Festival Hymns of the Manichaean Church
Eight psalms recited during the Festival of Bema — the annual Manichaean commemoration of Mani's ascension to the Realm of Light. These liturgical hymns, preserved in Coptic from the Chester Beatty collection, celebrate the cosmic drama of Light and Darkness, honour the Paraclete, and call the faithful to repentance and festival joy. The Bema itself — Mani's empty throne, veiled and elevated — stood at the center of the rite, a sign of the absent teacher's living presence.
Psalm CCXXIII
Let us worship the Spirit of the Paraclete.
Let us bless our Lord Jesus who has sent us the Spirit of Truth. He came and separated us from the Error of the world, he brought us a mirror, we looked, we saw the Universe in it.
When the Holy Spirit came he revealed to us the way of Truth and taught us that there are two Natures, that of Light and that of Darkness, separate one from the other from the beginning.
The Kingdom of Light, on the one hand, consisted in five Greatnesses, and they are the Father and his twelve Aeons and the Aeons of the Aeons, the Living Air, the Land of Light; the great Spirit breathing in them, nourishing them with his Light.
But the Kingdom of Darkness consists of five storehouses, which are Smoke and Fire and Wind and Water and Darkness; their Counsel creeping in them, moving them and inciting them to make war with one another.
Now as they were making war with one another they dared to make an attempt upon the Land of Light, thinking that they would be able to conquer it.
But they know not that which they have thought to do they will bring down upon their own heads.
But there was a multitude of angels in the Land of Light, having powers to go forth to subdue the enemy of the Father, whom it pleased that by his Word that he would send, he should subdue the revels who desired to exalt themselves above that which was more exalted than they.
Like unto a shepherd that shall see a lion coming to destroy his sheep-fold: for he uses guile and takes a lamb and sets it as a snare that he may catch him by it; for by a single lamb he saves his sheep-fold. After these things he heals the lamb that has been wounded by the lion.
This too is the way of the Father, who sent his strong son; and he produced from himself his Maiden equipped with five powers, that she might fight against the five abysses of the Dark.
When the Watcher stood in the boundaries of light, he showed to them his Maiden who is his soul; they bestirred themselves in their abyss, desiring to exalt themselves over her, they opened their mouth desiring to swallow her.
He held her power fast, he spread her over them, like nets over fishes, he made her rain down upon them like purified clouds of water, she thrust herself within them like piercing lightning.
She crept in their inward parts, she bound them all, they not knowing it.
When the First Man had finished his war the Father sent his second son.
He came and helped his brother out of the abyss; he established this whole world out of the mixture that took place of the Light and the Darkness.
He spread out all the powers of the abyss to ten heavens and eight earths, he shut them up into this world once, he made it a prison too for all the powers of Darkness, it is also a place of purification for the Soul that was swallowed in them.
The sun and moon he founded, he set them on high, to purify the Soul.
Daily they take up the refined part to the height, but the dregs however they erase . . .
. . . . . mixed, they convey it above and below.
This whole world stands firm for a season, there being a great building which is being built outside this world. So soon as the builder shall finish, the whole world will dissolve and set on fire that the fire may smelt it away.
All life, the relic of Light wheresoever it be, he will gather to himself and of it depict and image.
And the counsel of death too, all the Darkness, he will gather together and make a likeness of its very self, it and the Ruler.
In a moment the living Spirit will come . . .
. . . he will succor the Light. But the counsel of death and the darkness he will shut up in the dwelling that was established for it, that it might be bound in it for ever.
There is no other means to bind the Enemy save this means; for he will not be received to the Light because he is a stranger to it; nor again can he be left in his land of Darkness, that he may not wage a war greater than the first.
A new Aeon shall be built in the place of the world that shall dissolve, that in it the powers of the Light may reign, because they have performed and fulfilled the will of the Father entire, they have subdued the hated one . . .
. . . over him for ever.
This is the Knowledge of Mani, let us worship him and bless him.
Blessed is every man that shall have trust in him, for he it is shall live with all the Righteous. Glory and victory to our Lord Mani, the Spirit of Truth, that cometh from the Father, who has revealed to us the Beginning, the Middle and the End.
Victory to the soul of the blessed Mary, Theona, Pshaijmnoute.
Psalm CCXXVIII
He anointed him in his power, he made him perfect by the Spirit of his love.
Implore him all.
He appointed him to three powers, to tribulation, to the right hand, to bliss.
Implore him all.
He gave into his hands the medicine of life that he might heal the wounded.
