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Mani's Book of Mysteries: Prolegomena to a New Look

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Mani's Book of Mysteries: Prolegomena to a New Look ARAM, 22 (2010) 321-334. doi: 10.2143/ARAM.22.0.2131043 MANI’S BOOK OF MYSTERIES: PROLEGOMENA TO A NEW LOOK AT MANI, THE ‘BAPTISTS’ AND THE MANDAEANS Prof. IAIN GARDNER (University of Sydney) Abstract Before the reading of the Cologne Mani Codex (from 1969 on) scholars such as E.S. Drower commonly assumed that Mani was brought up in a Mandaean community. However, the CMC appeared to identify the ‘baptists’ of Mani’s youth as Elchasaites, and the trajectory of research changed leaving the question of Mani’s relationship with the Mandaeans in limbo. This paper does not attempt to solve this problem, but recent reports of an otherwise unknown Mandaean scroll known as the Diwan d-Razia suggest a new avenue of approach: To study Mani’s own lost Book of Mysteries as a site for debate between the apostle and other religious communities of the time. A close analy- sis of all available evidence is made, including a tentative reconstruction of the lost work in outline, based on the chapter headings preserved by al-Nadim in his Fihrist. Whilst various important points of contact with Mandaean teachings are noted, the overall conclusion is that Mani’s Book of Mysteries would have focussed firstly on testimonies about Jesus, and thereafter on a telling of the crucial moments in cosmic and redemptive history. The work evidences dialogue with Bardaisan and his followers, and may well have accessed Sethian traditions. The problematic question of Mani’s relation to nascent Mandaeism is highlighted, but it is shown that this work is unlikely to have had much in common with a priestly scroll such as we imagine the Diwan d-Razia to be, despite any superficially similar esoteric purpose. Before the reading of the Cologne Mani-Codex (from 1969 on) scholars such as E.S. Drower commonly assumed that Mani was brought up in a Mandaean community. However, based on the newly-discovered Greek text (which is a kind of biography of Mani or nascent ‘gospel’), and most obviously the occur- rence there of the name Alchasaios, the dominant consensus rapidly came to identify the ‘baptists’ of Mani’s youth as ‘Elchasaites’. The trajectory of research turned to the teachings and practice of that group, leaving the question of Mani’s relationship with the Mandaeans in limbo. One should note that the two posi- tions have generally been regarded as irreconcilable; indeed, this is a conclusion that has hardly been questioned. This paper will not attempt to solve this problem, but it will try to clear some ground (as it were) by studying Mani’s lost Book of Mysteries as a site for debate between the apostle and other religious communities of his time. I may remark that I have throughout my career felt that the question of Mandaean 993793_Aram_22_15_Gardner.indd3793_Aram_22_15_Gardner.indd 332121 118/10/118/10/11 115:205:20 322 MANI’S BOOK OF MYSTERIES connections to Mani and the early Manichaean community has been somewhat unwisely put aside. These connections are many and deeply embedded in the earliest strata of the tradition. At the same time, there are evident problems with the Elchasaite thesis; not least that the term archegos used for Alchasaios in the Cologne Mani-Codex could simply mean the ‘leader’ of the baptists (a well-attested usage in Manichaean tradition including other instances in the same text)1 rather than ‘founder’.2 My present interest in the Book of Mysteries was sparked when I learnt from Ganzibra Brikha H.S. Nasoraia that there exists a Mandaean scroll known as the Book of Mysteries (Diwan d-Razia), a work unknown to western scholar- ship but preserved within the contemporary community. I wondered if the text might contain new information about the question of Mandaean-Manichaean origins. It appears that the text belongs to the esoteric tradition, and certainly it is a matter for the priests and holders of the text to determine whether and when its contents might be made public. In the meantime, I take the opportu- nity to make a detailed study of such information that exists about Mani’s own lost work. Indeed, I believe that I can advance here a substantially accurate account of what his Book of Mysteries actually contained. In one of the early bema- psalms Mani is compared to a great physician who has come for the healing of all and spread out his medicine-chest, inviting us to be cured. Mani’s books are compared to his instruments, and the Book of Mysteries is the surgeon’s knife.3 Let us investigate what that might mean. Remarkably, the chapter titles of the work are preserved in Arabic by al-Nadim in his encyclopaedic work, the Fihrist (catalogue); which was written in the Xth century CE but utilised a range of earlier sources. Although there are a number of problems with textual readings evident in the manuscript tradition, and the bare titles are famously enigmatic, careful consideration of each and the sequence of themes can illuminate the concerns, (and even to some extent the actual contents), of Mani’s lost work. 1 Notably, (e.g.) CMC 9, 3; 85, 20. 