ABSTRACT
In its ideological, liturgical, and institutional independence from other forms of Christianity, as well as in its remarkable geographic and historical extent, Manichaeism can be considered the great divergent offspring of the Christian tradition. Mani (216-277 ce), the Aramaic-speaking founder of Manichaeism, consistently identified himself as 'the apostle of Jesus Christ' in his own writings. Manichaeism belongs to the larger Christian tradition not only in its historical origins, but also in its continued attention to Jesus as a central figure of its ideology and devotional culture. Manichaeans regard the suffering and death of Jesus, therefore, as prototypical of the suffering of all living beings. Efforts to recover the historical Mani must contend with the natural processes of idealization which take hold of every founder of a religious community. The Manichaean community incorporated Mani's martyrdom into its ideology and commemorated it in its practices. Christian biblical literature held an ambivalent status within Manichaeism.
