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The Ginza
T he most significant holy book of the Mandaeans is the Ginza. The Ginza, whose title means “treasure,” is also known as the “great book.” It is divided into two parts, the right Ginza and the left Ginza, the former containing mythological and theological materials, the latter songs for the rituals for the dead.
In the selections from the Ginza presented here, the Mandaean vision of the world of light and the world of darkness is portrayed with beautiful and powerful images. In the beginning was “a sole enormous fruit” (the pleroma), and from the fruit came the world of light and life. Also in the beginning were the black waters, and from the waters came the world of darkness, with Ruha, “false wisdom,” and her entire entourage. Ptahil the demiurge and the planets create Adam: “They made Adam and laid him on the ground, but he had no soul.” With the intervention of Mana, the exalted heavenly spirit, Adam is given a soul, “is clothed in the radiance of life and stands firm on his feet.” The savior Manda dHayye, the knowledge of life, declares his role as messenger of light, that Adam—and people of knowledge—may be saved. In contrast to a Christian gospel like the Gospel of John, here it is John the baptizer who assists the light, not the sorcerer Jesus. In the end the souls that strive for the light come to the light .
THE GINZA 1
THE WORLD BEYOND
Before all the worlds came into being
there was a sole enormous fruit,
and when the enormous fruit entered a fruit,
the great and glistening king of light began.
An ether of radiance existed.
From the ether of radiance came the living fire.
From the living fire
there was a light.
By the power of the king of light
came the great fruit and life.
The great fruit came alive
and in it rolled the Jordan, which is also a garden.
The great Jordan came alive,
and the living water was in it.
Luminous water came alive from the living water.
I, life, came alive
and all the uthras—the light beings—found space.
ORIGIN OF THE WORLDS OF LIGHT
When the fruit was in the fruit, when the ether was in the ether,
when the great and glorious Mana 2
was there 3 from whom powerful manas 4 came,
whose radiance is enormous and light is great,
no one was before them in the fruit abundant and without end,
whose radiance is too abundant for the words of the mouth ,
and whose light, which was in that fruit, too great for telling
with the lips.
From the fruit came a thousand thousand fruits without end
and a myriad myriad of beings of light, the shkinas, 5 beyond count.
In each fruit were a thousand thousand beings of light.
They stand and praise the great and glorious Mana,
who lives in the great ether,
within the Jordans 6 of white water made by the Mana,
whose aroma is fragrant
and inhaled on all the roots of light
and on the great first radiance.
The long Jordan was made to go on uncounted and endlessly.
Plants grow next to it. They are happy.
They praise and stand in perfection,
and from the great Jordan came uncounted Jordans endlessly. 7
THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
I saw the rebels and Hewath the serpent woman. 8
When I was standing in the house of life, I saw the rebels.
I saw their gates of darkness.
I saw their destruction and the lords of the gloomy house.
I saw their fighters buried in darkness.
I saw the gates of fire and their burning glow,
how the wicked burn and glow,
deliberately imperfect and in error.
I saw Hewath the woman,
how she speaks in darkness and malice.
She speaks in malice and is expert in witchcraft and sorcery.
She talks with illusory wisdom on her throne of lies. 9
I saw the gate of darknes s
and the arteries 10 of the earth, Siniawis the underworld,
just as it is.
I saw the black water that rose up, boiled, and bubbled.
Whoever enters dies, and whoever sees it is scorched.
I saw the dragons
who were hurled there and writhe on the ground.
I saw the wicked rebels sitting in their chariots.
I saw the wicked of every type and species.
I saw a chaos of chariots of darkness.
I saw the wicked rebels arrayed in weapons of evil.
With weapons of evil they conspire against the place of light.
WHERE IS THE DARKNESS FROM?
Who are these hideous creatures?
Where is the darkness from?
Who are the inhabitants sitting there?
How were their actions born,
which are hideous and fearful?
And their enormous flaws?
Their frightening ugliness?
They are disfigured and deformed.
WHERE ARE THE MONSTERS FROM?
Where are the mighty and evil monsters from
who live in fire?
And the black waters seething and boiling?
Enter and you die, see it and you burn.
Where are the dragons from,
cast and contorted on the ground?
