530 MANDAEAN LITERATURE
Portuguese were the first to establish an extensive and lengthy relationship.
Based on the Mandaeans' baptismal practices and their veneration of John
the baptizer, the Portuguese decided that the Mandaeans were a long lost
Christian group. During the same period, the Portuguese came into contact
with Indian Christians in Goa who traced their origins to Saint Thomas. Ini-
tially, the Portuguese linked the Mandaeans to the missionary efforts of John
the evangelist in Mesopotamia. Later, however, they speculated that the Man-
daeans were founded by John the baptizer in the area of the Jordan River be-
fore migrating to the east. For centuries thereafter, the Mandaeans were known
in Europe as the "Christians of Saint John" {Christiani di San Giovanni).
Yet while the Mandaeans themselves venerated John the baptizer, they
never depict him as their founder. Moreover, Mandaean texts condemn Jesus
as a "false messiah" and a "liar" who perverted John the baptizer's teachings.
Their extremely negative attitude to Jesus contrasts sharply with his positive
image in many western gnostic texts and in Manichaeism, where Jesus is
viewed as one of the revealer figures. Mandaean literature also polemicizes
against Christian practices, most notably celibacy of the clergy, which Man-
daeans view as an abomination. Thus the identification of the Mandaeans as a
Christian sect must ultimately be rejected, even though the two religions share
a number of significant parallels; for example, they both treat Sunday (in
Mandaic, habshaba) as the sabbath.
Since the nineteenth century, Western scholars have taken up the question
of Mandaean origins. While some have placed the group's roots in the early
Islamic period, many more have speculated that the Mandaeans are pre-
Christian and may have even influenced canonical Christian texts such as the
Gospel of John. Other scholars have argued that the Mandaeans originated as
a sectarian Jewish or Jewish-Christian group in Palestine, emerging in the
fertile religious milieu that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as a host of
baptismal groups. Still others have argued that a non-Jewish western gnostic
group may have migrated to Mesopotamia, where its members adopted and
transformed indigenous religious traditions.
Earlier speculation that Mandaeism developed out of Manichaeism has
been definitively refuted by the Coptic Manichaean songs (or psalms) of
Thomas, discovered in Egypt and dated to the fourth century CE (see "The
Coptic Manichaean Songbook" in Part Five). The songs of Thomas are close
adaptations of Mandaean liturgical texts and suggest that Thomas (a student
of Mani) was influenced by older Mandaean traditions while living in
Mesopotamia, before Mani sent him to Egypt to preach. At the same time, the