In Mandaeism, to copy a manuscript is a meritorious act
— a Mandaean copyist (usually a priest) may
undertake the task as an exercise to remit his own
sins, and those of his family — or he may be hired
to perform the task for someone else. Almost all
Mandaean manuscripts contain colophons; excluded are
talismans and other short magical texts. In the case
where the transmission of a Mandaean text spans,
say, fifteen or sixteen centuries, a colophon may be
very long. Copying the Mandaean
Ginza is a major piece of work,
for it is the most voluminous of all known Mandaean
texts. Mark Lidzbarski's Ginza edition and
translation did not include the colophons, the lists
of scribes that are attached to the text.