Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony

Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony
Author :
Publisher : Hebrew Union College Press
Total Pages : 273
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780878201310
ISBN-13 : 0878201319
Rating : 4/5 (10 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony by : John C. Reeves

Download or read book Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony written by John C. Reeves and published by Hebrew Union College Press. This book was released on 2016-07-23 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A work entitled the "Book of Giants" figures in every list of the Manichaean "canon" preserved from antiquity. Both the nature of this work and the intellectual baggage of the third-century Persian prophet to whom it is ascribed remained unknown to scholars until 1943, when fragments of several Middle Iranian versions of the Book of Giants were published by W. B. Henning. Twenty-eight years later, at Qumran, J. T. Milik discovered several copies of a fragmentary Aramaic work which is unquestionably the precursor of the later Manichaean recension. One other important work, Mani's "autobiography," the so-called Cologne Mani Codex, was brought to scholarly attention in 1970 with evidence that Mani spent his youth among the Elchasaites, a Judeo-Christian sect that observed the Sabbath, strict dietary laws, and rigorous purification practices. Although leading Orientalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have consistently stressed the Iranian component in Mani's thought, Reeves argues, in the light of evidence drawn from the above-mentioned discoveries and from a rich panorama of other textual sources, that the fundamental structure of Manichaean cosmogony is ultimately indebted to Jewish exegetical expansions of Genesis 6:1-4. Reeves begins with an examination of the ancient testimonies about the contents of Mani's Book of Giants. Then, using documents from Second Temple Judaism, classical Gnostic literature, Christian and Muslim heresiological reports, Syriac texts, and Manichaean writings, he provides a detailed analysis of both the Qumran and Manichaean rescensions of the work, demonstrating additional interdependencies and suggesting new narrative arrangements. He addresses a series of quotations from an unnamed Manichaean source found in a paschal homily of the sixth-century Monophysite patriarch Severus of Antioch and a narrative from Thoeodore bar Konai. In sum, Reeves demonstrates that the motifs of Jewish Enochic literature, in particular those of the story of the Watchers and Giants, form the skeletal structure of Mani's cosmological teachings, and that Chapters 1 to 11 of Genesis fertilized Near Eastern thought, even to the borders of India and China.


Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony Related Books

Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony
Language: en
Pages: 273
Authors: John C. Reeves
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-07-23 - Publisher: Hebrew Union College Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A work entitled the "Book of Giants" figures in every list of the Manichaean "canon" preserved from antiquity. Both the nature of this work and the intellectual
Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmology
Language: en
Pages: 272
Authors: John C. Reeves
Categories:
Type: BOOK - Published: 1992-01-01 - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Beholders of Divine Secrets
Language: en
Pages: 263
Authors: Vita Daphna Arbel
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-02-01 - Publisher: State University of New York Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Beholders of Divine Secrets provides a fascinating exploration of the enigmatic Hekhalot and Merkavah literature, the Jewish mystical writings of late antiquity
Jewish Literature Between the Bible and Mishnah
Language: en
Pages: 480
Authors: George W. E. Nickelsburg
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-12-27 - Publisher: Fortress Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this fully revised and expanded edition, Nickelsburg introduces the reader to the broad range of Jewish literature that is not part of either the Bible or th
From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism
Language: en
Pages: 503
Authors: Andrei A. Orlov
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007 - Publisher: BRILL

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume represents the first attempt to study Slavonic pseudepigrapha collectively as a unique group of texts that share common theophanic and mediatorial i