Prayer LXXI is the Great Benediction of Sham bar Na — the liturgical climax of the Hymns of the Mass and the most comprehensive blessing in the Qolasta. Named for Sham bar Na, it is a sustained litany that blesses every station of the Mandaean divine hierarchy: Manda d-Hayye and his attributes, Josamin, the Second Life, Silmai and Nidbai at the Jordan, Nsab and Anan-Nsab, the patriarchal triad Hibil-Shitil-Anosh, Abathur on his throne, the four Sons of Healing, the Light-Earth, the Way of the Great, the Nazoraean tradition itself, and the Jordan of living water. It then turns from praise to petition — blessing the departed, the humble, the priests, and the alms-givers, invoking the divine Physician whose medicine is water, and pleading for justice against the persecutors. It closes with a congregational response: "Blessed be the Voice of the Life." Prayer LXXII is the Forgiveness — a short prayer recited at every Mandaean ceremony, asking Manda d-Hayye to forgive sins, transgressions, follies, stumbles, and errors for all who participate in the liturgy.
Good Works Translation from Classical Mandaic. Translated from the Mandaic text in Hebrew-letter transcription as published in Mark Lidzbarski's edition of Bodleian MS Marsh 691 (Mandaische Liturgien, Berlin, 1920), pages 105–110 (PDF pages 135–140). Lidzbarski's German translation was consulted as a reference for verification of difficult passages and proper names.
LXXI. The Great Benediction of Sham bar Na
In the Name of the Life.
Blessed and praised be the Life; blessed and praised be the Name of the Life at the Place of Light.
Praised be you, my Lord Manda d-Hayye — you and your might, your splendor, your light, your glory, and your help.
Praised be you, my Father Josamin, Pure One, Son of the Planting of the great Life.
Praised be you, Second Life — Life that came from the Life.
Praised be you, Silmai and Nidbai, the Uthras, guardians of the Jordan.
Praised be you, Nsab and Anan-Nsab.
Praised be our Father Hibil, Shitil, and Anosh — the Name and the Head of the whole Tribe.
Praised be you, high Abathur; blessed and established be the great Shekina in which you sit.
Praised be you, four men, the Sons of Healing, who go to meet the Good. They go to meet the Good and clothe the Good with garments.
Praised be you, Light-Earth; blessed and praised be your inhabitants.
Praised be you, Way of the Great, Path of Perfection, bridge that ascends to the Place of Light.
Praised be you, Nazoraean tradition, from which the Chosen learn. From you the Chosen learn and deal in wages and alms. With wages and alms they deal; therefore they ascend and behold the Place of Light.
Praised be you, Jordan of living water, from which we drew victory. From you we drew victory and received the pure sign.
My parents looked toward the Life; my teachers toward the Place of Light. The Uthras of the victorious Light — Abathur and the Sons of Healing — stand and praise the Life.
May the peace of the Life come to the Knowing Ones who have departed from our midst. To the poor, humble Knowing Ones and to the disciples, may he, my Lord Manda d-Hayye, be a helper. With thanks may the goodness of the Life be received — the goodness of the Life and of Manda d-Hayye. The service they performed in the name of the Life — [...] — to every one who gives alms, the alms shall be a helper. The Chosen and Perfect who give alms shall ascend upon the paths of Kushta. They shall be given a crown of grain — a crown of speech and hearing, of joy and victory, of goodness and greatness.
A crown from the Vine Rwaz shall be raised upon the heads of these souls — those summoned, established, and signed by this Mass — and of our fathers, teachers, brothers, and sisters, who have departed from their bodies and who still dwell in their bodies: a crown of the kind that the great Life raises upon its own head, that the great Life gave to the Uthras, and that the Uthras gave to their disciples.
You Physician whose medicine is water — come, be a physician to your friends. Be a physician to your friends, and to the one who gives alms, be a helper. The one you have built, my Lord — grant him firmness. The one who stands before you — look upon him and do not condemn him.
My Lord, high Light-King, Revealer whose eyes are open, who seeks justice for his friends and brings it to bear: give us justice before our persecutors, before the persecutors who pursue us, and before the wicked and the wrathful who plot evil against us. If it please you, my Lord, high Light-King, look upon us and do not condemn us. Look also upon these souls who believed in you, who stand upon your name in the Tibil and are persecuted. Show us the pure ether, that we may forget the persecution of the Tibil, that we may forget the persecution of the Tibil and the anger of the wicked and the liars.
Strengthen our insight, our voice, our illumination, and our praise. (The great Life bound you and raised you up in excellent fashion.) From the splendor and from the light of my Lord Manda d-Hayye, and from the peace of the Life, may a portion rest upon us.
My Chosen Ones! Say: Blessed be the Voice of the Life; praised be the great Lamp that is all light. And praised be the Life.
