The character under which Mani promulgated his system appears in a formula of prayer and also in a citation from his " gospel ": " Blessed be our leader, the paraclete, the ambassador of light." Indeed, his employment of New-Testament terminology in matters other than this naming of himself "the paraclete" comes out in a number of particulars. Chapters in his chief a. Mani's work, "The Book of Secrets," deal Attitude with " the son of the poor widow . . . toward whom the Jews crucified," with " Je- Ihe Bible. sus' testimony to himself in his rela- lations with the Jews," and with " the testimony of Adam concerning Jesus." Mani regarded Jesus as a devil, as did the Mand&anB, though humanly speaking he was the " son of a poor widow "; contemporary with Jesus, however, was the real savior, but he was present in a body which had only the appearanee of reality (the Do cetic doctrine). This real savior came from the world of light to bring a larger knowledge of divine things, as he long before had come to Adam. To this real savior Mani, in spite of his rejection of the historical Christian savior, gave the name Jesus, and to discriminate between the two Mani usually spoke of the Christian savior as the Messiah, just as did the Mandæans. The real savior of Mani had no objective existence, his whole human course, including his sufferings, being only apparent. The Fathers of the Greek and Roman Churches refer to a redeeming Christ in the system of Mani whose seat is in the sun and the moon; this is the " orig inal man," and he cooperates as savior with the heavenly Jesus. This doctrine of a double savior is one of the characteristic teachings of Manicheism, and the connection with Gnosticism comes out in the diffusion of knowledge as one of the functions of the redeemer. It follows from Mani's doctrine regarding the union of heavenly and infernal elements in the work of Christ that he made a sharp distinction between genuine and spurious writings in the Bible, particularly of the New Testament. The Gospels were not by the disciples of Christ, but were written, or at least interpolated, from the Jewish standpoint. Therefore Mani wrote a new "gospel" (the title of one of his books). The Acts of the Apostles is spurious and the Pauline epistles are not uninterpolated, though Paul was the most enlightened of the apostles. The teaching of Christ, originally in parables and obscure form, has been misunderstood and perverted; yet the light peeps out often even in the corrupt Gospels, as where Jesus deals with his descent from heaven and his superhuman might. The seeming crucifixion is itself a parable of the suffering of the light commingled with darkness in nature and in the human soul. The Old Testament is treated even more severely, since it originates with the Jews. The God of the Old Testament is the prince of darkness and the prophets were lying servants of the devil. Moses is expressly called an apostle of darkness, and his law proceeded from the Archon. Mani proclaimed himself the last of the prophets, his predecessors being Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Buddha, Zoroaster, the messiah as " the word of God," and Paul.
Mani was the author of a series of greater writings, seven in number, and of many smaller tracts which dealt with individual points. His followers continued to imitate him in putting forth tracts (often as letters), and the Fihrist speaks of seventy- six titles of this character. Unfori 3. Mani- tunately Manichean literature has al- chean most entirely perished, owing to the Literature. persecutions of the religion. Accounts of Mani's literary activity come from various sources, Syriac, Arabic, and Greco-Roman. Al-Nadim reports in the F%hrist that Mani wrote one. book in Persian and six in "Syriac," i.e., Babylonian Aramaic. Mani seems to have used a sort of cipher, but the Sassanian-Persian became the customary script of Manichean writings. The books alleged to be written in Syriac are:. (1) The
"Book of Secrets" mentioned by Epiphanius and Titus of Bostra (q.v.) as Mysteria, and among Christians it was described as the book which seeks to destroy the law and the prophets. It probably contained Mani's dogmatics and polemics. The titles of the chapters as given in the accounts which have been transmitted appear mere riddles, though some of them probably relate to recognized fundamentals in the system. (2) The "Book of Giants" dealt with cosmogony and demonology, and Gen. vi. 1-4 probably exerted an influence upon this conception. The Babylonian myth of the contest|
159 |
between gods and demons was not without effect. (3) The "Book of Chapters" is concerned with directions for the "elect," a sort of catechism, and was probably the book with which Augustine dealt in his celebrated Contra epistolam Manichoi quam vocand Fundamenti (Eng. transl. in NPNF, 1 ser., iv. 129-150). The Manichean Felix asserted that it contained "the beginning, middle and end," i.e., the entire teaching concerning the history of the gods to the end of men. It was written in epistolary form in imitation of Paul's method, and was designed by the author to be the fundamental book of instruction. It began with a description of the original relations of light and darkness before the commingling, and proceeded with a fantastic development of the pleroma of light, etc. (4) The title of the fourth work was probably Shapurakan (" for Shapur "). According to Biruni, Mani wrote this book for Shapur I., son of Ardashir, in order to win him to the faith. The Fihrist sums it up in three chapters dealing with