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The “Second Evocation” in the Manichaean System of Cosmogony
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
In his philosophical speculations regarding the original scheme of the universe, Mānī portrayed with poetic imagination the primordial struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness that formed the dualistic basis of his system of religion. When the primeval attack upon the Realm of Light was made by the King of Darkness, the Sovereign of Light “evoked”, or emanated, three successive evocations in the form of divine personifications, designed to serve first in combating the onslaught of Evil, and then in weakening the pernicious effects of its force.
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page 137 note 1 The characteristic feature of the grouping as triads in these evocations has been thought possibly to exhibit traces of Babylonian or old “Chaldæan” influence upon Mānī. See Cumont, F., Recherches sur le Manichéisme I, La Cosmogonie manichéenne, Brussels, 1908, pp. 20, 34Google Scholar, regarding Anū, Bēl, Ēa, and Shamash, Sīn, Ishtar. Cf. Jackson, , JAOS. xliv, 61Google Scholar.
page 138 note 1 In addition to the more familiar sources compare also the graphic account preserved in the Petrograd Manichæan Fragment in Turfan Pahlavi, S. 9 recto, al–b30, reproduced by Salemann, , Manichaica, iii, pp. 8, 9Google Scholar, in Bulletin Acad. Impér. des Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1912Google Scholar, and translated by Jackson, Studies in Zoroastrianism and Manichœism (to be published later).
page 138 note 2 SeePognon, H., Inscriptions Mandaïtes, avec extraits du Livre des Scholies de Theodore bar Khouni, pp. 127–8 (text), 186 (transl.), Paris, 1898Google Scholar; and compare Cumont, , Recherches, i, p. 20Google Scholar. An English translation of the Manichæan section of bar Khoni has been prepared for publication later by my Assistant, Dr. A. Yohannan, with notes by myself.
page 138 note 3 Lit. “the Beloved of the Lights”, Syr. le Ḥabbībh Nahīrē. The word for light in Syriac is in the plural; cf. Avestan raoćâ “light(s)” from sing, raocah-.
page 138 note 4 Syr. leBan Rabbā. For spelling see Section 2 below.
page 138 note 5 Syr. leRūḥā Ḥayyā. It is not necessary here to add the sentence which names the “Five Sons” whom the Living Spirit in turn called forth, as that detail is reserved for treatment elsewhere.
page 139 note 1 For this correct division of rōšanānībā' (written together), see Bartholomae, , Zum Altiranischen Wörterbuch, p. 78, middleGoogle Scholar.
page 139 note 2 The text itself of this important piece still awaits publication, but an initial translation of it by Andreas is available in Reitzenstein, , Die Göttin Psyche, p. 4, Heidelberg, 1917Google Scholar.
page 140 note 1 The designation “Mother of the Pious” is used in Soghdian for the more familiar “Mother of the Living”.
page 140 note 2 Observe that the well-known Column of Light, here associated with the Maiden of Light, rather breaks the threefold order, and is not mentioned in the list that directly follows, and in which Jesus is mentioned immediately before the Light Maiden.
page 140 note 3 Until the original text becomes available, one must be content with a rendering of the German version by Andreas as stated. But the main points may be gathered in any case.
page 140 note 4 The “spirit” represents that of the Godhead and the Ethereal Realm; “shining height” is the Light Air; “blessed earth” the Light Earth. For the shining height cf. “the Fathers in the Height” (used of the gods) in Theodore bar Khoni, ed. Pognon, pp. 131 (text), 192 (transl.); cf. Cumont, , Recherches, i, 48Google Scholar, and note 5.
page 140 note 6 So spelt by Andreas (loc. cit.) for the more common spelling Mardāspanṭe (cf. Av. Amesha Spentas); see Müller, , Soghdische Texte, i, p. 84Google Scholar, line 11, and p. 97, in Abhandlungen d. kgl. Preuas. Ak., Berlin, 1913Google Scholar.
