In memory of Boris Anatolyevich Litvinsky, without whom neither this nor many other works of mine would have been written.

Manichaeism is a religious teaching, but the subject matter of Manichaean texts is not limited to purely religious issues. In the sources of this teaching, we find many interesting philosophical and natural science ideas, information on cosmology, anthropology, etc. In particular, in the Manichaean doctrine, there is a doctrine about the elements that make up the primary basis of the material world. Of course, it did not arise from scratch, but was, like many elements of this doctrine, the result of a syncretic fusion of heterogeneous sources. But the system of elements, having adapted to Manichaeism with its extreme dualism, acquired a peculiar form.

Key words: elements, religion, Bible, Manichaeism, Gnosticism.

In accordance with the dualistic concept, five pairs of antinomies are distinguished here: five dark elements correspond to five light ones.

These five pairs of elements can be represented on the basis of numerous written sources as follows:

Bright:

air

fire

wind

water

light

Dark:

smoke

fire

wind

water

darkness

The Manichaean history of the world is directly connected with the doctrine of the elements. The material world, according to Mani's teaching, was created out of" confusion " - chaos formed when the light principle connected the dark one. Each of the natural, material elements is a mixture of the light element with its dark antipode.

The cosmogony began with a mixture of light and corresponding dark elements, resulting in what can be called chaos. The subsequent cosmogony and history represent a series of stages in the separation of the mixed elements. At the same time, the light "halves" ascend, and the dark ones descend to the underworld. Mir-kosmos is primarily an apparatus for separating the elements.

Five light elements - emanations of the First Man, the first warrior deity, his weapon in the fight against darkness.

The five Dark Elements are creatures of matter that have grown up in the five " dwellings "(storehouses, caves) of the dark beginning. The following interpretations of the Coptic treatise "Kefalaya" set forth the doctrine of the origin of earthly nature: on the soil of the elements, five cosmogonic trees grew and five types of demons were born, and five types of plants and living beings were born from them, respectively.

Both in the actual Manichaean documents, and in the accounts of other authors (see, for example, the Arabic account of the author of the tenth century). Ishaq ibn An-Nadim) the pentad of light elements is associated with five "intelligent", i.e. personified mental categories, and

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with similar five ethical categories, of which the first is called love, and the fifth is called wisdom (Fliigel, 1862) .1
In the Coptic Manichaean cycle "Psalms Sarakoton", the light elements, which are usually identified with the "members of the soul" of the First Man, are constantly referred to as "smart" or "five smart" - [A Manichaean Psalm-Book, 1938, p. 133. 28, 139. 26, 161.25].

Also, the dark elements, apparently, were identified with the five "intelligent" categories of the dark principle. See the astrological chapters of the treatise "Kefalaia", where the supreme dark element is identified with the highest mental category:" smoke, also known as reason " [Kephalaia, 1940, 167.25 - 26, 168.3].

Light elements in the Syrian sources of Manichaeism can be called "shining gods" or simply Shining -

The term "Shining Ones"is also sometimes used in Coptic books. In "Kefalaia" there is a place where one of the elements is called " god " (Kephalaia, 1940, 127.8). But most often the elements - both light and dark - in Coptic sources are called the Greek word . In addition, the light elements here can be called" robes "or" weapons " of the First Man.

The expression "weapon of light" in relation to the light elements makes us recall, in particular, the use of this phrase in the New Testament:

The night is past, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light (Rom 13:12).

This definition is all the more likely to go back to the New Testament because there is no "dark" parallel to it. Dark elements, like light elements, can be identified with the mental categories of their origin (mind, etc.), but they are not called "weapons".

Latin sources use the word elementa "elements": for example, Augustine," Against Favet", VI, 8, calls so the dark elements [Patrologiae cursus completus, 234]. Later in this treatise, the light elements are also referred to in the same way. See, for example, XI, 3, where the light elements are given the same definitions as in the Coptic texts: The first man gave to darkness "his limbs, or his robes, or his weapons, that is, the five elements "(ibid., p. 246).