And their chariots, and the wicked sitting there,
and Hewath the serpent woman ?
LIFE QUESTIONED
Life, since you went there, how did darkness get there?
How did darkness get there?
How were imperfection and flaws born?
ORIGINS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS
There is no boundary for light.
It was unknown when it began.
Nothing was when light was not.
Nothing was when radiance was not.
Nothing was when life was not.
There was never a boundary for light.
Nothing was when water was not.
WATER IS PRIOR TO DARKNESS
Water is prior to darkness.
Prior to darkness is water.
Nothing is without an end. 11
No number is before the uthras were.
Light beings are prior to darkness.
Prior to darkness are uthras
and older than their inhabitants.
Goodness is prior to the malice
of the place of darkness.
Gentleness is prior to the bitterness
of the place of darkness.
Living fire is prior to the consuming fires
of the place of darkness.
Praise is prior to the practice
of sorcery and witchcraft.
Hymns and books are prior to the sorcery
of Hewath, the terrible woman .
DARKNESS
Water doesn’t mix with tar,
and darkness can’t be measured by light.
Darkness can’t be measured by light.
The house of gloom isn’t lighted.
The house of gloom isn’t lighted, and turbid waters have no sparkle.
Darkness grew and creatures formed.
Darkness formed, and when it formed it tested its force.
It harbored malice in its mind.
It imprisoned its own kanna , the place of the soul.
It imprisoned its own kanna,
and everything it did was nothing.
The children of darkness are nothing,
but the children of life stay.
The house of evil is nothing,
and its consuming fires die.
Its sorcery dies and ends, since it has no place in eternity.
It comes to nothing.
The generations of life stay forever.
The living instruction rises and illuminates a perishable living place.
THE ARCHDEMON RUHA
The mind of Ruha dQudsha 12 is evil. She lies.
She is a sorcerer.
The mind of Ruha, the liar, is sorcery.
She is all sorcery, witchcraft, and fake wisdom.
Hewath the woman, who is Ruha, sits with her stone amulets
and tears clumps of hair from her head.
She is sitting, engaged in false magic ,
along with her women spirits. They all practice false magic,
possessed, evil, and ensnared.
She concocts a commotion of false magic.
Her mind is confused.
Who were her imperfect and disfigured instructors
who taught her lies?
Who is this woman, mother of the base monster? 13
PTAHIL, ANGEL OF LIGHT
When I, Ptahil, 14 was shaped and came to be, I issued
from a source of huge radiance.
When my father 15 decided to call me out, he called me
out of the huge radiance.
He dressed me in a radiant robe and wrapped me
in a covering of light.
He gave me a major crown in his whose luminosity
the worlds glisten,
and he said to me, “Son, go to the Tibil earth 16
and make the black waters solid.
Solidify the Tibil earth and inscribe Jordan rivers
and canals upon its face.”
PTAHIL MAKES EARTH AND ITS INHABITANTS
With my first cry I solidified the earth from the waters
and stretched the firmament into perfection.
With my second cry I inscribed Jordan rivers and canals
all over its face.
With my third cry I called into being fishes in the sea
and feathered birds of every shape and species .
With my fourth cry I made every plant and its seeds,
and each one was distinct from another.
With my fifth cry sinister reptiles came into being.
With my sixth cry there came a full structure of darkness.
With my seventh cry I made Ruha
and her seven sons, who are the planets. 17
Ruha the mother of evil and her seven sons came into being
and appeared before me.
When I saw them, my heart fell out of my body.
CREATING ADAM
After the angel Ptahil came he said to the planets, “Let us create Adam and make him king of the world.” The planets conferred. They agreed to tell him that they wanted to create Adam and Eve. After all, he belongs to them.
“Yes,” the planets said, “we will make Adam and Eve the head of the human family.”
After they said what they were planning to do, Ptahil was profoundly shaken. He thought, “If I myself create Adam and Eve the head of the whole family, what will Adam’s role be in the world?”
Then Ptahil Uthra 18 spoke to the planets, asking them. “Whom can we trust? What is our authority in the world?” And he said to them, “Planets, you will be his guardians and serve him in all ways.”
They made Adam and laid him on the ground,
but he had no soul.
