The Manichaeans Series

THE MANICHAEANS

DEFINITION OF MANICHAEAN

1: A BELIEVER IN A SYNCRETISTIC [1: THE COMBINATION OF DIFFERENT FORMS OF BELIEF OR PRACTICE

2: THE FUSION OF TWO OR MORE ORIGINALLY DIFFERENT INFLECTIONAL FORMS] RELIGIOUS DUALISM (SYMMETRY) ORIGINATING IN PERSIA IN THE THIRD CENTURY A.D. AND TEACHING THE RELEASE OF THE SPIRIT FROM MATTER THROUGH ASCETICISM.

MANICHAEISM WAS A MAJOR RELIGION FOUNDED IN THE 3RD CENTURY AD BY THE PARTHIAN PROPHET MANI (AD 216–274) IN THE SASANIAN EMPIRE.

MANICHAEISM TAUGHT AN ELABORATE [COSMOLOGY - A BRANCH OF METAPHYSICS THAT DEALS WITH THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE], DESCRIBING THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN A GOOD, SPIRITUAL WORLD OF LIGHT, AND AN EVIL, MATERIAL WORLD OF DARKNESS. ITS BELIEFS WERE BASED ON LOCAL MESOPOTAMIAN RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND GNOSTICISM. IT REVERED MANI AS THE FINAL PROPHET AFTER ZOROASTER, GAUTAMA BUDDHA, AND JESUS. THROUGH AN ONGOING PROCESS IN HUMAN HISTORY, LIGHT IS GRADUALLY REMOVED FROM THE WORLD OF MATTER AND RETURNED TO THE WORLD OF LIGHT, WHENCE IT CAME.

MANICHAEISM WAS QUICKLY SUCCESSFUL AND SPREAD FAR THROUGH THE ARAMAIC-SPEAKING REGIONS. IT THRIVED BETWEEN THE THIRD AND SEVENTH CENTURIES AND, AT ITS HEIGHT, WAS ONE OF THE MOST WIDESPREAD RELIGIONS IN THE WORLD. MANICHAEAN CHURCHES AND SCRIPTURES EXISTED AS FAR EAST AS CHINA AND AS FAR WEST AS THE ROMAN EMPIRE. IT WAS BRIEFLY THE MAIN RIVAL TO CHRISTIANITY BEFORE THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN THE COMPETITION TO REPLACE CLASSICAL PAGANISM. BEGINNING WITH THE PAGAN EMPEROR DIOCLETIAN, MANICHAEISM WAS PERSECUTED BY THE ROMAN STATE AND WAS EVENTUALLY STAMPED OUT IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

MANICHAEISM SURVIVED LONGER IN THE EAST THAN IN THE WEST. IT APPEARS TO HAVE FINALLY FADED AFTER THE 14TH CENTURY IN SOUTH CHINA, OCCURRING WITH THE DECLINE OF THE CHURCH OF THE EAST IN MING CHINA. WHILE MOST MANICHAEISM'S ORIGINAL WRITINGS HAVE BEEN LOST, NUMEROUS TRANSLATIONS AND FRAGMENTARY TEXTS HAVE SURVIVED. THERE IS A GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE THAT SOME FORM OF MANICHAEISM MAY PERSIST IN SOME AREAS OF CHINA. HOWEVER, THESE REPORTS ARE OFTEN CONTRADICTORY AND MORE RESEARCH IS NEEDED BEFORE DEFINITIVELY STATING THAT MANICHAEISM IS SURVIVING TO THE MODERN DAY.

AN ADHERENT OF MANICHAEISM WAS CALLED A MANICHAEAN OR MANICHEAN, OR MANICHEE, ESPECIALLY IN OLDER SOURCES.

HISTORY

LIFE OF MANI (PROPHET)

MANI WAS AN IRANIAN, BORN IN 216 IN OR NEAR SELEUCIA-CTESIPHON (NOW AL-MADA'IN) IN THE PARTHIAN EMPIRE. ACCORDING TO THE COLOGNE MANI-CODEX [THE COLOGNE MANI-CODEX IS A MINUTE PARCHMENT CODEX, DATED ON PALEOGRAPHICAL EVIDENCE TO THE FIFTH CENTURY CE, FOUND NEAR ASYUT (THE ANCIENT LYCOPOLIS), EGYPT; IT CONTAINS A GREEK TEXT DESCRIBING THE LIFE OF MANI, THE FOUNDER OF THE RELIGION MANICHAEISM.], MANI'S PARENTS WERE MEMBERS OF THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN GNOSTIC SECT KNOWN AS THE ELCESAITES.

