2 - Contextualizing Manichaean Prophetology in the Syro-Mesopotamian Borderlands

Summary

I turn to analyze three passages on prophethood from the two Manichaean codices known as the Kephalaia. I suggest that kephalaia are rhetorical-literary units and must be contextualized alongside other contemporary developments. I first turn to the “Introduction” to the Kephalaia, which features Mani recounting his travels around the Sasanian Empire. Rather than mining this for historical data, I argue that the whole point of this peculiar rendition of Mani’s life is to naturalize the form of the two codices of Kephalaia as anthologies, thus showing each kephalaion to be a discrete shard of Mani’s single revelation. I next argue that the so-called “Chain of Prophets” in the first kephalaion is an argument against prevailing Christian notions for a single glorious “Apostolic Age” in the past. Rather than a single Apostolic past, this kephalaion argues that God sends apostles regularly to provide humanity with a way to salvation. In the final section of this chapter, I show how another kephalaion is invested in Sasanian Imperial vision of geography and space, thus bridging the gap between the Sasanian Empire as an institution and the Manichaeans who live within it.