When they made Adam they couldn’t cast a soul into him.
They called on the wind of the ether to hollow out his bones.
To hollow out his bones and let marrow form in them,
to let marrow form,
to make him strong and stand firm on his feet.
They called on the splendor of the living fire
to make his robe luminous .
To make his robe luminous,
to make him strong and stand firm on his feet.
They called on the mists over the brook
and smoke of the ravenous fire
to flow into his torso so he could clench his fist
and spread his arms
and yell and shake himself awake,
to make him strong and stand firm on his feet.
Then the planets spoke, turning to Ptahil,
“Allow us to cast spirit into him,
which you took with you from your father’s house.”
All the planets urged him,
and the lords 19 of the world urged him,
and though they tried,
they couldn’t stand him upright on his feet. 20
BRINGING SOUL TO ADAM
In his illuminated state Ptahil rose to the place of light.
He came before the father of light beings, who are
the uthras,
and his father asked him, “What have you done?”
He answered, “Once I worked well, but your image
and mine have failed.”
Then the father of light beings got up and hurried
to a secret place.
He found the great Mana, the hidden Adam, 21 and urged him to
light the corruptible, to light every varying coat of the body. 22
Then the father wrapped him in his clean turban
and evoked the name that life gave him.
He seized him at the ends of his turban
and carried him here .
He gave him to his son, Ptahil. When he gave him
to the light being Ptahil,
life summoned his helpers.
He summoned the light beings Hibil, Sitil, and Anosh, 23
who are astonishing and immaculate.
He called them, ordered them, and warned them
about their souls.
He told them, “Guard them and let no one know.”
Don’t let evil Ptahil learn how soul falls into body,
how soul falls into body
and the blood speaks in it as the radiance fills him. 24
How the blood speaks in it and how the vein channels
permeate it.
Let the carrier of Adakas Mana, the hidden Adam, 25
be his soul’s 26 protector.
When Adam is clothed in the radiance of life
and stands firm on his feet,
when he speaks with a clean mouth,
you, Adakas, restore him to his place and protect him
against enemies.
PTAHIL AND MANDA DHAYYE WORK ON ADAM
Ptahil wrapped Adam in his clean turban.
He wrapped him in his robe.
The light being quickly descended, and his helpers
all went down with him.
His helpers who went down are men in charge of souls.
When they reached the Tibil, 27 which is the world
and where his bodily torso is,
when Ptahil wanted to cast soul into his body,
I, Manda dHayye, removed the soul from his pocket .
When Ptahil lifted Adam up, I raised his bones.
When he laid his hands on him, I made him breathe
the fragrance of life.
His body filled with marrow,
and the radiance of life spoke in him.
When the radiance of life spoke in him,
he opened the eyes of his bodily torso.
When the radiance of life spoke in him,
Adakas Ziwa, the radiant Adam, rose to his place. 28
MANDA DHAYYE, MESSENGER OF LIGHT
I led Adam up to his place.
I led Adam up to his place, the house of powerful life,
the house where the great life is on his throne.
I handed him over to the guardians of the treasure,
the light beings who take care of the Jordans. 29
Life thanked the light beings who brought the soul.
The great summoned me and commanded me, saying,
“Go down and shout a sublime call!
Shout sublimely so the wicked learn nothing of the soul!”
I came and found the wicked, all of them sitting there,
and while they were sitting there
I spread witchcraft and magic around the soul,
and the wicked wanted to chop the soul into tiny parts.
I saw them and I shone in my pure garments.
Before the world I glowed in a huge radiance
given me by my father.
I appeared to Ptahil Uthra, who howled and wept.
He howled and wept over what he had done.
I appeared to Ruha, the seductive mother of planets
and evil creatures,
who seduces the worlds .
I showed her the great mystery that subdues rebels.
I showed her the great mystery, but she was blind
and didn’t see it.
I showed her a second mystery.
Then I threw a camel bridle on her and showed her
a third mystery
and with a blow I split her head open.
WHEN THEY SAW ME THEY TREMBLED
When they saw me they trembled and called out,
saying they were guilty.
The seven called out, saying they were guilty.
They called out, saying they were guilty,
and fell headlong and landed on their faces.
