Miryai Saga Miryai is Expelled from Jewry A Variant of the Above from the Oxford Manuscript The Exiled Community Settle on the Euphrates The Jews Persecute the Mandaeans They Beg Then to Return Yahi-Yohanna Saga Portents of John`s Birth John`s Proclamation concerning himself and his assumption of the Prophet's mantle John`s Light-Ship John the Ascetic Of Judgement Day The Letter of Truth John`s Invulnerability John and the Baptism of Jesus John's Marriage John on His own Passing John's Birth , Uprising, and First Appearance John's Answer to Jesus Concerning the Angel of Death Fisher Saga The Fisher of Souls Saga The Light Ship of the Fisher The Good Fisher Rejects the Overtures of the Evil Ones and Overwhelms Them The Final Submission of the Evil Fishers Good Shepherd Prayers   THE LOVING SHEPHERDS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD THE GOOD SHEPHERD Odds and Ends The Song of the Poor's Exhaltation Exhortations In the Beginning The Treasury of Life

Sidra d-Yahia

Fisher Saga

The Fisher of the Souls Saga

In the Name of Greet Life may hallowed Light be glorified. A FISHER am I, a Fisher who elect is among fishers. A  Fisher am I who among the fishers is chosen, the Head of all catchers of fish.  I know the shallows of the waters, the inner and the  I fathom; I come to the net-grounds, to the shallows and all fishing spots, and search the marsh in the dark all over.  My boat is not cut off  [from the others] and I shall not be stopped in the night. I see: the fish in (? on) the dike.  I pressed forward on the way with a    that was not of iron. I covered (?) the   which was for us an obstruction. Aside did I push the swimmers who hinder Life's way. On my head I set up a in whose shadow the fish sit.  The fisher-trident which I have in my hand, is instead a margna select, a staff of pure water, at whose sight tremble the fishers. I sit in a boat of glory And come into this world (Tibil) of the fleeting.  I come to the water's surface; thither to the surface of the water I drew, and I drew to the crossing's surface.  I come in a,    in slow, steady course.  The water by my boat is not ruffed, and no sound of my boat is heard. Before me stands Hibil at my side Shitil of sweet name is to be seen, close by me, close in front of me, Anosh sits And proclaims. They say: “0 Father, Good Fisher, hello! O Fisher of loveable name!" Close by me, close near my boat, I hear the uproar (?) of the Fishers, the fishers who eat fish, and their stench rushes on me,- the uproar of the Fishers and the uproar of their mongers who revile and curse one another.  Everyone accuses the other.  The buyer says to the fisher: "[Take back?] thy fish! They are stinking already, and no one wants to buy them off of me.  Thou makest the catch far out at sea, so that loss falls on the buyer." Thereon speaks the fisher and makes the man, his customer, hear: "A curse on thee, a curse on thy buyers, a curse on thy bell, a curse on thy boat for not filing up.  Thou hast brought no salt and sprinkled it over thy fish which thou boughtest, so that the fish of thy boat will not be stinking and thou then.canst sell for hard cash.  Next, hast thou no meal and no dates brought, no salt hast thou brought. If then thou comest with empty hands, one who is of fair favour has no dealing with thee. Go, go, thou godless [fellow],buy not from us to do business with thy fraudulent scales. Thou boldest them down to buy at false weight, [then in selling] keepest them up with thy elbow and gettest ten for five.  Now does thy buying flee away, and thy buyer, and is as though it never had been.  Thou dost complain of the             of men and dost cherish no noble thought." When the Chief Fisher, the Head of the race of the Living, the highest of all catchers of fish, heard this, he said to him (? Anosh):  “Bring me my hand me the squbra, that I may make a call sound forth into the marsh, that I may warn the fish of the depths and scare away the foul-smelling birds that pursue after my fish. I will catch the great sidma, and tear off his wings on the spot.  I will take from him . And blow into my squbra. A true squbra is it, so that the water may not mix with Pitch." Then the fishers heard the call, their heart fell down from its stay.  One calls to the other and speaks to him: "Go into thy inner ground.  For there is the call of the Fisher, the Fisher who eats no fish.  His voice is not like that of a fisher, his squbra not like our squbra..   His voice is not like our voice, his discourse not like to this world." But the fishers stand there; they seek not shelter in their inner ground.  