6. On reading this epistle,
Marcellus, with the kindest consideration, attended hospitably to the
needs of the bearer of the letter. Archelaus, on the other hand,
did not receive very pleasantly the matters which were read, but
“gnashed1479
| 1479 The
text gives infrendebat; the Codex Bobiensis has
infringebat.[It seems to be a proverb, and I have
so marked it. We should say, “he chafed like a
lion,” etc.] |
with his
teeth like a chained
lion,” impatient to have the
author of the
epistle given over to him. Marcellus, however, counselled him to
be at
peace; promising that he would himself take care to
secure the
man’s presence. And accordingly Marcellus
resolved to send
an answer to what had been written to him, and indited an
epistle
containing the following statements:—
Marcellus, a man of distinction, to Manichæus, who
has made himself known to me by his epistle, greeting.
An epistle written by you has come to my hand, and I
have received Turbo with my wonted kindness; but the meaning of your
letter I have by no means apprehended, and may not do so unless you
give us your presence, and explain its contents in detail in the way of
conversation, as you have offered to do in the epistle itself.
Farewell.
This letter he sealed and handed to Turbo, with
instructions to deliver it to the person from whom he had already
conveyed a similar document. The messenger, however, was
extremely reluctant to return to his master, being mindful of what he
had to endure on the journey, and begged that another person should be
despatched in his stead, refusing to go back to Manes, or to have any
intercourse whatever with him again. But Marcellus summoned one
of his young men,1480
Callistus by
name, and directed him to proceed to the place. Without any loss
of time this young man set out promptly on his
journey thither; and
after the lapse of three days he came to Manes, whom he found in a
certain fort, that of Arabion
1481
| 1481
Epiphanius, under this Heresy, num. 7, says that this was
a fort situated on the other side of the river Stranga, between Persia
and Mesopotamia. |
to wit, and to whom he presented the
epistle. On perusing it, he was
glad to see that he had been
invited by Marcellus; and without delay he undertook the
journey; yet
he had a presentiment that Turbo’s failure to return boded no
good, and proceeded on his way to Marcellus, not, as it were, without
serious reflections. Turbo, for his part, was not at all thinking
of leaving the
house of Marcellus; neither did he omit any opportunity
of conversing with
Archelaus the
bishop. For both these parties
were very diligently engaged in investigating the practices of
Manichæus, being desirous of knowing who he was and whence he
came, and what was his manner of
discourse. And he, Turbo,
accordingly gave a lucid account of the whole position, narrating and
expounding the terms of his
faith in the following manner:
1482
| 1482 The
section extending from this point on to ch. xii. is found word for word
in the Greek of Epiphanius, num. 25. |
—
If you are desirous of being instructed in the
faith of Manes by me, attend to me for a short space. That man
worships two deities, unoriginated, self-existent, eternal, opposed the
one to the other. Of these he represents the one as good, and the
other as evil, and assigns the name of Light to the former, and
that of Darkness to the latter. He alleges also that the
soul in men is a portion of the light, but that the body and the
formation of matter are parts of the darkness. He
maintains, further, that a certain commingling or blending1483
| 1483
μιξιν
δὲ ητοι
σύγκρασιν. |
has been
effected between the two in the manner about to be stated, the
following analogy
being used as an illustration of the same; to wit, that their relations
may be likened to those of two kings in
conflict with each other, who
are antagonists from the beginning, and have their own positions, each
in his due order. And so he holds that the
darkness passed
without its own boundaries, and engaged in a similar
contention with
the
light; but that the good
Father then, perceiving that the
darkness
had come to
sojourn on His
earth, put forth from Himself a
power1484
| 1484
προβάλλειν
ἐξ αὐτοῦ
δύναμιν. But the Codex
Bobiensis gives produxit ex virtute, put forth from His power
one, etc. The Codex Casinensis has produxerit et esse
virtutem, etc. |
which is
called the Mother of
Life; and that this
power thereupon put forth from
itself
the first man, and the five
elements.
