraeans”, did not write the Pentateuch. (27) This also fits into Mandaean theology:
“They wanted books and Melka d Anhura said ‘A book must be written that does not make trouble for the Mandai’ and they sent one of the melki- Tawus Melki to write the Torah.”(28)
The “Nasaraeans” were not the only sect mention by Epiphanius. He wrote that there were seven sects of Judaism:
“Sadducees, Scribes, Pharisees, Hemerobaptists, Ossaeans, Nasaraeans and Herodians."(29)
These sects had a strong foothold not only in the Palestine area but also in other locations. The majority of these baptizing sects are located mainly across the Jordan and north into Syria and traces them across into Northern and Southern Iraq. (30) Epiphanius places them:
"...in Nabatea and Iturea, Moab and the country around Areopolis, the regions lying over and beyond.. Dead Sea" (31)
"...the country called Perea, on the far side …Dead Sea, in Moab near the Torrent Arnon and beyond in Iturea and Nabatea."(32)
The Mandaeans contend that they left the Palestine area in or around 70 AD and went to cities where their kind existed. The path they followed was north into Syria and down into the Mesopotamia valley settling on the Euphrates.
These path follows the path as set forth in the Haran Gawaita:
“And sixty thousand Nasoraeans abandoned the Sign of the Seven and entered the Median hills , a place where we were free from domination by all other races. And they built cult-huts (bimandia) and abode in the Call of the Life and in the strength of the high King of Light until they came to their end"(33)
Epiphanius also writes that the disciples of Jesus, after the death of James being told, to flee Jerusalem and go north into the region of Pella. (34) Pliny in the early 70’s AD locates a group of people he calls the ‘Nazerimi in Northern Syria. Furthermore Lucian of Samosta, 2nd Century, gives an account of a group of people on the Euphrates River in Northern Syria. These “Daily Bathers” rose at dawn to baptize themselves and they wore linen garments in that baptizing. These “Daily Bather” are very similar in nature and customs to the Mandaeans. (35) All these areas coincide with the path that the Mandaeans fled in as well as where members of the sect had lived.
Mandaean scholars Lady Drower and Macuch as well as Biblical scholars like Eisenman have made the connection between the term Nasoraeans (Mandaeans) and the pre-Christian Nasaraeans in Epiphanius’ account
“Macuch states that the movement of separation from official Judaism in pre-Christian period described by Epiphanius developed in two forms. One group migrated to the East where they were influenced by Babylonian, Iranian, and Syrian Christian traditions; these are the later Mandaeans. The other group stayed in Palestine and later was absorbed into Jewish-Christianity.” (36)
Lady Drower wrote that:
“Epiphanius (Adversus Haereses, xxix:6) says that there were ‘Nasoraeans amongst the Jews before the time of Christ.’ The name could have applied to any strictly law-observing Jewish sect, for the root means ‘to keep, to observe, guard’ and could have been used as a laudatory term for more than one group of Jewish dissidents, particularly if they had secret teachings. Nasoraeans of the Mandaean type ‘keep and observe’ ritual law with zealous fidelity and ‘keep back’-even from their own laity- mysteries considered deep and easily misunderstood by the uninitiated.”(37)
Both Macuch and Lady Drower were close to the truth. Robert Eisenman comes even closer when he states:
“In Epiphanius, some two centuries after Hippolytus, these ‘Naassenes’ are called ‘Nazaraeans’ or ‘Nazrenes’ - the Nazoraeans who go into the elite Priest Class of the Mandaeans. For him they exist before Christ – as do our so-called Essenes at Qumrum – and are coincident with other similar groups he calls Daily Bathers/ Hemerobaptists and Sabuaeans."(38)
Sinai Gündüz, in his most recent work, states that:
"Since Epiphanius describes the Nasoraean as a heresy before the Christian period –thus it can be concluded that we can certainly accept Nasarananism as a Jewish heretical movement from pre-Christian times and it is our view that the Nasoraeans in Mandaean tradition can he traced back to the pre-Christian separatist group described by Epiphanius.” (39)
"When we compare the modern Mandaeans to the Nasaraeans in Epiphanius' account we also find a number of important differences. On the other hand, as far as Mandaeism is concerned, we have a tradition which has a long history, and which contains a number of foreign influences. Therefore it seems to us that the theory which makes a connection between the Mandaean Nasoraeans and the pre-Christian Nasaraeans is probably correct. In any case the term nazuraiia in the Mandaean literature clearly reflects the western background of the Mandaeans." (40)
So what do we have so far? We have the Mandaeans who went by the title Nasuraia as a self-designation. Both Mani and the Kaftir Inscription verify the name Nasoraeans as being used in the Southern Mesopotamia area of Iraq and Iran for a group of people. We also have a sect of Pre-Christian Nasoraeans, who did not follow Jesus, who were like Jews but not like them, who that had their own books and laws. The sect know as the Mandaeans today were the original Sabians (Sabaeans) fall very easily not the role as these original Nasoraeans (Nazoraeans). But there is much more to this search.
Outline
Introduction
The Nasurai of the Mandaeans
Kaftir Inscription
Mani
Nasoraeans
Sabians- Elchasaites
Naassenes
Conclusion
References