the death of the adherent, of the apostate, and of the sinner. This book was probably not known in the western world. (5) The "Book of Making Alive" was probably that known to Epiphanius, Photius, and Augustine as Thesaurus. It was of considerable size, since Augustine cites a seventh book. (6) The Pragmdteia was possibly the original title of another work which is otherwise unknown. The seventh of Mani's main works, written in Persian, was his Engeliun (Evangelion, " Gospel "). Biruni says of it that it was of a character entirely different from the Christian Gospels, that the Manicheans regarded it as the only correct one and called it the "Gospel of the Seventy," and that it was arranged in the order of the twenty-two letters of the old Aramaic alphabet. It was written during the author's exile in Turkestan, and the initial capitals were, in Persian fashion, worked in ornamental designs, from which among the Persians Mani was known as "the painter," a charaoterizatibn not known to the Arabs or in the West. Possibly the reference in this title has something to do with the pictorial character of Mani's representations of heaven and hell. Biruni ascribes to Mani also a "Book of Books." The first, third, fifth, and last of the works named above were ascribed to Scythianus (§ 2 above); part of Mani's work may have originated with his father and been enlarged by himself. Not to be overlooked in this survey is the Canticum amatorium, a liturgical hymn to the eternal father of light often mentioned by Augustine. Of the lesser Manichean writings those issued by Mani and those by later writers can not be distinguished. Some are directed to cities or regions; thus three are to India, six to Kashgar (Chitral), seven to Armenia, ten to Ctesiphon, etc. Others are directed to persons who are otherwise unknown. The subjects dealt with are very varied and range from the theories of the system to the conduct of life. Greco-Roman sources recognize a like number of lesser writings, but the titles given do not afford data for identification with those mentioned in the Fihriat. A collection of these minor documents was made later and was known as "the Book . of Epistles." The Acts
Archelai and Epiphanius have preserved genuine fragments of one writing, other fragments are collected in Fabrieius-Haries, Bibliotheca Grmca, vii. 311 sqq. In these fragments dependence can not be placed upon the forms of the names of the persons addressed.
In spite of the severe persecution which Bahrain 1. instituted against the Manioheans, the system spread rapidly in all directions. The Manicheans fled into Turkestan, and thence they were scattered in other directions under further persecutions. After reaching the West, they adopted many ideas from the Christians, as has been suggested in the. preceding account. With growing i¢. History numbers differences regarding special of the points arose, and so came sects. In so-
Religion. oordance with the founder's direction, the entire church was under a chief called Imam, who was obligated to reside in Baby lonia. The first successor of Mani was named Sis or Sisinius, to whom some of the lesser writings are attributed. One cause of division among Mani cheans was a dispute respecting the residence of the Imam; a party known as the Dinawarier, "re ligious," split off and settled along the Oxus, but later became reconciled with those who remained in Babylonia. A later division, in the early part of the eighth century, produced the Miklasites, named from Miklas, successor of a Persian ascetic named Zadhurmuz, and their leading principle was laxity in observing the rules of separation from non-Manicheans. The number of Manicheans be came very great in the northern part of the Per sian highlands, the refuge of all sects. New perse cutions arose in the eighth century under Shapur II. and Chosroes I. The religion bad already spread eastward, and though probably the founder did not reach India, in the first persecution after his death his followers reached Malabar, which became a new center for the diffusion of the faith. By about 930 A.D. a strong Turkish tribe on the border of China had embraced the religion, inscriptional traces of which fact are known (Marquart, in Wiener ZeitSchrift für %unde des Morgenlandes, xii., 1898, 157 200). By about 980 the number of Manicheans in Bagdad was small, though in the villages they were more numerous. In spreading westward the religion first reached Syria and Palestine, where Titus of Bostra opposed it; then it spread into Egypt and through Roman North Africa, where its success was great. Proconsular Africa was one of the chief Manichean regions, and an edict of Dio cletian is known directing the prosecution of the "sect derived from the hostile Persian kingdom." They were again assailed in edicts after the year 377; but in Augustine's time their church was in flourishing condition in North Africa, having a good organization, numerous communities, and zealous leaders. Indeed, this branch is of especial interest because of Augustine's nine years' conneo tion with it as an adherent and his later polemics against it. On account of these facts, fuller in formation bas come down than would otherwise have been. the case, especially in regard to the teachers who then were prominent. Among these were Felix and Faustus of Mileve, who settled in|
160 |