Implore him all.
He gave light with his Light to our Lamps.
Put oil into them by your faith.
Implore him all.
He gave the helmsman to the ships; the butter he brought to the warm milk.
Implore him all.
He gave the bread of life to the hungry; the clothing he brought to the naked.
He gave light by his love to our Intelligence; he made his faith shine in our Reason.
He brought perfection to our Thought, long-suffering to our Counsel.
Implore him all.
He bestowed Wisdom on our Intention that it might be as butter for us.
Implore him all.
He wounded with his trumpet in the worlds that are far, that are near, he roused them all.
Implore him all.
The ruler of the earth rose up against him and persecuted him in his cities.
He assumed the heart of his judges that they might condemn him like the impious.
Implore him all.
They shut him up in their prisons and loaded his limbs with iron.
We implore him.
They counseled against him in their evil counsels that they might cast a slur on him daily.
Implore him all.
In the power of his glorious Father . . .
. . . he gave his Spirit.
Implore him all.
He was put to shame, the judge of lawlessness, he brought his wrath down upon his body.
They hung his head upon the gate, knowing not what they were doing.
Implore him all.
The wise ones also that are among men bore witness concerning his eminence.
Implore him all.
Let us bless him now, my brethren, and sing to him in one spirit.
Implore him all.
We pray thee all of us together, the Elect and the Believers.
Implore him all.
Do not make reckoning with us now, our Lord, according to the multitude of our sins.
Glory to the Father, who sent thee for the salvation of thy holy Churches.
Implore him all.
Glory and victory to the Paraclete, our Light, Man, and the soul of Mary.
Implore him all.
Psalm CCXXX
Light resplendent, the Bema, thou art come; we call unto thee, the children of the Paraclete, our Lord Mani.
I will keep festival for thee today: I have purified my heart, o Bema, holy likeness, that overawes him that approaches it.
I bless thee, o glorious seat, the sign of the Wisdom; we worship the sign of thy greatness and the mysteries ineffable.
Thou art the blessed Root. Thou art the confirmation of the Luminaries.
Thou art the gift of the air. Thou art the manifestation of the victory of the Light.
We see thee now, blessed one, the word that is in singleness of heart: we gaze after thee, the holy one . . . that is new indeed.
Thou art he that waits for Christ, that he may judge the sinners through thee: today also through thee the Mind puts to shame the portions of Error.
Thanks to thee and peace, the garland and the palm.
Thou art the new year's day of joy. Thou art the hour of gladness.
Thou art the medicine of the healing of our wounds . . . and the wounds of the Faithful which cannot be healed . . .
. . . salvation and rest.
Thou art he that crushes the evil, setting a garland upon godliness: thou art he that cleanses the Light from the Darkness; thou art he that gives rest unto the souls of man.
Thou art the honor that is honored before all the apostles; thou art the throne of the judges of godliness that separate the two natures.
Thou art . . . sparing; thou art compassion entire; thou art the holy . . .
Glory to thee, Mani: victory also to thy Bema.
Victory to thy Elect and thy Catechumens and the soul of Mary, Jmnoute, Pshai.
Psalm CCXXXV
This is the memorial of the Living Spirit:
this is the memorial of the Twelve Maidens:
this is the memorial of the Helmsmen;
this is the memorial of the Splenditenens; this is the memorial of the King of Honour; this is the memorial of the King of Glory; the memorial of the great stout-hearted Omophorus.
This is the purity of the Apostle of Light; this is the purity of the Saviour Christ; this is the purity of the Paraclete-Spirit; this is the purity of the Love . . . ; this is the purity of the good Faith; this is the purity of the Perfection; this is the purity of Patience; this is the purity of Wisdom and Godliness.
This is the honour of the Paraclete-Spirit; the honour of fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving: the honour of the commandment that we lie not; the honour of the commandment that we kill not; the honour of the commandment that we eat no flesh; the honour of the commandment that we make ourselves pure; the honour of the commandment of blessed Poverty; the honour of Humility and Kindliness.
My brethren let us pray with a great power . . .
. . . one another. Ye Catechumens, repent . . .
. . . praying with a great prayer . . .
. . . above the elements. He gave . . .
. . . be a sign of the Light . . .
Thine is the glory and the victory, our Lord Mani . . .
. . . our Lord Sisinnios, this is the . . . Innaios. Victory to Gabriab, our Lord . . .
. . . victory to Salmaios, our Lord Pappos . . .
