The Mandaean Book of John: Critical Edition, Translation and Commentary. Edited by Charles G. Häberl and James F. McGrath. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2020. Pp. vii + 467. $218.99.

Neo-Mandaic is among the rarest and most seriously endangered languages of the world. Two extant Neo-Mandaic dialects, those of the cities of Ahvaz and Khorramshahr in southwestern Iran, are spoken by a few hundred adherents of Mandaeism, an indigenous gnostic religion of Lower Mesopotamia. Previous transcribed texts in the dialect of Ahvaz mostly deal with Mandaean culture and include Classical Mandaic vocables that are not used in the vernacular. The present annotated text is entirely colloquial, being a sample of daily (...) speech amongst speakers of the dialect and reflecting a typical conversation between two Neo-Mandaic speakers in a situation where one is receiving his relative as a guest. It is, moreover, the first Neo-Mandaic text that involves a female informant. (shrink)

The article describes the analysis of Gnostic sects of the Late Antiquity, with the exception of the concepts of large Gnostic systems. Particular attention is devoted to the consideration of the Mandaean religion - the only ancient Gnostic religion that exists to this day. The history of the formation of Mandaise, the determinative role of John the Baptist and the cult of Teyvila for the Mandaeans, as well as the peculiarities of their doctrine has been analysed.