The great success of this system of belief is to be found in two particulars: first, its completeness of development as a Gnostic creation, using so fully, richly, and immediately the original sources of all Gnostic forms of faith, viz., the AssyrianBabylonian religion with its wealth of mythical material; second, the genius of its iS. Com- founder, who systematized this mate- ponent rial and developed it into a coherent Sources of and artistic unity. All the questions the System. which were raised by the inquiring thought of his times, questions which concerned the being, destiny, and duties of God and man, questions which related to past, present, and future, were answered in a manner wholly selfconsistent. Where earlier Gnostic systems were weak, Mani's was strong. The problem of necessity and free will he solved by the hypothesis of the original duality of being and the subsequent commingling of the two elements. While the founder was a philosopher, he clothed his ideas in full mythological dress. This dress, however, was not of his own creation, built out of his fancy, in this respect differing from earlier Gnostic doctrines. It was borrowed from the sources already sufficiently indicated, from the surroundings in which Mani' s youth and manhood were passed. The "king of light" ig clearly Ea (see Babylonia, VII., 2, § 3), originally the ocean of heaven, the deity of profoundest knowledge, enthroned in the deep of the world-sea. In the Manichean system water becomes light, while the Mandæans retained water as the sacred element. Marduk, son of Ea, reappears in Mani's teaching as the "original man," and his wanderings are the antetype of the adventures of the type as developed in Manichean-Elkesaite and Mandæan doctrines. The model for the "spirit of life" was Ramman (see Assyria, VII., § 4; Babylonia, VII., 2, § 6), with recollections of
Shamash and Sin, while the original devil is the Babylonian Tiamat (see Creation, Babylonian Accounts). The mechanism of redemption fol lows the Babylonian pattern, and the bema recalls in form the ziggurat. These particulars do no more than sug',oest the wholesale appropriation of the material ready at band in Babylonian religion. On the other hand, it is noticeable that Mani made the stars evil spirits and forbade the witchcraft and magic which had so large a part in the old faith. The period of transition from the older faith and the break from its control were under the influence of the Mu'tasilah, to which some of the practical details of the religion may be due. To Zoroastrianism something must be accredited, though far less than was formerly thought necessary. Both re ligions deal fundamentally with light, and many forms in the two systems are identical, while the influence of the Zoroastrian prayer and eschatology is easily discernible. The great chasm between the two faiths is found in the conception of darkness. In Zoroastrianism Ahriman is a creation of Ormazd become perverted; in Manicheism, darkness is as essentially eternal as the light and originally evil in nature. Similarly, the Parsee conception of man is that the body is a pure creation of Ormazd, who also gave the soul, while Mani makes it a structure of darkness and the prison of the soul. The view of Baur that Manichean morals were drawn from Buddhism can not be substantiated, the one close connection here being the similarity between the idea of the adept and the Buddhist striver after Nirvana.Bibliography: Owing to the various persecutions of the Manicheans their writings as a whole are lost. Portions of them are almost certainly embodied in the Ginza of the Mandæans (q.v.). Other fragments are found in the Syriac of Theodore bar Choni, and in the Arabic in the Fihriat (see below). The source of first importance is the Fihrist aVulum (finished 988 A.D.) of Muhammad ibn Ishak, generally known as Al-Nadim, the part concerning Mani being edited with transl. and commentary by G. Fldgel, Leipsic, 1882. Next to the Fihriat as a source is (Abu Fath Muhammad al-) Shahrastani (d. 1153), Kitab almiM mannukal, ed. W. Cureton, i. 188-192, London, 1842, in Germ. transl. by T. Haarbrücker, 2 vols., Halle, 1850-51. Interesting details from Mani's writings, in Arabic transl., are furnished by (Muhammad ilm Ahmed al-) Biruni in his "Chronology of the Oriental Peoples," written about 1000 A.D., ed. E. Sachau, pp. 207-209, Leipsic, 1878, Eng. transl., London, 1879 (cf. K. Kessler, Mani, i. 304--323, Berlin, 1889), and in his "India," ed. E. Sachau, London 1887, Eng. transl., ib. 1888. A discussion of Mani's life and teaching is contained in the Nestorian "Chronicle" of 'Amr ibn Matta, ed. H. Gismondi, Rome, 1896-97, though the basis is the Acta Archelai and Epiphanius. Further minor Arabic sources are indicated in Hauck-Herzog, RE, xii. 194. From the Syriac the matter derivable from Ephraem Syrus is collected in Kessler's Mani, ut sup., pp. 262-302. Items of information may be gathered from the Syriac martyrologies in the collections of Assemani, 2 vols., Rome, 1748, and Bedjan, Paris, 1890 sqq. Theodore bar Choni's Eskolion (in H. Pognon, Inscriptions mandaitea des coupes de Khouabir, 2 vols., Paris, 1898-99) is of great value, since the author cites long passages from the Manichean originals. The Middle-Persian Pahlavi texts sometimes contain material. Such are: the Shikand-pumanik yipar, in Eng. transl. in SBE, vol. xxiv., consult pp. 243-251; the Dinkard, ed. with Eng. transl. by Peshotun D. B. Sungana, 6 vols., Bombay. The New-Persian Firdausi has some material in the Shahnameh, for which cf. Kew ler, ut sup., pp. 373-376. The report of the Armenian Eanigh is accessible in ZHT, ii (1840).
Of Western sources the first is the Ada dispubtionis|
161 |
| Calvin College. Last modified on 08/11/06. Contact the CCEL. |  |