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
'TIs the voice of the Pure Fisher who calls and instructs the fish of the sea, in the shallows. He speaks to them: " Raise your up … on the surface of the water stand Upright; then will your force be double as great. Guard yourselves from the fishers who catch the fish and beat on the Jordan. ShiImai and Nidbai curse them, and they depart and settle themselves down behind me a mile off. The fish curse their casting-net ...... in their place."
When the Fisher thus thus spake warning all [of the fish, when] the fishers his voice heard, they came up and gathered around him. They put themselves forward to ask of him questions, and knew· not whence he came. " Where wast thou, Fisher" they ask him, "that we heard not thy voice in the marsh? Thy ship is not like our ship, and thy ... is not …. Thy ship is not tarred over with pitch, and thou art not like the fishers of this world."
The fishers see him, become scarlet for shame and remain standing in their places. They say to him: "Whence comes it that thou dost fish without finding? Thy ship is not like our ship; it shines by night like the sun. Thy ship is perfected in aether, and wondrous standards are unfurled above it. Our ship sails along in the water, but thy ship between the waters. On reeds (? rods) grumble at one another and break into pieces. among them is the fish-trident of wrath, on which ... and .. are not. Thy … O Fisher, is such that when the fish see it, they take themselves off. We have not yet seen any fishers which are like unto thee. The mind wafts thy ship on, the mast ...... for the fisher and a rudder that gleams in the waterbshallows. On thy cast-net is no cord, and have not laid … ‘round it. There are no … in it, which are a cunning device against the fish of the ….
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… Thou keepest thy yarn ...... and hast no clapper and no hatchet. Thy yarn (=net) fishes not in the water and is not coloured for catching fish."
When the fishers thus spake, the Fisher made answer unto them: “Have done, ye fishers and fishers' sons; off, get you gone from me! Off, go up to your village, the Ruins, Jerusalem. Ask about me of your father, who knows me, ask of your mother, who is my maid-servant. Say to him: “There is a Fisher in the boat, in which are four ... [There is] a rudder, and it stands and a mast ….. and redemptions· They lay waste the land of Jerusalem."
When they heard this from the Fisher who has come hither, and understood, they spake to him: "Have compassion, forbearance and mercy on us and forgive us our sins and transgressions- We are thy slaves, show thyself indulgent towards us. We will look after thy fish that none of them fails. We will be the servants of thy disciples, who name thy Name in Truth. We will continue to look after all who name thy Name.
Life is exalted and is victorious, and victorious is the man who has come hither.
Mandaean John-Book by G.R.S. Mead pages 79 - 80