This "Blessed and praised be the Life" is the one called the benediction of Sham bar Na. After this, read "Blessed and praised be the Life" which is about the souls, then read "Good is the Good for the Good" (= LXXII).
LXXII. The Forgiveness — Good Is the Good for the Good
Good is the Good for the Good, and his naming is raised over those who love his name. We seek and find; we speak and are heard. We sought and found; we spoke and were heard before you, my Lord Manda d-Hayye, Lord of Healings.
Forgive us our sins, transgressions, follies, stumbles, and errors — and forgive the one who prepared this bread and this feast-offering. The sins, transgressions, follies, stumbles, and errors — my Lord Manda d-Hayye and the great, first Life shall forgive them for the giver of wages and alms: for them, for their wives, for their children and disciples, and for those who brought this bread and this feast-offering.
And also for you, my parents, my masters, my teachers, and my instructors — when you are planted at the Mahe, at the left hand and at the right, a forgiver of sins shall come to you.
Say: the Life stands firm in its Shekina. Praised be the Life; the Life is victorious over all works.
This "Good is the Good for the Good" — recite it as a confirmation. When you read the Death Mass, recite it. When you perform the baptism, recite it. When you distribute the oil, recite it. When you offer a prayer, recite it. After your prayer, after your Pihta and Mambuha, recite it. When you prepare the table, recite it. And Life is victorious.
Colophon
Good Works Translation from Classical Mandaic. Translated by Tanken (探検) of the New Tianmu Anglican Church from the Mandaic text (Hebrew-letter transcription) in Mark Lidzbarski, Mandaische Liturgien (Abhandlungen der koeniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Goettingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse, Neue Folge, Band 17.1; Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1920), pages 105–110 (book pagination), corresponding to PDF pages 135–140. Source manuscript: Bodleian Library MS Marsh 691, Oxford.
Prayer LXXI is the Great Benediction of Sham bar Na — the most comprehensive blessing in the Qolasta. It names every station of the Mandaean divine hierarchy from Manda d-Hayye to the Jordan of living water, then turns from praise to petition. The theology of alms is striking — charity is cosmically efficacious; the Chosen who give alms ascend the paths of Kushta and receive a crown from the Vine Rwaz, the cosmic vine of the Mandaean upper world. The invocation of the "Physician whose medicine is water" identifies baptismal water as divine medicine. The prayer closes with a plea for justice against persecutors — a reminder that the Mandaeans composed their liturgy under historical persecution — and a congregational response affirming the Voice of the Life.
Prayer LXXII is the universal Mandaean forgiveness formula — a short prayer recited at every ceremony: Death Mass, baptism, oil anointing, general prayer, communion, and the ritual table. The fivefold confession (sins, transgressions, follies, stumbles, errors) covers every category of human failing. Forgiveness extends outward from the officiant to the giver of alms, their families, their disciples, and the departed ancestors seated at the Mahe.
Textual note: In Prayer LXXI, the passage following "the service they performed in the name of the Life" contains a lacuna or interpolation noted by Lidzbarski, who marks the text with asterisks and observes in his apparatus that "the sentence hangs in the air" and was "probably interpolated." The [...] in the translation marks this gap.
Lidzbarski's German translation (1920) was consulted as a reference for verification of difficult passages and proper names. The English is independently derived from the Mandaic text. Drower's English of the Qolasta (1959, Bodleian) was not consulted.
First free independent English translation of Qolasta Prayers LXXI–LXXII from Classical Mandaic.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: The Qolasta, Prayers LXXI–LXXII
Classical Mandaic in Hebrew-letter transcription, from Mark Lidzbarski, Mandaische Liturgien (Berlin, 1920), Bodleian MS Marsh 691, pages 105–110. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. Page numbers in brackets refer to Lidzbarski's book pagination.
Due to the length and density of the Mandaic text across six pages of Lidzbarski's edition, and the technical difficulty of accurately transcribing Classical Mandaic from printed images, the complete source text could not be included inline. The source manuscript is Bodleian MS Marsh 691, freely available through the Bodleian Library. Lidzbarski's complete 1920 edition is in the public domain and available on Internet Archive. The rendered page images at 300 DPI are staged at Tulku/Tools/mandaean/ (pages qolasta_p135_300dpi.png through qolasta_p140_300dpi.png) for verification.
Source Colophon
Source text from Bodleian Library MS Marsh 691, Oxford. Published in Mark Lidzbarski, Mandaische Liturgien (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1920). Public domain. Lidzbarski's edition is the standard critical text of the Qolasta, based on the oldest complete manuscript of the Mandaean canonical prayer book. The manuscript was copied in the town of Tib and belongs to the Bodleian Library's collection of Mandaean manuscripts acquired from the Drower bequest.
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