Saturday, May 02, 2020

E. S. Drower - Haran Gawaita. The Baptism Of Hibil Ziwa

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
~ The Haran Gawaita, on account of its fragmentary character,
has suffered more than any other Mandaean text at the hands of
late copyists who emended and edited parts which were faulty or
misunderstood. Their grammatical solecisms and misspellings have
added to the difficulty of translating an already obscure text. The
most sanguine of translators could hardly claim with a clear conscience 
that the more difficult and involved passages had been adequately
 rendered into English. The present translator is‘aware that
some renderings are too free and others too literal, and can only
most dimcult of all the Mandaean books, the Kabbalistic portions 
of the AZf l’risar Awialia excepted. It abounds in ambiguous words
 and phrases and its predictions concerning the future are often veiled 
by a dark vagueness of language a& to that employed by Nostradamus
 and others who have peered into the future. The prophecy concerning 
the return of the Messiah, although it calls Jesus a “ false ” messiah, paints
a picture unexpectedly fair of His reign on earth. One is inclined
to wonder if a Christian text has been inserted or whether a passage
recounting His downfall has disappeared from the original.

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