Scythianus

Scythianus[1] (floruit 1st century CE) was an Alexandrian religious teacher.

He was of Scythian descent; although by birth he was a Saracen, of the Saracens of Palestine. He was a merchant in the trade with India, over the course of which he visited India several times, and acquainted himself with Indian philosophy. Having amassed great wealth, while returning homeward through the Thebais, he fell in, at Hypsele, with an Egyptian slave girl, whom he bought and married. He then settled in Alexandria and applied himself to Egyptian learning. Here he formed his philosophy, with the assistance of his one disciple and slave Terebinthus. He wrote four books, which were the root source of all Manichaean doctrine.[2]

He is mentioned by several Christian writers and anti-Manichaean polemicists of the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, including Archelaus of Caschar, Hippolytus of Rome, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Salamis, and is mentioned in the fourth-century work Acta Archelai, a critical biography of Mani from an orthodox perspective. Scythianus is thought to have lived near the border between Palestine and Arabia, and to have been active in trade between the Red Sea ports and India.

Hippolytus considered Scythianus as a predecessor of Mani, and wrote that he brought, before Mani, "the doctrine of the Two Principles" from India.[3] According to Epiphanius, he was apparently trying to propagate the view "that there is something beyond the one who exists and that, so to speak, the activity of all things comes from two roots or two principles". Epiphanius further explained that Scythianus wrote four books: Mysteries, Treasure, Summaries, and a gospel (the Gospel of Scythianus, also mentioned by Cyril of Jerusalem). Scythianus is said to have been to Jerusalem, where he disputed his doctrines with the Apostles .

The account of Cyril of Jerusalem states that after Scythianus' death, his pupil Terebinthus went to Palestine and Judaea ("becoming known and condemned in Judaea") and Babylon. He used the name 'Buddas', which could mean he presented himself as a Buddha and may suggest a link between his philosophy and Buddhism.[4] Terebinthus brought with him the books of Scythianus, which he presented upon his death to his lodger, a widow with a slave named Cubricus, who later changed his name to Mani (from "Manes" in Persian, meaning "discourse"). Mani is said to have studied the books, which thereby become the source of Manichean doctrine [5]