More Zoroastrian than Zoroaster? The Problem of Zoroastrian Influence on Manichaeism Illustrated by a Version of the Manichaean Myth Preserved in Severus of Antioch, Titus of Bostra and Theodoret of CyrusEphemerides Theologicae LovaniensesSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/QJXCC7RA/tei
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.BenjaminGleedeMore Zoroastrian than Zoroaster? The Problem of Zoroastrian Influence on Manichaeism Illustrated by a Version of the Manichaean Myth Preserved in Severus of Antioch, Titus of Bostra and Theodoret of Cyrushttp://syriaca.org/cbss/QJXCC7RAhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/QJXCC7RAhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/QJXCC7RAEphemerides Theologicae Lovanienses96:22020261-289The extent and modalities of Zoroastrian influence on Manichaeism is examined here on the basis of a version of the Manichaean myth attested in the heresiographical testimony of three late ancient Christian polemicists, Titus of Bostra, Theodoret of Cyrus and Severus of Antioch. A comparison of these three versions yields a stable picture of the narrative structure of myth, as it was presented by Mani probably in his Living Gospel. The story about the two principles interacting in the creation of the world and man and the battle between good and evil finally leading to salvation is told here in eight clearly discernible steps, the first three of which resemble the Zoroastrian creation story, as we know if form the Great Bundahishn and the Zadspram, very closely. Especially here, however, we detect some conscious remodeling from the Manichaean side aiming at eliminating any kind of dependence of the principles on a primordial spatio-temporal medium. In doing so, Mani and his followers probably intended to be more Zoroastrian than the Zoroastrians in consequently bringing to bear the dualism of the Gathas also in the context of the cosmological myth.
Gleede, Benjamin. “More Zoroastrian than Zoroaster? The Problem of Zoroastrian Influence on Manichaeism Illustrated by a Version of the Manichaean Myth Preserved in Severus of Antioch, Titus of Bostra and Theodoret of Cyrus.” Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 96:2 (2020): 261–89.
Benjamin Gleede, More Zoroastrian than Zoroaster? The Problem of Zoroastrian Influence on Manichaeism Illustrated by a Version of the Manichaean Myth Preserved in Severus of Antioch, Titus of Bostra and Theodoret of Cyrus,Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses 96:2 (2020): 261–89.IV-VII CEManichaeismSeverus of AntiochTheodoret of CyrusV CEVI CEZoroastrianismanti-Manichaeanheresiographypolemic