Shokri-Foumeshi, Mohammad (ed.). 2025. Mani’s Living Gospel and the Ewangelyōnīg Hymns. Edition, Reconstruction and Commentary with a Codicological and Textual Approach Based on Manichaean Turfan Fragments in the Berlin Collection (Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum. Series Iranica 3). Turnhout: Brepols.
This work deals with the manuscript fragments of Maniʼs Living Gospel and the Ewangeliōnīg Hymns of his followers in the eastern Manichaean churches. The author identifies new fragments and improves the previous reconstructions. In this context, he analyzes all the Manichaean and non-Manichaean documents.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Aim, Plan, and Strategy
1.2 Material and Content of the Living Gospel and Ewangelyōnīg Hymns
1.3 Outline of This Study
1.4 History of Prior Research
CHAPTER TWO MANI AND HIS GOSPEL
2.1 The Living Gospel and Manichaeism
2.2 Names and Epithets
2.3 Composition Date
2.4 Chapter Order of the Living Gospel
CHAPTER THREE THE LIVING GOSPEL AND ITS DOUBTFUL FRAGMENTS: AN APPROACH TO THE GNOSTIC-CHRISTIAN HERITAGE IN THE MANICHAEAN LIETERATURE
3.1 Mani and the New Testament
3.2 Sayings of Jesus in Tatian’s Διà τεσσάρων and the Nag Hammadi Codices
3.3 Double-edged Sword: Similarities and Differences
3.4 Possible Quotations of the Living Gospel in other Sources: An Overview
3.5 The Paraclete as a Main Point of Issue in the Living Gospel
3.6 Not Near but not Far: Jesus’ Sayings and Acts
3.7 Citations of the Living Gospel: Some Tentative Suggestions
CHAPTER FOUR MANICHAEAN TURFAN TEXTS OF THE LIVING GOSPEL
4.1 Overview and General Concepts
4.2 Fragments of the Living Gospel: Critical Middle Persian Text and its Alternating Sogdian Version
4.2.1 Text I: M17
4.2.2 Text II: M172/I/
4.2.3 Text III: M644
4.2.4 Text IV: A Newly Recognized Small Fragment †M5439 [= T II D 67]
4.2.5 Text V: An as yet Unpublished Manuscript Page in Sogdian Script
4.2.6 Return to the Verso Side of M644
4.2.7 Unified Middle Persian Text of the Living Gospel
4.2.8 Commentary
4.2.9 Content of the Living Gospel according to an unpublished Parthian manuscript page
CHAPTER FIVE THE LIVING GOSPEL BASED ON THE NON-IRANIAN MANICHAEAN CODICES: STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
5.1 Greek Version
5.1.1 Introduction
5.1.2 First Fragment: CMC 65, 23-68, 5
5.1.3 Two Suggested Related Texts Which Might Belong to Mani’s Gospel
5.1.4 A Textological Commentary
5.2 Coptic Synaxeis
5.2.1 Introduction
5.2.2 Chapter Titles
5.2.3 Plain Text
5.2.4 Some Phrases in Comparison with the MP Version
CHAPTER SIX THE LIVING GOSPEL IN THE NON-MANICHAEAN HERITAGE
6.1 Accounts of the Greek Anti-Manichaean Writings
6.2 Arabic and New Persian Testimonia
CHAPTER SEVEN THE EWANGELYŌNĪG HYMNS
7.1 Introduction and General Observations
7.2 Texts
7.2.1 Text I: M92 = M898 ~ M88/II/ + M91/I(?)
7.2.2 Text II: M441 + M507
7.2.3 Text III: M888a + M533
7.2.4 Text IV: M8820 ~ M8821 ~ M8828 + M8829 ~ M8830
CHAPTER EIGHT MISCELLANEOUS SCRAPS OF THE LIVING GOSPEL AND THE EWANGELYŌNĪG HYMNS
8.1 Frg. I: M558/II/r/5 ff./ Unpubl. Pth.
8.2 Frg. II: M1313/r/1-5/ Unpubl. Pth.
8.3 Frg. III: M5831 (= T II D 139) Pth.
8.4 Frg. IV: Ch/U7277/v/ [= T I D 1039/v/] MPS
8.5 Frg. V: M532 Pth.
8.6 Frg. VI: M6941 Unpubl. WMIr. – Sogd.
CHAPTER NINE THE CONTENT OF THE LIVING GOSPEL AND THE EWANGELYŌNĪG HYMNS: AN OVERVIEW
9.1 Living Gospel
9.1.1 Manichaean Documents
9.1.2 Non-Manichaean Writings
9.1.2.1 Greek Anti-Manichaean Accounts
9.1.2.2 Islamic Writings
9.2 Ewangelyōnīg Hymns
9.2.1 Text I: Divine Hope Against the Demons of the Wrath
9.2.2 Text II: Prince of Darkness in Five Pits of Destruction
9.2.3 Text III: Days and Nights and Paradise
9.2.4 Text IV: Pysws and bgrwšn
9.3 Living Gospel in Context of the ‘Hymns of the Gospel’
CHAPTER TEN CONCLUSION AND LAST WORDS
GLOSSARY
Index Siglorum and Codicological Abbreviations
General Abbreviations
Bibliographical Abbreviations and Abbreviated Works
Bibliography
Indices