First of all, it seems self-evident that the Manichaean doctrine of the elements is rooted in Greek philosophy, or rather, in some vulgarized form of it. In a number of Greek philosophical systems, there is a scheme of five elements. In addition to fire, air, earth and water, there is a fifth element (ether, apeiron).

But on closer examination, it turns out that this doctrine cannot be derived directly from the Greek philosophical teachings.

Tradition says that there was a Manichaean canon of seven books compiled by the founder of this religion himself. Unfortunately, only a few small fragments of each of these books have survived at best. Paraphrases of the doctrine in anti-Manichaean literature do not always convey all the details or allow for variations. This creates a number of problems in the reconstruction of the exercise.

So, it is not entirely clear which of the pentads, according to the Manichaean teaching, is primary-light or dark? In other words, did the dark elements form in the image of the light ones in order to capture them - or, on the contrary, did the deity create the light elements as an analogue of the corresponding dark ones?

From Ephraim the Syrian's retelling, it seems to follow that they existed in parallel from the very beginning: each of the sons of darkness felt a passion for the corresponding light element. Quoting one of Mani's books, Ephraim says::

1 For the English translation and more detailed comments, see [Dodge, II, p. 777].

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For " fire loved fire, and wind loved wind, and water loved water "[Saint Ephraims Prose Refutations..., 1912-1921, I, p. 210.43-46].

On the one hand, we can assume that the dichotomy of all things into equivalent light and dark principles also implies the original, parallel division of each of the two principles into five elements.

On the other hand, full parallelism implies the same (similar) origin. There is no such parallel in the Manichaean cosmogony. The dark elements are directly born of matter, the supreme personification of the dark principle, and the light elements of the deity, so to speak, are of the second order, originating from the First Man. In those sources that speak about the initial state of light before the war with darkness begins, we are not talking about the elements, but about "zones of light", without any specific features or differences between the latter; moreover, if the number of basic aeons is mentioned, it is not 5, but 12. This is how the cosmogonic Manichaean says: psalm ("Psalms of Bema", CCXXIII) about the initial state of light and dark principles in the universe:

When the Holy Spirit came,
he showed us the path of truth,
he told us that there are two natures -
light and dark,
separated from each other initially.
The realm of light was in the five dimensions,
they are the Father and his twelve aeons,
and the zones of aeons, the living air, the land of light,
and the Great Spirit breathes into them,
feeding them with his light.
And the kingdom of darkness is in the five storehouses,
they are smoke, fire, wind, water and darkness,
and Thought grovels in them,
[encouraging] them to fight each other

[A Manichaean Psalm-Book, p. 9.8-21].

As you can see, the description of the initial state of the world lists dark elements, but there is no list of light ones. Meanwhile, parallelism is perhaps the most common technique in Manichaean mythological and theological constructions. This passage, by the way, clearly shows this. If the light elements in the canonical cosmogony also existed originally, the compiler of the psalm would not fail to draw such a parallel.

Most likely, in the Manichaean canon, the dark elements are primary, and the light ones appeared as "specialized" weapons to fight their dark counterparts.

The question of the order in which the elements are listed in the texts is of interest in itself.

If you look at the list of dark elements, different sources reveal the same solid order of their enumeration.

In the anti-Manichaean chapter of Theodore Bar Koni's Scholium, the dark elements are listed in the following order: smoke, fire, wind, water, and darkness (Theodorus Bar Koni, 1910-1912, p. 312).

We see the same thing in the retelling of the Arabic author Al-Nadim: smoke, fire, dry air, poison (i.e., a dark analog of water) and darkness (Flugel, 1862, p. 86).

Further, in the description of the Primordial Man's battle with the forces of darkness, almost the same order is repeated: smoke, fire, darkness, dry air and moisture (fog)2. We can see the same option below, in ne-

2 Here it is the dark element of water.

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a retelling of the myth of the mixing of dark elements with light ones: smoke mixed with air, fire with fire, light with darkness, dry air with wind, and moisture (fog) with water [ibid., p. 88]. The same list is attested in one of the Coptic Psalms of Bema:

And the kingdom of darkness is in the five storehouses, which are smoke, fire, wind, water, and darkness [A Manichaean Psalm-Book, 1938, 9.18-19].