As the fishers stand there and are thinking it over, the Fisher came swiftly upon them; he opened the cast-net, divided  ...    He cast them bound into the ...    He tied them up with knots. They speak to him: "Free us from our bonds, so that thy fish may not leap up to our bent.  'We catch not those who name thy Name." When the fishers thus spake to me, I smote them with a club made of iron. I bound their traders on the shore which lends not ... (?)·  I roped them with ropes of bast and broke up their ships   I burnt up the whole of their netting and the... which holds the nets together.  I threw chains round them and hung them up aft on my ship's stern. I made them take an oath, took from them their mystery, in order that they may not catch the good fish, --that they may not steal them from me, stick them on a cane, hang them up,  cut them in pieces and throw them into baskets (?) with laurel and aloe.  They (the fishers) are laid low end cannot rise up.   The nets ......, and they no longer stab the fisher-trident into the Jordan,  They do not cut off  .  and stand not in the river-lands  and make not their catch in the shallows. They cast not the cast-net therein and therein not ... and aloe. I spake to those who eat the .. · of the fish whose name is eel.  They eat the eel and the ..., which stands upright on  its forefeet.   They eat the. ..I bound them in the marshes of Deception, and they were caught and were tied up.  Water from the Ulai they drink not and know not the way to the Kshash River.  I bound them fast in their ships, and threw out my ropes to the good ones.  To them I speak: “Draw your boat up here, so that it runs not into the dike." As the Chief of the Fish Catchers thus spake, the fishers made answer unto him and said; "Blessed be then, O Fisher, and blessed be thy boat and thy bark.  How fair is thy cast-net, how fair the yam that is in it.  Fair is thy cord and thy lacing,  thou who art not like the Fishers of this world. On thy meshes are no shell-fish, and thy trident catches no fish.  Whence are thou come hither? Tell us! We will be thy hired servants. We will bake and stir about broth and bring it before thee.  Eat, and the crumbs which fell from thy hand--these will we eat and therewith be filled." But I made answer unto them: (O ye fishers, who lap up your filth, no fisher arm I who fishes for fish, and I was not formed for an eater of filth.  A Fisher am I of souls who bear witness to Life. A Poor Fisher am I who calls to the souls, collects them together and gives them instruction.  He calls to them and bids them come and gather together unto him. He says unto them: “If ye ... come, ye shall be saved from the foul-smelling birds. I will save my friends, bring them on high and in my ship make them stand upright. I will clothe them with vestures of glory and with precious light mill enwrap them. I will put a crown of aether upon them and what else for them the Greatness erects on their head.  Then sit they on thrones and in precious light do they glisten. I bear them thither and raise them aloft; but ya Seven shall stay here behind. The portion of filth and of filthy doings shall be your portion.  On the day when the Light ascends, the Darkness will return to its region.  I and my disciples will ascend and behold the Light's region. Life is exalted and is victorious, and victorious is the Man who has come hither.

Miryai Saga Miryai is Expelled from Jewry A Variant of the Above from the Oxford Manuscript The Exiled Community Settle on the Euphrates The Jews Persecute the Mandaeans They Beg Then to Return Yahi-Yohanna Saga Portents of John`s Birth John`s Proclamation concerning himself and his assumption of the Prophet's mantle John`s Light-Ship John the Ascetic Of Judgement Day The Letter of Truth John`s Invulnerability John and the Baptism of Jesus John's Marriage John on His own Passing John's Birth , Uprising, and First Appearance John's Answer to Jesus Concerning the Angel of Death Fisher Saga The Fisher of Souls Saga The Light Ship of the Fisher The Good Fisher Rejects the Overtures of the Evil Ones and Overwhelms Them The Final Submission of the Evil Fishers Good Shepherd Prayers   THE LOVING SHEPHERDS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD THE GOOD SHEPHERD Odds and Ends The Song of the Poor's Exhaltation Exhortations In the Beginning The Treasury of Life

From the book Gnostic John the Baptiszer: Selections from the Mandaean John-Book by G.R.S. Mead pages 72 - 75