The book with the full title of “Mani’s Living Gospel and the Ewangelyōnīg Hymns: Edition, Reconstruction and Commentary with a Codicological and Textological Approach Based on Manichaean Turfan Fragments in the Berlin Collection”, is actually the doctoral thesis of the author who has graduated from FU in Berlin.

In Foumeshi^, s work 25 fragments of Mani’s Living Gospel and the Ewangelyōnīg hymns (The hymn of the Gospel), discovered in the Turfan Oasis in the early 20th century, preserved in the Berlin Turfan Collection have been studied.

According to Dr. Foumeshi some of the fragments have already been published by other scholars, but only the work presented here aims at finalizing the work begun by others, as he was able to identify new fragments and with their help, was able to complete the fragments available. The combination of the new fragment M5439 with the previously published M17, the former completing the latter, proved to be one of the most important examples for his research on the Middle Persian version of Mani’s Gospel.

Fumeshi said: “I was able to reconstruct and conclusively join two of the already published fragments of the Ewangelyōnīg hymns with the help of two new fragments. I also attempted in the scope of this work, to present an identification of several other fragments that were probably part of Mani’s Gospel.

He also added: “to accomplish this, I analyzed all the Gnostic-Christian and Iranian sources in depth, and contrasted them with the Manichaean documents, both Iranian and non-Iranian. Thus I was able to present new suggestions and was likewise able to prove or disprove prior assumptions made by others about Mani’s Gospel. To ensure a deeper understanding of the Gospel and the Ewangelyōnīg hymns, I added a few explanatory chapters and paragraphs to this dissertation that mainly deal with the inner and outer structure of the Gospel and serve, as I hope, in establishing a comprehensive relation between the Gospel and the Ewangelyōnīg hymns.

According to Dr. Foumeshi, further research on the Manichaean sources, e.g. the Greek version of the Gospel and the Coptic Synaxeis on the one hand, and the Greek anti-Manichaean sources and accounts by Muslim writers on the other hand, served to deepen our understanding of the content of the Gospel greatly.

Foumeshi also stated: “by incorporating a study of these sources into this dissertation, I was able to close some of those gaps that impeded our understanding of the Gospel. Some important questions pertaining to the alphabetic structure of the chapters of the Gospel and the abecedarian order of the Parthian (Ewangelyōnīg) hymns, I was able to answer in this work.

He continued: “for some hapax legomena, I was able to present a reasonable etymology in this dissertation. This doctoral thesis was not only designed to enlarge our understanding of the Turfan texts by presenting the new texts and reconstructions, moreover the new proposed codicological and textological approaches applied to the texts may serve to facilitate or at least simplify further research in this field.

Mohammd Shokri-Foumeshi is already a scholar of Manichaean as well as Middle Iranian studies and a lecturer at the University of Religions and Denominations.

Table of contents of the volume is as follows:

Chapter One: Introduction

Aim

Material and Content of the Living Gospel and Ewangelyōnīg

Hymns

Outline of the Study

History of Prior Research

Chapter Two: Mani and his Gospel

The Living Gospel and Manichaeism

Position of the Gospel among the Canonical Writings

Names and Epithets

Composition Date

Chapter Order of the Living Gospel

Chapter Three: Living Gospel and Doubtful Fragment

Mani and the New Testament

Sayings of Jesus in Tatian’s Διà τεσσάρων and the Nag Hammadi

Codices

Double-edged Sword: Similarities and Differences

Possible Quotations of the Living Gospel in other Sources: An

Overview

The Paraclete as a Main Point of Issue in the Living Gospel

Not Near but not Far: Jesus’ Sayings and Acts

Citations of the Living Gospel: Some Tentative Suggestions

Chapter Four: Manichaean Turfan Texts of the Living Gospel

Overview and General Concepts

Turfan Fragments of the Living Gospel: Critical Middle Persian

Text and its Alternating Sogdian Version

Text I: M 17

Text II: M 172/I/

Text III: M 644

Text IV: A Newly Recognized Small Fragment: M 5439 [= T II D67]

Text V: An as yet Unpublished Manuscript Page in Sogdian Script

Return to the Verso Side of M 644

Unified Middle Persian Text of the Living Gospel

Commentary

Content of the Living Gospel According to an Unpublished Parthian Manuscript page

Chapter Five: Living Gospel Based on the Non-Iranian Manichaean Codices: Structure and Content

Greek Version

First Fragment: CMC 65, 23-68, 5

Second Fragment: CMC 68, 5-69, 8

Third Fragment: CMC 69, 9-70, 10

A Textological Commentary

Coptic Synaxeis

Chapter Titles

Plain Text

First Discourse (logos)

Other Discourses

Chapter Six: The Gospel in the Non-Manichaean Heritage

Accounts of the Greek Anti-Manichaean Writings

Arabic and Classical New Persian Testimonia

Testimonies

Commentary

Chapter Seven: Ewangelyōnīg Hymns

General Observations

Abecedarian System in the Parthian Hymns

Texts

Text I

Text II

Text III

Text IV

Chapter Eight: Miscellaneous Scraps: Living Gospel and Ewangelyōnīg Hymns

Fragment I

Fragment II

Fragment III

Fragment IV

Fragment V

Chapter Nine: Content of the Living Gospel and the Ewangelyōnīg Hymns: An Overview

Living Gospel

Ewangelyōnīg Hymns

Living Gospel in Context of the ‘Hymns of the Gospel’

Chapter Ten: Glossary of Turfan Texts in this Work

Middle Persian and Parthian

Sogdian

Chapter Eleven: Conclusion