Christian scholars should not dismiss Mandaean sources about John the Baptist, a prominent New Testament researcher has argued.
In a presentation delivered at Macquarie University on Thursday 18 July, Dr James McGrath argued that material written by Mandaeans had been too easily pushed aside.
“I think that material like this deserves more attention from Christian scholars and scholars of early christianity than has been the case,” he said.
“There are other points of intersection that I think are interesting.”
Dr McGrath is the author of multiple books, including two recent titles about John the Baptist. He is also the Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis.
As an analogy of his approach to texts outside the Christian tradition, Dr McGrath highlighted a popular story shared online that saw famous French academic Jaques Derrida delivering a lecture mispronouncing ‘chaos’ as ‘cows.’
This, he said, was a one example of how stories that were apocryphal could yield truths if read critically and carefully. In the case of the Derrida example people could use it to learn about Derrida.
“We have these sources and yet they are very different in terms of their date and in terms of their relationship to the John the Baptist movement,” he said.
While acknowledging that Christian and Mandaean sources were distinct from one another from a very early point, Dr McGrath said it was, “Important not to talk about the Baptist movement as being “that group over there.””
“There’s a long history of scholars of early Christianity setting this material aside as too late to be relevant,” Dr McGrath said.
Dr McGrath said that it was important to use this material, “critically and resourcefully”
“Commonalities [between the sources] are not always the result of borrowings,” he said.
As part of his work on John the Baptist, Dr McGrath has looked at Mandaean sources, as well as the Second Century infancy Gospel of James. He said the latter text “has a fragment of material that comes from the John the Baptist movement.”
According to Dr McGrath, the Infancy Gospel of James contains an instance of editorial fatigue, which shows that the book is likely a reworking of a Mandaean text about John the Baptist.
“We have a clue that this author has been reworking Baptist material,” he said.
Dr McGrath recently released his first book about John the Baptist, Christmaker. The book is a biography intended for a general audience. His other work on the Baptist, an academic monograph, will be released later in 2024.
He said he hopes his work will help Christian scholars reconsider the role John the Baptist played in shaping Jesus.
“Hopefully we will have a new era in paying attention to John, and not just…in our rush to get to Jesus,” Dr McGrath said.
“Taking the time to pay attention to John is crucial in getting Jesus right.”
The presentation was hosted by the Society for the Study of Early Christianity. There were some technological difficulties at the venue, but those watching online via Zoom were able to view the entire presentation.
As well as presenting at Sci Fi Church on Friday 19 July, Dr McGrath will also present at the 78th General Meeting of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas in Melbourne next week.
