Carlos Gelbert

Carlos Gelbert (1948 –) is an Australian writer and translator. He is known for being the first person to have published full-length English translations of the Mandaean religious texts, the Ginza Rabba and Mandaean Book of John.

Quotes

• Again I feel the need and responsibility to defend our principal religious manuscript, the Ginza Rba, the Great Treasure of all Mandaeans. If you want the truth, the Ginza Rba is the backbone of our community. Without it the Mandaeans could never have survived the centuries-long atrocities, fanaticism and extremism of other nations; without it, I am sure, they would soon disappear in the near future. We should not forget that their successful resistance in the past was due to it. If you read the colophon of sheykh Salah Jabbar at the end of this book, you will see that there was a good tradition among the priesthood, namely: to look upon the Ganzibra amongst them, who has succeeded in copying a scroll of the Ginza Rba to the last word with his right hand (nasaka ḏ-kulhun ginzia b-iaminḥ), as a steadfast and reliable religious man. So they valued his knowledge and appreciated his work to a great extent and placed a crown of honour upon his head.
  • p. xxi, "Introduction." In: Gelbert, Carlos (2017). The Teachings of the Mandaean John the Baptist. Edensor Park, NSW, Australia: Living Water Books. ISBN 9780958034678.

• The following is the first and significant Mandaean declaration of belief in Gnosticism found in Ginza Rba p. 217 § 19 [Left Ginza 2.18] and elsewhere. "The world, that shall come into being, we cannot extinguish."
  • back cover: Gelbert, Carlos (2023). The Key to All the Mysteries of Ginza Rba. Edensor Park, NSW, Australia: Living Water Books. ISBN 9780648795414.