The list of dark elements in the same order (smoke, fire, wind, water, darkness) runs through the entire Coptic Manichaean treatise "Kefalaya" ("Chapters") [Kephalaia, 1940, p. 33.3-34.5, 48.8-9; 69.12-13; Kefalaia..., 1998, 33.3-34.5, 48.8-9; 69.12-13]. This also applies to the astrological chapters of the treatise. See the interpretation of the zodiac signs belonging to the dark elements [ibid., 167.25-30] and the correspondence of the five planets to the dark elements [ibid., 168.2-7] - here we see the same order: smoke ("aka mind"), fire, wind, water, darkness. As a result of the fact that the Manichaean order of enumeration of the elements is primary here, the signs of the zodiac are not in their natural astronomical order, but in disarray.

In chapter 27 of the treatise [ibid., 77.29-78.1], the order of enumeration of the elements is different, but here it is, so to speak, anatomical - it follows the structure of the body of the King of Darkness.

In one of Augustine's anti-Manichaean treatises, the Epistle of Mani (Epistula Fundamenti) is quoted, where the cosmogony of the Manichaeans is presented more or less systematically. In the quote, which tells about the original "land of darkness", the order of the elements, it would seem, is different:

There was infinite darkness, coming from the same nature, innumerable, with its offspring; and beyond them were the waters muddy and muddy, with their inhabitants; and deeper than them were the winds terrible and violent, with their archon 3 and creators. Further, the region is fiery and corruptible with its leaders and peoples. Similarly, within was a region full of haze and smoke, in which dwelt the monstrous archon and the leader of them all, and around him innumerable archons, of whom he himself was the consciousness and principle; these were the five natures of the corrupting earth [Ouvres de Saint Augustin..., p. 430].

But upon closer inspection, it turns out that the list of dark elements here is simply reversed: darkness - water - wind - fire - smoke. You can even make a guess about the reason for this inversion. As we can see, here the elements are listed "from top to bottom", in order of distance of their original habitation from the upper limit of the two worlds (wind is "deeper" than water, smoke is "inside"). Obviously, the lists in other sources go back to a certain place in the Manichaean canon, where the dark elements are listed "from bottom to top", in order of approaching the border of the light world.

This uniformity suggests that the lists of dark elements in various documents go back to the same episode of some book of the Manichaean canon.

The situation is more complicated with the list of light elements. There are several options for their location.

At the first mention of the light elements in An-Nadim, they are listed in the following order: air ("light breath"), wind, light, water, and fire (Fliigel, 1862, p.86). For the same procedure, see below, on page 87.

In the same order, they appear in one of the chapters of the treatise "Kefalaia" [Kephalaia, 1940, 37.3-11]: air, wind ("a living, light wind"), light, water, fire ("who is above them all").

The same order is preserved in the Coptic psalm from the cycle "Psalms of Heraclides", which tells about the capture of dark elements by light ones [A Manichaean Psalm-Book, 1938, 197,9-202,26; Richter, 1994, 1998]:

3 In Latin sources on Manichaeism, princeps "head, lord" is an analog of the Greek term "archon".

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The fact that the light fire ("Virgin") connected the dark fire is not explicitly stated, but it is clear from the context, as well as by analogy with other sources.

The Acta Archelai, one of the earliest anti-Manichaean sources (IV century, written no later than 340), which has come down to us in Latin and partly in Greek, provides a slightly different list of light elements, but in almost the same order:

These are wind, light, water, fire, and matter [Acta Archelai, VI (XXV)].

Here, an error has clearly crept into the retelling. At first glance, you might think that " matter "is indicated instead of"air". However, it is the last in the list, and moreover should not belong to either this series or to the dark elements: according to the Manichaean myth, matter is the parent of the elements of darkness.

