Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony. Studies in the 'Book of Giants' Traditions by John C.

Reeves
Review by: J. van Oort
Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 92-94
Published by: BRILL
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92 REVIEWS

seinen theologischen Analysen skrupulos ferngehaltet hat, scheinen hier

doch ihren Zoll zu fordern!
Zum SchluB3soil betont werden, daB diese klar formulierte und sehr
gut geschriebene Arbeit eine ehrliche und iiberzeugende Darstellung des
Christusbildes Aphrahats bietet. Hoffentlich wird der Autor, dem wir
auch eine Gesamtiibersetzung der Demonstrationes in den >Fontes
Christiani? verdanken, seine Fachkompetenz noch weiteren Fragen im
Bereich der friihsyrischen Theologie widmen.

2351 GE Leiderdorp, Frederik Hendriklaan 120 LUCAS VAN ROMPAY

John C. Reeves, Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony. Studies in

the 'Book of Giants' Traditions. Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College
Press, 1992. XII + 260 pp.

As early as 1734, the famous Huguenot Isaac de Beausobre suggested

that Mani's Book of Giants could have been influenced by Jewish
Enochic literature (Histoire critique de Manichee et du Manicheisme,
Amsterdam 1734-1739 [repr. Leipzig 1970], I, 429). Although some
later scholars (e.g. Ferdinand Christian Baur in his still valuable 1831-
study Das manichaische Religionssystem nach den Quellen neuunter-
sucht und entwickelt) also called attention to supposed features of this
enigmatic Book of Giants that has a prominent place in nearly every list
of the Manichaean canon preserved from antiquity, it took two cen-
turies until De Beausobre's insights could be corroborated. In 1934 W.
B. Henning published his study 'Ein manichaisches Henochbuch'
(SPA W 5, 27-35), followed by his 'Neue Materialien zur Geschichte des
Manichaismus' (ZDMG 90, 1936, 1-18) and his in this context most
important 'The Book of the Giants' (BSOAS 11, 1943, 52-74). In these
articles, fragments of several Middle Iranian versions of Mani's Book
of Giants discovered at Turfan in Central Asia since the beginning of
our century were collated and published. On the basis of these and some
other Manichaean texts (e.g. the then newly-discovered Coptic texts
from Medinet Madi), Henning could suggest that the Book of Giants
was a free literary creation of Mani based upon a series of extrabiblical
legends that had gathered around the events summarized in Genesis 6,
1-4. More precisely, he claimed that Mani's immediate source for his
reworking of these narratives was apparently an Aramaic version of 1
Vigiliae Christianae 48 (1994), ? E.J. Brill, Leiden

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 REVIEWS 93

Enoch, the well-knownJewish pseudepigraphicalwork of the Second

Temple period which enjoyed an extensive circulation within both
Jewish and Christiancircles.
With Henning's impressiveinvestigationsboth the zenith and the
limit of the sourcecriticismof Mani's canonicalwork seemedto have
been reached. In 1971, however, J. T. Milik surprisedthe scholarly
worldwith his reportsof the Aramaicfragmentsof 1 Enochthat he had
discovered among the Qumran texts: fragments, moreover, which
turnedout to bear close resemblancesto the remainsof Mani's Book
of Giants ('Turfan et Qumran.Livre des Geants juif et manicheen',
Traditionund Glaube[FSK. G. Kuhn],Gottingen1971, 117-127;'Pro-
blemesde la litteraturehenochiquea la lumieredes fragmentsarameens
de Qumran',HTR 64, 1971,333-378).In subsequentpublicationsMilik
could refinehis observationsthat this JewishapocryphonfromQumran
seemsto be the literaryancestorof Mani'sBook of Giants.And, since
1970,the yearof the preliminaryreporton the CologneMani Codexby
A. Henrichsand L. Koenen,it has beenestablishedthat an 'Apocalypse
of Enoch' was indeed known by the Jewish-Christiansectariansin
Babyloniaamongst whom Mani spent his formativeyears (cf. CMC
58,6 - 60,12).
All these and severalother facts promptedJohn C. Reevesto write
his Jewish Lore in ManichaeanCosmogony.This study, a 'thorough
revision'of the author's 1989-dissertationsubmittedto HebrewUnion
-
College JewishInstituteof Religion,is withoutdoubt a stimulating,
profound and importantbook. After a short introduction,the author
examinesin his first chapterthe ancienttestimoniesabout the contents
of Mani'sBook of Giantsand he also accuratelypresentsmodernopi-
nions concerningthe nature of this Manichaeanwork. Then, in his
second and most extensivechapterentitled'The QumranFragmentsof
the Book of Giants' (51-164), he analyzes the contents of both the
Qumranand Manichaeanfragments.Actually,this chapteris the core
of the book and in his emphasisupon the continuityof motifs within
the two recensionsof the Book of GiantsReevesdisplaysan impressive
knowledgeof, interalia, manyJewishdocumentsof the SecondTemple
period,classicalGnosticliterature,Christianand Muslimheresiological
reports, Syriactexts and, not least, the multilingualManichaeantexts
from East and West. ChapterIII adressesa seriesof quotationsfrom
an unnamedManichaeansourcefound in a paschalhomilyof the sixth-
centuryMonophysitepatriarchSeverusof Antioch, quotationswhichin

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94 REVIEWS

the author's view do not stem from Mani's Book of Giants. In Chapter
IV Reeves outlines that the fundamental structure of Manichaean
cosmogony is ultimately indebted to Jewish exegetical expansions of
Genesis 6, 1-4 as found in e.g. 1 Enoch 6-11. In his fifth chapter he then
summarizes his most important findings.
Considering and reconsidering the vast amount of facts and texts pro-
vided by the author, one is indeed led to the conclusion that heterodox
Jewish thought was a powerful stimulus in the formulation of Mani's
cosmological teachings. In the light of the CMC it even becomes highly
probably that Mani encountered an Enochic Book of Giants of some
sort during his sojourn among the Jewish-Christian sect of his youth
and early manhood. The question of whether there always is such a
direct nexus between only the Qumran and Turfan recensions of this
book as posited by Milik and now (although occasionally correcting
Milik) by Reeves, might be open to further research and new textual
evidence. In any case, it is again made clear that there are many striking
parallels. And certainly the author seems to be right in his conclusions
that the extent of Iranian religious influences upon the young Mani has
been overrated. Indeed, after the discovery of the CMC in particular,
it is the impact of Jewish and (Jewish-)Christian literary traditions upon
nascent Manichaeism which deserves a central place in future research.
Reeves laid a firm foundation on which he and others can build further.

NL-3703 AH Zeist, Van Renesselaan 24 J. VAN OORT

Manfred Hutter, Manis kosmogonische Sabuhragan-Texte. Edition,

Kommentar und literaturgeschichtliche Einordnung der manichaisch-
mittelpersischen Handschriften M 98/99 I und M 7980-7984 (Studies in
Oriental Religions, Vol. 21). Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 1992. IX
+ 175 S. + XX Tafeln, DM 98,-.

This book is the revised version of Hutter's philological dissertation

Die manichaisch-mittelpersischen Handschriften M 98/99 I und M
7980-7984 (Graz 1991). The young Austrian Manichaeologist first gives
a survey of the research carried out so far on these Middle Persian
fragments. After that he provides a new edition and translation of these
cosmogonic texts, accompanied by extensive and also for a wider circle
profitable commentaries; in an excursus he adds a new German transla-
Vigiliae Christianae 48 (1994), ? E.J. Brill, Leiden

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