Gnosticism – the belief that the creation of the material world was a mistake, and the creator deity a bungling lesser entity distinct from the supreme God – has been vigorously opposed by both Jews and Christians down the centuries. Yet even when censured, the gnostics’ views retained a certain appeal. They said that human beings have a spark of light from above and, with the right preparation for the journey, can hope to ascend beyond this broken material prison to the celestial realm of light. We can see the impact of that viewpoint in popular thought about the afterlife, even among those who reject Gnosticism’s other teachings as heresy. Remarkably, in a troubled part of the Middle East and elsewhere throughout the world, a small gnostic religious group endures to this very day.

Known as the Mandaeans, these gnostics have survived continuously since ancient times in the marshes of southern Iraq and Iran. Today more of them live in other parts of the world, especially Australia, Sweden, and the United States, but also in the UK and elsewhere. As if the prospect that some of your neighbours might belong to an ancient gnostic religion weren’t interesting enough, the specifics of their beliefs and practices, and the stories found in their sacred texts, may also seem familiar and yet once again with a distinctive twist. Mandaeans consider themselves followers of John the Baptist, and they practice baptism as their central ritual. Baptism isn’t a one-time conversion rite but something practiced repeatedly for the forgiveness of sins and to connect with the world of light. It is always carried out in rivers, always while dressed in white robes.

Mandaeans believe that Jesus was one of John’s disciples but he went off the rails and distorted John’s legacy

If they know John, you’re probably thinking their traditions also mention other names familiar from the Bible. Indeed they do. Their sacred texts in a dialect of Aramaic mention Adam, Eve, and Seth, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and also Jesus. They aren’t fans of the latter, however. Mandaeans believe that Jesus was one of John’s disciples but he went off the rails and distorted John’s legacy. While Christians depict John as insisting on his own unworthiness to baptise Jesus or even untie his sandals, the Mandaeans depict John hesitating to baptise Jesus because John perceives Jesus as unworthy.

Mandaeans are neither Jews nor Christians, and they view both the creator deity of Genesis and Jesus as troublemakers. That’s according to their texts, but as with most religions, the Mandaeans are aware that they share a great deal in common with Jews and Christians as well and are eager to get along with them. After all, unlike Judaism and Christianity, which at least claim to be focused on scriptures to a large extent, in Mandaeism the focus is on living a righteous life and seeking forgiveness through baptism. The texts were mostly for priests, repositories of stories in some instances but mainly recording the prayers and the mystical significance of the baptismal rite itself.

So why is this lone instance of ancient gnostic religion that is still with us today not more famous? If their texts were discovered today for the first time, it would make headlines worldwide, just as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi texts did. For a while, scholars were very interested in the Mandaeans. In the first part of the 20th century, they recognised that the early Mandaeans were likely to have been early followers of John the Baptist who didn’t become Christians. As a result, these scholars plugged Mandaeans in as background to texts like the Gospels of John and Luke-Acts which seem to be arguing against John’s followers, which may have perhaps included Mandaeans. Yet the Mandaean texts date from much later, and some New Testament scholars who didn’t like this approach suggested that the Mandaeans might have borrowed John from Christians. That doesn’t fit the evidence, but since none of these scholars was working closely with Mandaean sources, the whole thing became a flash in the pan. Until just a couple of years ago there wasn’t even a scholarly English translation of the Mandaean work known as the Book of John. Even now, their most sacred text, the Great Treasure, lacks that kind of edition in English. Hopefully the tide is turning and we’ll see some more attention to the study of their texts and history. Meanwhile, the mystery of the Mandaeans continues to this day.

Believing that you’re trapped in a hostile world that isn’t your home is an ancient view that goes back long before the more recent experience of Mandaeans. Now that most of them have fled persecution in the places they lived for so many centuries, they have discovered that, in the safety of new homelands with greater freedom of religion, other perils await them. Not least of these is the possibility that their communities will prove too small to maintain their identity, to preserve their heritage and pass it on effectively to the next generation. There are plenty of similarly imperilled minorities from the Middle East and elsewhere: Samaritans, Yezidis, and many more, who have survived from ancient times to the present day. Along with these other groups, the future of the Mandaean religion, whose followers are now scattered around the world, remains in doubt.