. . . our Lord Ozeos; glory to Addas, our Lord . . . Be there victory to all the Living Ones . . . to the soul of Plousiane, the Soul of Theona, and the soul of the blessed Mary.
Psalm CCXXXVII
Sing ye all unto the glorious one, the Sage, the Paraclete, the Spirit of the Dawn, and the Gods and the Father-Gods of the Light, the glorious chiefs of the Kingdom indestructible, they all praying in joy, and their Five Greatnesses.
They render glory unto the Giver of Light, the Sage, the Paraclete.
The Aeons, glorious and unperishing, the holy Emanations of the mother of Life, the First Man, the glorious firstborn, the five Elements, active and strong — they render holy glory to the Sage, the Paraclete.
The Beloved of the Luminaries, the straight resplendent Word, and the Great Builder that builds the New Aeon, the strong light-giving . . . the Father of the Living — they render glory unto the Blessed One, the Sage, the Paraclete.
The third Father who is victorious, the Rich one, the Blessed and the Twelve Wise Maidens . . . of the Light, the Helmsmen . . . third; thou art an envoy, another has sent thee to us, o glorious one, the Sage, the Paraclete.
. . . the Column of Glory and the powers of the Omophori, the Angels . . . and the three wheels that are below, the winds, the water and the fire . . . this one alone, the Sage, the Paraclete.
The shining sun . . .
. . . and the glorious Maiden of Light . . .
. . . and the Righteous Judge and the Light-Mind . . . they render glory unto the Sage, the Paraclete.
. . . and the Heavens and the congregation of the stars make song with harps and lutes, all worshipping him in joy, and the wise powers . . .
. . . the Sage, the Paraclete.
. . . and the mountains of the earth, the rivers . . .
the waters, the four worlds and the . . . blossoming trees, the gardens of fragrance, and the breath of the wind — they render glory unto this unperishing one, the Sage, the Paraclete.
The race of the Righteous and the spirits and souls of the wise, the assemblies of the Apostles . . . glorious, the living merchants, the preachers of Light, they render glory to this conqueror, the Sage, the Paraclete.
Sing with the Angels and bless the Mind of the shining Light of the Father, the sun . . .
. . . and his strong active power and his glorious Wisdom, ye sons of joy, render glory unto the Sage, the Paraclete.
Let us all sing together unto Mani, the man of God, on the holy perfect day, and let us be glad and learn the mysteries of the life of the Saviour Jesus and make festival and render glory to the Sage, the Paraclete.
Light your lamps . . . and keep watch on the day of the Bema for the Bridegroom of joy and receive the holy rays of Light of the good Father . . . the Sage, the Paraclete.
. . . all of us, the blessed ones, the Sage, the Paraclete who hast forgiven all thy members — the Elect, the Righteous, and the Faithful also together . . .
. . . resplendent of the holy Bema.
Honour to the glorious one, the exalted living King, and the Luminaries that are held in honour, and Christ Jesus.
Glory to the Paraclete, our sage Lord and all his holy Elect, and the soul of Mary, Theona!
Psalm CCXXXIX
Lo, the amnesty of the forgiveness of sins has come; it is Jesus, who giveth repentance unto him that repents.
He stands in our midst, he winks unto us secretly, saying: "Repent, that I may forgive you your sins."
He is not far from us, my brethren, even as he said in his preaching, "I am near to you, like the clothing of your body."
He that is angry, sins: he that causes wrath is a murderer; he that sheds a life, of him shall it be demanded.
The Good is destined to come: blessed is he by whom it comes; the Evil too is near to be: woe unto him because of whom it comes.
When thou comest in with thy gift to set it on the table, be reconciled with thy adversary that thy gift may be received from thee.
Look out, my brethren: smite not at the life of them that . . .
. . . pass you . . .
O man, thou desirest to honour thyself, let thy fruits . . . for the fruits of the tree which . . . forth . . .
Man, thou lovest thy life: love thy neighbour as thyself; that which . . . do it not, that thou come not to judgment concerning it. If thou art to give a lesson, perform it first before thou givest it . . . thou shalt be a sign of that . . . Judge not thy brother in the thing which thou shalt be found . . .
. . . look not at the mote which is in his eye lest . . . all of it beneath thine.
He has need of the physician who goes . . . and bears forth the burning of the medicines, that he may see the light. The physician of the souls, he is the Light-Mind; this is the New Man: the burning medicines are the Commandments. But the cool medicines, they are the forgiveness of sins: he that would be healed, lo, of two kinds are the medicines of life.
