要点
- What it is: An independent missionary religion founded by Mani in third-century Mesopotamia under Sasanian Persian rule.
- Core teaching: Two eternal principles, Light and Darkness, became mixed in the present world; salvation involved the liberation of Light.
- Surviving texts: Writings survive in Coptic, Greek and several Central Asian languages, alongside accounts by religious opponents.
- Historical reach: Communities extended from Spain to China, then declined at different times in different regions.
Manichaeism was an independent missionary religion founded by Mani in third-century Mesopotamia, teaching that divine Light had become entangled with Darkness in the material world. Its communities distinguished an ascetic elect from supporting hearers and spread from Spain to China. Its history survives through writings from within those communities and accounts by opponents, which offer different kinds of evidence. The religion disappeared through a prolonged regional decline, not a single event.
This guide moves from the religion's identity and Mani's Persian setting to its account of Light and Darkness. It then surveys the surviving scriptures, Augustine's involvement and Christian opposition, before explaining the religion's decline and pointing to related guides.
What Manichaeism was
Manichaeism drew on Christian, Iranian and Buddhist traditions without being simply a branch of Christianity or Zoroastrianism. Jesus held an important revelatory and saving role in its teaching. These connections belong alongside its identity as a religion in its own right: its communities understood religious life through teachings associated with Mani, rather than merely preserving one of the traditions on which he drew.
Community life distinguished an ascetic elect from a larger body of hearers. The elect were expected to observe celibacy and dietary restrictions excluding meat; hearers supported them with food and other necessities. Religious practice also had a commemorative calendar. The Bema, an annual festival remembering Mani, gave the founder a continuing place in the communal life of the religion he established.
Mani and his world in third-century Persia
Mani was born in 216 CE and founded his religion in Mesopotamia under the Sasanian Persian Empire. He attributed his mission to revelations from a heavenly companion commonly called his Twin. This is the tradition's account of his religious calling, rather than a claim that historical description can establish the source of those revelations. His career unfolded within the world of Sasanian royal power.
Most of Mani's principal writings were composed in Syriac. He also wrote the Shabuhragan in Middle Persian for the Sasanian king Shapur I, and used a picture book commonly called the Arzhang to communicate his teaching. His relationship with royal authority ended in custody: Mani died under King Bahram I, with his death usually dated to 276 or 277 CE.
The teaching of Light and Darkness
Manichaean teaching posited two eternal and originally separate principles or realms, Light and Darkness. Its account of the present world explained material existence as a mixture in which divine Light was entangled with Darkness. The opposition therefore concerned the world's origins and condition, not only human conduct. Within this cosmology, the ordered cosmos served as a mechanism for recovering the imprisoned Light.
Salvation involved awakening to the soul's divine origin and participating in the liberation of Light. Manichaean accounts of the end of the world envisioned a final separation of the two realms. The teaching thus connected an account of original separation, the present condition of mixture, and an eventual restoration of separation. These are descriptions of Manichaean belief, not assertions about the nature of the world.
The Manichaean scriptures and their survival
Manichaean tradition recognized seven principal writings attributed to Mani. His Living Gospel was a distinct scripture, not one of the four canonical Christian Gospels. The surviving literature also preserves communal teaching and worship. A major group of Coptic manuscripts came to scholarly attention around 1930 through finds associated with Medinet Madi in Egypt. The Manichaean Psalm-Book, generally dated in its surviving manuscript to around the fourth or fifth century, gathers communal hymns rather than writings entirely by Mani. The Manichaean Homilies preserve followers' sermons, including material about his suffering and death.
The Kephalaia are collections of doctrinal teachings associated with Mani, reflecting transmission and compilation within the community rather than surviving as his autograph writings. The miniature Greek parchment manuscript called the Cologne Mani Codex preserves biographical traditions about his youth in a Jewish-Christian baptist community. Expeditions to Turfan in Chinese Central Asia recovered substantial manuscript fragments in the early twentieth century. Surviving Manichaean writings occur in Coptic, Greek, Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian, Old Uyghur and Chinese.
