"De Genesi contra Manichaeos" "De Genesi ad litteram liber imperfectus" di Agostino d'Ippona

Review by: J. van Oort

Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 47, No. 3 (Sep., 1993), pp. 296-297
Published by: BRILL
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296 REVIEWS

Manichaica?>.Some Remarks' (189-197; as a supplement to p. 191 it

may be remarked that already before 1986 it was suspected and fuller
documented that signs of Manichaean familiarity with Hermas can be
detected in the Manichaean Secundinus's Ep. ad Augustinum; see now
the present reviewer's Jerusalem and Babylon, Leiden etc. 1991, 303 n.
606), A. Viciano's well-documented and thorough study 'Theodoret
von Kyros und der Manichaismus in seinem Kommentar zu den
Paulusbriefen' (198-212), Peter Nagel's article of the same high quality
'Der Dialog im manichaischen Psalter' (220-238; partly following
Richter the author gives an analysis of e.g. Psalm-Book 187, the won-
drously beautiful - and world's oldest? - 'Passionspiel' inspired by
John 20,11-18) and, finally, the four pioneering and profound studies
by S. Richter ('Untersuchungen zu Form und Inhalt einer Gruppe der
Herakleides-Psalmen [PsB 187,1-36]', 248-265), G. Wurst ('Strukturale
Textanalyse und Gattungskritik manichaischer Psalmen am Beispiel des
Bemapsalmes Nr. 239', 266-284), M. Hutter ('Sprachliche und ter-
minologische Beobachtungen zu M 98/99 und M 7980-84', 285-304) and
W. Sundermann ('Iranische Kephalaiatexte?', 305-318). In particular,
from Richter's and Wurst's analyses we can again discern that the
Manichaean Church, especially in her piety, displayed herself as a
Christian Church, being deeply inspired by biblical (predominantly
NT-) texts and themes.
Our thanks are due to authors and editors for their fine book.

NL-3703 AH Zeist, Van Renesselaan 24 J. VANOORT

"De Genesi contra Manichaeos" "De Genesi ad litteram liber

imperfectus" di Agostino d'Ippona, commenti di G. Palland, G.
Balido, J. Ries, A. Di Pilla, M. Marin. Palermo, Edizioni Augustinus,
1992. 157 pp., L. 25.000.

Augustine's early commentaries on Genesis are somewhat neglected

in contemporary research. This little volume, the most recent publica-
tion of the yearly "settimana di studi agostiniani" held in Pavia,
introduces them. Gilles Pelland opens with an overview of Augustine's
attempts to explain the first chapters of the Bible (15-54). Giuseppe
Balido examines the logical structure of Augustine's various exegeses of
Gen. 1, 24-25 (55-61). In the following section two studies are devoted

Vigiliae Christianae 47 (1993)

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 REVIEWS 297

to the Churchfather's first work on Genesis: Julien Ries discusses 'La

creation, l'homme et l'histoire du salut dans le De Genesi contra
Manichaeos de Saint Augustin' (65-97) and Alessandra Di Pilla gives an
excursus on 'La prezenza del De Genesi contra Manichaeos di Agostino
nell'In principium Genesis di Beda' (99-113). Marcello Marin concludes
with an article on Augustine's second work on Genesis: 'II De Genesi
ad litteram imperfectus liber' (117-151).
These essays are welcome and useful, all the more so because of the
relative scarcety of studies on these works of Augustine. As early as
1972 Pelland published his Cinq etudes d'Augustin sur le debut de la
Genese, but in this new survey he also shows himself to be acquainted
with several recent studies. Ries has written many publications on
Manichaeism and Augustine, and in this book Augustine's reaction to
the opinions of his former coreligionists is a central theme as well. One
only wonders why, in this rather sketchy contribution, the author
repeatedly ascribes the edition of the Manichaean Kephalaia to C.
Schmidt (71: here H. Ibscher is also mentioned; 73; 74; 76), while it is
well known that this work was edited by Polotsky and Bohlig. Besides,
not every researcher will agree with his description of the Manichaean
Three Times (94). Di Pilla has carefully investigated the (important)
influences of De Gen. c. Man. on Bede's In principium Genesis, thus
producing a study analogous to the one by Siniscalco on De Gen. ad litt.
and Bede's Libri IV in principium Genesis (in Miscellanea A. Trape,
1985). More than once in this article Di Pilla is able to supplement the
references to De Gen. c. Man. in Ch. W. Jones' 1967-edition of Bede's
work in CCL CXVIIIA. Marin, for his part, can conclude his solid
introduction to De Gen. ad litt. lib. imp. with a considerable list of
emendations to the recent Italian translation of this work in the Nuova
Biblioteca Agostiniana (Roma 1988).

NL-3703 AH Zeist, Van Renesselaan 24 J. VANOORT

Samuel N. C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and

Medieval China (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testa-
ment, Band 63). Tiibingen, Mohr 1992. XXII and 370 pp., DM 148,-.

This book of Dr. Lieu already has its own history. More than a
decade ago, the author published The Religion of Light: an Introduc-

Vigiliae Christianae 47 (1993)

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