Ginza Rabba

The principal sacred scripture of Mandaeism, a collection of religious teachings, hymns, myths, and other texts divided into Right and Left sections.

Mandaeism: A Gnostic religion whose followers revere John the Baptist and practice rituals centered on living water. The Ginza Rabba is Mandaeism’s principal scripture and expresses its distinctive teachings.
Mandaean creation myth: Mandaean narratives describing the creation of the cosmos and the emergence of the material world. Creation accounts in the Right Ginza place the scripture’s teachings within a cosmic history.
Mandaic literature: The body of religious and secular writings composed in the Mandaic language. The Ginza Rabba is the most prominent work within this literary tradition.
Book of John: A Mandaean scripture containing teachings and narratives associated with John the Baptist. It complements the Ginza Rabba within Mandaeism’s central scriptural collection.
Right Ginza: The larger section of the Ginza Rabba containing teachings, myths, hymns, and accounts of creation and the soul. This section supplies much of the scripture’s cosmology and religious instruction.
Mandaean soul: The spiritual self in Mandaean belief, understood as originating in the World of Light and capable of returning there. The Left Ginza follows the soul’s passage through death and judgment.
Mandaic manuscripts: Handwritten witnesses to texts composed in Mandaic, preserved in manuscript collections and communities. Manuscript copies transmit the Ginza Rabba’s text and reveal its textual variation.
Qolasta: A Mandaean prayer collection used in daily worship and rituals for the living and the dead. Its liturgical prayers put religious themes found in the Ginza Rabba into ritual use.
Left Ginza: The section of the Ginza Rabba focused chiefly on the soul’s journey after death and its return to the World of Light. Its texts give the scripture’s most sustained account of the soul’s fate.
Mandaean death rituals: Ritual practices that assist a deceased Mandaean’s soul on its journey beyond the material world. The scripture’s afterlife teachings explain the spiritual stakes of these rites.

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