Mandaean literature Fisher Saga

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 Good Fisher Rejects the Overtures of the Evil Ones and Overwhelms Them

In the Name of Great Life may hallowed Light be glorified.

THE Fisher clad him with vestures of glory, and an axe hung from his shoulder Е   and commotion of mischief and bell is not on the handle. When the fishers caught sight of the Fisher, they came and gatherer around him. УThou art,Ф say they onto him., УaЕ Fisher, thou who hast caught no fish of the marsh. Thou hast not seen the Е. In which the fish gather Е..

We will make thee familiar with the fishers; be our great partner and take a share as we [do]. Grant us a share in thy ship, and take thou a share in our ship. A bargain! Take from us as partner and grant us a share in thy ship.

Grant us a share and we will give thee a share in what we possess. Join thy ship with ours and clothe thee in black as we [do],so that, if thou boldest thy lantern on high, thou mayst find something, that the fish may not see thy glory and thy ship may take in fish. If thou dost give ear (to us), thou shalt catch fish, throw them into thy ship end do business. If thou givest no ear to our discourse, thou shalt eat salt; but if thou doest our works, thou shalt eat oil and honey. Thou stirrest a broth, thou fillest a bowl and sharest it with all of the fishers. We appoint thee a head over all of us. The fishers gather together beside thee, the first follow behind thee; they will be thy slaves, and thou tallest three shares of what falls to our share. Our father shall be thy servant and we mill call ourselves thy bondsmen.

Our mother shall sit on thy couch and net nets, she shall be thy maid servant and knit for thee yarns of all kinds. She shall space out the floats of cedar and put the lead-sinkers into the meshes,--meshes, meshes which are then more heavy than all of the world. She shall divide the water by means of the yarns, and when the fish run into them they shall be stopped. Then they know not the way that they seek, and have no wit to turn hack to their way. Like walls that collapse, they (the-nets) come and fall on the good. They do not let the fish rise, nor turn their face to the boulders them sink deep under the mud and shot them intoЕЕ

ЕЕ They collect them into heaps and shake them (?) out of theЕ.. There is there a Е.. into which the fish dash and are stopped. On the ... of the ... wattle- work is set up between two machines. Nets are laid down and Е which are filled with bad dates as bait, which cease them to eat death. Woe to the fish who is blinded by them, whose eye sees not the Light. Wise are the fish who know them. They pass by all of the baits. [The others] repair thither and .Е. and the nets will be for them there a lodging. One of a thousand sees it and of two thousand two see it. Its Е is closed, and a bell is hung on its side-doorЧa bell that is forged in mischief and catches the whole of the world. There, is the
water mingled with fennel Е. The pegs (?) of death. Woe to the fish who fall into them."'

When the Fisher heard this, he stamped on the bows of the ship. The Fisher stomped on the ships of the fishers; the fishers lie in the shallows close crowded together, tied up together like bundles of wheat, and cannot rise up. The reeds swish Е and the fish of the sea lie over the fishers. They snarl in the marsh and the water rings them round in its circle (?).

Then shrilling he spake with his voice. He discoursed with his voice sublime and spake to the catchers of fish : " Off from me, ye foul-smelling fishers, ya fishers who mix poison. Begone, begone, catch fish who [eat?] your own filth. Down with you to your Е and go to the end of the crossing. I am no Fisher who catches fish and my fish are tested. They are not caught by the hook with bad dates, a mess which (my?) fish do not eat. They fall not into the nets that are colored and turn not to the lamps of the Lie. They sink not down through the mud of the Water, and go not after the Е of Deception.   They (? the nets) divide not the water Е. that shall fall on the good.

If the fishers east o'er them the cast-net they tear asunder the net and set themselves free. There will be no day in this world on which the fishers catch [my ?] fish. There will be no day in this world on which the dove loves the ravens. Accursed, be ye, ye foul-smelling birds, and accursed your nest, so that it may not be filled. Woe to your father Sirma: whose bed is in the reeds. Woe to thee, hungry Safna, whose wings do not dry in this world. Woe to thee foul smelling Sdagia thou who seest the fish and sighest [for them].

He shrieks and cries bitterly when he strikes for the fish and misses them. Woe to thee, Arbana Е those who haulest the fish out of the deep. Well for him who frees himself from the talons of those who catch fish. Well for him who frees himself from the men who are watchers of this world. Begone, begone with youI ye Planets, be of your own houses a portion.

Water does not mix with pitch, and the Light is not reckoned as Darkness. The perfect onesТ partner cannot be called your partner. The good (sing) cannot belong to the wicked (pl) nor the bad to the good. Your ship cannot be tied up with mine, nor your ring (?) be laid on my ring. There is the head of all of you: count yourselves unto his realm! This is your crass father stuck in the black mud.

Your mother, who nets nets and heavy double machines have I beaten with the staff of (living water) and smashed a hole in her head. I lead on my friends, raise them on high in my ship and guide them past all the tax-gathers. I guide them through the passage of outrage the region where the fishes are taken. I make them escape the fish-eaters. But ye will come to an end in your dwellings. I and my friends of the Truth will and a place in Life's shekinah. Into the height will I bear them on thrones surrounded with standards of glory.

The Seven are vanquished and the Stranger-Man stays victorious. The Man of piety put to the test was victorious and helped the whole of his race unto victory.
Life is exalted and is victorious, and victorious is the Man who has come hither.

From the book Gnostic John the Baptiszer: Selections from the
Mandaean John-Book by G.R.S. Mead pages 76 - 79