Historical-Critical Dissertation on the Ancient and New Manichaeans

AND THE NEW MANICHAEANS.

The ancient philosophers Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Zeno, and the Stoics were the precursors of the Manichaeans.

...they defend Continuing the thought from the previous page regarding the nature of the soul or dualism.. The venerable Tillemont original: "V. C. Tillemontius"; Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (1637–1698), a French ecclesiastical historian known for his meticulous accuracy. (1) testifies to this same fact concerning Scythianus A legendary figure in early Christian writings said to have traveled to India and brought back the dualistic doctrines that Mani eventually inherited., who he says gathered many absurdities from Aristotle and Pythagoras, and most especially established two eternal principles from Empedocles: a good one, from which all good things flow, and an evil one, from which all evil things emanate. To this is added the testimony of Socrates Socrates Scholasticus, a 5th-century church historian. (2), who, writing about Manichaeus and Scythianus, says:

At that time, he says, a certain Manichaeus attempted to secretly introduce the dogma of the pagan philosopher Empedocles A pre-Socratic Greek philosopher (c. 490–430 BCE) who theorized that the universe was composed of four elements acted upon by two opposing forces: Love (attraction) and Strife (repulsion). into the Christian Religion. For in this way it will be understood who Manichaeus was and from where he came to break forth into such audacity. Scythianus introduced the opinion of Empedocles and Pythagoras into the Christian Religion. For he asserted that there are two natures, one good and the other evil, just as Empedocles did, who called the evil nature "Discord" and the good nature "Friendship."

Jerome Saint Jerome (c. 347–420 CE), the scholar and Bible translator. (3) is the authority for the claim that the Stoic philosophers first, and then the Manichaeans, taught that the souls of individual men are particles of the divine nature; he wrote these things to those consulting him about the origin of the soul:

Regarding the state of the soul, I remember your question: Whether it fell from heaven, as the philosopher Pythagoras, all the Platonists, and Origen think; or whether it is from God’s own substance, as the Stoics, Manichaeus, and the Spanish heresy of Priscillian Priscillian of Avila, a 4th-century bishop executed for heresy whose teachings were often linked by his enemies to Manichaeism. suspect.

Tullius Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), the Roman orator and philosopher. (4), the most keen observer of all the Stoics, affirms and proves that Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans held this same opinion which Manichaeus seized upon:

I used to hear, he says, that Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans—almost our own neighbors, who were once called the "Italian philosophers"—never doubted that we possessed souls plucked from the universal divine mind.

Furthermore, that Mani taught the transmigration of souls—which is called Metempsychosis From the Greek meaning "the passage of the soul from one body to another." by the Greeks—from one body into another, and that he took this from the ancient philosophers...

(1) Tillemont, Ecclesiastical History, volume 4, at the year of Christ 264.
(2) Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book 1, chapter 22.
(3) Jerome, Letter to Marcellinus and Anapsychia, found in Augustine, letter 165, chapter 1, number 1, volume 2.
(4) Cicero, On Old Age, page 369.