View source for Abatur

{{short description|Uthra (angelic being) in Mandaeism}}
{{Infobox deity
| type         = Mandaean
| name         = Abatur
| deity_of     = 
| member_of    = 
| image        = MS DC 8 - Abatur.jpg
| alt          = <!-- for alternate text of the title image per [[WP:ALT]] -->
| caption      = Image of Abatur from ''[[Diwan Abatur]]''
| other_names  = Third Life, Abatur Rama, Abatur Muzania, Bhaq Ziwa
| hiro         = 
| affiliation  = <!-- or | associate = -->
| cult_center  = <!-- or | cult_centre = -->
| abode        = [[World of Light]]
| planet       = <!-- or | world = -->
| mantra       = 
| weapon       = <!-- or | weapons = -->
| battles      = 
| artifacts    = <!-- or | artefacts = -->
| animals      = 
| symbol       = Scales
| parents      = [[Yushamin]]
| siblings     = 
| offspring    = [[Ptahil]]
| predecessor  =
| successor    =
| army         =
| texts        = ''[[Diwan Abatur]]''
| equivalent1_type = Egyptian
| equivalent1 = [[Anubis]]
| equivalent2_type = Zoroastrian
| equivalent2 = [[Rashnu]]<ref name="kraeling">{{cite journal |last=Kraeling |first=Carl |title=The Mandaic God Ptahil |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=[[American Oriental Society]] |date=June 1933 |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=152–165 |doi=10.2307/593099 |jstor=593099 }}</ref>
| region       = 
| ethnic_group = 
| festivals    = 
}}
{{Mandaeism}}
'''Abatur''' ({{Script|Mand|ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ}}, also '''Abathur''' or '''Awāthur'''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Drower |first=E. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CBwsAAAAIAAJ |title=Diwan Abatur ... Or: Progress Through the Purgatories |date=1950 |publisher=Biblioteca apostolica vaticana |language=en}}</ref>, {{IPA|mid|aˈwatar}}) is an [[uthra]] and the second of three subservient [[emanationism|emanations]] created by the Mandaean God ''[[Hayyi Rabbi]]'' ({{Script|Mand|ࡄࡉࡉࡀ ࡓࡁࡉࡀ}}, “The Great Living God”) in the [[Mandaeism|Mandaean]] religion. His name translates as the "father of the Uthras", the Mandaean name for angels or guardians.<ref>Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen. 2002. ''The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 8.</ref> His usual epithet is ''the Ancient'' (''ˁattīqā'') and he is also called "the deeply hidden and guarded". Also known as the '''Third Life''', Abatur is described as being the son of the first emanation [[Yushamin]] ({{Script|Mand|ࡉࡅࡔࡀࡌࡉࡍ}}).<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Mandaeans|volume=17|pages=555–556}}</ref> He is also described as being the angel of [[Polaris]].<ref>Bunson, Matthew. ''Angels A to Z''. New York:Crown Trade Paperbacks, 1996. {{ISBN|0-517-88537-9}}</ref>

He exists in two different personae. These include '''Abatur Rama''' ({{langx|myz|ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ ࡓࡀࡌࡀ|translit=Abatur Rama|lit=the "lofty" or celestial Abatur}}, {{IPA|mid|aˈwatar ˈrama}}), and his "lower" counterpart, '''Abatur of the Scales''' ({{langx|myz|ࡀࡁࡀࡕࡅࡓ ࡌࡅࡆࡀࡍࡉࡀ|translit=Abatur Muzania}}, {{IPA|mid|aˈwatar muˈzænia}}), who weighs the souls of the dead to determine their fate.<ref>{{cite book |at=Page 105, translator's footnote 4 |section=105 (Known as the Asiet Malkia) |last=Drower |first=Ethel Stefana |author-link=E. S. Drower |title=[[Qolusta|The Canonical Prayerbook of the Mandaeans]] |quotation=⁴) There are two Abathurs, one appears to be a ''[[dmuta]]'' (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.}}</ref> In [[Mandaean texts]] such as the ''[[Qulasta]]'', Abatur is sometimes referred to as '''Bhaq Ziwa'''.<ref name="Häberl 2022"/>{{rp|7–8}}

