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
Yahya proclaimed in the nights and speaks: Stand not I here alone? I go to and fro.
Where is a prophet my equal? Who makes proclamation equal to my proclamations? And who doth discourse with the like of my wondrous voice!
When Yahya thus spake, the two women weep. Miryai and Enishbhai weep, and for both tears flow. They say: We will go hence, and do thou stay here ; see that thou dost not bring us to stumble. I (M.) will go hence, and do thou stay here; see that thou doest not bring me to stumble. I (E.) will go hence, and do thou stay here ; see that thou doest not fill me with Sorrow. Then Yahya opened his mouth and spake to Enishbhai in Jerusalem: Is there any who could take my place in the height? Is there any who could take my place in the height, so that thou mayest pay for me ransom? If thou canst pay for me ransom, then bring thy jewels and ransom me. If thou canst pay for me ransom, then bring thy gold and ransom me.
Thereupon Enishbhai opened her mouth and spake to Yahya in Jerusalem: Who is thy equal in Judea, who is thy equal in Jerusalem, that I should look on him and forget thee?
Yahya continued, saying:
Who is my equal? Who is my equal, that thou shouldst look on him and forget me? Before my voice and the voice of my proclamations the Torah disappeared in Jerusalem. Before the voice of my discourse the readers read no more in Jerusalem. The Wantons cease from their lewdness, and the women go not forth to the...
Hither to me come the brides in their wreaths, and their tears flow down to the earth. The child in the womb of his mother heard my voice and did weep. The merchants trade not in Judea and the fishers fish not in Jerusalem. The women of Israel dress not in dresses of colour, the brides wear no gold and the ladies no jewels. Women and men look no more at their face in a mirror. Before my voice and the voice of my proclamations the water rose up to the pillars. Because of my voice and the voice of my proclamations the fish brought to me their greetings.
Before my voice and the voice of my proclamations the birds made obeisance and said :
"Well for thee, and again well for thee, Yahya, and well for the Man whom thou dost worship. Thou hast set thyself free and won thy release, O Yahya, and left the world empty. The women has not led thee away with their lewdness, and their words habe not made thee distracted. Through sweet savours and scents thou hast not forgotten thy Lord from thy mind. Thou hast not made thyself drunken with wine and hast done no deeds of impiety. No backsliding has seized on thee in Jerusalem. Thou hast set thyself free and won thy release, and set up thy throne for thee in Life`s House.
And Life is Victorious.
Mandaean John-Book by G.R.S. Mead pages 44- 45