page 141 note 1 On the spelling Bām by Andreas see below, Section 2.
page 141 note 2 So Andreas for the ordinary Spendārmat.
page 141 note 3 This fourth section may possibly allude to an additional “evocation” besides that of the well-known Third Messenger (Mithra)as alluded to above.
page 141 note 4 The translation of this passage, as previously stated, is based on the version by Andreas in Reitzenstein, , Die Göttin Psyche, p. 4Google Scholar.
page 141 note 5 This portion of M. 2 is translated by Andreas in Reitzenstein, , Die Göttin Psyche, pp. 4–5Google Scholar, but the text itself has not yet been printed, even though two other portions of the text of M. 2 are available in Müller, ii, p. 30, and Hermas-Stelle, p. 1081.
page 141 note 6 Reitzenstein, op. cit., p. 5, n. 1, remarks that the use of the preposition (“mit, zusammen mit”) indicates a close connexion here, and that otherwise the proper names are simply given one after the other. In order to make the passage clearer I have indicated the divisions by inserting numerals and by punctuating.
page 142 note 1 We are probably to identify the “last god” directly with the Mother of the Pious, as an appositive. In the account of the fate of the Manichæan Elect after death, the soul in the last stages of its heavenly journey passes from Primal Man in the sun to the Mother of the Living and then merges into the Eternal light of the Ruler of Paradise.
page 142 note 2 Observe that here the usual third leader, Mithra (Mišē, Tertius Legatus), is omitted and that Jesus, etc., occupy the place. Compare the earlier footnote on p. 140, n. 2.
page 142 note 3 Translated after Andreas in Reitzenstein, , Die Göttin Psyche, pp. 4, 5Google Scholar. With reference to the Friend of Light (Narēsaf) uniting with other gods in a prayer to the Supreme Deity in this passage, we may compare what is stated below in regard to a petition made to him himself (as Messenger of Good Tidings), and his kindred divine associates, by the Five Angels in a similar, though somewhat different, situation as described in the Fihrist passage quoted below, towards the end of Section 2.
page 142 note 4 Notice that in Group III the last two gods are missing in bar Khoni; also that the order of the Mother and Ormazd in Group I is reversed in Frag. M. 2.
page 143 note 1 See Jackson, , in Grundriss iran. Philol., ii, 641, 642Google Scholar. In view, therefore, of the material now available we are entitled to give up the suggestion made by Cumont, , Recherches, i, 58–63Google Scholar, to identify with Neryosang the Third Messenger, Πρεσβ[ε]υΤής ό Tgr; ρίτος, Legalus Tertius of Evodius). This latter personage is to be identified with Mithra; and thus the Friend of Lights would be the Second Messenger, Primal Man being the first.
page 143 note 2 See Frag. M. 176 recto, 1. 13, and M. 32 verso, caption with 1. 1 (= Mü. ii, p. 60, end; p. 63, middle).
page 144 note 1 An-Nadīm's Fihrist, in Flügel, , Mani, p. 55, 1. 2 (text), 88 (transl.)Google Scholar; cf. large edition of the Fihrist, ed. Flügel-Roediger-Müller, i, p. 329, 1. 28; also the notes on the text, etc., op. cit., ii, p. 165, n. 5, and p. 167, n. 1.
page 144 note 2 For references to this latter event (including those recorded from the Fihrist in the preceding note) see Jackson, , Journ. Amer. Or. Soc., 1924, xliv, p. 64, n. 14Google Scholar.
page 144 note 3 Regarding this Arabic noun compare Steingass, , Pers.-Eng. Dict., p. 190Google Scholar, bašīr, “a messenger of good news.” The verb bašar, “relating siews,” from which this substantive is derived, has especially a good sense;. see also Arab, bušrā, “communicating good news; happy tidings,” in. Steingass, op. cit., p. 189.
