Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth

In §18, a child is planted from the height and revealed in Jerusalem; the priests dream and chill seizes Jerusalem. A priest recounts a night vision of a star over Enishbai and fire in Old Father Zakhriā. The priests cast dust; Yaqif and Beni-Amin weep; Elizar speaks. Earth tells Elizar to send to Lilyukh; Ṭāb-Yōmīn carries a letter, and Lilyukh reads the dream-book and writes that Enishbai will bear Yōhānā. The letter returns to Elizar, then Zakhriā. Elizar tells Zakhriā to leave Judea; Zakhriā smites Elizar, denounces his mother, and denies the birth. The priests reproach him, promising Yōhānā will receive Jordan. Three lights accompany Zakhriā. Elizar vows to serve Yōhānā. They take the child from Jordan's basin and lay him in Enishbai's womb. In §19, Yahyā proclaims he freed his soul; the Seven question him, he answers, Life rejoices, and the vesture given to Adam, Rām, Shurbai, and Shum bar Nū is given to him. In §20, the Sun speaks to Yahyā of his mashklil-ship, and Yahyā answers concerning a wanton woman. In §21, Yahyā asks who equals him; Miryai and Enishbai weep; he asks Enishbai for ransom; she says none equals him; he describes his voice silencing the Torah, and the birds do obeisance. In §25, Yahyā addresses the nobles and ladies about Judgment-Day, asking where Adam, Hawwā, Shit-il, Rām, Rūd, Shurbai, Shar-hab-ēl, and Shum bar Nū are, and says his friends' sins are forgiven. In §26, Yōhānā takes no delight in the ćons; the Jews reject the Letter of Truth, Yōhānā reads it and is filled with life; his brothers proclaim on Mount Karmel; Gnosis of Life writes to the Soul. In §27, the priests tell Yahyā to leave; he says bring fire and sword, and they answer neither burns nor hews him.

Yahyā proclaims in the nights. Yeshu Messiah comes to the Jordan and asks Yahyā to baptize him. Yahyā accuses Yeshu of lying to the Jews, deceiving priests, cutting off seed, and relaxing the sabbath. Yeshu answers with self-curses and repeats his request. Yahyā speaks proverbs (a stammerer becomes no scholar); Yeshu reverses each, then explains each with illustrations. A Letter from the House of Abathur orders Yahyā to baptize the deceiver. Rūhā, like a dove, throws a cross over the Jordan and changes its water's colors, then speaks of Messiah Paulis's institutions. Gnosis of Life warns against the carpenter's god. In John's Marriage, one taunts Yahyā as barren and a false prophet. Yahyā weeps over taking a wife. A Letter from Abathur commands him to marry and prescribes his nights. A wife, Anhar, is fashioned; children are born: Handan, Sharrath, Birhām, R'himath-Haiyē, Nṣab, Sām, Anhar-Zīwā. Yahyā and Anhar discuss instructing their children. John questions Anhar what she will do after he departs; she offers vows, which he calls lies. He answers her with impossibilities in Sheōl. She offers a brick grave; he refuses, asking instead for shared bread and masses. In John's Birth, taken from Jordan and laid in Enishbai's womb, Yahyā is born. The Jews consult Zakhriā over naming; Enishbai names him Yahyā-Yōhānā. The Jews plot to slay him. Anōsh takes the child to Mount Parwan, where he is reared to twenty-two, then returns to Jerusalem. Enishbai rushes out veil-less; Zakhriā divorces her; the Sun rebukes him. Yahyā kisses Enishbai; Anōsh questions and acknowledges his wisdom, entrusting him to Sun and Moon. Messiah asks Yahyā about Ṣauriēl's knife and the soul. Yahyā describes the three-flamed knife and the soul's departure. The text is fragmentary here.

The span opens mid-scene at a burial: the women who wept and the men who wailed run hither and thither while the body lies before them. The text states that when the soul leaves the body, four go forth to the graveyard, and the mourners run crying until the body is lowered into the pit. Once the body is lowered and covered with earth, the women cease their death-wail, the pit is filled, and the men go away; in haste they leave body and grave, take hold of cup, eat bread, and forget the vain body. A woman then asks Ṣauriēl to let her stay two more days so that she may sell all her goods, share them among her sons, and take with her the robe that ascends to Light's region. Ṣauriēl answers her that no child that has left its mother's womb is brought back into it, so he will not leave her in the Wicked Ones' Dwelling to oversee a sharing among her sons; instead he will lead her hence and put the robe of darkness upon her, because she did not let herself be warned in this world and did not love her way to Light's region. He declares that she shall be held in the House of the Wicked until Heaven and Earth pass away. The passage closes with the formula "And praised be Life." The remainder of the input consists of editorial footnotes glossing names and terms, among them Yōhānā and Yahyā, Ur-ashlam, Enishbai and Zakhriā, Miryai, Mandā d'Haiyē, Kushṭā, and Tibil, and noting details such as Zakhriā being 99 and Enishbai 88 at John's birth and John beginning his ministry at 22.

The span consists entirely of explanatory notes. An early note speculates a figure may be Gnosis of Life, the M. Saviour. Notes on p. 53 discuss the marriage-ceremony, three hours for sleep and prayer, Divine Powers, and Mshunē Kushṭā as personified Mother of Yahyā's wife, then identify heavenly names: Handan, Shar-rath, Bihrām, R'himath-Haiyē, Nṣab, Sām, and Anhar-Zīwā. Subsequent notes address spiritual sense, death, customs at labour and weddings, and Egyptian burial motives. Further notes on p. 56–57 identify the Dwelling of the Seven Rulers, heavenly messengers, docetism, midwife, Zatan-Eṣṭūnā, Jesus called 'that one,' Enoch, and the term Uthra. Later notes treat threats of killing and removal of the child, the mambūhā drink, Parwan, the numbers 99, 88, 22 as psephology, the heavenly cloud, the sacred cord, dedication as a Nazīr, a passage from Pistis Sophia concerning Mary and Elizabeth, the Angel of Death, a flaming sword, a lost passage, and mourners.