1485
| 1485 The
text is simply καὶ
αὐτὴν
προβεβληκέναι
τὸν πρῶτον
ἄνθρωπον, τὰ
πέντε
στοιχεια. The
Latin, with emendations from the Codex Bobiensis and Epiphanius, gives
quâ virtute circumdedit primum hominem, quæ sunt quinque
elementa, etc., = with which power He begirt the first man, which
is the same as the five elements, etc. With slight differences
the Codex Bobiensis reads quâ circumdedit, and the Codex
Casinensis, quæ virtute.Petavius pointed out
that there is probably an omission in the text here. And from a
passage in Epiphanius, Hær., lxvi. n. 45, it has been
proposed to fill out the sentence thus: προβάλλειν
ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ
δύναμιν
μητέρα τῆς
ζωῆς, καὶ
αὐτὴν
προβεβληκέναι
τὸν πρῶτον
ἄνθρωπον,
αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν
μητέρα τῆς
ζωῆς τόν τε
πρῶτον
ἄνθρωπον τὰ
πέντε
στοιχεῖα.
The sense might then be that the good Father put forth from Himself a
power called the Mother of Life, that this Mother of Life put
forth the first man, and that the said Mother of Life and the
first man put forth (or constituted) the five elements. See the
note in Routh’s Reliquiæ Sacræ, v. p.
49. |
And these five
elements are
wind,
1486
| 1486 The
Codex Bobiensis omits the ventus, wind. |
light,
water,
fire, and matter. Now this primitive man, being endued with
these, and thereby equipped, as it were, for
war, descended to these
lower parts, and made
war against the
darkness. But the
princes
of the
darkness, waging
war in turn against him, consumed that portion
of his panoply which is the
soul. Then was that
first man
grievously
injured there underneath by the
darkness; and had it not
been that the
Father heard his prayers, and sent a second
power, which
was also put forth from Himself and was called the
living
Spirit, and came down and gave him the right
hand, and brought him
up again out of the grasp of the
darkness, that
first man would,
in those ancient times, have been in
peril of absolute
overthrow.
From that time, consequently, he left the
soul beneath. And for
this reason the Manichæans, if they meet each other, give the
right
hand, in token of their having been
saved from
darkness; for he
holds that the
heresies have their seat all in the
darkness. Then
the living Spirit
created the
world; and bearing in himself three other
powers, he came down and brought off the
princes, and settled
1487
| 1487
The Greek gives ἐστερέωσεν
ἐν τῷ
στερεώματι.
The Latin version has, “crucifixit eos in
firmamento.” And Routh apparently favours the reading
ἐσταύρωσεν =
crucified them, etc. Valesius and the Codex Bobiensis have,
“descendens eduxit principes Jesu, exiens in firmamentum quod
est,” etc. |
them in the
firmament, which is their body, (though it is called) the sphere.
Then, again, the living Spirit
created the luminaries, which are
fragments of the
soul, and he made them thus to move round and round
the firmament; and again he
created the
earth in its eight
species.
1488
| 1488
εἰς
εἴδη ὀκτώ. The
Latin however, gives et sunt octo, “and they are
eight;” thus apparently having read εἰσὶ δὲ
ὀκτώ, instead of εἰς εἴδη
ὀκτώ. |
And
the Omophorus
1489
| 1489
i.e., one who bears on his shoulders, the upholder. |
sustains the
burden thereof beneath; and when he is wearied with bearing it he
trembles, and in that manner becomes the cause of a quaking of the
earth in contravention of its determinate times. On account of
this the good
Father sent His Son forth from His own
bosom1490
| 1490 Reading
ἐκ τῶν
κόλπων, de sinibus suis. But the Codex Bobiensis
gives de finibus, from His own territories. |
into the
heart of
the
earth, and into these lowest parts of it, in order to
secure for
him the correction
befitting him.
1491
| 1491 The
Greek text is, ὅπως αὐτῷ
τὴν
προσήκουσαν
ἐπιτιμίαν
δῷ. The Latin gives, “quo illum, ut par
erat, coerceret.” The Codex Bobiensis reads, “quod
illum, ut pareret, coerceret.” It is clear also that
Petavius read correctly ἐπιτιμίαν for
ἐπιθυμίαν in
Epiphanius. |
And whenever an
earthquake occurs,
he is either trembling under his weariness, or is shifting his burden
from one shoulder to the other. Thereafter, again, the matter
also of itself produced growths;
1492
and when these were carried off as
spoil
on the part of some of the
princes, he summoned together all the
foremost of the princes, and took from all of them individually power
after power, and made up the man who is after the image of that
first man, and united
1493
| 1493
ἔδησεν. The Codex Bobiensis
gives, “vexit animam in eo.” |
the soul (with these powers) in
him. This is the account of the manner in which his constitution
was planned.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
