THE RECONSTRUCTION OF 'S EPISTLES FROM THREE COPTIC CODICES

(ISMANT EL-KHARAB AND MEDINET MAD I)

lAIN GARDNER

This study should be treated as work in progress, an attempt to out- line the direction of my current research on the remnants of Mani's Epistles preserved from three separate Coptic codices. The most ex- tensive remains derive from that codex, known for over sixty years but never edited, belonging to the so-called Medinet Madi collec- tion. However, the starting point for my research was the identifica- tion, whilst working with the still on-going excavations at lsmant el- Kharab,l ofleaves from two further codices that contain (at least some) of these canonical Epistles. These latter remains are not as extensive as the former; but are nevertheless significant. This identification from lsmant el-Kharab then led to a rewarding and close collaboration with W.-P. Funk, who had already begun work on the Medinet Madi codex; so that we now work jointly on all three documents.2 The fact that Mani wrote Epistles (somewhat in the style of Paul as an "Apostle ofJesus Christ") has long been known. The title oc- curs regularly in the canonical lists of Mani's scriptures, both in pri- mary and secondary sources. 3 Augustine quotes at some length, and

1 The excavations are directed by C. A. Hope, and are held under the aegis of the Dakhleh Oasis Project (A.]. Mills). 2 This article was originally read at the SBL annual meeting ("Manichaean Studies Group") in New Orleans, November 1996. It should be emphasised that it relies heavily on collaborative work in progress with W.-P. Funk, and that I owe much that is new here to his contribution. Of course, the article in itself is my own work; and I take responsibility for the form of the provisional translations as quoted here. 3 E.g., the references collected by S. N. C. Lieu, "An Early Byzantine Formula for the Renunciation of ", in ibid. Manichaeism in Mesopotamia and the Roman East, Leiden 1994: 271;]. C. Reeves, Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogorry, Cincinnati 1992: 9-19. Mention of the Epistles in the edited Medinet Madi codices is known from: The qf the Teacher 5, 25 (ed. HJ. Polotsky and A. Bohlig, Stuttgart 1940); 355,15-18 (ed. W.-P. Funk, Stuttgart 1999); The Homilies 25, 4 and probably 94, 20 (ed. H.]. Polotsky, Manichiiische-Homilien, Stuttgart 1934); The Psalm- Book 46, 31 and 140, 8 (ed. C. R. C. Allberry, A Manichaean Psalm-Book Il, Stuttgart 94 lAIN GARDNER

controverts, the "Fundamental Epistle."4 Letters also play an impor- tant role in the (at least partly) fictional narrative of the Acts if Archelaus!, and indeed various perhaps spurious letters of Mani were utilised in the heresiologicalliterature, both Latin and Greek.6 Par- ticularly important is the list of titles that an-Nadim provides (in Arabic and from the tenth century) in his account of Mani and his teachings in the Fihrist. Amongst primary sources discovered during the present century, there are fragments identified as from the Epistles in the Turfan col- lection, which evidence a genre ofliterature wherein quotations from Mani's letters are anthologised.7 Also, the Greek Mani-Codex quotes from the 'Letter to Edessa'. 8 Thus there is substantial evidence that the Epistles were widely known throughout the Manichaean commu- nities, from North Africa to Central Asia; and that they survived as a corpus in various languages and, it can be presumed, at least for the best part of a millennium. So, the first point to be made is that for the Epistles there are sig- nificant remains; and indeed there is enough here for us to be able to establish a clear idea of the format, content and style of one of Mani's canonical scriptures. This will be a major step forward in the study of Mani and the religion that he founded; because, notwith- standing important quotes found elsewhere from these scriptures, notably the beginning of the Living Gospel) it is worth emphasising that contemporary scholarship does not have a clear knowledge of any part of the Manichaean canon (excepting perhaps the rather anoma-

1938). There are certainly also references in the still unedited codex entitled: The Kephalaia rif the Wisdom rif My Lord Mani (facsimile ed. S. Giversen, The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in the Chester Beatry Library, I, Geneva 1986), e.g., pI. 325, 5 and 13 (?). 4 See irifTa on the status of this document; also E. Feldmann, Die Epistula Fundamenti der nordafrikanischen Manichiier, Altenberge 1987. 5 E.g., S. N. C. Lieu, "Fact and Fiction in the Acta Archelai", op. cit.: 149-151. 6 Ibid., "From Mesopotamia to the Roman East", op. cit.: 110-112. On the unresolved question of the authorship and status of the Tebessa codex, especially noting the suggestion that it may belong to the Epistles, see R. Merkelbach, "Der manichaische Codex von Tebessa", in Manichaean Studies, ed. P. Bryder, Lund 1988: 232-234; and, more recently,]. BeDuhn and G. Harrison, "The Tebessa Codex: A Manichaean Treatise on Biblical Exegesis and Church Order", in Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery rif Manichaean Sources, eds. P. Mirecki and]. BeDuhn, Leiden 1997: 38-39. 7 See the signatures ascribed to the "Letters'" in M. Boyce, A Catalogue rif the Iranian Manuscripts in in the German Tuifan Collection, Berlin 1960: 147. 8 Mani-Codex, 64, 3-65, 22.