The Mandaean Book of John, Apocryphicity, Prayers of John the Baptist and More

Mark Goodacre has pointed out that the long lost and much missed blog Apocryphicity has in fact been continuing its existence at a new location.

When I went to pay a visit, I was immediately struck to find a recent post entitled “Prayer of John the Baptist.” Tony gives a longer and shorter version of the prayer that he came across in Syriac sources:

Longer version:

Now, the first prayer of John to his disciples: “Father, show me your son. Son, show me your spirit. Holy Spirit grant me wisdom through your strength.” And some say it is this: “Holy Father, consecrate me through your strength and make known the glory of your excellence and show me your son and fill me with your spirit which has received light through your knowledge.”

Shorter version:

The first prayer of St. John the Baptist to his disciples: “Holy Father, guard your strength and show us your glory and make your son known to us and fill us, my Lord, with your spirit which gives light through your knowledge.”

My interest was piqued not merely because of a general interest in John the Baptist because of my work on the Mandaeans, but because there is in fact an unpublished manuscript in the Drower Collection in the Bodleian Library in Oxford entitled the “Prayers of John.” It will be interesting to see whether there is any evidence in them of interaction between Mandaeans and the Syriac-speaking Christians that composed and preserved the above prayer (and others like it).

Tony also shared Serapion’s “Life of John the Baptist” on his web site. Thanks!

When I looked to see if I could find the DC number of the “Prayers of John” in the Drower Collection, I happened across a German dissertation by Gabriele Mayer which is a commentary on chapters 18-33 of the Drasha d-Yahia – The Mandaean Book of John! I was particularly delighted to see that this dissertation devotes some attention to the poetic character and structure of the text.

I only discovered this dissertation moments ago, and so I cannot say more yet, but I’m delighted to have found it!