Kephalaia
Kephalaia (Κεφαλαία, Greek for "chapters" or "headings") are a genre of
Although the Kephalaia likely originated, like hadiths as accounts of the life and actions of Mani, the utility of the genre was such that it came to incorporate a wide variety of literary styles subjected artificially to the constraints of the format: instruction, exegesis, narrative, dialogue, parable, miracle-story, and even epic traditions.[1][3]
The discovery of the Kephalaia has been revolutionary in transforming scholarship on early Manichaean traditions, and even the secular history of the Sasanian Empire.[1]
Despite the apocryphal and heavily reworked nature of the available text, most prominently from Coptic translation, it is an authentic representation of traditions first held and developed by the Manichaean communities in the early Sasanian period and within the Iranian empire. As such, this is a unique source for literature, religion and society from a known context that substantially pre-dates most other available resources concerning the reigns of Šāpur I and his successors.[1]
While Jesus is only rarely called Jesus the Splendour in other Manichaen writings, he is commonly called as such in the
The descriptions of the Lord of Darkness in chapters 6 and 27 of the Kephalaia have close parallels in chapter 12.6 of the Mandaean Right Ginza.[7]
References
- ^ a b c d Gardner 2018.
- ^ Pettipiece 2009, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Pettipiece 2009, pp. 231–236.
- ISBN 9783447033121p. 144-145
- ISBN 9789004107168p. 60
- ISBN 9780567504142p. 101
- ^ Pettipiece 2009.
Bibliography
- Funk, Wolf-Peter (1997). "The Reconstruction of the Manichaean Kephalaia". In Paul Mirecki; Jason BeDuhn (eds.). Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies. Vol. 43. Brill. pp. 143–159.
- Gardner, Iain (1995). The Kephalaia of the Teacher The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary. Boston: BRILL. OCLC 1202467897.
- Gardner, Iain (2015). Mani at the court of the Persian kings: studies on the Chester Beatty Kephalaia Codex. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. OCLC 961532862.
- Gardner, Iain (2018). "Kephalaia". Encyclopædia Iranica (online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
- Gardner, Iain; BeDuhn, Jason; Dilley, Paul C., eds. (2018). The Kephalaia Codex: The Chapters of the Wisdom of My Lord Mani, Part III: Pages 343–442 (Chapters 321–347). OCLC 1043913619.
- Pettipiece, Timothy (2009). Pentadic redaction in the Manichaean Kephalaia. OCLC 570278329.
- Pettipiece, Timothy (2013). "Coptic Answers to Manichaean Questions: The Erotapokritic Nature of the Kephalaia". La littérature des questions et réponses dans l'antiquité profane et chrétienne: De l'enseignement à l'exégèse. Actes du séminaire sur le genre des questions et réponses tenu à Ottawa les 27 et 28 septembre 2009. Instrumenta Patristica et Mediaevalia. Vol. 64. Brepols. pp. 51–61. ISBN 978-2-503-54686-5.
