Earlier this year I presented a Manichaean Psalm that mentioned Salome. Now I will present you a Psalm involving Mary Magdalene. This Psalm comes from the collection titled “Psalms of the Lord Hercleides”. These are dated back to around the mid 4th century. I am pulling this translation from the 1938 book “A Manichaean Psalm …
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Sorry for the month long departure. I try to post at least twice a month however Lent / Pascha season had my attention, but now I am back with another Theotokos Ethiopian short story. This story is another incession story, this time involving a pregnant woman. The English translation is provided by E. A. Wallis …
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I am digging back into the Ethiopian tradition with this short tale about the Theotokos and her encounter with an Egyptian Priest named John Bakansi (at least that is how it’s translated). It has an odd turn of events, and I’m always up for quirky tales. What I really like about this short story is …
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I wrote previously regarding one of the sayings in 2 Clement and it’s correlation to the Gospel of Thomas, but have decided to do a deep dive into all the sayings. There are quite a few quotes from Jesus in this writing that is attributed to Clement of Rome, but that attribution is questionable and …
Here is an interesting tidbit regarding John the Baptist speaking of wanting a wife (and obtaining one, then having children) and on his own death; from the Mandaean tradition. This comes from the G.R.S. Meade book “Gnostic John the Baptizer”, which takes from the Mandaean Book of John, and I have included it in full …
On February 24 and 25 in the Orthodox tradition there are two feast days about discovering the head of John the Baptist (commemorating two different dates, and there is a third feast day for another finding later in the year; the head kept getting lost!). The head of John the Baptist is quite the fascinating …
I have featured Salome on my blog in the past, but wanted to share this Manichaean psalm. There are numerous psalms from the Manichaean faith, but in a particular group titled “Psalms of Thom(as)”, number 16 is titled “Salome built a tower.” I did not see this posted online elsewhere, so I want to share …
Today is the feast day of Theophany, which commemorates the baptism of Jesus by John. I present you with a different take on this event. This post, as well as more coming up, will feature Mandaean writings relating to John the Baptist. Mandaeism is the only “gnostic” religion to survive since antiquity without any downtime …
Those who study Christian history have heard of the Jewish historian, Flavius Jospheus and his mentions of John the Baptist, Jesus and James (brother of Jesus). I have read the Jesus and James mentions before, but I must admit, I never really read the John quotation. While reading through G. R. S. Mead’s Gnostic John …
This is going to be my last “John” entry for awhile but this is a really interesting story. Some years back, an English translation of the “Evangelikon”, which accompanied a text titled the “Levitikon”, was published. What is this you ask? It is an alternate version of the Gospel of John. The manuscript was reportedly …
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Culmination of Wisdom