The Book of Giants has a history that precedes Manichaeism. An earlier Jewish work survives in Aramaic fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls; Mani adapted it into a Manichaean scriptural work. Its Jewish narrative concerns the offspring of the Watchers and troubling dreams interpreted with Enoch's help. The earlier work and its Manichaean adaptation therefore belong to connected but distinct settings. Another distinction concerns discoveries: the Nag Hammadi codices are not a collection of Manichaean scriptures.
Augustine, opponents and the religion's disappearance
Augustine of Hippo spent roughly nine years as a Manichaean hearer before becoming a prominent Christian critic. Another hostile witness, The Acts of the Disputation of Archelaus, is a fourth-century Christian anti-Manichaean work traditionally attributed to Hegemonius. Its debate between Archelaus and Mani is a literary construction, not a reliable transcript of an encounter. It survives chiefly in a Latin translation of a Greek work.
Christian, Muslim and other hostile accounts require distinction from writings produced within Manichaean communities. Opposition also took political forms: Manichaeans suffered persecution under several Roman, Sasanian and Chinese governments. Their communities extended westward to Spain and eastward to China, but their disappearance has no single universal date. Traditions persisted in southeastern China after the religion had vanished from much of its former territory, making regional decline the more accurate historical description.
Where to go next
The guide to the Book of Giants follows the Jewish narrative and its Manichaean connection; the Dead Sea Scrolls offers a related route into its earlier manuscript setting. The guide to the Nag Hammadi library concerns a separate discovery, rather than another body of Manichaean scripture.
The library holds editions of the Manichaean Psalm-Book, the Manichaean Homilies, the Book of Giants and The Acts of the Disputation of Archelaus.
Keep exploring
決める前に聴いてみてください
各書籍のページで、オーディオブックの冒頭を聴けます。下のManichaean Psalm-Bookを開いて、再生を押してください。
Manichaean Psalm-BookAttributed to the prophet Mani試聴します
Manichaean HomiliesAttributed to the prophet Mani試聴します
Book of GiantsAttributed to Mani試聴します
The Acts of the Disputation of ArchelausAttributed to Hegemonius試聴します
The Nag Hammadi Scriptures試聴します
Questions about Manichaeism
What is Manichaeism?
Manichaeism was an independent missionary religion founded in the third century in Mesopotamia under Sasanian Persian rule. It drew on Christian, Iranian and Buddhist traditions. Its communities organized religious life around an ascetic elect and supporting hearers, and its teaching explained the world through the mixture of Light and Darkness.
Who founded Manichaeism?
Mani, born in 216 CE, founded Manichaeism. He attributed his religious mission to revelations from a heavenly companion called his Twin. He composed most of his principal writings in Syriac and died in royal custody under the Sasanian king Bahram I, usually dated to 276 or 277 CE.
What did the Manichaeans believe?
Manichaeans believed in two eternal, originally separate principles, Light and Darkness, whose mixture explained the present world. Divine Light was understood to be imprisoned within that mixture. Salvation involved awakening to the soul's divine origin and helping liberate Light, with a final separation envisioned at the end of the world.
What are the Manichaean scriptures?
Manichaean tradition recognized seven principal writings attributed to Mani, while surviving religious literature also preserves hymns, sermons, doctrinal collections and biographical traditions. Important witnesses include the Coptic communal collections, the Kephalaia, the Greek Cologne Mani Codex and the Turfan fragments. These are not all works written directly by Mani.
Why did Manichaeism disappear?
Manichaeism disappeared through prolonged regional decline, with persecution under several Roman, Sasanian and Chinese governments forming part of that history. There is no single date at which it ended everywhere. Manichaean traditions continued in southeastern China after the religion had disappeared from much of the territory where it had previously spread.
