Elcesaites

Also known as Elkasaites, Elkesaites, or Elchasaites. The name comes from the alleged founder, Elkhasai, Elksai, or Elkesai.

They were an ancient Jewish Christian sect in Lower Mesopotamia. Then the province of Asoristan in the Sasanian Empire, which was active between the early 2nd century & the 5th century CE. The members of this sect, which began in the Transjordan, performed frequent baptisms for purification & had a Gnostic orientation.

The movement blended elements of Second Temple Judaism, early Jewish Christianity, Gnosticism, & apocalyptic mysticism. It’s mainly known through the writing of early Church Fathers such as Hippolytus of Rome, Origen, & Epiphanius of Salamis.

The sect is mentioned directly only in the commentaries on “heresies” by the Early Church Fathers. Hippolytus of Rome records that, in the time of Pope Callixtus I, a Jewish Christian named Alcibiades of Apamea came to Rome, bringing a book that he said had been received in Parthia by a just man named Elchasai.

According to Alcibiades, the book had been revealed by an angel 96 miles (154 km; 337,920 cubits) high, 16 miles (26 km; 56,230 cubits) broad, & 24 miles (39 km; 84,480 cubits) across the shoulders, whose footprints were 14 miles (23 km) long, 6 miles (9.7 km) wide & 2 miles (3.2 km) deep.

This giant angel was the “Son of God,” who was accompanied by his sister, the Holy Ghost/Spirit, of the same dimensions. Alcibiades announced that a new remission of sins had been proclaimed in the 3rd year of Trajan (100 AD). He described a baptism which should impart this forgiveness even to the grossest sinners.

Hippolytus says that Alcibiades teaches the natural birth, preexistence, & reincarnation of Jesus. Also, Alcibiades teaches circumcision & the Law of Moses. Hippolytus then goes on at length to describe the group’s teaching on baptism. For all sins of impurity, even against nature, a 2nd baptism is enjoined “in the name of the great & most high God & in the name of His Son the great King,” with a plea of the 7 witnesses written in the book (sky, water, the holy spirits, the angels of prayer, oil, salt, & earth).

One who has been bitten by a mad dog is to run to the nearest water & jump in with all his clothes on, using the foregoing formula, & promising the 7 witnesses that he’ll abstain from sin. The same treatment – 40 days consecutively of baptism in cold water – is recommended for consumption & for the possessed. Hippolytus discusses in more detail the teaching of the book, including Elchasai’s Sabbatarian teaching & the instruction not to baptize under certain astrological stars.

Eusebius records a summary of a sermon of Psalm 82 delivered in Caesarea by Origen circa 240-250 AD, which warns his audience against the doctrine of “the Elkesaites.” Eusebius’ record of this sermon forms the 2nd source on the group.

150 years later, Epiphanius of Salamis ground it into use among the Sampsaeans (descendants of the earlier Elceasites). Also among the Essenes & many other Ebionite communities. Epiphanius also mentions that the book condemned virginity & continence & made marriage obligatory.

It allowed the worship of cult images to escape persecution, provided the act was merely an external one, disavowed in the heart. Prayer was to be made to the East. But always towards Jerusalem. He also records that the saints of Elcesaites were 2 women: Martha (“mistress”) & Marthana (“our mistress”).

All animal sacrifice was condemned, with a denial that it had been offered by the Patriarchs or in the Torah. The Prophets & the Christian Apostles were rejected. As well as Paul the Apostle & all his writings.

The Cologne Mani-Codex (dated from the 4th century) describes the parents of Mani (founder of Manichaeism) as “followers of the prophet Alchasaias.” Scholars have identified with Elchasai. Alchasaios is stated to be a prophet also honored by Mani. His name appears in several other sources on Manichaeism. But in such an altered form that the identification with Elchasai was clear only with the publication of the Cologne Codex.

The Codex deals with the Elceasites extensively and confirms some of the Church Fathers’ statements about them. It pictures Mani as a “reformer” with the purpose to “restore” the true doctrine of the prophet Alchasaios, which his followers had “misunderstood.” In particular, Mani criticizes their repeated baptism rituals.

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Manichaeism

This is a former world religion founded in the 3rd century CE by the Parthian prophet Mani in the Sasanian Empire. An adherent of Manichaeism was called a Manichaean, Manichean, or Manichee.

Manichaeism taught a complex dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good spiritual world of light, & an evil material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter & returned to the world of light, whence it came.

Mani’s teaching was intended to combine, succeed, & surpass the teachings of Platonism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian & other Mesopotamian religions, & mystery cults. Manichaeism reveres Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Buddha, & Jesus.

This religion thrived between the 3rd & 7th centuries, & at its height was one of the most pervasive religions in the world. Manichaean churches & scriptures existed as far east as China & as far west as the Roman Empire.

Before the spread of Islam, it was briefly the main rival to early Christianity in the competition to replace polytheism. Under the Roman Dominate, Manichaeism was persecuted by the Roman State & was eventually stomped out in the Roman Empire.

