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Living Water Mediating Element in Mandaean Myth and Ritual1

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Living Water Mediating Element in Mandaean Myth and Ritual1 LIVING WATER MEDIATING ELEMENT IN MANDAEAN MYTH AND RITUAL1 MAJELLA FRANZMANN Like many another isolated group attempting to live strictly according to ancient traditions, the Mandaeans have experienced difficulties in their contact with modern education and technology. E. S. Drower outlined some of these difficulties in 19372 and reports since then have not been optimistic.3 More recently the position of Mandaean communities in the battle-zone4 of the Iran-Iraq conflict has only served to exacerbate their situation. H. D. Sox warns too of potential disaster for the communities in the awarcncss of the Iraqi government "that the bitumen-laden swamp homeland of the Mandaeans and the 'Marsh Arabs' sits upon rich petroleum 5 deposits" . Perhaps the most telling sign of the decline of the Mandaean community and its increasing ignorance of its own language and cult is the sending by the present Ganzibra in Baghdad, Shaikh Abdullah, of a priest candidate to Kurt Rudolph in Marburg to be educated in Mandaic language and literature Such a situation indicates even more clearly to the scholarly community what little time there may be in which to study this group as a living religion. For the most part, study of the Mandaeans has concentrated on questions of their origin and history, the origin and development of cult, language, and so on. Some years ago J. J. Buckley, in his study of the relation of myth and ritual in the Mandaean masiqta (the so-called death mass ceremony), criticised the scholarship which has by and large neglected the relationship of Mandaean myth and ritual: "...students of Mandaeism continue (more or less tacitly) to regard the myths and the rituals as essentially unrelated. Generally, where a concern with ritual emerges, mere description and comparative interests take the lead. Attempts to render the rituals of Mandaeism meaningful within the frameworks of the religion's mythological thought are still scarce. "' 157 This paper will take up Buckley's concern and investigate the relation of myth and ritual in the Mandaean masbuta (baptismal ritual) by focussing on the element of living water. It will show that, both in the mythological concepts about living water and in the baptismal ritual, living water serves as the source of life and as the connecting link between the world of light and the earthly world. G. Widengren's study of Mandaean baptism as an enthronement ritual does touch on the relationship of myth and ritual.8 However Widengren takes basically a comparative stance, investigating bap- tism in relation to coronation rituals. What is proposed in this paper is an "internal" investigation, limited to the mythology and ritual of the Mandaeans themselves. 0 I. Living water (mia hiia9): the my tho logy 1 Themes: water, light and life; water as connection between the world of light and the earth. Living water originates in the world of light. The various cosmogonic accounts in GR differ and it is not an easy matter to be clear, for example, about the exact origin of living water or its place in the order of creation. GR XV 379, 3-8, for example, has: Upon the world of light was life, and from life came water. From life came water, and from water came radiance. From radiance came light, and from light came the uthras." On the other hand, in GR III 73, 19-26, life comes from water by the power of the king of light: The great fruit came, and in it came the Jordan. The great Jordan came, living water came. The gleaming, sparkling water came, and out of the living water came I, life.'2 Although there is confusion of detail in the accounts, the close association of life, light and water is clear. Over against the living water of the world of light is the black water (mia siauia13) of the world of darkness.'4 However the living .
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