خلاصة:
This paper will give an in-depth discussion of Jesus’ expression “I am Alpha and Omega” (Apocalypse of John = Revelation 1.8) and its influence on the Manichaean writings, on the one hand, and the reason for the division of Mani’s Living Gospel into twenty-two chapters, corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Manichaean alphabet, on the other. The paper has explored all the related Jewish, Christian, and Manichaean texts available and strived to find out more about the reason for, and the origin of, this particular division. The deep connection between the word (or letters) and creation in Manichaean as well as in Jewish and Christian traditions seems to play an important role in this regard. The paper will answer many different, previously unanswered, questions and eventually propose a plausible resolution.
ملخص الجهاز:
"I Am Alfa and Omega A Jewish-Christian Schema in the Manichaean Context Based on the Middle Iranian Documents in the Turfan Collection Mohammad Shokri-Foumeshi 1 Received: 25-02-2018 / Accepted: 15-05-2018 This paper will give an in-depth discussion of Jesus’ expression "I am Alpha and Omega" (Apocalypse of John = Revelation 1.
cosmic potency of letters, Mani’s Gospel, Jewish literature,Christian literature, Manichaean literature Mysteria Litterarum in the Creation of the Twenty-Two Works In her study "Der Traktat ‘vom Mysterium der Buchstaben’" (2007), Cordula Bandt edited and commented on the Greek Treatise Περὶ τοῦ μυστηρίου τῶν γραμμάτων (About the Mystery of the Letters) (ML viz.
(Bandt 2007, 112-13) It seems to me that "the number 22," related to Christ’s acts here, has a parallel in a Manichaean Turfan document; namely, in the Middle Persian fragment S1, which is in fact an index of writings, and as far as I know, it is attested only here (see Shokri-Foumeshi 2015, 62-63): S1/v/11-13/ * yyšwʿyg * | ʾbr wyst ʾwd dw kʾrcʾr ʿyg [3-5] | ʾmdyšnyẖ ʿyg yyšwʿ zyn(dk)[r].
ʾʾlyf nxwyn ʾwd tʾ ʿstwmyn All the same, the Jewish concept of the "cosmic potency of the letters and word," which caused the creation of the world, influenced the New Testament—namely, at the beginning of the first chapter of the Gospel According to John: 1:1-3, 14."