THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
band, a crown, and a wreath of light. The number five corresponds to the five elements of the light-deity, and derivation from Babyii. The Ionian- Aramaic sources is clear. Re- Future semblances to Mandsean characteristics Life. also are noticeable in some of these particulars. Outside of these sources, a close dependence upon Zoroastrianism is discoverable, as, for instance, in the light-maiden as compared with the fravashi of Zoroaster. At the death of the adept, however, the devil of greed and the devil of lust are alert to assail the soul, which cries to the light-deities for help; they approach and the devils retreat. The symbolic articles are received by the soul, which then ascends to the moon, thence to the sun, thence to " the mother of the living," and finally to the " highest light " in the paradise of light, where the soul attains to its original condition before the commingling of the two sets of elements. At the death of the hearer the same vain attempt is made by the devils as in the case of the adept, but the help of the divine is found. The soul wanders a long time, however, in a state like that of a man who has a bad dream, seeing horrible shapes and expecting to sink into slime and filth. Finally its constituents of light are liberated and it enters the company of the adepts. Over the souls of those who do not belong to this faith, the devils have full power to seize and torment, especially by the production of shapes of fearful form. Their cries to the light-deities are met only by reproaches and reminders of their evil deeds. Their torture continues till the end of this world, and then they are cast into the hells. The transmigration of souls does not appear to have been taught by Mani, though it may have been hinted.
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 12. Mani's work, " The Book of Secrets," deal Attitude with " the son of the poor widow . toward whom the Jews crucified," with " Jethe Bible, sus' testimony to himself in his reflations with the Jews," and with " the testimony of Adam concerning Jesus." Mani regarded Jesus as a devil, as did the Mandsans, 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 appearance of reality (the Docetic 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 Mandseans. 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 " original 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 seventysix titles of this character. Unfor- 13. Mani- tunately Manichean literature has alchean 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 Fihrist 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