The Medinet Madi Library comes of age in this landmark volume as one of the 20th century’s major finds of religious manuscripts. Discovered in Egypt’s Fayum region in 1929, these Coptic codices contain a cross-section of the sacred literature of the Manichaean religion. Early work on the collection in the 1930s was cut short by the ravages of the second world war. Recent decades have brought multiple new editorial projects, on which this volume offers a comprehensive set of status reports, as well as individual studies on aspects of the Manichaean religion informed by the library’s contents.
Jason BeDuhn is Professor of the Comparative Study of Religions at Northern Arizona University and President of the International Association of Manichaean Studies. His major publications include The Manichaean Body: In Discipline and Ritual (Johns Hopkins, 2000), Augustine’s Manichaean Dilemma (Pennsylvania, 2010 & 2013), and The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon (Polebridge, 2012).
Paul Dilley is Associate Professor of Ancient Mediterranean Religions at the University of Iowa, and a Senior Fellow of the Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography. In addition to his publications on Manichaeism, he is the author of Monasteries and the Care of Souls in Late Antique Christianity: Cognition and Discipline (Cambridge, 2017) and co-editor of Linked Open Data for the Ancient World: Structures, Practices, Prospects (ISAW Papers, 2021), among other volumes.
Iain Gardner is Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Sydney, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. His recent publications include The Founder of Manichaeism (Cambridge University Press 2020) and Mani’s Epistles (Kohlhammer 2022).
List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations
Introduction Jason BeDuhn, Paul Dilley and Iain Gardner
Part 1: Reports on Editorial Work on the Medinet Madi Library
1 Towards an Edition of the Coptic Manichaean Synaxeis Codex: Another Progress Report Wolf-Peter Funk†
2 Comments on a Possible Second Text in the Coptic Manichaean Synaxeis Codex Paul Mirecki
3 The Chester Beatty Kephalaia: Report on Work in Progress Paul Dilley
4 Report on the Manichaean Codices of Medinet Madi: The Epistles (P. Berol. Inv. 15998) Iain Gardner
5 The Publication of Psalm Book Part 1, Plates 1 to 128 Siegfried G. Richter
Part 2: Manichaean Studies Based in the Medinet Madi Library
6 Cutting Down the Bitter Tree: A Motif with Biblical Roots in the First Part of the Manichaean Psalm Book (IAMS Presidential Address) Nils Arne Pedersen
7 Devotional and Didactic Pantheons in Manichaeism: Kellis, Medinet Madi, Turfan, Dunhuang Jason David BeDuhn
8 (No) Providence among the Manichaeans? Divine Care in the Kephalaia of the Teacher Dylan M. Burns
9 Mani’s Ascendancy: Revelatory Events and the Emergence of a New Religious Movement in Antiquity April D. DeConick
10 Remarks about Manichaean Christology Jean-Daniel Dubois
11 Tracing Themes from Medinet Madi to China: Changes and Core Teaching in the Development of Manichaeism as a World Religion Majella Franzmann
12 Choosing the 12 and the 72: A Diatessaronic Theme in the Dublin Volume of the Coptic Manichaean Kephalaia Codices Zsuzsanna Gulácsi
13 “We Rejoice All of Us as We See Your Bēma” (Psalm Book 229, 24.19): Visualization and the Art of Memory in the Coptic Manichaean Psalms Eduard Iricinschi
14 A Robber in Paradise: Luke 23:43 in Manichaean and Anti-Manichaean Exegesis Flavia Ruani
Index of Modern Authors and Researchers Index of Ancient Names, Texts, and Subjects
Academics working in manuscript studies, codicology, papyrology, Coptic language and literature, and religious history; libraries of all major universities and other institutes with programs in these subjects.