We conclude this survey of the "Johannite" Mandaeans with a brief account of the Proem to the Gospel according to John. While this material, on the surface, does not seem to be in the Mandaean style, there is some indication that there was a connection, for G. R. S. Mead, though a Theosophist, in 1924 c.e., published his translation of the Sidra d'Yahya, under the name of Gnostic John the Baptizer: Selections from the Mandaean John Book.
Extracts from this work are available at various places on the Internet. We refer the interested reader to the links section of this document.
We do not possess this book, nor have we any access to it, other than the extracts which are available on the Internet. We do possess, however, the Oxford Tibetan Series, edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, 4 volumes in paperback. The fourth volume in this series is entitled The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation. Book Two of this volume is entitled The Yoga of Knowing the Mind, the Seeing of Reality, called Self-Liberation. Part Two of this book is entitled The Practical Application. Head Five of this Part Two is entitled The Dharma Within, on pages 216 - 218 of the paperback edition. [Dharma being the Law of Being, the Truth, Divine Wisdom, Guide to the Science and Art of Living]:
The Dharma being nowhere save in the mind, there is no other place of meditation than the mind.
The Dharma being nowhere save in the mind, there is no other doctrine to be taught or practised elsewhere.
The Dharma being nowhere save in the mind, there is no other place of truth for the observance of a vow.
The Dharma being nowhere save in the mind, there is no Dharma elsewhere whereby Liberation may be attained.
Again and Again look within thine own mind.[Footnote 1 in original edition follows here:]
Footnote 1 to page 217 (cited as 2171) then, is where we encounter the Gnosis:
Herein is set forth in a Buddhistic manner the ancient aphorism which Christianity, too, adopted and expressed: 'And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not... That was the True Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' St. John 1:5, 9.
To serve as a Gnostic Commentary to this 'Yoga of Knowing the Mind', there is here added the following excerpts from a translation made by the late G. R. S. Mead of the original Greek of the Proem to the Gospel of St. John, and contained in the Gnostic John the Baptizer (published by John M. Watkins, London, 1924), pp. 123-6:
'1. In the Beginning was Mind; and Mind was with God.
2. So Mind was God. This was in the Beginning with God.
3. All kept coming into existence through it; and apart from it came into existence not a single [thing].
4. What hath come into existence in it was Life; and Life was the Light of the [true] Man.
5. And the Light shineth in the Darkness; and the Darkness did not emprison it...
6. It was the True Light, which enlighteneth every Man who cometh into the world.
7. It was in the World; and the world kept coming into existence through it.
8. And the world did not know it. It came unto its own; and its own did not receive it.
9. And as many as received it, to them it gave power to become children of God, -
10. To those who have faith in his name, - Who was brought to birth, not out of [blending of] bloods,
11. Nor of urge of flesh, nor urge of a male, - but out of God.
12. So MIND became flesh and tabernacled in us, -
13. And we beheld its glory, - glory as of [?am] only-begotten Father, - full of Delight and Truth.
The following comments are made: To verse 4, 'The True Men who have the Light of Life are the Prophets and Perfect.' To verse 5, 'emprison' may otherwise be rendered, 'hold back', 'detain'. Between verses 5 and 6 comes a paragraph which seems clearly to be an interpolation into, or overworking of, his original "source" by the writer, or perhaps part compiler, of the Fourth Gospel:
'There was a Man sent by God, - his name YÁNES. This [Man] came for bearing witness, that he might bear witness about the Light, in order that all [men] might have faith through it. That [Man] was not the Light, but [came] in order that he might bear witness about the Light."
To verse 6, 'Man' is equivalent to 'Prophet' or 'Divine Messenger'. Verse 10, 'his name' refers to the 'Mystic Name' or 'Mind' or 'Primality of Great Life'.
The translator of these verses of St. John's Gospel was a modern follower of the Gnosis, and England's outstanding scholar in the field of Gnosticism; and the Editor claimed him as a friend. The authorized version contained in the New Testament was by men who considered Gnosticism 'heretical'. Owing to their anti-Gnostic bias, they failed to translate the Greek text in such manner as to bring out in English the real sense of the original, which is one of the few fragments in the present-day canon of exoteric Christianity that escaped the iconoclastic zeal of those who anathematized the Gnostics and destroyed all the invaluable manuscripts of esoteric Christianity they could lay hands on. Fortunately, a few manuscripts escaped; and among them are the Bruce Codex, now carefully treasured in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Berlin Codex, in Berlin.
