As is fitting for a figure as famous as John the Baptist, sitting at the crossroads of history, legend, and myth, the modern scholarship on the many receptions of John has been well established and continues to be fruitful. John the Baptist has been at the center of Edmondo Lupieri's scholarship since the early 1980s, which produced, in addition to many articles, several pivotal monographs, such as Giovanni Battista nelle tradizioni sinottiche, and Giovanni e Gesù. Storia di un antagonismo. Lupieri's 1988 monograph Giovanni Battista fra storia e leggenda has been particularly important for advancing scholarly understanding of the various lives of John the Baptist because of Lupieri's careful work analyzing the role of the Baptist in Mandean traditions. For the first time, Lupieri's pioneering and foundational work on the Mandeans' understanding of John the Baptist, comprising the second part of Giovanni Battista fra storia e leggenda is being made available to English-speaking scholarship. This new book, John of the Mandeans, is more than a translation; it draws upon the developments of Lupieri's continuing body of research and offers to shed fresh light on this ever-pertinent topic. In John of the Mandeans, Lupieri provides a new and substantial introduction with reflections on the major developments in scholarship on John the Baptist and the Mandeans, new footnotes, and an updated bibliography. This panel aims at presenting Lupieri's new work and fostering conversation. A panel of speakers will discuss the book and Edmondo Lupieri will respond to the discussion. A time of Q&A will follow.

Christian Studies, Biblical Studies, Religious Studies