The Ginzā Rbā "The Great Treasury" or Sidrā Rbā "The Great Book", and formerly the Codex Nazaraeus, is the longest of the many holy scriptures of Mandaeism. It is also occasionally referred to as The Book of Adam.
Language, dating and authorship
The language used is classical Mandaic, a variety of Eastern Aramaic written in the Mandaic 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, while others such as S. F. Dunlap place it in the 1st century. The earliest confirmed Mandaean scribe was Shlama Beth Qidra, a woman, who copied the Left Ginza sometime around the year 200 CE.
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''
Books 1 & 2, prose texts, contain two versions of a very stylized history of creation and of Mandaeism. Book 2 also contains three small appended pieces.
Book 3 is a reconstructed poem also dealing with creation themes but concentrating more on the origin of evil.
Book 11 deals with classical gnostic themes, and is the most difficult to interpret.
Book 12, in seven parts, 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 collection of 21 poems.
Book 16 contains 10 or 11 mostly shorter poems, many comparatively simple and straightforward.
Book 17 contains 2 rather obscure but colorful poems.
Book 18 is a history-of-the-world plus an apocalypse
''The 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.
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
At present, there are two published Mandaic-language editions of the Ginza published by Mandaeans themselves. Important sources for scholars today who cannot read Mandaean Aramaic are still the German translations, notably that by Mark Lidzbarski : "Der Ginza oder das grosse Buch der Mandaer" published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1925. He translated an edition of the Ginza by :de:Julius Heinrich Petermann|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. The first full English translation of the Ginza Rba was made by author Carlos Gelbert, The Great TreasureLiving Water Books Sydney, Australia. Under the official auspices of the Mandaean spiritual leadership, Dr. Qais Al-Saadi and Hamed Al-Saadi made an equivalent English translation of the Ginza "Ginza Rabba, The Great Treasure", published by Drabsha, Germany, 2012.