We shall meet up with this theology later, when we get to our account of the Harranians and the Hermetic books, and our account of the Nusairi. We also see this in the material on the Elkesaites, Ebionites, and Essenes, given two chapters back. Pike, in The Book of the Words, 3°, gives a good interpretation of the Proem to the Gospel According to John.
The translation by Mead clearly singles out John (Jon or Yoanes) as the Divine Messenger. This corresponds with Godfrey Higgins' analysis of the name. Not a man (or God, or only - begotten Son of God, one time only game over insert coin please) named Jesus. This Light, this Word, this Mind, is a part of EVERYBODY, accessible to ALL who have come to KNOW THEMSELVES: i.e., Self-Knowledge, GNOSIS. Not only "Jesus" or the "Pope" or any other humanly-invented scoundrel, but all of us. The Divine Potentiality incarnate in us all, realized by so few, is that Perfect Ashlar, the Buried Talent, the Chalice of Light wherein Wisdom resides, and to turn against this is indeed the unpardonable Sin, that which the worshippers of the slave dogmas are guilty of. We can see the Original Web, the Original Network, long before computers were ever dreamt of. In the Network of the Universal Mind that resides in everything, everywhere, in all times and dimensions and all possible parallel universes. In short, The ETERNAL!
Mead and Pike are not the only ones who have brought us initiated analyses of the Proem. There are others who have commented upon this important scripture, but space forbids us from referring to them all.
These interpretations are unanimous in their implications, even though they differ but slightly in the style of their translation. This cannot be understated. We are cognizant of the fact that the great herd requires mass behavior control to keep it in check. We do not deny that. In a secular society, it involves propaganda and punishment, more cops and prisons. In a Church-run state, original sin, hellfire, and damnation and a million other lies are utilized. In a New Age Society, it would most likely be bad karma, black magic (and magick), etc. These days it's Internet Crime, Consumer alerts, Weather problems, threats to the children and the environment, even though such threats are usually created by the same authorities responsible for publishing the scare.
However, what if a society were to exist, consisting of self-realized Light Beings, who could act harmoniously with one another and their environment, without the damnable sanctimoniousness and piety usually associated with such groups, a society, in short, that had no need for Old Testament Vengeance and Jealousy, New Testament abstinence and self-negation and misery or general Biblical Original Sin? Or the nonsense pushed by a lot of New Agers and their ilk?
Would such a society be able to exist for long in a Western context?
Probably not.
It is just such a society that has survived in the Middle East, in the guise of the Mandaean religion, and if we find their system to be alien to our Western Superiority nonsense, at least we can respect, admire, and learn from their tenacity, and their ability to survive the storms of Christianity, Islam, and Communistic Governments. For, as we enter the Third Millennium of the Common Era, we shall be faced with the same need to survive.
Humankind is an endangered species. Artificial Intelligence is Here, and the same problems that face every philosopher and theologian, have caused Technologists to come up with the solution: AI. Genetic manipulation is out, especially since the Dolly debacle. They're better off making a haggis out of her. Crime, overpopulation, disease, pollution, overcrowding, all of it, union labor rates competing with sweat shop labor rates, all of it creating the need to create machines that replace us. And that is the direction everything is headed. We personally recommend a 50 year minimum moratorium on such developments, perhaps a 100 year moratorium. And we are not joking. And, we also recommend, nay, require a generation of solid birth control, and mass birth control measures to be made mandatory in Catholic and Mormon cultures. There is no more any room for one more.
That out of the way, we shall go on, and examine the next group in our survey, the Isma'ili. This shall include the Batinis, the Carmathians, the Sufis, the Assassins, and others, beginning with a general survey of the Arab World at the coming of Islam.
Original Material Contents Copyright © 1997 - 2000 e.v., Jonathan Sellers. All Rights Reserved. "There is a man named Jon."