Scythianus

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Scythianus, who according to Rudolf Steiner is one of the highest initiates and the Bodhisattva of the West, is mentioned in the writings of several Church Fathers, including Cyril of Jerusalem, Hippolytus of Rome and Epiphanius of Salamis[1]. He is mentioned for the first time in the anti-Manichaean Acta Archelai by the otherwise unknown church father Hegemonius. According to this, Scythianus was a native of Scythia or Saracen who worked as a religious teacher and successful merchant in Alexandria and visited India around 50 AD.

Scythianus and his disciple Terebinthus

Cyril of Jerusalem († 387) reports on the life of Scythianus and his disciple Terebinthus:

„In Egypt lived a certain Scythianus, a Saracen; he had no relation either to Judaism or Christianity. He lived in Alexandria and imitated the Aristotelian way of life. He wrote four books. One was entitled "Gospel", an empty name; for it did not contain the life of Christ. Another was called "Chapters", a third "Mysteries", a fourth, which is still in circulation among them, "Treasure". His disciple was Terebinthus. When Scythianos made a plan to wander into Judea to pollute the land, the Lord sent him a deadly disease and prevented the plague.“

– Cyril of Jerusalem: Catecheses to the Baptised (Procatechesis et Catecheses ad illuminandos) VI, 22

Terebinthus is said to have been the disciple of Scythianus and later to have taken the name Buddha. The implied connection to Buddha - though it cannot be the historical Gautama Buddha, who lived much earlier - is also mentioned in a 4th century letter by Marius Victorius[2].

„The disciple of wickedness, Terebinthos, inherited the money, the books and the heresy of Scythianus. He came to Palestine. But being recognised and condemned in Judea, he decided to go to Persia. In order not to betray himself by his name, he called himself Budda. Nevertheless, he had his opponents here too, namely the priests of Mithras. In many conversations and disputations he had with them, he was refuted. Driven into a corner, he finally took refuge with a widow. There he climbed onto a roof and called upon the demons of the air, which the Manichaeans still invoke to this day in the abominable fig ceremony[3]. But God struck him, he fell from the roof and gave up his spirit. Thus the second beast was put out of the world.“

– Cyril of Jerusalem: Catecheses to the Baptised VI, 23

Scythianos as one of the highest Initiates and Bodhisattva of the West

According to Rudolf Steiner, Scythianus was one of the highest initiates on earth and "keeper of the ancient Atlantean wisdom, which went deep even into all that which is the secrets of the physical body". (Lit.:GA 113, p. 190) In the schools of the Rosicrucians he is regarded as the great Bodhisattva of the West:

„Therefore it is in all spiritual training of the Rosicrucian that one looks up with deepest veneration to those old initiates who preserved the ancient wisdom of Atlantis: to the re-embodied Scythianos, in him one saw the great venerated Bodhisattva of the West; to the respective embodied reflection of the Buddha, whom one likewise venerated as one of the Bodhisattvas, and finally to Zarathas, the re-embodied Zarathustra.“ (Lit.:GA 113, p. 192)

According to the legend documented above and also referred to by Rudolf Steiner[4], Scythianos and Therebinthus were predecessors of Mani.

„A great prophet, a mighty teacher of religion has become of the youth of Nain! In the third century A.D., Mani or Manes, the founder of Manichaeism, first appeared in Babylonia. A peculiar legend tells the following about him.

Scythianus and Therebinthus or Buddha were his predecessors. The latter was the disciple of the former. After the violent death of Scythianus, he fled with his books to Babylonia. He too fared badly; only an old widow accepted his teachings. She inherits his books and leaves them to her foster son, who is twelve years old and whom she has adopted as a seven-year-old slave boy. This son, who again can be called a "son of the widow", appears at the age of 24 as Manes, the founder of Manichaeism.“ (Lit.:GA 264, p. 229)

The source used by Steiner states:

„Now that it has been established that Manichaeism arose from Mendaïsm, let us try to throw light on another message preserved by the Church Fathers concerning Mani. According to Epiphanius, Cyril Hierosolymitanus, Socrates and the author of the Acta Disputationis S. Archelai, with whom Theodoretus, Suidas and Cedrenus partly agree, Mani was not the actual founder of Manichaeism, but it had its forerunners in the person of a certain Scythianus and in his disciple Terebinthus, who later called himself Buddha. It is also said that anyone who wanted to renounce the heresy of Mani had to renounce Zarades (Zoroaster), Buddha and Scythianus at the same time. According to the Actis, the latter was a Scythian from Scythia - which is probably why he was called Scythian; his real name was not Scythianus - who appeared at the time of the apostles and began to spread the doctrine of the two principles. Finally, he is said to have been a Saracen and to have married a woman from the upper Thebais, because of her he settled in Egypt, where he became acquainted with the wisdom of the Egyptians. Epiphanius, Socrates and Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus report approximately the same. Only the former remarks that he came from the region of the Saracens, was educated in Arabia and had made journeys to India and Egypt, and the latter expressly says of him that he had nothing in common with Judaism and Christianity. He himself, or his disciple Terebinthus, had written four writings, which the latter, after his emigration to Babylon, had bequeathed to a widow on his death. Mani, who was a slave of this widow, came into possession of these writings through her, whose teachings he then claimed to be his own.” (Chwolson, p. 130ff)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. ↑ Epiphanius of Salamis: Panarion 66: „Against Manichaeans”
  2. ↑ Marius Victorinus: Liber ad Justinum Manichaeum, in: Migne J.-P. (ed.): Patrologia Latina 8, 1844, p. 999-1010
  3. ↑ Catecheses VI, 33
  4. ↑ Cf. in addition (Lit.:GA 93, p. 310ff)
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