The Kentaeans were a Gnostic religious group of Mesopotamia from around the 5th century AD. They were closely related to but distinct from the Mandaeans.
The Kentaeans are mentioned near the end of Book 3 and at the beginning of Book 9.1 in the Right Ginza, as well as in Qulasta Prayer 357 (as Kiwanaiia (KewÃÂnÃÂye), i.e. the followers of Kiwan). The Ginza Rabba identifies the Kentaeans with Kiwan (Saturn) and criticizes them for their fasting. They are also mentioned by Arab historians such as Ibn al-MalÃÂḥimë as the KintÃÂnëya, while aà ¡-à  ahrastÃÂnë refers to them as the Kintawëya. Al-MasÃ¿à «dë briefly mentions them as the KinṯÃÂwëyà «n.
References to both the Kentaeans and Mandaeans, who are always mentioned together with each other, can be found in three 6th-century Syriac Christian texts, namely the Cyrus of Edessa's Explanation for the Fasts, the Acts of Symeon bar á¹¢abbÃÂÿe, and the title of a lost work by Nathaniel of à  ahrazur (), namely "A polemic against the Severans (Jacobites), Manichaeans, Kentaeans, and Mandaeans" (DrÃÂà ¡Ã haw d-luqbal SeweryÃÂne w-MÃÂnenÃÂye w-KentÃÂye w-MandÃÂye). Cyrus of Edessa's Explanation for the Fasts, which dates to 538âÂÂ543 A.D., mentions that "[fasting] appears with the Manichaeans, the Marcionites, Macedonians, Valentinians, and Katharoi (qtrw), together with all of the Mandaeans, the Kentaeans, and those like them." The Acts of Symeon bar á¹¢abbÃÂÿe warns readers to stay away from "the Manichaeans, the Marcionites, the Gangaeans (glyþ < gngyþ), the Purified [= Elchasaites], the Kentaeans (kntyþ), the Mandaeans (mndyþ), and the rest of the pagans (ḥanpe)."
Van Bladel (2017) argues that both the Mandaeans and Kentaeans likely originated during the mid or late 5th century in the Sasanian Empire. This date range is based on the fact that names for the Mandaeans and Kentaeans were directly attested in works by Cyrus of Edessa () and in the Acts of Symeon bar á¹¢abbÃÂ, but not in heresiologies by Aphrahat ( 280â 345) and Ephrem the Syrian (âÂÂ306âÂÂ373) that had also mentioned many similar Gnostic groups.
Theodore bar Konai ( in the Book of the Scholion) considers the Mandaeans, whom he refers to as the Dostaeans, to be an offshoot of the Kentaeans. Van Bladel (2017) argues that the Kentaeans (), who derived their teachings from Abel, and Mandaeans () are closely related to each other, and that they had become distinct from each other due to a historical schism.
In the Book of the Scholion, Theodore bar Konai quotes a passage nearly identical to Left Ginza 3.11 as part of the teachings of the Kentaeans (see ).