It is possible that the following occurred during the presentation of this myth. The compiler of the Acta Archelai identified air with wind (this is quite understandable, considering that in Hellenistic teachings there is an element of air, but there is no element of wind). And matter could fall into this series from the following phrase of the source text, which tells about the dark elements: "This is air, wind, light, water, fire. Matter...", etc.

Note that in the Coptic psalm quoted below, where the order of enumeration is different, the air is called "primordial", i.e. a reference is made to some myth where the light elements are distributed according to the order of their creation by the Primordial Man. Probably, this list, where air takes the first place, was present at the beginning of the cosmogony, where the elements were mentioned for the first time, in the order of appearance.

A special case is the list of light elements when describing the battle of the First Man. Here, as the context suggests, the count is usually kept in the order in which the First Man sent the light elements into battle and gave them to the darkness.

We see the enumeration of the elements of light in the function of weapons and clothing of the First Man in one of the Psalms of Saracoton:

Virgin of Light,
She's a living fire,
(2 lines are unreadable)
his beloved daughter,
......your father,
the one who died for her brothers.
Her brother, the living wind,
second mate.
The third element,
it's living water,
purifier (?) of his brothers.

4 Here and further Z. Richter translates: "His army is bound, he is bound."

5 Here the numbering of verses is indicated according to the cited edition of Richter [Richter, 1988].

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[The fourth element is light,]
the helper of his brothers.
The fifth element,
he's a living air,
the firstborn of his father

[A Manichaean Psalm-Book, 1938, 137.22-38].

The same order is repeated in several chapters of the Kefalaya. First of all, these are also expositions of the myth of the battle of the First Man.

By the time the First Man came out against the enemy, [he summoned and put on] himself [five] robes [of the living and subdued] the darkness with the robe of the living fire <...> But since the living fire was exhausted, he gave him the other four robes-wind, water, light and air [Kephalaia, 1940, 126.32-127].

In the beginning, when he entered into battle with them, he gave them fire and wind; after them, he gave the water robe to the archons of death [ibid., 153.28-29].

The third type of list of light elements (with some variants) is present in the treatise, when it comes to purifying the elements in the material world and freeing them from their "removed clothes".

In Chapter 94, "On the purification of the four elements in the flesh", the order is as follows: fire, water, light, and, obviously, wind [Kephalaia, 1940, 239.16-28].

The next chapter, Chapter 95, deals with the ascension of the elements to the Virgin of Light in the "clouds"; this episode is obviously connected with the myth of the seduction of the archons. Here the list is slightly different: fire, water, wind, light, air [ibid., 240.25-243.10].

In Chapter 71, on the fusion and ascension of the light elements, the list is almost the same, except that the element of air is placed at the head:

Light gathers to fire, and fire gathers to water, and water gathers to wind, and wind gathers to air [ibid., 175.29-176.1].

It can be concluded that the various versions of the list of elements in the cited texts go back to the Manichaean canon. The list of dark elements is almost identical everywhere-presumably this is a quote from the very beginning of the cosmogonic text. Light elements are listed: 1) in the order of birth, from the "original" air to fire; 2) in the order of capture by darkness, from fire, the first "weapon", to the air least affected by corruption; 3) in the order of their release from darkness - in this list, fire and water are first.

The question of the composition of the Manichaean elements is related to the question of their origin.

Ultimately, the doctrine of the pentad of elements can be traced back to the astrological group of five planets, with which the dark elements are sometimes associated in the sources. (The sun and moon in Manichaean cosmology are phenomena of a completely different order, they do not belong to this group of luminaries.)

In a number of Greek philosophical systems, there are also five elements-usually air, fire, water, earth and some higher fifth element (ether, apeiron). The conclusion is that the Manichaean doctrine of the elements ultimately traces back to Greek philosophical views. But it will be shown below that this is most likely not the only source of it.

The pentad of elements, in various variants and hierarchies, is also present in the Zoroastrian books. But the Zoroastrian pentad is not very similar to the Manichaean one: in addition to water and fire, it includes earth, metal, and plants (Strom, 1991, p. 333-338).