2 The standard Elchasaite thesis (including this very point) has been seriously critiqued by G.P. Luttikhuizen, The Revelation of Elchasai, J.C.B. Mohr, Tübingen, 1985; who has returned to the issue in an appendix to his Gnostic Revisions of Genesis Stories and Early Jesus Tradi- tions, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 2006: 170-184. 3 Thus A Manichaean Psalm-Book II, ed. C.R.C. Allberry, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, 1938 (= PsBk2.) 46: 28; see no. CCXLI. There is a summary and discussion of the various canon lists in different languages by J.C. Reeves, Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony, Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati, 1992: 9-19. Note also that in al-Nadim’s list of the titles of the Epistles of Mani (which includes some written by the imams who succeeded him) there is one, now lost of course, named: ‘of ‘Abd Yal (or Abdiel?) about the Book of Mysteries (Safar al-Asrar)’. 993793_Aram_22_15_Gardner.indd3793_Aram_22_15_Gardner.indd 332222 118/10/118/10/11 115:205:20 I. GARDNER 323 THE EIGHTEEN CHAPTERS OF MANI’S BOOK OF MYSTERIES AS LISTED BY AL-NADIM:4 1. An account of the Daysaniyya: Three of the chapters in al-Nadim’s list concern the Bardesanites, the fol- lowers and school of Bardaisan of Edessa (whose connection to Mani is well known).5 Some of their communities had indeed settled in lower Mesopotamia,6 i.e. the same region as the sect of Mani’s upbringing.7 It is to be noted that Bardaisan had himself written a Book of Mysteries.8 Unfortunately, this is now lost and we do not know its contents; but scholars are naturally inclined to regard Mani’s own work as a kind of response to the former. We can suppose, then, that this served as a kind of introduction to the new book. 29. The testimony of Yastasif on the Beloved: Yastasif (or Vishtaspa) is Hystaspes, the king said to have been converted by Zarathustra / Zoroaster, and often associated with the latter in Manichaean10 4 This translation has been adapted from that of M. Laffan published in I. Gardner, S.N.C. Lieu, Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004: 155. Although I make no claim to be a competent Arabist, I have made a number of changes to reflect my own understanding of the text (as well as re-formatting to suit my presentation). I acknowledge my careful consideration of the work of previous scholars, including in particular the following transla- tions (also commentary and notes) by: G. Flügel, Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften, 1862 repr. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück, 1969: 102-103, 355-361; K. Kessler, Mani. Forschungen über die manichäische Religion, Georg Reimer, Berlin, 1889: 191-198; P. Alfaric, Les écritures mani- chéennes, II, E. Nourry, Paris, 1919: 17-21; O. Klíma, Manis Zeit und Leben, Verlag der Tschecho- slowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Prag, 1962: 405-407; A. Adam, ed., Texte zum Manich- äismus, Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, 1969: 8-9; B. Dodge, The Fihrist of al-Nadim, II, Columbia University Press, New York, 1970: 797-798; M. Tardieu, Manichaeism, tr. M.B. DeBevoise, Univer- sity of Illinois Press, Chicago, 2008: 38-41; and an unpublished draft typescript with English transla- tion and notes by F. de Blois kindly provided by the author, dated 2002. Other sources for my understanding (including important comments by J. Reeves) are referred to elsewhere. I note the assistance of Dr. Kevin Kaatz in collecting material for me on the subject. 5 Thus Ephraim’s Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion and Bardaisan, I / II, ed. C.W. Mitchell, Williams & Northgate, London, 1912 / 1921. For a summary of Bardaisan’s teachings, and their relationship to those of Mani, see S.N.C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1985: 41-44. 6 Thus al-Nadim, Fihrist (tr. B. Dodge p. 806): ‘.. the adherents of Ibn Daysan were in the regions of al-Bata‘ih ..’. Dodge n. 344 comments that this indicates ‘the marshlands between Wasit and al-Basrah’. 7 Al-Nadim further states (ibid. p. 811, and see p. 774) that the mughtasilah (the Arabic term he uses for the group amongst whom Mani was brought up, and equivalent to the ‘baptists’ of the Cologne Mani-Codex) ‘are very numerous in the regions of al-Bata’ih ..’. 8 Thus Ephraim, Hymns against the Heresies, 1: 14 and 56: 9 (ed.
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