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SUDid you know there is an ethno-religious group that baptizes every Sunday?
This is one of the world’s most ancient and least known religious communities, often described as the last surviving Gnostic religion from antiquity.
The Mandaeans are originally from southern Iraq and southwestern Iran, along rivers where flowing water is sacred. That’s why they practice weekly baptism, not once in a lifetime, usually in running water.
Their most important prophet is John the Baptist, not Jesus. Their holy book, the Ginza Rabba, is written in Mandaic, an ancient Aramaic language still used in prayer.
Mandaeans believe they are the Sabians mentioned in the Qur’an, a group historically recognized as People of the Book, which once gave them legal protection under Islamic rule. Over time, that status became disputed and in places like Iran it was officially taken away, leaving the community vulnerable.
Today, only 40,000 to 100,000 Mandaeans remain, mostly in diaspora, making them a group in high danger of extinction.
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