To Justinus the Manichaean, against the Two Principles of the Manichaeans and on the True Flesh of Christ

Contents

Reading pages: 1–15 · 16

1. 1The author opens a letter to Justin, a Manichaean, promising to answer his question whether contrary things can come from one principle, and wonders that Justin hates the flesh yet venerates plants.
2. 2The author argues that the sun, the stars and the whole world refute the Manichaean doctrine of two unbegotten principles, and presses Justin on the Manichaean denial that Christ's flesh came from Mary.
3. 3The author argues that the Manichaean account of Christ's heavenly flesh and of a flesh-maker hostile to God is incoherent, and professes one creator of all things, light, truth and the whole.
4. 4The author argues that the one God is distinct from the many things from him, and, as almighty, is the origin even of contraries, as one matter takes many forms, while he himself has no likeness.
5. 5The author argues that an infinite God cannot coexist with another kingdom, and that the Manichaean war between light and darkness implies that the defeated darkness has perished, so the flesh belongs to the victor.
6. 6The author mocks the Manichaean picture of a victorious God troubled by his captives, arguing that two eternal, self-existent principles cannot be conquered or subjected without contradiction.
7. 7The author argues that neither light nor darkness could have started the Manichaean war without absurdity, dismisses dualism as a Persian notion, and names Mani, Zoroaster and Buddha as teachers who deceived many.
8. 8The author concludes that contraries do not require two principles, that the one Creator of the world is his maker, and he calls the flesh to rejoice that, redeemed by the cross, it will be clothed with immortality.
9. 9The author contrasts Babylonian magic with Christ's raising of buried flesh, insists that Christ was born of a virgin, died and rose in real flesh, and argues that darkness and evil have no being of their own but arise from the act of another, as cold from wind.
10. 10The author explains that darkness, like ice from water, is not a substance but appears only through the act of another and perishes when light shines, so that it cannot be a second principle.
11. 11The author argues that the one almighty God is the infinite whole, beside whom “nothing” has no substance and no place, so that a rival principle would make space itself greater than God.
12. 12The author argues that two coeternal, warring principles involve absurdities about priority, greatness and defeat, and concludes that there is one unbegotten Lord from whom all things come.
13. 13The author compares evil to a shadow, which has no substance but depends on a solid body, and urges Mani's follower to confess that nothing exists that is not from the one eternal Lord.
14. 14The author argues that no evil can dwell in the highest heavens, that a conquered power cannot be a principle, and that there cannot be two infinites, so God alone is the one principle.
15. 15The author argues that the Almighty is not bound by the rule that created things produce only their like, that evil in the proper sense is a demon, an angelic creature, and that other evils have no substance.
16. 16The author traces sin to the soul's misuse of free will, exposes the contradictions of Manichaean docetism about Christ's death and burial, criticizes Manichaean fasting, and urges Justin to confess God as creator of soul and body.