Be not ashamed, o Faithful one, as thou goest unto thy . . . life; do not seek to please man and become an enemy of God.
Thou hast been ashamed of Him today: He will be ashamed of thee at the end: do not be at ease in thy body and pay the penalty with thy soul.
For all men are running about, desiring to profit their soul, fearing and all confounded, desiring to save their lives.
The life and death of each man is in his hands, he knowing that perchance this is the man who shall be half dead in the middle of the way.
They all passed him by, none pitied him save only the Faithful who knew their soul.
The fire that dwells in the body, its affair is eating and drinking; but the soul thirst for the Word of God always. Blessed is the man whose heart condemns him not; the faithful man of God judges himself of his own accord.
Pray for thy enemies, bless them that revile thee, that thou mayest be good like thy Father who is in heaven. He that shines . . . that are evil and them that are good equally, spreading his Light upon every man.
Let us be merciful to one another that we may ourselves receive mercy; let us forgive one another that we ourselves be forgiven.
Glory and honour to Jesus, the king of the holy ones and his holy Elect and the soul of Plousiane and the blessed Mary!
Psalm CCXL
We bless and sing to thee, our Father Mani, our Saviour, O glorious one.
Thou art he unto whom we call, Father, king, god immortal; hear the prayer of thy fold, O glorious one.
. . . he whom the Father sent forth from on high that he might release the souls that are counted to him, O glorious one.
We now therefore make festival fulfilling thy holy day, passing the night in vigil in thy joy, O glorious one.
Thou art a creature immortal on the day of this third; thou art an envoy, another has sent thee to us, O glorious one.
Wash us now therefore in the dew-drops of thy joy, for we are ordained to the service of the holy Bema, O glorious one.
Open to us the passage of the vaults of the skies and walk before us to the joy of thy kingdom, O glorious one.
We are wont to worship the sign of thy seat when thou spreadest it out on the day of the Filling of the Measure which is hidden today, O glorious one.
Glory to thee, Mani, glorious one; victory to thy blessed Bema, O glorious one, and the soul of the blessed Mary.
Psalm CCXLI
Open the doors of mercy; arise that we may receive the present.
The great Judge is seated: let us gather and glorify him and bless him.
Say: Hail new sun, that has come forth with his Light.
Hail Holy Spirit, that art come today to save us:
Our Lord Mani, that forgives us our sins.
Blessing to thy Father, peace to the kingdom on high.
Thanks to thy divine brethren who have believed in thy coming to us.
Glory to the Aeons of Light who commemorated the things pertaining to the celebration of thy birth into matter.
We worship the ships of Light that ferried thee across as thou camest.
Honour to the Perfect Man, the way of peace whereby thou didst come.
We bless thy Light-familiar, the Christ, the author of our good.
Honour to thy wisdom that has defeated the Error of the divisions.
We bless the Angels that brought thee from bound to bound.
We worship thy sufferings which thou didst endure because of thy children: for thou didst leave thy great glory, thou didst come and give thyself for souls.
Thou didst assume different forms until thou hadst visited all races: for the sake of thy loved ones, until thou hadst chosen them out of their midst.
. . . the earth, the seas and the . . . also.
Thou didst seek out thy beloved, thy Church, until thou hadst found her.
Thou didst appear unto the crowned ones, the princes received thy word.
Shapur honoured thee, Oromazd also received thy truth.
. . . Bahram . . . for he believed not in thy preaching.
He hearkened to thy enemies, the deniers of thy hope.
. . . Herod, who crucified Jesus Christ.
Woe unto them, the children of the fire; for they sinned against thy holy body.
I was speaking of the Magi who looked upon thy blood.
They loved the evil-genius of the persecutors, the murderers of God.
They wrote their lying screeds, they gave them out concerning thee.
O Judge of all the races, they arraigned thee and judged thee.
From the time that thou didst confound their Error they loaded thee with iron and bound thee.
They loaded thy hands and feet and put fetters also upon thy body.
They cast thee into their prisons, thinking that they could hold thee in.
Thou didst spend twenty-six days and nights of them in irons.
. . . thy children beside thee, thou didst embrace them all.
Thou didst appoint the twelve Teachers and the seventy-two Bishops.
Thou didst make Sisinnios leader over thy children.
When thou hadst set thy affairs in order thou didst implore thy Father, he answered thee.
Thou didst leave them thy body and didst ascend to thy kingdom.
The lawless men were confounded, they brought their wrath upon thy body.
They shed thy blood in the midst of the street of their city.
