|
2002 Abstracts Full Papers available to Manichaean Studies Seminar Members LOGIN Samuel
Lieu No
Abstract Available Iain
Gardner In the Acta Archelai Mani writes a letter to the pious Marcellus. The complete text of this letter is (purpoertedly) given, and the episode is an important narrative device in the work. It is generally supposed that the letter must be entirely fictitious. This paper will examine the terminology, stylistic features and theology of the letter with reference to what is now known about Mani's authentic Epistles. This will contribute to the on-going discussion about fact and fiction in the Acta Archelai. Byard
Bennett The Acta Archelai attributed to Hegemonius is important not only for the detailed and historically influential summary of Manichaean teaching which it provides, but also for the long cosmological fragment from the early Alexandrian gnostic writer Basilides (fl. 120-140 A.D.) which it has preserved. The relation of this cosmological fragment to Platonic and Aristotelian thought will be examined in light of recent scholarly discussion. The reason for the inclusion of this fragment within the Acta will also be discussed. It will be seen that the fragment plays a more important role in the narrative of the Acta than has previously been realized and can help to explain some of the peculiar claims made in the Acta concerning the origin of Mani’s teaching. Wolf-Peter
Funk Narrative accounts of the last days in Mani's life -- from his arrival in Belapat to his death, including his fateful encounter with King Bahram and the various episodes happening during Mani's imprisonment -- are found in three Coptic manuscripts from Medinet Madi (dated about the first half of the 4th century). These are: the Homilies codex (ed. Polotsky 1934, 42-85: the "Tale of the Crucifixion"), the 2nd volume of Kephalaia (cf. Giversen, Facs. Ed. I, 1986; with its long "Appendix" chapter), and the unpublished Acts codex (Berlin P. 35997). While all three accounts are preserved in rather fragmentary condition, they nevertheless provide us with a considerable number of details not found in any other source. In this paper I shall try to establish a common chronological order for the various events as narrated in these three manuscripts. J
Kevin Coyle The aim here is threefold: (1) to review what scholars have observed, especially in light of the Medinet Madi and Nag Hammadi finds, about possible contacts between Manichaean and Gnostic groups; (2) to inventory the possible ways and circumstances wherein such contacts might have occurred; and (3) to consider the textual evidence for influences of one group upon the other. Egypt is the best possible region for exploring these questions, given that both gnostics and Manichaeans were in Egypt at the same time, that so much of the primary literature pertaining to both Manichaeism and Gnosticism derives from there, sometimes mediated through the same dialects, and that there is a similarity of vocabulary between some of these texts, to the point where concepts (if not texts themselves) emanating from one group have been adapted to the specifications of the other. Majella
Franzmann In this paper I consider a 4th century CE Manichaean personal letter addressed to a woman catechumen belonging to the community at ancient Roman Kellis in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt, and especially the descriptions of her in that letter as a person of high spiritual standing. In particular I focus on the phrase "the good tree" and the image of spiritual stewardship used in relation to the woman. The letter writer's adaptation of the Gospel of Matthew for these images will be analysed, as well as other passages considered from Matthew and Manichaean sources which may have influenced the choice of image. Finally I suggest that the use of the Matthean images mean that, both in Mathean and Manichaean terms, she is undoubtedly a firm and highly regarded believer, and this despite the fact that she is only a catechumen. István
Perczel No Abstract Available John
C Reeves A number of Syriac and Arabic language sources accuse the Mesopotamian Manichaean community of practicing a macabre ritual whereby a human captive is decapitated and his head is transformed into an instrument of divination. From whence does such a bizarre accusation stem? This essay explores the relevant textual data in the light of the disturbingly parallel rhetoric directed against Jews and Judaism during the late antique and the medieval eras, and offers some suggestions for contextualizing the 'blood-libel' in its Manichaean manifestation. Zsuzsanna
Gulácsi The term codicology (lit. "the study of the codex"), coined by A. Dain in 1949 as an equivalent to the German Handschriftenkunde ("the study of manuscripts"), initially connoted an auxiliary discipline dealing with the history of the book after its completion. Today, as a neologism, codicology is also used to refer to a method employed by art historians to consider the elements of the page together as a whole, and thus examine the miniatures in their immediate context as book art. Building on my previous publications (Mediaeval Manichaean Art in Berlin Collections. Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2001; and “Rules of Page Arrangement in Manichaean Illuminated Books.” In Studia Manichaica: IV. International Congress of Manichaean Studies, edited by W. Sundermann [Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2000], 287-325), in this paper, I assess the relevance of a codicological approach for the study of Manichaean book illumination. The only currently known corpus of this art derives from East Central Asia where, in the region of the Turfan oasis under the patronage of the Uygur Turks, Manichaean illuminated books were produced between the mid 8th and early 11th centuries. A codicological approach for the study of Manichaean illuminated books has been especially relevant, since it allowed us to see beyond the fragmentary condition of this art and confirmed previously unknown characteristics of Manichaean page arrangement and contextual cohesion. A codicological study of page arrangement proved that sideways turned illustrations (i.e., miniature paintings oriented on their sides in relation to the text in bound vertical codices) are employed in all currently known codex formatted Manichaean illuminated books. In addition, a codicological study of contextual cohesion of text and image verified that the sideways paintings are not “illustrations” of their texts. They depict general scenes from the life of the Manichaean community, relating only loosely to the content, while fully fitting the context of the books they adorn. Timothy
