Gnostic John the Baptizer — The Story of the Breach with Judaism
§ About this work
The work opens with Yōhānā-Yahyā's advent: in §18 a child is planted from the height and revealed in Jerusalem, priests dream, and Enishbai bears Yōhānā to Zakhriā despite his denial; §§19–21 present Yahyā proclaiming his freed soul before the Seven and the Sun, and questioning Miryai and Enishbai; §§25–27 give his discourse on Judgment-Day, his reading of the Letter of Truth, and his refusal to leave when the priests threaten fire and sword. In §§9–16 Yeshu Messiah asks Yahyā to baptize him and is accused and answered in proverbs; a Letter from Abathur orders the baptism; Rūhā casts a cross over the Jordan. John's Marriage, Birth, and death-dialogues follow: Anhar is fashioned and bears children, Yahyā questions her about his departure, is reared on Mount Parwan, and describes Ṣauriēl's knife and the soul's departure. §§17–27 depict a burial and Ṣauriēl refusing a woman's plea for two more days, closing "praised be Life," with footnotes glossing names; §§28–32 consist wholly of explanatory notes. The Miryai sections (1–10) recount Miryai disobeying her parents, joining the Mandaeans, cursing the Jews, becoming a vine, and being rescued by a pure eagle who destroys Jerusalem and enthrones her. The Fisher of Souls tractate (§§36–39) has the Chief Fisher, with Hibil, Shitil, and Anōsh, binding and smiting the fishers; The Good Shepherd (§§11–12) and The Treasury of Life (§57), In the Beginning (§13), and Exhortations (§47) treat sheep, beatitudes, two Kings, and Nazōræan conduct; the final span (21–24) is entirely footnotes.
Miryai speaks, naming herself a daughter of the Kings of Babel and Jerusalem's rulers, raised by priests; Adonai charges her to clean the temple. Her father goes to the house of the people, her mother to the temple, and both charge her to stay indoors. Miryai disobeys, goes into the streets and to the temple of the Mandaeans, finds her brothers making proclamations and her sisters giving explanations, grows drowsy, and lies down. A sister in Truth wakes her and warns her to rise before dawn and before her father comes. At daybreak her father comes and insults her; she answers defiantly. He calls others to look at Miryai who left Jewry to make love with her lord; Miryai answers that she loves her Lord, the Life's Gnosis, and curses the Jews. In a variant, her mother meets Miryai at the door, questions her sleepy face, and reports what the Jews say; Miryai puts dust on her feet and curses the Jews. Miryai is then a vine at the mouth of Euphrates; birds settle, winds and tempests scatter them. A white eagle comes; the birds ask about their brothers, and the eagle tells how many were destroyed, urges them to hold fast to Miryai, and says he came to heal her and water the plants. He flies off warning woe to the Jews, Elizar, and Zatan. The Jews gather, plan to slay Miryai and set up a stake, then follow her and find her enthroned reading. Her mother pleads for her return; Miryai laughs and refuses. A pure eagle sinks the Jews in the water, destroys the temple, burns Jerusalem, embraces Miryai, sets her on the throne, declaring himself her Good Messenger; she praises him.
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