In the Zoroastrian book "Bundahishn" there is an episode of mixing the elements: Ahriman defiles the divine fire with smoke, water with poison, etc. But here, as already mentioned, there are two possibilities: either the Iranian myth influenced the Manichaean doctrine, or Zoroastrianism of the Sasanian era was influenced by some Manichaean (or early Christian Aramaic) texts.

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If we look for more direct predecessors, we will inevitably come to the same Gnosticism, presumably to those who are usually called Syriac Gnostics. Here is how a Syriac author of the late ninth and early tenth centuries Moses bar Kefa expounds the cosmogony of Vardesan (Patrologia Syriaca, I, 2, 513-515):

Chapter 14. Against those who say that this world consists of a mixture of five substances (or essences -). So Vardesan believed and said that this world consists of five substances: these substances are fire, wind, water, light and darkness. Each of them stood on its own side: the light in the east, and the wind in the west; the fire in the south, and the water in the north; while their Lord stood on high, and their enemy, darkness, stood in the abyss. And then one day, either for some reason or by chance, they were in mutual confusion, and the darkness dared to rise from the abyss and mingle with them. Then these pure substances fled from the darkness and sought protection in the mercy of the Most High, so that He would free them from the shameful poison that was mixed with them, that is, from the darkness. Then the Word of the Most High's mind, 6 which is also Christ, descended to the call of the concussion; He descended and cut off the darkness from the midst of pure substances. The darkness fell down and fell into the lower part of its nature, and He arranged the substances in order, according to the mystery of the cross. And from the mixture of substances with their enemy, darkness, He made this world and placed it in the middle, so that they would not mix further.

Indeed, this (or similar) teaching is most likely the basis of the Manichaean cosmogonic myth. Here we see the pentad of the elements, and the attack of the dark principle on the light, and its fall, and confusion, and the plea of light "substances (essences)" for help, and the descent of the divine emanation-the savior and demiurge, and the creation of the world by the deity from the "middle" mixture. There is also such a specific detail as the classification of wind, light and darkness as primary substances.

Close to this retelling is the testimony of Ephraim the Syrian about Vardesan [Saint Ephraims Prose Refutations...; 1912-1921, cxxii-cxxiii; 214-215].E. Beck in his article rightly points out the essential difference between the Manichaean doctrine and the Vardesan doctrine - the ambivalence of the five elements [Beck]. However, the "paired" division of the elements into light and dark could be the result of a Manichaean reinterpretation of the doctrine of the elements in a strictly dualistic spirit. Cf. some other Manichaean mythologems that show traces of a similar reinterpretation.

The publishers of the so-called Cologne Codex (this partially preserved miniature book in Greek contains a biography of the founder of Manichaeism) give an interesting version of the origin of the Manichaean pentad of elements from the Elkhasaite doctrine of the seven principles in the commentaries to it [Henrichs and Koenen, 1978, p. 185]. Among the Elkhasaites, the elements include: water, earth, sky (instead of fire in Greek physics), ether and wind (instead of air in Greek physics). According to Henriks and Kenen, Mani in his teaching replaced the earth with light, since the earth cannot be considered a light element (we can add that according to Manichaean cosmology, the earth does not belong to the elements at all, neither to light nor to dark). He replaced the sky with fire, and the ether with air.

The latter is all the more likely because in Manichaeism the dark counterpart of air is smoke. The dark and turbid airy substance could have been chosen for this role as the opposite of the radiant and transparent substance - what the Greek philosophers call ether, and in Hebrew is sometimes referred to by the term "glory".

Another option is also possible. If we simply list the names of the elements of the Manichaean doctrine, regardless of whether they are paired or unpaired, we get just the week: air, smoke, fire, water, wind, light and darkness. Air as the highest element goes back, perhaps, to the "ether" of the Elkhasait week. Light and darkness are heaven and earth (according to the interpretation in Kefalaia, the element of darkness is the ancestor of reptiles, and therefore, in some respects, it can be analogous to the earth). Smoke can be a dark analog of air-ether,

6 C. W. Mitchell makes a correction here: "by the will of the Almighty." There is good reason for this reading - note, for example, that in Coptic sources the expression "by the will of God" is constantly repeated, precisely when it comes to the descent of the deity into the world.

