Iain Gardner

Edition, Commentary, Translation : with an Appendix, The Docetic Jesus

Coptic Theological Papyri II

Jay Johnston

A pioneering interdisciplinary study of the art, production and social functions of Late Antique ritual artefacts. Utilising case studies from the Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri and the Heidelberg archive it establishes new approaches, provides a holistic understanding of the multi-sensory aspects of ritual practice, and explores the transmission of knowledge traditions across faiths.

The Role of Images and Design in the Magical Practice of Late Antiquity

Drawing Spirit

Samuel N. C. Lieu

This 2004 book is a single-volume collection of sources for Manichaeism, a world religion founded by Mani, the Syrian visionary.

Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire

Kenneth Parry

This volume highlights research by Australian scholars on two major Silk Road cities: Palmyra in Syria - long regarded as the finest example of a Caravan City - and Quanzhou (Zayton) in South China which was the destination of the main Maritime Silk Road between Medieval China and the Middle East. The volume exhibits for the first time in a western language publication and in full colour the unique iconography of the Nestorian Christian community in South China under Mongol rule. This material is virtually unknown to western scholars and will be of major importance to the study of the eastward diffusion of Christianity and of East-West contact in the period of Marco Polo. The volume also contains one of the largest collections of Palmyrene inscriptions (Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Hebrew) in English translations with accompanying original texts and detailed analytical indices. The selection focuses on politics and trade but also gives representative texts of almost all genres of Palmyrene inscriptions. The volume should prove indispensable to scholars of East-West contacts and of Roman History given the role played by Palmyra under Zenobia in the Crisis of the Third Century.

Epigraphy and Iconography

From Palmyra to Zayton

Paul Dilley

Jason D. Beduhn

The Chapters of the Wisdom of My Lord Mani recounts Mani’s mission, teachings and debates in the courts of the Sasanian empire. The first of four fascicles constituting the editio princeps of one of the largest papyrus manuscripts ever recovered.

Part III: Pages 343-442 (Chapters 321-347)

The Chapters of the Wisdom of My Lord Mani

Jason BeDuhn

Mani at the Court of the Persian Kings explores new evidence from the Chester Beatty Kephalaia, which presents Mani at the heart of Sasanian Iran, in dialogue with sages and nobles, acting as a cultural mediator between East and West.

Studies on the Chester Beatty Kephalaia Codex

Mani at the Court of the Persian Kings

A new critical look at Mani's life to establish a proper historical foundation for the study of this fascinating thinker.

Rethinking the Life of Mani

The Founder of Manichaeism

First English translation of the Coptic text (c. 400 CE), with commentaries and indices, to this major source for the teachings of Mani. Manichaeism was the most successful of the gnostic dualistic traditions that challenged the triumph of the imperial Christian Church.

The Edited Coptic Manichaean Texts in Translation with Commentary

The Kephalaia of the Teacher

Malcolm Choat

This volume publishes a new Coptic handbook of ritual power, comprising a complete 20 page parchment codex from the second half of the first millennium AD. It consists of an invocation including both Christian and Gnostic elements, ritual instructions, and a list of twenty-seven spells to cure demonic possession, various ailments, the effects of magic, or to bring success in love and business. The codex is not only a substantial new addition to the corpus of magical texts from Egypt, but, in its opening invocation, also provides new evidence for Sethian Gnostic thought in Coptic texts. A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power is the first volume in the series The Macquarie Papyri, which will publish the papyri in the collection of the Museum of Ancient Cultures, Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia).

Iain Gardner

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