Ginza Rba

For other books with similar titles, see Books of Adam.

The Ginza Rba or Ginza Rabba (Hebrew-script Aramaic Modern Mandaic: גינזא רבא‎ Ginzā Rabbā; literally "The Great Treasury") or Siddra Rabba, "The Great Book" ("rabba", meaning great), and formerly, the Codex Nazaraeus, is the longest of the many holy scriptures of the Mandaean religion. It is also occasionally referred to as The Book of Adam.

Language, dating and authorship

The language used is classical Mandaic, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic written in Mandaic script (Parthian chancellory script), similar to Syriac script. The authorship is unknown, and dating is a matter of debate. Some scholars place it in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD,[1] while others such as S. F. Dunlap place it in the 1st century.[2]

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 afterlife; its colophon reveals that it was redacted for the last time hundreds of years before the Islamic Era.

Contents summary

The book is a compilation of various oral teachings and written texts, most predating their editing into the two volumes. It includes literature on a wide variety of topics, including liturgy and hymns, theological texts, didactic texts, as well as both religious and secular poetry.

The Right Ginza

The Left Ginza

Editions

At present, there are two published Mandaic-language editions of the Ginza published by Mandaeans themselves. Readers of Aramaic can read the original books, which have been published and are freely accessible in university research libraries, and in online archives.

Important sources for scholars today who cannot read Mandaean Aramaic are still the German translations, notably that by Mark Lidzbarski (1869–1928): "Der Ginza oder das grosse Buch der Mandaer" published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1925. He translated an edition of the Ginza by Petermann (1860s) which in turn relied upon four different Ginzas; Lidzbarski was also able to include some material from a fifth Ginza, that at Leiden, Holland.

The first full English translation of the Ginza Rba was made by author Carlos Gelbert, The Great Treasure Living Water Books (2011) Sydney, Australia.

An equivalent English translation (see external links) was translated by Prof. Dr. Qais Al-Saadi and Hamed Al-Saadi in 2012. This translation was edited under the supervision of the leadership of the Mandaean community. The work is based upon a comparison of several original Mandaic manuscripts; therefore it includes contextual corrections and completions for previous works, even the German translation by Prof. Dr. Mark Lidzbarski.

References

  1. ↑ The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran: Their Cults, Customs, Magic Page 20 E. S. Drower, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley - 2002 "Their authorship and the date at which each fragment, possibly originally memorized, was committed to writing is even more problematic. Even such a book as the Ginza Rba cannot be regarded as homogeneous, for it is a collection of "
  2. ↑ "Sod, The Son of the Man" Page iii, S. F. Dunlap, Williams and Norgate - 1861

External links

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