Pentadic redaction in the Manichaean Kephalaia / by Timothy Pettipiece.

• Superior document: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, v. 66
• Author: Pettipiece, Timothy.
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies ; 66.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)
• Notes: Revision of author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Université Laval, 2006 under title: Counting the cosmos : five-part numeric patterning in the Manichaean Kephalaia.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (p. [231]-236) and indexes.
• ISBN: 1282401017; 9786612401015; 9047427823
• ISSN: 0929-2470
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Timothy Pettipiece.

Discovered in 1929, the Manichaean Kephalaia have opened up an important window on the early development of Manichaean doctrine. This study identifies a significant redactional tendency whereby the compilers of the text sought to clarify ambiguities in “canonical” Manichaean tradition by means of five-part numerical series. This discovery challenges the conventional wisdom of Manichaean scholarship, which has long maintained that, since Mani recorded his own teachings in a series of what later became canonical writings, Manichaean doctrines were transmitted relatively unchanged from the master to successive generations of disciples. Since this assumption is now called into question, it now becomes necessary to re-evaluate received notions about the shape of both the Manichaean “canon” and “tradition.”