Pettipiece Michel Tardieu (1981) has pointed out that even though Mani was vilified as a dangerous heretic, he nevertheless was able to maintain, especially in the early Islamic tradition, a reputation as an accomplished artist. It is obvious, particularly from the exquisitely illuminated manuscript fragments discovered at Tourfan, that images and artistic representations played an important role in the Eastern branches of the Manichaean religious tradition. Yet it also seems that artistic motifs and references to artistic production played a significant role in Western Manichaean literature such as the Kephalaia of the Teacher. This paper will examine references to art and the artistic process (especially sculpture) in Western Manichaean literature and attempt to discern what significance they might have had for Manichaean religious life and theology. Tudor
Sala In my quest of seeing beyond the anti-Manichaean polemical side of Ephraem’s work I am tackling the literary influence that Manichaeans had on Ephraem. Through this I hope to shed light on a rarely discussed aspect of his work. My paper starts from a new reading of the renowned scene of the Odyssey (XII, 166-200): Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. I am venturing to point to an ignored detail: the traces left on Odysseus’ body from the tight bonds which enabled him to hear the Sirens’ enchanting song without falling prey to them. Although the text repeatedly mentions the tight bonds, it keeps silent on the traces they left. This silence of the text hides meaning. As reading those bruises on Odysseus’ body one would be able to grasp the enchanting powers of the Siren’s song, inscribed there on the hands and feet of Odysseus. Using this episode as a metaphorical framework I try in the following part to outline the bruises left on the textual body of the works of Ephraem Syrus by his encounter with la tentation manichéene. My focus lies on his hymns: de Nativitate, de Azymis, de Crucifixione, and de Resurrectione. In a cautious approach towards a possible relationship between different psalms of the Coptic Manichaean Psalmbook and the hymns of Ephraem Syrus, I try to listen to the intertextual resonances between the two text corpora. Previous analyses of the Manichaean Psalms read them mainly on a Gnostic or an apocryphal background – a tendency retraceable to the classic misprision of Manichaeism as a “Gnostic religion”. Such a perspective systematically screened off a significant and thrilling area of that complex textual net in which the psalms are ‘confined’. In my paper I take on the risk of exploring those areas where heresy and orthodoxy, the Manichaeans and Ephraem Syrus share a common language. Jason
BeDuhn The Acta Archelai dramatizes the clash, literally on the frontier between political and cultural spheres, between two rival descendents of the traditions connected to Jesus that spread and diversified throughout the region in the first two centuries CE. A teleological bias in our reading of history conspires with the scheme of the Acta Archelai to consider one of these rivals as a true and direct descendent of those traditions while regarding the other as a contrived and mutated second cousin to them. But the Acta itself is an event in the construction of a claim on the legacy of Christ that was only being developed in the Third and Fourth centuries. At the same time it preserves fragments of the contemporaneous, competing Manichaean claim on the same legacy. Through these fragments, we catch a glimpse of how this competing claim was assembled and put forward, and so are enabled to reconstruct the Manichaean reading of the legacy of Christ. This paper examines two processes of intertextuality involved in the testimony that the Acta Archelai affords to this war of, and over, words. The first process is the biblical intertextuality by which the Manichaean sources utilized in the Acta assemble a systematic interpretation of the Gospel and Apostle that supports their claim to be the true adherents of the religion these textual authorities expound. The paper analyzes these sets of proof-texts in light of other sources on Manichaean interpretation of the Bible. The second process is the intertextuality committed by Hegemonius when he brings together a wide variety of Manichaean and anti-Manichaean sources as the raw material of his drama. The paper explores the possible provenance of these sources and identifies traces of them in other surviving pieces of Western Manichaean literature. By examining both the roots of the Manichaean claim on the Christian heritage in the Eastern (Iranian and Mesopotamian) reading of its textual tradition, and the fruits of that claim in the products of the Western (Roman) Manichaean mission, we are able to follow the other, mostly lost side of a conflict of historic proportions when the meaning of the legacy of Christ was being contested, and the ultimate character of "Christianity" was being decided. |