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complementary to the pentad of ambivalent elements. Such a transformation of the Elhasaite seven holy forces in Manichaeism seems more likely.

It should be noted that the doctrine of light and dark elements and their mixing is attested in the cosmogony of the only, perhaps, ancient religion of the Gnostic type that has survived to our days - in the Mandaean religion. Here the complex of elements is close to the Manichaean lists, and there is an element of air, called-Greek borrowing, from

But all this does not remove some questions. First, where did the separate elements of light and darkness (darkness) come from, if in the Manichaean teaching there are "primary" light and darkness - two principles, the basis of the entire universe? And where did this division in the Elhasaite teaching come from? Secondly, why is the wind allocated to a special element that is not identical to air/smoke?

The answer can be found if we assume that one of the primary sources of these teachings on the elements was a special interpretation of the opening verses of Genesis 1.

In the Talmud and Midrash texts, there are interpretations where the first elements, the material for the creation of the world, are the substances listed in these verses, including the spirit or wind (Gen 1: 2 "and the spirit of God was carried over the waters" - Heb. meaning both "spirit" and "wind"), light and darkness (Gen 1: 3-5-about the creation of light and its separation from darkness).

For example, the Midrash Bereshit Rabbah [Midrash Bereshit Rabbah, 1996, I:IX] refers to a dispute between a certain philosopher 7 and Rabban Gamaliel 8. The philosopher says that God originally already had the materials from which He created the world: tohu, bohu, darkness, wind, water, and the abyss. Gamaliel, referring to Isaiah 45: 7, Ps 148:4-5, Amos 4: 13, Proverbs 8: 24, proves to him that God created all these things.

An even more detailed exposition is given in the Babylonian Talmud [Der Babylonische Talmud..., 1933], Haggiga, II, page 12a:

Rav Yehuda 9 said: "Rav 10 said: Ten things were created on the first day, and these are the heavens and the earth, tohu and Bohu, light and darkness, wind and water, the measure of the day and the measure of the night. Heaven and earth - for it is said: First God created the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1). (Further explanations include references to the relevant passages in the first verses of Genesis.)

As you can see, there are exactly ten primary elements present here, among which, according to the text of the first verses of the Bible, wind (= spirit), water, light and darkness are separated into separate elements. (Air is one of the main elements in Greek philosophical teachings. As for the Semitic-language texts, neither Hebrew nor Aramaic even has a proper word for "air." There is no such concept in the Tanakh at all, and in post-biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, the borrowed word Heb is used. sire. Mandaic-from Greek

We find a similar interpretation in other sources. The treatise Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer puts it this way (ch. 3):

Eight things were created on the first day, and these are: heaven, earth, light, darkness, tohu, bohu, spirit, water. For it is written (Gen 1: 1 2 is quoted further).

Thus, it can be argued that the Manichaean doctrine of the elements goes back not only to Greek philosophy, but also to the interpretation of the first verses of the biblical account of creation.

7 Greek borrowing is used.

8 This name in the Midrash refers to one of the three Palestinian theologians: Rabban Gamaliel 1, 1st generation Tannai (c. 10-90 AD), from Yavneh (Yamnia), Rabban Gamaliel II, 2nd generation (c. 90-130 AD) , from Yavneh, or Rabban Gamaliel III, tannai 5200-225 years), from Sspforis. Identification and dating of Jewish exegetes are given here from the publications of Bader and Schiffman.

9 According to the Jewish chronological tradition, this is a disciple of Rav (see trace. footnote), lived in Babylonia.

10 Rav-Abba Areha (155-247), from Babylonia.

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This interpretation explains a lot about the Manichaean structure of the elements: their number, and the separation of wind, light, and darkness as independent elements.

Another proof of this origin of the Manichaean pentad can be seen in the way the elements are listed in different lists (see above).:

1) Smoke-fire-wind-water-darkness

2) Air-wind-light-water-fire

3) Fire-wind-water-light-air

4) Fire-water-wind-light-air.

