Ginza Rba
Encyclopedia
Ginza Rba or Siddra Rba, "The Great Book" is the largest of the many holy scriptures of the Mandaean religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. It is also referred to as The Book of Adam.

Structure

The Ginza Rba is divided into two parts - the Right Ginza, containing 18 books, and the Left Ginza, containing 3 books.

The book, still mainly hand written, traditionally contains the Right Ginza on one side, and, when turned upside-down and back to front, contains the Left Ginza, this latter also called "The Book of the Dead." The Right Ginza part of the Ginza Rba contains sections dealing with theology, creation, ethics, historical, and mythical narratives; its six colophons reveal that it was last redacted in the early Islamic Era. The Left Ginza section of Ginza Rba deals with man's soul in the after life; its colophon reveals that it was redacted for the last time hundreds of years before the Islamic Era.

RIGHT GINZA

Books 1 & 2, prose texts, contain two versions of a very stylized history of creation and of Mandaeism.

Book 3 is a reconstructed poem also dealing with creation themes but concentrating more on the origin of evil.

Book 4 is a small text usually ignored.

Book 5 contains five separate prose texts, the first and largest dealing with a journey to the Underworld.

Book 6 deals with a "heavenly journey" theme.

Book 7 consists of John the Baptist's words of wisdom.

Book 8 deals briefly with creation and evil.

Book 9 deals with other religions and the nature of the Godhead.

Book 10 deals with the sacrament.

Book 11 deals with Nag Hammadi-type themes and is the most difficult text.

Book 12 mixes poetry and prose and provides a basic introduction to Mandaean beliefs.

Book 13 comprises a short interim conclusion to what seems to be the original version of the Ginza.

Book 14, a prose text, deals with material from book 3.

Book 15 is a bizarre collection of 21 poems (one unpublished).

Book 16 contains 10 or 11 mostly shorter poems, many compartively simple and straightforward.

Book 17 contains 2 rather obscure but colorful poems.

Book 18 is history-of-the-world plus an obsolete apocalypse!

LEFT GINZA

Book 1 is a four-part prose text on the salvation process, beginning with the ascension to heaven of Seth, in advance of his father Adam (i.e. an example of Sethian Gnosticism)!

Book 2, poetic, comprises 28 hymns.

Book 3, poetic, comprises 62 hymns. The last two books, especially the third, seem to have a more rudimentary doctrinal content than found in the Right Ginza.

Editions

The best sources for scholars today who cannot read Mandaean Aramaic
Mandaic language
The Mandaic language is the language of the Mandaean religion. Classical Mandaic is used by a section of the Mandaean community in liturgical rites....

, are still the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 translations; notably that by Mark Lidzbarski: "Der Ginza oder das grosse Buch der Mandaer" published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht is a scholarly publishing house based in Göttingen, Germany. It was founded in 1735 by Abraham Vandenhoeck in connection with the establishment of the Georg-August-Universität in the same city....

, Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...

, 1925. He translated an edition of the Ginza by Heinrich Petermann which in turn relied upon four different Ginzas; Lidzbarski was also able to include some material from a fifth Ginza, that at Leiden, Holland.

Presently, there are two published Mandaic-language editions of the Ginza published by Mandaeans themselves. To be of any real value over Lidzbarski, any English translation will also have to consult these.

Serious students who have learned Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...

, can of course read the original books, which have been published and are freely accessible in university research libraries, and in online archives. There are no full English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 translations of the Ginza Rba.

External links

  • German translation (1925) at the Internet Archive
    Internet Archive
    The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...

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