Abatur
Abatur | |
---|---|
Diwan Abatur | |
Parents | Yushamin |
Offspring | Ptahil |
Equivalents | |
Egyptian equivalent | Anubis |
Zoroastrian equivalent | Rashnu[1] |
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Abatur (ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ, sometimes called Abathur; Yawar, ࡉࡀࡅࡀࡓ; and the Ancient of Days) is an
He exists in two different personae. These include Abatur Rama (ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ ࡓࡀࡌࡀ, the "lofty" or celestial Abatur), and his "lower" counterpart, Abatur of the Scales (ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ ࡌࡅࡆࡀࡍࡉࡀ), who weighs the souls of the dead to determine their fate.: 7–8
Etymology
Häberl (2022) etymologizes Abatur as abbā ḏ-otri 'father of the excellencies',[6]: 213 since he translates uthra as 'excellency.'[7]
Abatur in Diwan Abatur
He is one of the main characters in the Scroll of Abatur, one of the more recent texts of the Mandaeans. The text begins with a lacuna. He is said to reside on the borderland between the here and the hereafter, at the farthest verge of the World of Light that lies toward the lower regions. Beneath him was originally nothing but a huge void with muddy black water at the bottom, in which his image was reflected.[3] The existing text starts with Hibil (ࡄࡉࡁࡉࡋ, an important World of Light envoy) telling Abatur to go and reside in the boundary between the World of Light and the World of Darkness, and weigh for purity those souls which have passed through all the matarta (spiritual toll houses) and wish to return to the light.
Abatur is not happy with the assignment, complaining that he is being asked to leave his home and his wives and do this task. Abatur then rather impatiently asks a whole series of questions regarding specific sins of omission and sins of commission, asking in effect how can such impure souls be saved. Hibil then answers these questions in a rather lengthy response.
A later section of the book reveals that Abatur is the source of
After the material world is created, the Primordial Adam asks Abatur what he will do when he goes to Tibil. Abatur answers that Adam will be helped by Manda d-Hayyi, the entity which instructs humans with sacred knowledge and protects them. This enrages Ptahil, who dislikes Abatur giving a degree of control of his own creatures to someone else, and complains bitterly about it, in much the same way that Abatur had complained about his assignment to Hibil Ziwa.
He subsequently serves in his capacity as judge of the dead, in much the same capacity as Rashnu and Anubis. Those souls which qualify can enter into the World of Light from which Abatur himself came. He himself will only be allowed by Hibil to return to the World of Light upon the end of the poorly-made material world that Ptahil created.
Imagery
Images of the Mandaean beings tend to be of a blocky style vaguely reminiscent of European
See also
- Ancient of Days in Judaism
- Metatron in Judaism
- Anubis in Egyptian mythology
- Avatar in Hinduism
- Rashnu in Zoroastrianism
- List of angels in theology
References
- JSTOR 593099.
- ^ Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. 2002. The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People. Oxford: Oxford University Press p8
- ^ a b public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mandaeans". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 555–556. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ISBN 0-517-88537-9
- The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans. Page 105, translator's footnote 4.(or counterpart) of the other. In the less abstract form, he is Abathur of the Scales, the spirit of justice which weighs human souls in his balance.
⁴) There are two Abathurs, one appears to be a dmuta
- ^ ISBN 978-1-80085-627-1.
- ^ Häberl, Charles G.; McGrath, James F. (2019). The Mandaean Book of John: Text and Translation (PDF). Open Access Version. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.