Boid on Adamatius' Dialogue

Let me draw your attention to an important text. This is the Dialogue on the True Faith in God, by Adamantius, written in about 300 A.D. Some of what is in it seems to me to go back to the arguments of Markion on the relative positions of the Torah and the Gospel, the arguments deliberately misrepresented by his detractors. There is a translation, published in 1997 by Peeters in Leuven (Belgium)., under the title Adamantius: Dialogue on the True Faith in God: De Recta in Deum Fide, translated by R.A. Pretty.

I have read and re-read Archelaus. Here is what I think it is. In form it is a treatise artificially turned into one half of a dialogue. The treatise gives a detailed argument for Markion’s real assessment of the relationship between the Torah and the Gospel. The treatise had probably been re-worked over a few generations after Markion, and was probably re-worked a bit more by the person that turned it into one half of a dialogue, but the re-working at all stages was faithful to the intent of the original. Mani only figures so as to give a pretext for reproducing the treatise. MUCH OF WHAT IS ATTRIBUTED TO MANI IS ACTUALLY THE DEBASED CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY THAT TRIED TO REPLACE THE ORIGINAL, and which is still prevalent even now. This way the pernicious theology can be refuted without arousing opposition. To the extent that any real information about the Manichaean system is given, it is a very basic outline, in places mixed with doctrines of Mithraism by the author, who didn’t care very much about the distinction. The editors of the translation think it a valuable source for the details of Manichaeism, but they are deluded. Whatever is really Manichaean is very very basic, and could have been taken from a Christian heresiography. I repeat what was said last week: the name of the supposed author, Hegemonius, is actually a title of Archelaus. Look up hegmon in Jastrow. Archelaus is a title as well: it translates the Hebrew nagid. Both the Marcellus and the Archelaus of the narrative are fictitious. The treatise is the work of Marcellus = Markion, bearing the titles of Nagid and Hegmon; though the treatise has been re-worked by his followers. There is a new translation, published in 2001 by Brepols in Turnhout (Belgium). This is based on the critical edition of the original text published in 1906, for which several mss. were available.

The translation of Adamantius and the new translation of Archelaus are both the work of people in Sydney.