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The Thousand and Twelve Questions

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The The Thousand and Twelve Questions is a priestly text in Mandaeism. It is written in Mandaic, an Eastern Aramaic dialect.

Quotes

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Drower, Ethel S. (1960). The Thousand and Twelve Questions: A Mandaean Text (Alf Trisar Šuialia). Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
  • The Crown is composed of four mysteries, which are the Wellspring and Datepalm, Fecundation, Glory and Light. It is constructed of seven mysteries which are the ears, the five hasfia of the head, and the hair, for it (the Crown?) dominateth three hundred and sixty mysteries — which are the Body, of its Right and its Left. And all took shape within them and settled therein and developed into a thousand mysteries.
    • Book 1, Part 1, Section 19 (Drower 1960, p. 117)


  • Now as to these two mysteries of ziwa and nhura (radiant light and diffused light):
know that they are the ancient primal Father and Mother.
Pure gold is the mystery of the Father, its name is Radiance;
silver is the Mother’s mystery and its name is Light.
The crown is the Father’s symbol, and its name is Radiance;
the myrtle-wreath symbol of the Mother, and its name is ‘Let there be light’.
The owner of a crown (priest) is occupied with the mystery of the Father;
a Mandaean (layman) and his wife are concerned with the mystery of the Mother.
The ganzibra and the priest — (are like ?) crown and wreath —
by the ‘Let there be Light’ they are the Father’s.
There are those who delight in the Father
and those who delight in the Mother.
Those dedicated to the Father belong to the portion of the Right
and those dedicated to the Mother to the portion of the Left.
They are two Powers (malkia); the one was begotten by the Parṣufa (yet) fell downward,
and the other begotten by the lower and (yet) rose upward.
  • Book 2, Part 3.2, Section 20 (Drower 1960, p. 201)


Good and Evil of which thou didst speak
I mingled together,
for they are living waters and turbid water;
they are life and death.
Error and truth (or "reliability")
are wound and healing,
they are Pthahil and Hibil-Ziwa,
they are spirit and soul.
Boundary and boundary-stone
are the girdle and drawstring (of the šarwala);
they are crown and turban
which their father put on their heads.
  • Book 2, Part 3.2, "The Three" (Drower 1960, p. 211)


  • The worlds of darkness and the worlds of light are Body and Counterpart,
(they are complements) of one another,
Neither can remove from or approach the other,
nor can one distinguish either from its partner,
moreover each deriveth strength from the other.
  • Book 2, Part 3.2, "The Three" (Drower 1960, p. 213)


  • So, when the Soul came from worlds of light and fell into the body,
there came with her some of all the mysteries
which exist in the world of light,
some of its radiance and its light,
some of its sincerity,
some of its unity, its order,
its peacefulness and its honesty;
some of all that there is in the realm of light came to bear her company,
to delight her, to purify her and to surround her
in order that she may commune with them
and that there may be for her that which will aid her
against the evils and temptations of the earth.
  • Book 2, Part 3.2, "The Three" (Drower 1960, p. 215)


  • Behold and learn that betwixt Darkness and Light
there can be no union or pact;
on the contrary, (between them exist) hatred, enmity and dissension,
although we are aware of all that takes place and which seeketh to take place.
For Darkness is the adversary of Light, for they are Right and Left;
they are (earthly) spirit and (immortal) soul;
they are sun and moon, day and night, earth and sky;
(moreover) they may be called Adam and Eve.
  • Book 1, Part 1, Section 142 (Drower 1960, p. 146)

See also

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References

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  • Drower, Ethel S. (1960). The Thousand and Twelve Questions: A Mandaean Text (Alf Trisar Šuialia). Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
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