Anachronisms regarding the Book of Mormon’s use of biblical material prompted Mormon scholars to reject the nineteenth-century notion that Joseph Smith produced from the plates a “literal” translation. Instead they have advanced the idea that the concepts flowed through Joseph’s mind and that he was left to express those concepts in the best language that…

D. Michael Quinn, who was excommunicated as part of the “September Six” for writing about Joseph Smith’s magical world view, wrote the following in his book Early Mormonism and the Magic World View: “The official version of early Mormon history is often incomplete in its presentation of material facts and evaluation of evidence; therefore it…

Article Some First Preliminary Studies of Manichaeism The first significant study on Manichaeism as a religion appeared in 1578. It was a work by Cyriacus Spangenberg entitled: Historia Manichaeorum: de furiosae et pestiferae huius Sectae origine. The author’s perspective is clear from the title: History of the Manichaeans, on the origin of this mad and…

Studies of Manichaeism are still somewhat limited and our sources are few. What we do know about it often comes from its opponents, especially the former Manichaean Augustine of Hippo, who would convert to Christianity. Recently, we have found a number of Manichaean texts in a variety of languages, commonly in Syriac, but sometimes in…

His environment was mainly Jewish-Christian with some Gnostic features. His community was presumably Ebionite. He had visionary experiences.He left his religion and decided to “preach the true message of Jesus in a new gospel”.To start with a study of Manichaeism we must examine the life of the founder of Manichaeism, Mani. Mani was born, acording…

The sources that say that Mani claimed to be the “Seal of the Prophets” (khātam an-nabīyyīn) are all Islamic ones. Surviving Manichean literature contains no such reference. To wit:The Persian polymath al-Bīrūnī claims in the Kitāb al-Āthār al-Bāqiyah, a work from 1000 AD, that: [In the Gospel of Mani] Mani says that he is the…

Article Zoroastrianism, also called Mazdaism or the worship of Ahura Mazda, “Wise Lord”, is attributed to a prophet and devotional poet named Zarathushtra who probably preached in Central Asia during the second millennium BCE. Zarathushtra’s doctrines as laid out in his Gathas, “Religious Songs”, were assimilated by an Iranian priesthood, the magi, who spread the…

Was Zoroastrianism monotheistic? “The Pantheon [in Zoroastrianism] was never abolished, and Zoroastrianism remained, at least in some sense, a polytheistic religion throughout its history.” “The dualist attitude was not abandoned or questioned until after the Arab conquest.”

Also see: https://brill.com/display/serial/HO2-CAVE Avestan Research 1991-2014, Hintze for an overview: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/19207/1/082%202014%20Kratylos%2059%201-52.pdf To take a step back, for an intro to the Avesta (in French): available online: https://books.openedition.org/lesbelleslettres/24943 Current Trends in Avestan Studies lecture, Redard: https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/video/current-trends-in-avestan-studies/ Also see: https://ada.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/ Zoroastrianism: History, Religion, and Belief: Free online course via Future Learn: https://futurelearn.com/courses/zoroastrianism-history-religion-belief The Yasna ceremony online: https://muya-film.soas.hasdai.org/yasna/

Magoi were prototypically a Zoroastrian priestly tribe, yes, from Old Persian magush, Avestan moyu-. And that’s reflected by Matthew’s statement that they came from the east. The Magoi had an extended reputation outside their homeland. Magos is the origin of the word magic, after all (Greek magia)! By the time of Matthew, magos had been…