The religion was present in West Asia into the Abbasid Caliphate period in the 10th century. It was also present in China despite gradually strict bans under the Tang Dynasty & was the official religion of the Uyghur Khaganate until its collapse in 830.

It experienced a resurgence under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty during the 13th & 14th centuries. However, it was consequently banned by the Chinese emperors. Manichaeism there became into Buddhism & Taoism.

Some historic Manichaean sites still exist in China, including the Temple of Cao’an in Jinjiang, Fijian, & the religion may have influenced later movements in Europe including Paulicianism, Bogomilism, & Catharism.

Mani was an Iranian born in 216 CE in or near Ctesiphon (now al-Mada’in in Iraq) in the Parthian Empire. According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, Mani’s parents were members of the Jewish Christian Gnostic sect known as the Elcesaites.

Mani composed 7 works, 6 of which were written in the late-Aramaic Syriac languages. The 7th, the Shabuhragan, was written by Mani in Middle Persian & he gave it to Sasanian emperor Shapur I. There’s no proof that Shapur I was a Manichaean, he did tolerate the spread of Manichaeism & didn’t persecute the religion or its adherents within his empire’s borders.

Manichaeism won the support of many high-ranking political figures. With the help of the Sasanian Empire, Mani began missionary trips. After failing to win the favor of the next generation of Persian royalty & experiencing the disapproval of the Zoroastrian clergy, Mani reportedly died in prison awaiting his execution by the Persian emperor Bahram I. His death date is estimated between 276-277 CE.

Mani believed that the teachings of Jesus, Buddha, & Zoroaster were incomplete. He’s believed his revelations were for the entire world, calling his teachings the “Religion of Light.”

Manichaean writings suggest that Mani received revelations when he was 12 years old & again when he was 24. Over this period, Mani grew dissatisfied with the Elesaites, a Jewish Christian Gnostic sect, that he was born into.

Mani taught how the soul of a righteous individual returns to Paradise upon dying. But the souls of a person who persisted in things of the flesh – fornication, procreation, possessions, cultivation, harvesting, eating of meat, drinking of wine – is condemned to rebirth in a succession of bodies.

Mani began preaching at an early age & was possibly influenced by contemporary Babylonian-Aramaic movements like Mandaeism, Aramaic translations of Jewish apocalyptic works similar to those found at Qumran (Book of Enoch literature), & by the Syriac dualist-Gnostic writer Bardaisan, who lived a generation before Mani. With the discovery of the Mani-Codex, it also became clear that he was raised in the Jewish Christian sect of the Elcasaites & possibly influenced by their writings.

According to biographies preserved by ibn al-Nadim & Persian polymath al-Biruni, Mani received as a youth from a spirit. Whom he (Mani) would later call his “Twin,” Syzygos (“spouse, partner,” in the Cologne Mani-Codex), “Double,” “Protective Angel,” or “Divine Self.” This spirit taught him wisdom that he then developed into a religion.

It was his “twin” who brought Mani to self-realization. Mani claimed to be the Paraclete of the Truth promised by Jesus in the New Testament. Paraclete is a word used, in Christian theology, to refer to the Holy Spirit & is translated as “advocate,” “counsellor,” or “helper.”

Jesus, in Manichaeism, possessed 3 separate identities: Jesus the Luminous, Jesus the Messiah, & Jesus patibilis, or the Suffering Jesus.

As Jesus the Luminous, his primary role was as supreme revealer & guide. It was Jesus who woke Adam from his slumber & revealed to him the divine origins of his soul & its painful captivity by the body & mixture with matter.

Jesus the Messiah was a historical being who was a prophet of the Jews & a forerunner of Mani. Manichaeans believed that he was wholly divine, & he never had a human birth. The Christian doctrine of a virgin birth was regarded as obscene. Since Jesus was the Light of the World, where was this light, they reasoned, when Jesus was in the womb of the Virgin? Jesus the Messiah was truly only born at his baptism. It was on this occasion that the Father openly acknowledged his sonship. The suffering, death, & resurrection of this Jesus were in appearance only & a prefiguration of Mani’s own martyrdom.

The pain suffered by the imprisoned Light-Particles in the whole of the visible universe, on the other hand, was real & immanent. This was symbolized by the mystic placing of the Cross whereby the wounds of the passion of our souls are set forth. On this mystical Cross of Light was suspended the Suffering Jesus (Jesus patibilis) who was the life & salvation of man. This mystica crucifixio was present in every tree, herb, fruit, vegetable, & even stones & the soil. This constant & universal suffering of the captive soul is exquisitely expressed in 1 of the Coptic Manichaean Psalms.

St. Augustine of Hippo noted that Mani declared himself to be an “apostle of Jesus Christ.” Manichean tradition is also noted to have to have claimed that Mani was the reincarnation of religious figures from previous eras such as the Buddha, Krishna, & Zoroaster, in addition to Jesus Himself.

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