Mandaean Prayers

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Mandaean Prayers

THE GOOD SHEPHERD

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

A Sheperd am I who loves his sheep;
sheep and lambs I watch over.

Round my neck (I carry) the sheep:
and the sheep from the hamlet stray not.

I carry them not to the seashore,
that they see not the whirl of the water,
may not be afraid of the water,
and if they are thirsty may not drink of the water.

I bear them away (from the sea),
and water them with the cup of my hand,
until they hare drunken their fill.

I bring them unto the good fold,
and they feed by my side.

From the mouth of Euphrates,
from the mouth of Euphrates the Radiant things of
marvelous goodness I brought them.

I brought them myrtle,
white sesame brought them
and brought them bright standards.

I cleansed them and washed them
and made them to smell the sweet orders of life.

I put round them a girdle,
at sight of which the wolves tremble.

No wolf leaps into our fold:
and of no fierce lion need they be alarmed.

Of the tempest they need not be frightened;
and no thief can break in upon us.

A thief breaks not into their fold;
and of a knife they need not be anxious.

When my sheep where quietly laid down
and my head lay there on the threshold,
a rift was rent in the height
and thunder did thunder behind me.

The clouds seized hold one of another,
and unchained were the raging tempests.

Rain poured down in sheets
and hail that smites elephants low,
hail that shatters the mountains.

And the tempests unchain themselves in an hour.

Seas burst forth:
they flooded the whole of the world.

There, under the water, no one escaped,
once he sank from the height as
into a gulf.

The water swept off everyone
who had no wings or no feet.

He speeds on, and knows not he speeds:
he goes, and knows not he goes.

Thereupon I sprang up and I entered the
fold to bear my sheep forth from their place.

I saw my eyes full.

I saw the sea,
I saw the fierce-raging tempest,
I saw the storm-clouds that send forth
no [friendly] greeting the one to the other.

Ten-thousand times ten-thousand
dragons are in each single cloud.

I weep for my sheep,
and my sheep weep for themselves.

The little lambs are lamenting who cannot
come out of the fold's door.

When then (untranslatable idiom),
I entered the house, I mounted up
to the highest place (in it),
and I call to my sheep.

To the sheep in my care do I call.

I pipe to them;
I get them to hear,
so that they come unto me.

To them I pipe on my pipe, and beat
on my tabour (?), [leading them] to the water.

I call to them:

"My little sheep, little sheep, come!
Rise up at my call!
Come, rise at my call;
then will you escape the cloud-dragons.

Come, come unto me !
I am a shepherd whose boat is soon coming.

My boat of glory is coming;
and I come with it, and bring my
sheep and lambs in aboard it.

Every one who gives ear to my
call and heed gives unto my voice,
and who turns his gaze unto me,
of him take I hold with my hands
and bring him onto me inboard my boat."

But every lamb, male and female,
that suffered himself to be caught,
the water-whirl carried away,
the greedy water did swallow.

Whoever gave no ear to my call, sank under.

To the highest part of the vessel I went.

The bows stand up with the how-post.

I say:

"How woeful am I for my sheep
who because of the mud have sunk under.

The water-whirl sank them away from my reach,
the swirling whirl of the water.

How grieved am I for the rams whose fleece on their sides has dragged them down into the depths.

How grieved am I for the lambkins whose bellies have not [yet] been filled full of milk.

Of a thousand, one I recovered;
of a whole generation I found again two.

Happy is he who (stoop up?) in the water,
and in whose ears no water has entered.

Happy the great rams
who have stamped with their feet.

Happy is he who has escaped from the Seven and Twelve, the sheep-stealers.

Happy is he who has not couched down,
has not lain down, has not loved to sleep deeply.

Happy is he who in this defective
age of Bisholm has stayed whole.

Happy are they who free themselves from the
snares of Ruha (the Mother-World-Spirit),
from the filth and the shame
and the bondage that hare no end.

My chosen!
whoever shall live at the end of this age of Nirig
for him let his own conscience be a support.

He will come and mount up to the Radiant Dwelling, to the region whose sun never sets,
and whose light-lamps never darken

Life is exalted and is victorious,
and victorious is the Man who has come hither.

AND LIFE IS VICTORIOUS

From the book Gnostic John the Baptiszer:
Selections from the Mandaean John-Book
by G.R.S. Mead
London: 1924
pages 81-83

This information is only being supplied so that the Mandaeans worldwide will have access to their sacred scriptures.