Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Mandaeism" in English language version.
[Wilhelm] Brandt maintains that the oldest layer of Mandaean tradition is pre-Christian. He designates it "polytheistic material,'" which is nourished above all from "semitic nature religion" (to which he also accords baptismal and water rites) and "Chaldaean philosophy." Gnostic, Greek, Persian, and Jewish conceptions were added and assimilated to it. [...] A newer trend of Mandaean theology was first capable of bringing about a reformation by attaching itself to Persian models; this is the school of the so-called "teaching of the king of light" (Lichtkonigslehre), as Brandt has named it. [...] Both of the central principles of Mandeism, Light and Life, attached themselves to Iranian and Semitic conceptions.
When they were first discovered by Europeans in the 17th century, and it was found that they were neither Catholics nor Protestants but that they made much of baptism and honoured John the Baptist, they were called Christians of St John, in the belief that they were a direct survival of the Baptist's disciples. Further research, however, made it quite clear that they were not Christians or Jews at all, in any ordinary sense of the word. They regard 'Jesus Messiah' as a false prophet, and 'the Holy Spirit' as a female demon, and they denounce the Jews and all their ways.
[Wilhelm] Brandt maintains that the oldest layer of Mandaean tradition is pre-Christian. He designates it "polytheistic material,'" which is nourished above all from "semitic nature religion" (to which he also accords baptismal and water rites) and "Chaldaean philosophy." Gnostic, Greek, Persian, and Jewish conceptions were added and assimilated to it. [...] A newer trend of Mandaean theology was first capable of bringing about a reformation by attaching itself to Persian models; this is the school of the so-called "teaching of the king of light" (Lichtkonigslehre), as Brandt has named it. [...] Both of the central principles of Mandeism, Light and Life, attached themselves to Iranian and Semitic conceptions.
When they were first discovered by Europeans in the 17th century, and it was found that they were neither Catholics nor Protestants but that they made much of baptism and honoured John the Baptist, they were called Christians of St John, in the belief that they were a direct survival of the Baptist's disciples. Further research, however, made it quite clear that they were not Christians or Jews at all, in any ordinary sense of the word. They regard 'Jesus Messiah' as a false prophet, and 'the Holy Spirit' as a female demon, and they denounce the Jews and all their ways.
[Wilhelm] Brandt maintains that the oldest layer of Mandaean tradition is pre-Christian. He designates it "polytheistic material,'" which is nourished above all from "semitic nature religion" (to which he also accords baptismal and water rites) and "Chaldaean philosophy." Gnostic, Greek, Persian, and Jewish conceptions were added and assimilated to it. [...] A newer trend of Mandaean theology was first capable of bringing about a reformation by attaching itself to Persian models; this is the school of the so-called "teaching of the king of light" (Lichtkonigslehre), as Brandt has named it. [...] Both of the central principles of Mandeism, Light and Life, attached themselves to Iranian and Semitic conceptions.
[Wilhelm] Brandt maintains that the oldest layer of Mandaean tradition is pre-Christian. He designates it "polytheistic material,'" which is nourished above all from "semitic nature religion" (to which he also accords baptismal and water rites) and "Chaldaean philosophy." Gnostic, Greek, Persian, and Jewish conceptions were added and assimilated to it. [...] A newer trend of Mandaean theology was first capable of bringing about a reformation by attaching itself to Persian models; this is the school of the so-called "teaching of the king of light" (Lichtkonigslehre), as Brandt has named it. [...] Both of the central principles of Mandeism, Light and Life, attached themselves to Iranian and Semitic conceptions.
When they were first discovered by Europeans in the 17th century, and it was found that they were neither Catholics nor Protestants but that they made much of baptism and honoured John the Baptist, they were called Christians of St John, in the belief that they were a direct survival of the Baptist's disciples. Further research, however, made it quite clear that they were not Christians or Jews at all, in any ordinary sense of the word. They regard 'Jesus Messiah' as a false prophet, and 'the Holy Spirit' as a female demon, and they denounce the Jews and all their ways.