As you can see, a certain "core", a triad of elements "wind, water and light/dark" is quite stable here, although in a different order. However, it is these primary elements of creation that are represented in Genesis 1: 2-4: "spirit (aka wind, water, light / darkness)." At the periphery of the list are placed air / smoke and fire-elements not mentioned in Gen 1. Does this not indicate that the biblical interpretation was indeed one of the sources of the Manichaean doctrine of the elements?

It should be noted that in the above-quoted presentation of the Vardesan teaching, the list of elements has the same features: fire-wind-water-light-darkness. Here, too, there is such a "core", and in the same order as the list of dark elements in the Manichaeans. The list completely coincides with one of the variants of the Manichaean list-adjusted for the fact that Vardesan, firstly, does not have the element of air, and secondly, there is no dichotomy typical for Manichaeans on light and dark elements.

This hypothesis would explain why there is such a clear terminological disharmony in the Manichaean teaching, such as the "duplicated" elements of light and darkness, along with two primordial elements of the same name. This proves once again that the doctrine of the elements, which comes from the interpretation of Gen 1: 1-2 , is not a specifically Manichaean mythologeme: it already existed in some early Christian school and is already included in the Mani doctrine.

The assumption of a similar origin of the Manichaean doctrine of the elements is also confirmed by the fact that the elements in the doctrine of Mani are attributes and weapons of the deity called the First Man.

I will not dwell in detail on the origin of the myth of the First Man from biblical exegesis, because this has already been written about [Smagina, 2001]. Suffice it to say here that the Manichaean myth, on closer examination, reveals indisputable signs of its origin in the legends of the" First Adam", formed on the basis of the exegesis of the first chapters of Genesis.

The book of Genesis itself, of course, does not mention the creation of the elements. But since the Hellenistic era, some Jewish exegetes have tried to reconcile the biblical account of the creation of the world and man with the philosophical teaching about the elements that they had already learned. Even in pre-Christian interpretations of Genesis, conclusions are constantly drawn about the creation of the elements in the first days, about the creation of Adam from the elements, etc.

An interesting interpretation of the creation of Adam from various natural substances, including the elements, is contained in the pseudepigraphic book "The Life of Adam and Eve", dating from the period between 100 BC and 200 AD (Latin version, Chapter 37) [Life of Adam and Eve, 2008].

The legends that have developed around the history of the creation of the world and related to the doctrine of the elements are cited and classified by A. Tepel in his study of the Syriac book of the VI or VII centuries "The Cave of Treasures" [Toepel, S. 27ff.]. Similar legends are found in the Book of Jubilees, in the Samaritan tradition, in early Christian authors, in particular Syriac (Ephraim Sirin, Narsay).

As for the creation of Adam from the elements, the aforementioned book "The Cave of Treasures" (ch. 10-12) contains a detailed account of this, going back, apparently, to earlier sources:

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And they (the angels) saw the right hand of God stretched out and stretched out over the whole world. And all the creatures were gathered together in the palm of His right hand. And they saw that He had taken from all the earth a grain of dust, and from all the flood of water a drop of water, and from all the air that was above a part of the wind, and from all the nature of fire a little heat of heat.

And the angels saw how these four weak elements lay inside the palm of His right hand, they are cold, and heat, and dryness, and humidity. And God created Adam. And why did God create Adam out of these four (weak) elements, if not so that everything in the world would be subject to him through them? [Bezold, 1981, Ch. 10-12].

It is easy to see that a direct line can be traced from here to the Manichaean myth of the First Man and the elements, where the First Man commands the light elements and at the same time is under their protection.

All this serves as further confirmation that the Manichaean mythology, for all its complexity and fantastic character, ultimately goes back to the early Aramaic Judeo-Christian sources.

list of literature

The Life of Adam and Eve / Introductory article, translated from Greek and Latin. and comments by E. B. Smagina // Bulletin of Ancient History. 2008. N 1.

