MANDAEAN LITERATURE 549
JOHN THE BAPTIZERAND JESUS THE SORCERER
For nine months Nbu Christ^30 is in the womb of his mother,^31 the virgin, and
he is hidden there. Then he came out of her body, along with blood and men-
strual discharge, and grew up at her breasts and sucked her milk. When he was
grown, he entered the temple of the Jews and became perfect in all wisdom.
He perverts the Torah and alters its doctrine and all its work. He leads some of
the descendants of the Jews into error and turns them into god fearers and
shows them magical forms, which they believe in. He clothes them in colored
tunic, tonsures their heads, and veils them like darkness.^32 And on Sunday^33
they keep their hands from work. He tells them,
I am the true god. I have been sent here from my father.
I am the first messenger and I am the last.
I am the father, I am the son, I am the holy spirit.
I came out of the city of Nazareth.He demeans himself humbly, goes to Jerusalem, and there captivates some
Jews through sorcery and deceit, showing them great deeds and magical
forms. Some devils who are with him he inserts in a dead body, and they speak
in the dead body. He cries to the Jews and tells them,Come and see, I am he who wakes the dead,
performs resurrections and deliverances.
I am Anosh^34 the Nazorean.Then Ruha^35 screams in Jerusalem and testifies against him. He snares
people by sorcery and befouls them with blood and menstrual discharge. He
baptizes them in blocked waters^36 and perverts the living baptism and baptizes
them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. He alienates- Nbu is the planet Mercury (Roman counterpart of the Greek Hermes).
- This is actually Ruha, the spirit of false wisdom.
- That is, the followers of Jesus become monks and priests.
- Habshaba, the Mandaean holy day, Sunday.
- Heavenly Enosh.
- The spirit of false wisdom.
- That is, not living or flowing waters, as in Mandaean baptism.