They fell headlong and landed on their faces,
putting their hands before their faces,
and they cried, “Master. We were in error and sin.
Forgive our sins.”
But when the wicked spoke I cut through their phalanx.
I made them swear by the great mystery
not to wrong the soul.
I hid before their seven souls.
I stopped and took on a body. I took on a body
and thought I would not terrorize the soul,
and in her garment she would not know terror.
I took on a body for her
and sat near her in splendor.
I spread radiance of the great Mana over her.
From that light, Adam was planted.
I sat by him and taught him what life had stored in me.
I sang to him sublimely,
more sublimely and luminous than the worlds.
I sang to him in a soft voice
and raised his heart from sleep.
I spoke to him in the speech of the light beings
and taught him out of my wisdom.
I taught him out of my wisdom. I told him to ris e
and pray on his knees and praise the mighty.
He should praise the high place where the good sit.
He should praise Adakas Ziwa, the radiant Adam,
the father from whom he came.
ADAM SAVED
As I sat and instructed him, he bowed down and praised
the mighty. He praised his father, Adakas Ziwa,
the Mana by whom he was planted.
When he bowed down and praised his father the light being,
the father came to him from his secret place.
When he saw his father he overflowed with holy songs.
He sang in a loud voice and overturned the planets.
He overturned the planets
and overturned the lord of the world.
He disowned the sons of this world’s house,
and everything
they had done.
He witnessed the name of life
and the light being who let him hear his voice.
He disowned the works of the Tibil
and raised his eyes to the place of light.
THE LIGHT BEING OF LIFE REWARDS ADAM
For what he had done the light being of life was kind,
the father of light was full of kindness to him
and commanded a building be erected for him.
He commanded a building be erected for him
and commanded a planting be planted for him.
He commanded a Jordan river be prepared for him
so at the ripe instant when his measure was full,
he would ascend and inhabit his building and inhabit
the place of light
with Adakas Ziwa his father,
and become a light being in the place of light .
JOHN THE BAPTIZER AND JESUS THE SORCERER
For nine months Nbu Christ 30 is in the womb of his mother, 31 the virgin, and he is hidden there. Then he came out of her body, along with blood and menstrual discharge, and grew up at her breasts and sucked her milk. When he was grown, he entered the temple of the Jews and became perfect in all wisdom. He perverts the Torah and alters its doctrine and all its work. He leads some of the descendants of the Jews into error and turns them into god fearers and shows them magical forms, which they believe in. He clothes them in colored tunic, tonsures their heads, and veils them like darkness. 32 And on Sunday 33 they keep their hands from work. He tells them,
I am the true god. I have been sent here from my father.
I am the first messenger and I am the last.
I am the father, I am the son, I am the holy spirit.
I came out of the city of Nazareth.
He demeans himself humbly, goes to Jerusalem, and there captivates some Jews through sorcery and deceit, showing them great deeds and magical forms. Some devils who are with him he inserts in a dead body, and they speak in the dead body. He cries to the Jews and tells them,
Come and see, I am he who wakes the dead,
performs resurrections and deliverances.
I am Anosh 34 the Nazorean.
Then Ruha 35 screams in Jerusalem and testifies against him. He snares people by sorcery and befouls them with blood and menstrual discharge. He baptizes them in blocked waters 36 and perverts the living baptism and baptizes them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. He alienates them from the living baptism in the Jordan of living waters, with which you, Adam, were baptized.
Also in that generation a child was born, who was called by the name of John, 37 the son of the venerable Zachariah, who was born to him in his old age at the end of one hundred years. His mother, the woman Elizabeth, became pregnant with him. She gave birth to him in her old age. When John grows up in that generation of Jerusalem, faith will find a place in his heart and he will receive the Jordan and carry out baptisms for forty-two years, before Nbu, who is Hermes Christ, dresses in a body and enters the world. When John is in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ arrives, moves about in humility, is baptized with the baptism of John, and becomes wise through John’s wisdom. Then Jesus proceeds to pervert the word of John and change the Jordan baptism, altering the words of truth, 38 and summoning wickedness and lies into the world.
