Another Case of ‘Human Semen Eucharist’ among the Manichaeans? Notes on the ‘Ceremony of the Fig’ in Cyril of Jerusalem’s Catechesis VI
In: Mani and Augustine
Author:
Johannes van Oort
Johannes van Oort
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The article focuses on a neglected passage in the sixth Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem in which he speaks of the Manichaean ‘ceremony of the fig’. First I give the Greek text and a fresh translation of Cat. VI,33; then I analyse its contents. I note that Cyril seems to have been well acquainted with books of the Manichaeans (in all likelihood Mani’s Treasure, maybe others as well) in which the myth of the Seduction of the Archons was told and investigate his description of the Manichaean ‘ceremony of the fig’. Cyril’s account seems to be corroborated by one or even two of the miniatures from Central Asia in which figs appear to be central in Manichaean sacred meals.