M A NI C H A E A N LI T ERATURE
582his twin was scut c cpnt to him. Various of his students, it is suggested in the head-
ings ot trier.u^ tpvt also document features of Mani's career: his life among the ICAL, «± .... tjie coming of his twin, his teachings and debates with the Elke-
"tes Mani appealed to the words and deeds of Jesus and to the baptists
themselves to formulate his arguments against Elkesaite teachings and obser-
vance of the law, particularly the food laws and laws of cleanliness. Mani was
judged by his followers to be an innovative teacher with an innovative mes-
sage, and eventually he went out to found a new Manichaean church.
ON THE ORIGIN
OF HIS BODY
1
SECRETS WERE REVEALED TO MANI
Also in this way, it is fitting for the all-praiseworthy messenger^2 Mani, through
whom and from whom has come to us the hope and inheritance of life, to
write to us and to provide interpretation for all posterity, the householders of
faith, and those who are spiritual offspring, increasing through his most
limpid waters, so that his rapture and revelation may be known to them. For
we know, brothers, with this arrival of the comforter^3 of truth, how great the
magnitude of his wisdom is in relationship to us. We acknowledge that he has
received it neither from people, nor from the reading of books, just as our fa-
ther Mani himself says in the letter that he sent to Edessa. For he says thus:
"The truth and the secrets that I speak about—and the laying on of hands
that is mine—not from people have I received it nor from fleshly creatures,
not even from studies in the scriptures. But when my most blessed father, who
called me into his grace, saw me, since he did not wish me and the rest who are
in the world to perish, he felt compassion, so that he might extend his well-
- On the Origin of His Body: revised by Willis Barnstone mainly from the translation by Ron
Cameron and Arthur J. Dewey, The Cologne Mani Codex (P. Colon, inv. nr. 4780): Concerning
the Origin of His Body. Texts and Translations Early Christian Literature Series 15.3 (Missoula,
MT: Scholars Press, 1979), pp. 49-79. Reprinted by permission of Society of Biblical Literature.
Also revised from Ellen Bradshaw Aitken, "The Cologne Mani Codex," in Richard Valantasis,
ed., Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice, Princeton Readings in Religions (Princeton and
Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 169-70. Reprinted by permission of Princeton
University Press. - Or "apostle," here and throughout the text.
- Or "paraclete," also referred to in the Gospel of John.