==Etymology==
[[Charles G. Häberl]] (2022) etymologizes Abatur as ''abbā ḏ-ʿoṯri'' 'father of the excellencies',<ref name="Häberl 2022">{{cite book | last=Häberl | first=Charles | url=https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781800856271 | title=The Book of Kings and the Explanations of This World: A Universal History from the Late Sasanian Empire | location=Liverpool | publisher=Liverpool University Press | date=2022 | doi=10.3828/9781800856271 | doi-broken-date=2024-11-01 | isbn=978-1-80085-627-1}}</ref>{{rp|213}} since he translates [[uthra]] as 'excellency.'<ref>{{citation|mode=cs1 |url=http://www.gnosis.org/library/The_Mandaean_Book_of_John_Open_Access_Ve.pdf |first1=Charles G. |last1=Häberl |author-link=Charles G. Häberl |first2=James F. |last2=McGrath |author-link2=James F. McGrath |date=2019 |title=The Mandaean Book of John: Text and Translation |version=Open Access Version |publisher=De Gruyter |place=Berlin/Boston}}</ref>

==Abatur in ''Diwan Abatur''==
[[Image:Abatur at the scales.jpg|thumb|left|Illustration of Abatur at the scales from ''[[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 (manuscripts)|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 initially nothing but a massive void with muddy black water at the bottom, in which his image was reflected.<ref name="EB1911"/> The existing text starts with [[Hibil]] ({{Script|Mand|ࡄࡉࡁࡉࡋ}}, an envoy from the World of Light) telling Abatur to go and reside in the boundary between the World of Light and the [[World of Darkness (Mandaeism)|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 unhappy with the assignment, complaining that he is being asked to leave his home and his wives to do this task. Instead, Abatur impatiently asks questions regarding specific [[sin]]s of omission and sins of commission, asking how such impure souls can 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 [[Ptahil]] ({{Script|Mand|ࡐࡕࡀࡄࡉࡋ}}), who fills the role of the [[demiurge]] in [[Mandaean cosmology]]. The book indicates how Abatur gives Ptahil-uthra precise instructions on how to create the material world ([[Tibil]], {{Script|Mand|ࡕࡉࡁࡉࡋ|}}) in the void described above, and gives him the materials and help (in the form of demons from the World of Darkness) he needs to do so. Ptahil, like Abatur before him, complains about his assignment but does as he is told.  The world he creates is very dark, unlike the World of Light from which Abatur and the others come.

After the material world is created, the [[Adam Kadmon|Primordial Adam]] asks Abatur what he will do when he goes to Tibil. Abatur answers that Adam will be helped by [[Manda d-Hayyi]], who instructs humans with sacred knowledge and protects them. This enrages Ptahil, who dislikes Abatur, giving a degree of control of his 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 as a judge of the dead, in much the same capacity as [[Rashnu]] and [[Anubis]]. Those souls who qualify can enter the World of Light from which Abatur himself came. Hibil will only allow him 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 [[cubism]]. This imagery, allowing for stylistic differences of individual artists, is consistent throughout the illustrated diwans.<ref name="SymbolicArt">{{cite book |last=van Rompaey |first=Sandra |title=Mandaean Symbolic Art |publisher=Brepols |publication-place=Turnhout |date=2024 |isbn=978-2-503-59365-4 |url=https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503593654-1}}</ref> None of the celestial beings shown has any fleshy or material bodies, and this may play a part in the non-representative nature of their depictions. In the surviving images in the ''[[Diwan Abatur]]'', Abatur is depicted sitting on a throne. Both Abatur and Ptahil are depicted as having faces divided into quarters, with what seem to be eyes in the lower two quarters of the face. Some have interpreted this as indicating that they both have to look down upon the earth.

==See also==
* [[Ancient of Days]] (''ʿattīq yōmīn'') in [[Judaism]]
* [[Metatron]] in Judaism
* [[Anubis]] in Egyptian mythology
* [[Avatar]] in Hinduism
* [[Rashnu]] in Zoroastrianism
* [[List of angels in theology]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20040513073318/http://essenes.net/chrisgray.html Mandaeanism-Nasoraeanism by Christopher Gray]}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070320123838/http://www.mandaeanworld.com/mandaean_glossary3.html Mandaean Glossary]

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[[Category:Individual angels]]
[[Category:Uthras]]
[[Category:Psychopomps]]