MANI COMPOSED SEVEN WORKS, SIX WRITTEN IN THE SYRIAC LANGUAGE, A LATE VARIETY OF ARAMAIC. THE SEVENTH, THE SHABUHRAGAN, WAS WRITTEN BY MANI IN MIDDLE PERSIAN AND PRESENTED BY HIM TO THE SASANIAN EMPEROR, SHAPUR I. ALTHOUGH THERE IS NO PROOF SHAPUR I WAS A MANICHAEAN, HE TOLERATED THE SPREAD OF MANICHAEISM AND REFRAINED FROM PERSECUTING IT WITHIN HIS EMPIRE'S BOUNDARIES.

ACCORDING TO ONE TRADITION, MANI INVENTED THE UNIQUE VERSION OF THE SYRIAC SCRIPT KNOWN AS THE MANICHAEAN ALPHABET, WHICH WAS USED IN ALL OF THE MANICHAEAN WORKS WRITTEN WITHIN THE SASANIAN EMPIRE, WHETHER THEY WERE IN SYRIAC OR MIDDLE PERSIAN, AND ALSO FOR MOST OF THE WORKS WRITTEN WITHIN THE UYGHUR KHAGANATE. THE PRIMARY LANGUAGE OF BABYLON (AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND CULTURAL LANGUAGE OF THE SASSANID EMPIRE) AT THAT TIME WAS EASTERN MIDDLE ARAMAIC, WHICH INCLUDED THREE MAIN DIALECTS: JEWISH BABYLONIAN ARAMAIC (THE LANGUAGE OF THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD), MANDAEAN (THE LANGUAGE OF MANDAEISM), AND SYRIAC, WHICH WAS THE LANGUAGE OF MANI, AS WELL AS OF THE SYRIAC CHRISTIANS.

WHILE MANICHAEISM WAS SPREADING, EXISTING RELIGIONS SUCH AS ZOROASTRIANISM WERE STILL PREVALENT, AND CHRISTIANITY GAINED SOCIAL AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE. ALTHOUGH HAVING FEWER ADHERENTS, MANICHAEISM WON THE SUPPORT OF MANY HIGH-RANKING POLITICAL FIGURES. WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF THE SASANIAN EMPIRE, MANI BEGAN MISSIONARY EXPEDITIONS. AFTER FAILING TO WIN THE FAVOR OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF PERSIAN ROYALTY AND INCURRING THE DISAPPROVAL OF THE ZOROASTRIAN CLERGY, MANI IS REPORTED TO HAVE DIED IN PRISON, AWAITING EXECUTION BY THE PERSIAN EMPEROR BAHRAM I. THE DATE OF HIS DEATH IS ESTIMATED AT 276–277.

INFLUENCES

MANY BELIEVED THAT THE TEACHINGS OF GAUTAMA BUDDHA, ZOROASTER, AND JESUS WERE INCOMPLETE AND THAT HIS REVELATIONS WERE FOR THE ENTIRE WORLD, CALLING HIS TEACHINGS THE "RELIGION OF LIGHT." MANICHAEAN WRITINGS INDICATE THAT MANI RECEIVED REVELATIONS WHEN HE WAS 12 AND AGAIN WHEN HE WAS 24, AND OVER THIS PERIOD, HE GREW DISSATISFIED WITH THE ELCESAITE SECT HE WAS BORN INTO.

MANI BEGAN PREACHING AT AN EARLY AGE AND WAS POSSIBLY INFLUENCED BY CONTEMPORARY BABYLONIAN-ARAMAIC MOVEMENTS SUCH AS MANDAEISM, AND ARAMAIC TRANSLATIONS OF JEWISH APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS SIMILAR TO THOSE FOUND AT QUMRAN (SUCH AS THE BOOK OF ENOCH LITERATURE), AND BY THE SYRIAC DUALIST-GNOSTIC WRITER BARDAISAN (WHO LIVED A GENERATION BEFORE MANI). WITH THE DISCOVERY OF THE MANI-CODEX, IT ALSO BECAME CLEAR THAT HE WAS RAISED IN A JEWISH-CHRISTIAN BAPTISM SECT, THE ELCESAITES, AND WAS INFLUENCED BY THEIR WRITINGS.