Abstract
In interpreting the origins of the Mandaeans, I have focused on three basic motifs considered by the research to be evidence of the Western, ie, Syro-Palestinian origin of Mandaeism: origins in the 'heretical' circles of Palestinian Jewry, in the Syro-Palestinian baptismal movement and in the Syro-Palestinian Gnosticism. I have shown that the polemics with Judaism, the presence of the Old Testament motifs, the similarities between the Gnostic and Mandaean texts, as well as the significance of the water rituals in the Mandaean religion, provide evidence of Mandaean origin in Babylonia.
Together with the incantations bowls and metal scrolls, and along with the philological evidence, these sources speak unequivocally for the origins of the Mandaeans in Babylonia.