Pentadic redaction in the Manichaean Kephalaia.

9789004174368

Pentadic redaction in the Manichaean Kephalaia.

Pettipiece, Timothy.

BRILL

2009

242 pages

$147.00

Hardcover

Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies; v.66

BT1410

The Manichean text Kephalaia, according to Pettipiece (U. of Ottawa, Canada), represents the emergence or evolution of scholastic, interpretive tradition within Manicheanism and is particularly striking in its use of five-part patterns, when the canonical discourse of the religion's founder, Mani, placed the emphasis on triads. He argues that this discrepancy is the result of the Kephalaia compilers' efforts to transform the basic mythological structure of Manichean cosmogony in order to shape what may have been obscure or ambiguous canonical material into a more cohesively structured whole. This process, "pentadic redaction," repeated itself in relation to soteriological, ethical, ecclesiological, polemical, and aetological themes. Pettipiece examines the occurrence of both explicit and implicit five-part structures in the Kephalaia in order to understand the compilers' particular themes and concerns.

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