584 MANICHAEAN LITERATURE
MANI'S TWIN
Again he said,
"When my father was pleased and had shown compassion and care for me,
he sent out from there my most unfailing twin,^8 the entire fruit of immortal-
ity, that he might redeem and ransom me from the error of those followers of
that law.^9 In coming to me, he has provided me with the best hope, redemp-
tion, which is based on immortality, true instructions, and the laying on of
hands from my father. Now, when that one came, he preferred and chose me,
severed and pulled me out of the midst of those followers of that law in which
I was reared."
Now, very many other extraordinary things like these are in the books of
our father, which demonstrate both his revelation and the rapture of his posi-
tion as messenger.^10 For very great is the abundance of this coming that,
through the comforter, the spirit of truth, is coming to us.
Now, concerning these things, why are they sifted thoroughly by us, who
are once and for all convinced that this position as messenger excels in its rev-
elations? For this reason we have repeated from our forefathers their rapture
and the revelation of each one, namely, for the sake of the considerations of
those who have put on unbelief and who think they know something about
this revelation and vision of our father Mani, that they might acknowledge
that such was also the commission given to the earlier messengers. For when
each of them was snatched up, all these things that he saw and heard he wrote
down and set forth, and he himself became a witness of his own revelation.
But his students became seals of his position as messenger.^11
BARAIES THE TEACHER: MANI IS CHOSEN
FROM AMONG THE ELKESAITESWe, then, brothers, being children of the spirit of our father Mani, who also
have heard and listened to these things,^12 thus let us rejoice in them and
- Mani's twin is his heavenly double or alter ego. The twin also figures prominently in the
Gospel of Thomas and other Syrian literature. - The followers of the law (or Torah) are the Jewish-Christian Elkesaites.
- Or "apostleship."
- This paragraph establishes Mani's students as authorities on his teaching—hence the head-
ings that follow. - In this and succeeding sections, teachings about Mani are presented in the name of his stu-
dents, as the headings indicate.