Ginza Rba

The Ginza Rba or Ginza Rabba (Modern Mandaic: ࡂࡉࡍࡆࡀ ࡓࡁࡀ‎ Ginzā Rabbā; literally "The Great Treasury") or Siddra Rabba, "The Great Book" ("rabba", meaning great), and formerly, the Codex Nazaraeus, is the longest of the many holy scriptures of the Mandaean religion. It is also occasionally referred to as The Book of Adam.

The language used is classical Mandaic, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic written in Mandaic script (Parthian chancellory script), similar to Syriac script. The authorship is unknown, and dating is a matter of debate. Some scholars place it in the 2nd-3rd centuries AD, while others such as S. F. Dunlap place it in the 1st century.

The Ginza Rba is divided into two parts - the Right Ginza, containing 18 books, and the Left Ginza, containing 3 books.

The book, still mainly hand written, traditionally contains the Right Ginza on one side, and, when turned upside-down and back to front, contains the Left Ginza, this latter also called "The Book of the Dead." The Right Ginza part of the Ginza Rba contains sections dealing with theology, creation, ethics, historical, and mythical narratives; its six colophons reveal that it was last redacted in the early Islamic Era. The Left Ginza section of Ginza Rba deals with man's soul in the afterlife; its colophon reveals that it was redacted for the last time hundreds of years before the Islamic Era.

The book is a compilation of various oral teachings and written texts, most predating their editing into the two volumes. It includes literature on a wide variety of topics, including liturgy and hymns, theological texts, didactic texts, as well as both religious and secular poetry.

At present, there are two published Mandaic-language editions of the Ginza published by Mandaeans themselves. Readers of Aramaic can read the original books, which have been published and are freely accessible in university research libraries, and in online archives.

Important sources for scholars today who cannot read Mandaean Aramaic are still the German translations, notably that by Mark Lidzbarski (1869–1928): "Der Ginza oder das grosse Buch der Mandaer" published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1925. He translated an edition of the Ginza by (1860s) which in turn relied upon four different Ginzas; Lidzbarski was also able to include some material from a fifth Ginza, that at Leiden, Holland.

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