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

Yahia-Yohanna

John's Answer to Jesus Concerning the Angel of Death

Yahya proclaims in the nights, Yohana on the Night's evenings. Yahya proclaims and speaks: " Stand I not alone? Because of my voice the (heavenly) wheels quake and the chariots capsize. The tempest became silent and settled down in the world's deserts. Sun and Moon wail, and Earth and Heaven mourn." Messiah opened his mouth and spake to Yahya in Jerusalem: "I asked thee, Yahya, by Great Life and by Sunday, whose name is dear. I asked thee Yahya, by the way, whereby the Men of piety put to the test go without hindrance. Tell me: To what is the shape of Sauriel's knife like. Tell me: If the soul leaves the body, with what is it clothed, and to what is it like in the vain body? Surely the soul is not possibly like the blood, that it should became heated in the body and come to a stop in it? Surely the soul is not possibly like the wind, that it should fare to the mountains, be lost there and come to a stop! Surely the soul is not possibly like the dew, that it should fall on the fruit and be lost?" When Messiah said this, Yahya cries aloud, tears come to him without ceasing, and be speaks: " [God] forbid that the high King of Light should look for lot in deceivers. The soul is not like the blood, that it should become heated in the body and come to a stop. The soul is not like the dew that it should fall on the fruit and be lost. The soul is not like the wind that it should fare to the mountains and come to a stop. Firmly developed has the soul been brought into the vain body. If the soul has kept herself perfect, she ascends in a garment of glory." " Sauriel's knife consists of three flames. When he (S.) drives her (the soul) to hasten, so as to bear her away he lets loose the three names against her. One he lets loose against her in the evening, the other at cock-crow: the third lets he loose 'gainst her at the coming-forth of the rays. If the fire begins to be fierce, the soul slips out of the feet and the knees. Out of the feet and the knees slips she and draws nigh to the hips. Thereon leaves she the hips, reaches the heart, and seeks to keep there her ground. Then falls she into the breast, and it squeezes… The eyes, the lace and the lips of the man twitch, and the tongue twists hither and thither." "Then Sauriel sits on the eyebrows [he sits] and speaks to her: 'Go hence, O Soul! Why dast thou still watch over the body? '--Then says she to him: 'Thou wilt hale rue, Sauriel out of the body. First show me my vesture (and clothe me there- with); then hale me out and hence bring me.'-- ' First bring me thy works and thy wage.'-- makes he answer to her--:'then will I show thee thy vesture and clothe thee.'----' I knew not, O Sauriel,' says she to him, 'that my time is come, and they then send quickly for me, far doing good works, so that thou mayest bring me my vesture and clothe me therewith.'- Natheless he made answer unto her. 'Has no one yet died before thee and have they not yet carried forth anyone to the graveyard?'--Thereon she says to him: 'Through the power of him who has died before me, and through the power of him whom they have carried Earth to the graveyard' "(The women) who wept ran hither and thither and (the men) who wailed ran hither and thither, as long as the body lay there before them. When the soul leaves the body, four go forth to the graveyard., (The women) who wept ran hither and thither, the men who wailed ran hither and thither; and they ran hither and thither crying, until they lowered it into the pit. When they had lowered the vain body and covered it over (with earth), then the women ceased from their death-wail. They filled up the pit, and the men went away… In haste left they the body and grave and went away; they took hold of cup and ate bread and forgot the vain body.--Now, an thou wilt, Sauriel, let me stay here still two days. Then will I sell the whole of my goods and share out among my sons, and will take my vesture with me, the robe that ascends to Light's region." "Natheless Sauriel returned answer unto her: "Is there a child that has left the womb of its mother, and that they shall have brought back again into its mother, that I should leave thee in the Wicked Ones Dwelling, so that than mayest see after a sharing among thy sons? I will lead thee hence and put the robe of darkness upon (thee) for that thou hast not let thyself be loved in this world, and hast not loved thy way to Light region. Therefore shalt thou be put in ward in the House of the Wicked, till Heaven and Earth pass away.' " And Life be praised

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 59 - 61