They struck off thy head and set it on high upon their gate.
They rejoiced in thy murder, knowing not that there is a judgement: for an account shall be demanded of thy death and thy blood shall be avenged.
Their godless city shall receive the recompense for the outrage which it committed.
Blessed are thy loved ones that shed their tears for thee.
Lo, the grief of thy body, the joy of thy spirit that has ascended.
Blessed one, our Father, number us also among thy Elect today.
The Man who has suffered wrong — lo, the protection of the Judge, let him hasten unto it:
He whom grief has killed, he on whom anger has leapt:
He for whom lust has soiled the whiteness of his clothes:
He from whom obduracy stole away the sweetness of his heart:
He whom folly made mock of and took away his wisdom:
He for whom the devouring fire allied with his enemies, doing him harm:
He whom overweening pride deceived and tumbled to the ground:
Lo, the judge has sat down, he calls out the name of him who has been wronged.
There is no favouring in his judgment, no turning in his justice.
He knows how to forgive him that shall sin and repent.
He makes reckoning with none that shall come to him and implore him.
But the divided man — him he forgives not.
Let us not neglect ourselves and fail in our hearts through our own fault.
Lo, the great physician has come; he knows how to heal all men.
He has spread his medicine-chest, he has called out: "He that wishes to be cured, come hither!"
Look at the multitude of his cures; there is no cure save in him.
He does not recoil from him that is sick, he does not mock him that has a wound in him.
A skilful one is he in his work: his mouth is also sweet in its words.
He knows how to cut a wound, to put a cool medicament upon it.
He cuts and cleanses; he cauterizes and soothes in a single day.
Look, his loving-kindness has made each one of us reveal our sickness.
Let us not hide our sickness from him and leave the cancer in our members, the fair and mighty image of the New Man, so that it destroys it.
He has the antidote that is good for every affection: his Great Gospel, the good tidings of all them that are of the Light.
His water-pot is the Thesaurus, the treasure of life.
In it there is hot water: there is some cold water also mixed with it.
His soft sponge that wipes away bruises is the Pragmateia.
His knife for cutting is the Book of the Mysteries.
His excellent swabs are the Book of the Giants.
The . . . of every cure is the Book of Letters.
. . . hot, the two psalms, the lamentations . . . cool also, his Prayers and all his Logia.
Lo, the test of our physician: my brethren, let us implore him.
May he give us a cure that heals our . . .
The forgiveness of our sins, that he may bestow it upon us all.
May he wipe away our iniquities, the scars that are branded on our souls.
Year by year there is the day: let us not forget, so that it goes . . .
We are his holy ones, they that preach and they that hear, all of them.
He that sings a psalm is like them that weave a garland.
They that answer after him are like them that put roses into his hands.
Victory to the judge of Truth and his glorious Bema.
May he give it to all of us also, his Elect and his Catechumens.
Glory and honour to them that keep festival on this mighty day.
Victory to the soul of Plousiane, Apa Polydoxus, Apa Pshai, Panai, Pshai, Jmnoute, Theona and the soul also of Mary.
Colophon
Eight psalms (CCXXIII, CCXXVIII, CCXXX, CCXXXV, CCXXXVII, CCXXXIX, CCXL, CCXLI) from the Manichaean Psalm Book, a fourth-century Coptic manuscript discovered in the Fayyūm region of Egypt, now held in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Translated by C.R.C. Allberry (1938). Psalm CCXXIII presents the full Manichaean cosmogony in miniature — the Two Natures, the shepherd's parable, the First Man's war, the creation of the world as prison and purification, and the final dissolution. The remaining psalms are festival liturgy for the Bema celebration: litanies, memorial invocations, ethical homilies, and the extraordinary Psalm CCXLI, which narrates the historical life and martyrdom of Mani himself — his mission to Shapur and Oromazd, his twenty-six days in irons under Bahram, and his death — before shifting into the extended metaphor of the "great physician" whose medicines are his own sacred books.
Restored from a web scrape (gnosis.org) by the Sub-Miko of Tianmu (Tulku Haku/Hitsu, Session 34). Hand-read in full. Duplicate psalm headers, repeated stanzas, and trailing scraped fragments removed. OCR/transcription corrections: "abysses if the Dark" → "abysses of the Dark"; "Pacraclete" → "Paraclete"; "has send" → "has sent" (×2). Ellipses marking lacunae in the manuscript are preserved as found. Liturgical refrains ("Implore him all," "O glorious one") are original to the text and preserved intact.
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