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What does a faith sound like when its believers, rather than its enemies, tell its story?
Manichaean Homilies gathers sermons composed by followers of Mani, not by the prophet himself. These preachers remember his life, teaching and death, and speak of a universe divided between Light and Darkness. Their words bring you inside a community that understands spiritual life as a struggle with cosmic stakes.
The collection includes the Homily on the Crucifixion, which recounts Mani’s suffering and death, and the Homily on the Great War, which explores conflict and the promised release of Light. Preserved in a damaged Coptic manuscript, these fragmentary sermons offer laments, visions and teachings rather than a continuous story.
What you’ll discover
- Light against Darkness Explore how believers understand the soul through a cosmic struggle between two opposing natures.
- Mani remembered by followers Encounter a community’s account of its founder’s imprisonment, suffering and death in Persian custody.
- The Great War Follow a sermon that connects cosmic conflict with the believer’s place within it.
- A community with rules Discover the Elect and the Hearers, and the strict demands placed on the Elect.
- Believers speak for themselves Read teachings from within a faith long known chiefly through the writings of its opponents.
Is it for you?
This summary suits readers curious about early Christianity, Gnosticism and the religions of the ancient Near East, and anyone who wants to know what Manichaeism was. It may suit you less if you want a continuous, complete narrative, because the manuscript is fragmentary.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A codex rescued from Egyptian sand
- Mani, a prophet raised in Babylonia
- Two natures and three moments of time
- What the sermons say about war and death
- A church of the Elect and the Hearers
- Why the Homilies stand outside the Bibles
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Manichaean Homilies
by Attributed to the prophet Mani
Ancient sermons recount Mani’s life and teachings about Light and Darkness.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A codex rescued from Egyptian sand
The Homilies come from a cache of Manichaean books found in 1929 near Medinet Madi, a site in the Fayum region of Egypt. The books were written in Coptic, the last stage of the Egyptian language, which Christians in Egypt used for their own scriptures. Scholars date the manuscripts to roughly the fourth century, though the original sermons are older. The Homilies codex is one of several books in the find, and it was edited by the scholar Hans Jakob Polotsky in the 1930s.
The Coptic is in a dialect from the area of Lycopolis, which is modern Asyut in Upper Egypt. That detail matters. It shows that Manichaeism had put down roots in the Nile valley, far from Mani's homeland in Babylonia. The language of the original was probably Syriac, a form of Aramaic, which was the tongue of Mani and his first followers.
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What are the Manichaean Homilies?
They are a collection of sermons from the church of Mani, preserved in a Coptic manuscript found in Egypt in 1929. They deal with Mani's life and death, the early church and the struggle between light and darkness.
Did Mani write the Manichaean Homilies?
No. Scholars understand the sermons as the work of his followers, who preached about him after his death. The Coptic text is probably translated from an earlier Syriac or Aramaic original.
Who was Mani?
Mani was a prophet born in Babylonia in the third century. He taught that he was the last of a line of messengers that included Buddha, Zoroaster and Jesus. He died in Persian custody in the 270s.
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