page 144 note 4 See Flügel, , Mani, p. 59 (text)Google Scholar, 91 (transl.), with p. 250, n. 161 (“der Bote froher Kunde, Künder froher Botschaft, Heilsverkünder”); Kessler, , Mani, p. 393 (“der Heilsbote”)Google Scholar.
page 145 note 1 I have since found a similar view to mine in Reitzenstein, , Das Mandäische Buck des Herrn der Grōsse, p. 90, n. 1Google Scholar, “wahrscheinlich der Freund des Lichtes.”
page 145 note 2 See transl. below, p. 148, and compare Kessler, , Mani, p. 400Google Scholar, bottom (“Heilsbote von Oaten”), as a correction of Flügel, p. 101, bottom (“Bewegung vom Osten”).
page 145 note 3 See Flügel, p. 65, 1. 19 (text), 97 (transl.). Remember that Flügel, n. 344, pp. 310, 311, did not have the new material when he suggested to identify the Announcer of Good Tidings (“Heilverkünder”) with the angel Taum in the Fihrist. Nor could Māni himself (op. cit., p. 311) be looked upon more than as a later representative of such a Messenger. Furthermore, with reference to Narēsap in general, it may be added that, since the appearance of the Fragments above cited, we may now transfer to him much of what was said by Cumont, , Recherches, i, p. 63, n. 4Google Scholar, and p. 64, when he sought to identify Mithra with NairyōsaŊha (Narēsap); see also footnote above on Πρεσβ[ε]ντς Τρ;τος. Finally, we may exclude Srōsh from any claim to this particular title of Messenger of Good Tidings (Narēsap). He has other duties.
page 146 note 1 See Pognon, pp. 127, 128 (text), 187, 190 (transl.). Thus, “Bān,” Syr. B n. Consult also Cumont, , Recherches, i, 20, n. 4Google Scholar, and p. 37, n. 4. Consult also next note.
page 146 note 2 See Ephraim, S., Prose Refutations, tr. Mitchell, C. W., i, pp. xxx, xlvii, lxxv (transl.) = text, p. 3, 1. 32Google Scholar; p. 39, 1. 20; p. 94, 1. 2. Mitchell transliterates the name (Syr. B n)as Bân throughout. Similarly Burkitt, F. C. as Bān, in Journal of Religion, ii, 274, Chicago, 1922Google Scholar. Compare preceding note. Therefore apparently Ban or Bān, according as one vocalizes the text; but Bān is preferable.
page 146 note 3 Andreas (in Reitzenstein, , Die Gōttin Psyche, pp. 4, 5Google Scholar) transcribes the Soghdian name as Bām; this accords with the spelling “Spondārmut”, which he adopts for the familiar Spendārmat. See preceding note, end.
page 146 note 4 See Theodore bar Khoni, tr. Pognon, p. 190, and cf. Cumont, i, p. 37.
page 147 note 1 The etymology of Bān from a common Semitic verbal root signifying “to build” ia easily recognized.
page 147 note 2 See S. Ephraim, op. cit., p. xxx. For help with the Syriac text (besides Mitchell's translation) I am indebted to my Assistant, Dr. A. Yohannan, of Columbia University.
page 147 note 3 Ephraim, op. cit., p. xlvii.
page 147 note 4 See Ephraim, pp. lxxv, xxxv.
page 148 note 1 The correct pointing of the first word as bannā' “builder” is due to Nöldeke, , ZDMG. xlvi, 546Google Scholar, where he translates by “der grosse Baumeister”.
page 148 note 2 This Messenger is the Friend of Light, see above, pp. 144–5.
page 148 note 3 Observe that in Soghd. Frag. M. 583 (above cited) Bām comes from the south, as he does also in T.Phl. Frag. M. 470, translated just below.
page 148 note 4 See Flügel, p. 71, 1. 14 seq. (text), pp. 101, 102 (transl.); Kessler, pp. 400, 401.
page 149 note 1 The broken words in these two lines are here conjecturally restored on the basis of rāz 'ī vazurg vaḥīšt 'ī nōg in M. 98b, 11. S, 6 (= Mü. ii, p. 39), and šaḥr 'ī nōg in M. 482 verso, 11. 12, 13 (= Mü. ii, p. 17).
