For some time scholars have recognized a connection between Judaism and the Mandaean religion, a In 1925 M. Lidzbarski located tile beginnings of Mandaeism in the Christian period in Syria-Palestine. According to him the ancestors of the present day Mandaeans were originally situated in the Transjordan and had their spiritual home in the heterodox circles of Judaism. 2 In 1940 S. Pederson argued that Mandaeism had at one time a positive relation to Jews and therefore contains numerous Jewish elements. 3 Following Brandt 4 G. Widengren in 1961 expressed the opinion that the earliest structure of Mandaeism is of Jewish origin, s Similarly in The Secret Adam, published in 1960, Lady Drower stressed the connections between Mandaeism and Judaism, drawing a few parallels between gnostic ideas in these religious traditions. 6 More recently K. Rudolph 7 and G. Scholem 8 argued along similar lines.
Unfortunately, however, little work has been done on comparing Mandaeic texts with Jewish sources. 9 The purpose of this article is thus to contrast a central gnostic doctrine in Mandaeism--the role ofthe alphabet in creation-with that found in the Sefer Yesirah, the earlies.t extant Hebrew mystical text of speculative thought. 1~ The fact that similar ideas are found in this early rabbinic text and in the secret scrolls ofan early date used at the ordination of Mandaean priests 11 adds weight to the view that Mandaeism and Judaism were originally intimately related.
According to one of these secret Mandaean texts, the All Trisar Suialia, the Wellspring is described as the mother of the alphabet: 'And the great and lofty one (Adam Kasia) who is the soul who sitteth in the celestial firmament spoke and said, 'Praised be the great First Light, the Wellspring of Light, mother of the twenty-four letters of the alphabet. '~2 These letters are represented as instrumental in forming Adam Kasia--the cosmos in the shape of physical man--in the following way: 'The 'L' came into being--and up to the 'La' they were twelve. And from the halfway 'La' unto the end ofthe living (mysteries?) it was (also) twelve because they divided that Well in which there are four corners. Thus its counterpart which pertaineth to it, which is named 'L', is seen to be the middle halfofthe alphabet. When they were 'H' the mysteries 0048-721X/81/030227 + 08501.00/0 (~) 1981 Academic Press Inc. (London) Ltd.