The ''Manichaean Psalm Book'' or ''Manichaean Psalter'' is a

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in ; ) is an endangered former major world religion currently only practiced in China around Cao'an,R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''. SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 found ...

text written in Coptic. It is believed to have been compiled in the late 3rd century or the mid-4th century. Excavated in 1929 as part of the

Medinet Madi library The Medinet Madi library is a collection of Manichaean scripture, Manichaean texts discovered at Medinet Madi in the Faiyum Oasis, Faiyum region of Egypt in 1929. There is a total of seven codices, some of which have been split up and held in diffe ...

, the ''Psalm Book'' is believed to contain remnants of some of the earliest extant Manichaean literature.

History

The ''Psalm Book'' was discovered at

Medinet Madi Medinet Madi (), also known simply as Madi or Maadi () in Arabic, is a site in the southwestern Faiyum region of Egypt with the remains of a Greco-Roman town where a temple of the cobra-goddess Renenutet (a harvest deity) was founded during the ...

in Egypt. Like other works discovered at this site, it was written in a Coptic

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

typical of the Lycopolis region. After its discovery, it was edited and published by Charles Allberry in 1938–9 from manuscripts in the

Chester Beatty collection The Chester Beatty Library, now known as the Chester Beatty, is a museum and library in Dublin. It was established in Ireland in 1953, to house the collections of mining magnate, Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. The present museum, on the grounds of ...

Theodor Harmsen (27 October 2005
Mani and Manichaeism in the BPH

Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (BPH) or The Ritman Library is a Dutch library founded by Joost Ritman located in the Huis met de Hoofden (House with the Heads) at Keizersgracht 123, in the center of Amsterdam. The Bibliotheca Philosophica He ...

/J. R. Ritman Library and in the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences () was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer. In the 18th century, when Frenc ...

It contains references to

Old Testament apocrypha The Biblical apocrypha () denotes the collection of ancient books, some of which are believed by some to be of doubtful origin, thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and 100 AD. The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Ori ...

and references the ''

Acts of Thomas ''Acts of Thomas'' is an early 3rd-century text, one of the New Testament apocrypha within the Acts of the Apostles subgenre. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek. There are many surviving fragments of the text. Scholars d ...

'', the ''

Acts of John The Acts of John refers to a collection of stories about John the Apostle that began circulating in written form as early as the 2nd-century AD. Translations of the Acts of John in modern languages have been reconstructed by scholars from a number ...

'', and other

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

approvingly. It refers to some events believed to be derived from the ''

Acts of Andrew The ''Acts of Andrew'' () is a Christian apocryphal work describing acts and miracles of Andrew the Apostle. It is alluded to in a Coptic 3rd-century work titled the '' Manichaean Psalm Book'', so it must have been composed prior to that cent ...

''. One of the psalms draws a line of tradition from

Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

through

Seth Seth, in the Abrahamic religions, was the third son of Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Bible names two of his siblings (although it also states that he had others): his brothers Cain and Abel. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, ...

and

Enoch Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible. The text of t ...

Mani Mani may refer to: People * Mani (name), (), a given name and surname (including a list of people with the name) ** Mani (prophet) (c. 216–274), a 3rd century Iranian prophet who founded Manichaeism ** Mani (musician) (born 1962), an English ...

. One author has described one of the hymns as containing a "deep love of Jesus".

Citations

References

* * * * * * * {{Authority control 3rd-century books Enoch (ancestor of Noah) Manichaean texts Reception of New Testament apocrypha Seth Texts in Coptic Medinet Madi library

History

Contents

Citations

References