Mani’s story of Adam (1)

Text
Theodore bar Konai, Liber Scholiorum, 317-318:
He (then) says that Jesus the Luminous approached the unsuspecting Adam and roused him from the sleep of death, that he might be delivered from the great spirit. As (when) one who is righteous discovers a man possessed by a strong demon and calms him by his skill, so likewise it was with Adam when the Beloved One found him prostrate in deep sleep. He roused him and shook him and awakened him, and chased away from him the deceptive demon, and bound apart from him the great (female) archon. Then Adam examined himself and recognized who he was, and (Jesus) showed him the Fathers on high, and (revealed to him) regarding his own self all that into which he had been cast into - into the teeth of leopards and the teeth of elephants, swallowed by voracious ones and absorbed by gulping ones, consumed by dogs, mixed and imprisoned in all that exists, bound in the stench of Darkness. He says that he (= Jesus) raised him (= Adam) up and made him taste of the Tree of Life. Then Adam cried out and wept, and raised his voice loudly like a lion that roars and tears (prey). He cast (himself down) and beat (his breast) and said, “Woe, woe to the one who formed my body, and to the one who bound my soul, and to the rebels who have enslaved me.”

Source (list of abbreviations)
Theodore bar Konai, Liber Scholiorum, 317-318

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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