page 149 note 2 Notice that in Sogh. Frag. M. 583 (translated above) the god Mithr (Mišē) comes from the east, and the Friend of Light from the west, if Andreas translates correctly. But it is possible that the marshalling of the gods in that Fragment was for a different purpose than that which is represented in the present assembling.
page 149 note 3 M. 470 recto, 11. 13–20 (= Mü. ii, p. 20).
page 149 note 4 It is interesting to add that in a ninth century anti-Manichæan ecclesiastical letter the name Bān (adopted from the god's name) appears to have been borne by a heretic who is opprobriously spoken of as the “impious Baanes”— ῥυπαρός Βαάνης—being anathematized in a long list of false teachers, like Scythianus, Terebinthus, Boudes, Manes, etc., recalling in a way the Gk. Formula of Abjuration. This document exists in the form of a letter written by Bishop Theophylactus, Patriarch of Constantinople, a.d. 933–56; see Bull. Acad. Impér. des Sciences de St. Pelersbourg, 1913, pp. 366, 367 (el. hist, philos., Russian lang.). I owe this reference to my pupil Mr. Victor N. Sharenkoff.
page 150 note 1 As an active agent the Living Spirit is generally conceived of as a masculine personality, but also as neuter or feminine where grammatical gender is involved. We must remember that sex plays no part in these Manichæan abstract personifications. Cf. Cumont, (and Kugener, ), Recherches, i, p. 31, n. 1Google Scholar, and p. 18, n. 1.
page 150 note 2 Beausobre, I., Hist. Man., ii, 358–70Google Scholar; Baur, F. C., Man. Religionssystem, pp. 68–71Google Scholar; Flügel, pp. 208, 209, 211, 251, 352, 353; Cumont, pp. 25–6 f.; Legge, ii, 302, n. 1.
page 150 note 3 Hegemonius, , Acta Archelai, vii, 4Google Scholar; viii, 1; xiii, 4 (ed. Beeson, pp. 10–12, 21).
page 150 note 4 See Alex. Lycop., Contra Manichaei Opiniones, chap, iii, mid.; chap, iv, beginning (ed. Brinkmann, p. 6, 11. 6–11, 22).
page 151 note 1 See text of Gk. Formula Abjurat.,§ 2, in Kessler, , Mani, p. 403Google Scholar, transl. p. 360, with n. 5.
page 151 note 2 Cf. also Legge, , Rivals, ii, 302, n. 1Google Scholar, and pp. 319–20. Augustine, , Contra Faustum, xx, 6Google Scholar, end, refers back to this designation “the Holy Spirit in the air”.
page 151 note 3 A treatment of this whole incident is kept for later.
page 152 note 1 See Theodore bar Khoni, tr. Pognon, pp. 187–9; Cumont, , Recherches, i, 20–9Google Scholar. Details regarding all this will be found in my forthcoming book on Manichæism. It may be added that St. Ephraim's Prose Refutations, in Syriac, do not mention by name either the Living Spirit or the Friend of Light, but only Bān; see ed. Mitchell-Burkitt-Bevan, ii, p. cxxxv, n. 1. In op. cit., i, p. xxxv, Ephraim ascribes to “Primal Man” the flaying of the Archons and the construction of sky and earth from their skins and bodies.
page 152 note 2 Flügel, , Mani, p. 59, 1. 2, etc.Google Scholar
page 152 note 3 See Jackson, , JAOS. xliv, p. 64, n. 14 (with references)Google Scholar.
page 152 note 4 For text see Flügel, p. 71, 1. 15, and compare the translation of this passage as given above, near end of Section 2.
page 152 note 5 Albīrūnī, , Chronology, tr. Sachau, E., p. 190, 11. 13–15Google Scholar.
