Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley was born in Norway. She began her undergraduate studies during the 1960s. As an undergraduate student, she studied psychology, philosophy, and Ancient Greek, and eventually became interested in
Gnosticism and
Mandaeism. In 1971, she went to the
University of Uppsala and then studied briefly at the
University of Utrecht. She also visited
Iran in 1973 to conduct fieldwork on the Mandaeans. In 1975, she began her doctoral studies at the
University of Chicago Divinity School and received a Ph.D. in 1978.[4] Her doctoral thesis was titled Spirit
Ruha in Mandaean Religion.
Career
Buckley has conducted fieldwork twice in
Iran, in 1973 and 1996, as well as among Mandaean diaspora communities around the world. She has regularly collaborated with Mandaic scholars such as
Kurt Rudolph and
Rudolf Macúch.[4]
Buckley is also known for her work as a legal witness in Mandaean immigration asylum claims. In 1995, the
Executive Office for Immigration Review of the U.S. Department of Justice certified Buckley as an expert witness on the Mandaeans.[5]: 61
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"Two Female Gnostic Revealers." History of Religions 19, no. 3 (1980): 259–69.
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"Conceptual Models and Polemical Issues in the
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"A Study of the Two Liturgical Collections in
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"The Mandaean Appropriation of Jesus’ Mother,
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"Libertines or Not: Fruit, Bread, Semen and Other Body Fluids in Gnosticism," Journal of Early Christian Studies 2, no. 1 (1994): 15–31.
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Kurt Rudolph zum 65. Geburtstag, edited by Holger Preissler and Hubert Seiwert, 55–60. Marburg: diagonal-Verlag, 1994.
"A Re-Investigation of The Book of John." ARAM 16 (2004): 13–23.
Review of The Mandaeans: The Last Gnostics, by
Edmondo Lupieri. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 71 (2002): 220–23.
"Hibil's Lament from The Book of John," in The Gnostic Bible, edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer, 555–60. Boston: Shambhala, 2003.
"A Mandaean Appropriation of Jesus' Mother Miriai." In A Feminist Companion to Mariology, edited by Amy-Jill Levine, 182–93. London: T & T Clark, 2005.
"Mandaean Community in Iran." In Encyclopaedia Iranica, edited by Ehsan Yarshater. New York: Columbia University, MEALAC–Center for Iranian Studies, 2005.
"Turning the Tables on Jesus: The Mandaean View." In A People's History of Christianity, edited by Richard Horsley, vol. 1: Christian Origins, 94–109. Philadelphia: Fortress, 2005.