Mandians_An Ancient Arab Ethnic Spiritual People Dispersed From Homeland Today

The concept of battle between "good" and "evil" as a central belief of the Zoroastrian Persia, in pre-islamic period, somehow was incorporated in the Mandian spiritual belief system.

In their religion, John The Baptist and the ritual of Baptism that he practiced is a central element of their religion. However they do not believe in the divinity of Jesus of Nazarath, while considering John The Baptist as a true prophet.

We know from the Christian bible, that John The Baptist had baptized Jesus and had accepted him as the true messenger from Heaven among his followers.

Subsequently when John The Baptist was executed, Jesus inherited the leadership of John's followers of that period, few years before the Crucifixion incidence.

It is not known now if the Mandians are perhaps can be linked to perhaps a group among followers of John The Baptist who did not join those who accepted divinity of Jesus. Scholars at several universities (for example, Rutgers Univrsity at N.J) are continuing their study of Mandian origins and spiritual beliefs today to understand the past of this ancient and unique Arab spiritual tradition from history.

Background on Gnostic Christians at Dawn Of Christianity (Egypt)

The Gospel According to Thomas, commonly shortened to the Gospel of Thomas, is a well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library.

The Gospel of Thomas was found among a collection of fifty-two writings that included, in addition to an excerpt from Plato's Republic, gospels claiming to have been written by Jesus' disciple Philip. Scholars have speculated that the works were buried in response to a letter from the bishop Athanasius who for the first time declared a strict canon of Christian scripture.

The Coptic language text, the second of seven contained in what modern-day scholars have designated as Codex II, is composed of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus.[2] Almost half of these sayings resemble those found in the Canonical Gospels, while the other sayings were previously unknown. Its place of origin may have been Syria, where Thomasine traditions were strong.