MANDA DHAYYE BRINGS TRIUMPH TO JOHN
On the day that John’s measure is full, Hibil Manda dHayye 39 comes to him. But I appear to John as a small boy, three years and a day old, and I converse with him about baptism and I instruct his friends. Then I take him out of his body and cause him to rise up in triumph to the world that is filled with radiance, and I baptize him in the white Jordan of living and brilliant waters, 40 clothe him in garments of radiance, and cover him in turbans of light and place praise in his pure heart from the praise of the angels of light.
THE LIGHT BEING ANOSH UNMASKS JESUS
After John, the world will go on in lies and Christ the Roman 41 will split the peoples; the twelve seducers 42 wander the world. For thirty years the Roman appears in the world. . . . And when the great one chooses, the light being Anosh comes. He will expose the lies of Jesus the liar, who makes himself equal to the angels of light. He will accuse Christ the Roman, the liar, the son of a woman, who did not come from the light, that he is one of the seven seducing planets who roam the world, 43 and that he is wandering among the celestial spheres. He will unmask Christ the Roman as a liar, he will be bound by the hands of the Jews, his devotees will bind him, he will be fastened to a cross, and his body will be slain. His devotees will divide him up into many pieces. 44 He will be bound on the hill of Mara. 45 When the sun rises, it unleashes its heat against him, because he cast error and persecution into the world.
Soul Songs
THE SOUL’S QUESTIONS
The soul, the soul has words:
Who cast me into the Tibil?
Who cast me into the Tibil?
Who chained me to the wall?
Who roped me in the stocks
equal to the fullness of world?
Who threw a chain around me
that is unmeasured on earth?
Who clothed my soul in a coat
of every fabric and color?
ADAM ENVELOPED IN SLEEP
I am enveloped in sleep
in a robe without error.
In a robe without error
in which nothing lacks.
Life knew about me:
Adam asleep. I woke.
The soul took my hand.
Light hurled me into darkness ,
darkness filled with light.
On the day the light rises
darkness will go to its cave.
She came to clouds of light,
going to the place of light.
MY SOUL YEARNED FOR LIFE
The soul in me yearned for life.
Knowledge blossomed in my eyes.
The soul in me yearned for life.
I floated and wandered up
till I reached the first planet.
Her slaves came to meet me.
“Seize him, seize that man.
He will keep us company.
Seize him, seize that man,
and ask where he is from.”
“Friend, where are you from
and where are you going?”
“I come from earth, the Tibil,
the house the planets built.
The soul in me yearned for life
and aimed for the place of life.”
“This is the house of life.
This is the way!
Where are you going?”
When you go among enemies
they will perform anything
imaginable against you.
“That is not what I desire
and not what my soul wants.”
The soul in me yearned for life.
Knowledge blossomed in my eyes.
The soul in me yearned for life.
I floated and wandered up
till I reached the second planet ,
and the third and the fourth.
When you go among them,
they will shout the name of death,
and chain and torment you.
I floated and wandered up
the fifth, sixth, and seventh planets
till I reach the house of life.
When I reach the house of life,
life came out to meet me.
Life came out to meet me
and dressed me in radiance
and covered me with light.
He counted me, gave me
his number. The good
came out of his midst.
Among the lamps of light
your lamps will float and shine.
THE SAVIOR TALKS TO THE SOUL
Soul, if you hear what I say
and do not oppose my word,
for you I will throw a bridge
over the great sea.
For you I will lay a dam
and guide you to the watchtower
where the rebels hold out.
I will guide you past the fire
and smoke touching the sky.
I will take you past the double pits
where Ruha has dug her way.
And over that high mountain
I will smooth the path for you.
In this wall, this wall of iron,
I will hack a breach for you,
hug you with all my strength,
and take you to the place of light .
LOVING LIFE, PERFORMING GOOD DEEDS
Loving life, I let Manda dHayye,
the messenger of light,
calm my innermost thought.
Late Saturday evening
and before the good Sunday,
I stuffed alms in my pocket
and went to the temple gate.
I piled alms and bread
on the common plate.
I found an orphan. I fed him.
I found a widow. I filled her pocket.
I found a naked man
and gave him a garment
for his nakedness.
I found a prisoner and found a way
to free him to his village.