page 152 note 6 M. 47 v., 11. 8, 9, vād anōšag Ćē žīvaḥr. See Müller, , Handschriften-reste, ii, p. 84Google Scholar. For the spelling of žīvaḥr “life”, cf. Bartholomae, , zAirwb., p 52 n.Google Scholar In this connexion as to “wind” = “spirit”, recall that in the ninth century Pahlavi book Shikand-Gūmānīk Vīzhar, xv, 7, the Christian term for Holy Spirit is translated (ef. Lat. Spiritus) by Phl. vāṭ ī pāk “the Pure Wind”, in referring to Mary's conceiving Jesus.
page 153 note 1 M. 555 (= Mü. ii, p. 74), vāxš zīnd[kar] “the spirit life[-giving]”.
page 153 note 2 See M. 17 verso, 1. 16 (= Mü. ii, p. 26), also M. 172 verso, 1. 11 (= Mü. ii, pp. 101, 103). The more exact transliteration (of khshand zh) is given by vāxš yōždaḥr. In 1. 9 (loc. cit.) compare also “dialectic” zaparṭ vāxšīy as a gloss of vābarīgān.
page 153 note 3 M. 46, 1. 19 (= Mü. ii, p. 58), vāxš yōždaḥr.
page 153 note 4 For the text of this Cosmological Fragment (M. 98–9), with a German version, see Müller, ii, pp. 37–43.
page 153 note 5 Irano-Turkish vā[xš] yōždaḥ[r], see Turkish Runic Frag. M. 339b, in Salemann, , Manichaica, iii, p. 30Google Scholar; cf. also Le Coq, , Köktürkisches aus Turfan, in Sitzb. Preuss. Akad, Wiss., xli, 1061, Berlin, 1909Google Scholar.
page 154 note 1 See Turkish Frag. T. II, D. 1736, recto 11. 16–20, verso 11. 1–4 (Le Coq, , Türkische Manichaica cms Chotscho, i, pp. 13, 14Google Scholar; cf. pp. 40, 41, in Abh. Preuss. Ak. Wiss., Berlin, 1911Google Scholar.
page 154 note 2 T. II, D. 1736, verso 11. 4–20; see Le Coq, op. cit., pp. 14–15.
page 154 note 3 T. II, D. 121, recto 11. 12–15, verso 11. 1–20 (Le Coq, , Türk. Manich., iii, pp. 8–9Google Scholar).
page 154 note 4 T. II, D. 171 verso, 11. 11–12 (Le Coq, op. cit., i, p. 24), qad(a)ran . . . wadžiw(a)nta t(ä)ngri.
page 154 note 5 T.M. 291 recto, 11. 9–11 seq. (Le Coq, op. cit., iii, pp. 7–8).
page 154 note 6 See Chavannes, and Pelliot, , in Journal Asiatique, 1911, pp. 499–590 (French transl.), 591–617 (Chinese text)Google Scholar.
page 154 note 7 JA. 1911, pp. 510–14.
page 155 note 1 JA. 1911, pp. 514–15. As to the constellations of the Zodiac (“wheel of revolutions”) see JA. 1913, p. 102, and compare Le Coq, , Türk. Manich., iii, p. 15, n. 18, p. 41, n. 18Google Scholar. The stars were created after the sun and moon according to Alexander of Lycopolis, chap, iii, and Theodore bar Khoni, p. 189 (“the lights more than a thousand” = stars; or better translated “the lights (i.e. stars) in addition to the ships (i.e. sun and moon)”).
page 155 note 2 JA. 1911, pp. 516–17, 531, 533.
page 155 note 3 JA.1911, pp. 518–19.
page 155 note 4 JA. 1911, pp. 518–19.
page 155 note 5 See JA. 1911, p. 556, with n. 2, and p. 510, n. 4.
page 155 note 6 See JA. 1911, p. 557, with n. 1.
page 155 note 7 Hegemonius, , Acta Archdai, 59 (50), 5, ed. , Beeson, p. 86Google Scholar.