Terebinthus

Terebinthus was, according to the account of the Church Father Cyril of Jerusalem, a disciple of Scythianus, who according to Rudolf Steiner is a high initiate and the Bodhisattva of the West. Scythianus and Terebinthos are mentioned for the first time in the anti-Manichaean Acta Archelai by the otherwise unknown church father Hegemonius. The life of Terebinthos is reported by Cyril:

„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. 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

The connection to Buddha alluded to here - although it cannot be the historical Gautama Buddha, who lived much earlier - is also mentioned in a letter by Marius Victorius from the 4th century.

Rudolf Steiner referred to this legend, according to which Scythianus and Terebinthus had been predecessors of Mani, in a similar form.

„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.” (Lit.: Chwolson, p. 130ff)

Literature

• Daniil Abramovič Chwolson: Die Ssabier und der Ssabismus, Band I, Petersburg und Leipzig 1856 google
• Rudolf Steiner: Die Tempellegende und die Goldene Legende , GA 93 (1991), ISBN 3-7274-0930-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der Esoterischen Schule 1904 bis 1914, GA 264 (1987), ISBN 3-7274-2650-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

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