Kefalaia ("Chapters "). Coptic Manichaean Treatise / Trans. with Coptic, research, commentary, glossary and decree of E. B. Smagina, Moscow, 1998.

Smagina E. B. [Interpretation of the Book of Genesis in Judaism as a source of the Manichaean cosmogonic myth]. Issue 8. Moscow, 2001.

L. Schiffman. From text to tradition. The history of Judaism in the Second Temple era and the Mishnah and Talmud period. Jerusalem-Moscow, 2002.

Acta Archelai / Ed. Ch.H. Bceson. (Die griechischen christliehen Schriftsteller der crsten drei Jahrhunderte. Bd. 16). Lpz., 1906. VI (XXV).

Der Babylonische Talmud. Mit Einschlufi der vollstaendigen Misnah / Hrsg. v. L. Goldschmidt. Haag, 1933.

Bader G. The Encyclopedia of Talmudic Sages. L., 1988.

Beck E. Bardaisan und seine Schule bei Ephram // Le Museon. T. 91. Louvain.

Bezold C. Die Schatzhohle "Me'arath Gazze". (The Cave of Treasures / La Caverne des Tresors) / Eine Sammlung biblischer Geschichten aus dem scehsten Jahrhundert jemals Ephracm Syrus zugeschrieben. Leipzig, 1983 1988. Reprinted: Amsterdam, 1981.

Dodge B. The FihrisI of al-Nadim: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture. (Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies, 83). Vol. I-II. N.Y. -L., 1970.

Flugel G. Mani, seine Lehre und seine Schriften. Lpz., 1862.

Henrichs A., Koenen L. Ein griechischcr Mani-Kodex (Pap. Colon. Inv. Nr. 4780): Edition der Sciten 72.8-99.,9 // Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie undEpigraphik. Bd. 32 (Bonn, 1978).

Kephalaia / Ed. H.-J. Polotsky & A. Bohlig. Stuttgart, 1940.

A Manichaean Psalm-Book / Ed. by C.R.C. Allberry. (Manichaean Manuscripts in the Chester Beatty Collection). Stuttgart, 1938.

Midrash Bereshit Rabbah / Critical Edition with Notes and Commentary by J. Thcodor and Ch. Albcck. 2nd edition. Jerusalem, 1996. Vol. I.

Πuvres dc Saint Augustin. 17. Six traites anti-manicheens / Ed. R. Jolivet et M. Jourjon. Bruxelles, 1961.

Patrologia Syriaca. Pars prima. I-III. Parisiis, 1894 - 1926.

Patrologiae cursus completus / Ed. P. Migne. P. Scries Latina. Parisiis. Vol. XLII.

Reeves J.C. Manichaean Citations in the Prose Refutations of Ephrcm Syrus // Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources (Nag Hammadi & Manichaean Studies 43) / Ed. P. Mirccki and J. BcDuhn. Leiden, 1997.

Richter S. Exegetisch-literarkritische Untersuchungen von Herakleidespsalmen des koptisch-manichdischen Psalmenbuches. Altcnbcrgc, 1994.

Richter S. Die Herakleides-Psalmen. (The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in the Chester Beatty Library. Psalm Book). Part II, Fasc. 2. (CFM, I). Turnhout, 1998.

Saint Ephraims Prose Refutations of Mani, Marcion, and Bardaisan / Ed. C.W. Mitchell. Vol. I-II. L., 1912 1921.

Strom A. V. Le chiffre cinq // Manichaica Selecta. Studies presented to Professor Julien Ries on the occasion of his seventieth birthday I Ed. by A. van Tongcrloo and S. Givcrscn. (Manichaean Studies. I). Lovanii, 1991.

Theodorus Bar Koni. Liber Scholiorum / Ed. A. Schcr // Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. Vol. LV, LXIX (1910 - 1912).

Wurst G. Die Bema-Psalmen // The Manichaean Coptic Papyri in the Chester Beatty Library. Psalm Book. Part II, Fasc. 1. (Corpus Fontium Manichacorum. Scries Coptica. I). Turnhout, 1996.

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