The Origin and Meaning of Mandaic
The most characteristic figures in the Mandaean religion are the beings known as the eutria. unlike the supreme being, who remains largely aloof from the material world, the eutria repeatedly intervene in the affairs of mankind to protect the Mandaeans and punish those who threaten them. The origin...
| Published in: | Journal of Semitic studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2017]
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| In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
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| RelBib Classification: | BC Ancient Orient; religion |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The most characteristic figures in the Mandaean religion are the beings known as the eutria. unlike the supreme being, who remains largely aloof from the material world, the eutria repeatedly intervene in the affairs of mankind to protect the Mandaeans and punish those who threaten them. The origin and precise meaning of this term have been the subject of some debate. The scholarly consensus that has developed over the past fifteen decades, namely that it is cognate with Aramaic ‘uṯrā ‘riches’ and therefore must mean ‘riches’, is not justified either by the internal evidence from the Mandaic literature or by the comparative evidence from the other Semitic languages. By comparing its contemporary spoken form with related words in all other branches of Semitic, this contribution will demonstrate that it clearly derives from the Proto-Semitic root *w-t-r ‘to exceed’, that it is one of an extremely small class of relic Causative deverbal adjectives in Aramaic, that its original meaning with reference to divine beings is ‘excellent’, and that in Classical Mandaic (and only in Classical Mandaic) it secondarily came to be used as a proper noun referring to an entire category of supernatural beings (‘the excellencies’). |
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| ISSN: | 1477-8556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgw044 |