INTRODUCTION

from the Eternal Paradise, to which it is to be restored at the end of the world.1 It shares, therefore, the nature of the Eternal Paradise, with which it is consubstantial. In its separate existence only is it temporary; and its inhabitants, who will return with it at the end to the Paradise of Light, may be said already to enjoy in it the sweetness of eternal life.2

The function of the New Paradise most clearly stated is that of a resting-place for the redeeming gods, who are banished from the Eternal Paradise during their struggle to recover the lost Light. The purpose of this banishment is to secure the unbroken peace of the World of Light. At the end of the world, the redeeming gods retire to the New Paradise together with its king, the First Man,3 and rest there with their attendant divinities and the last particles of rescued Light.4 Thereafter they return to the Eternal Paradise and once more behold the Father of Greatness.5

In several places it is stated that the Light which remains imprisoned until the end of the world will ascend as the "Last Man" to the New Paradise, and go thence by the side of the "First Man" into the presence of the Father.6 The problem is whether this was the course traveled by all particles of redeemed Light, or whether the souls rescued before the final restoration (frašēgird) returned directly to the Eternal Kingdom.

In Parthian and Middle Persian, the New Paradise is called whyšt rwšn (Light Paradise), nwg (nw’g) šhr (New Kingdom), and nwg (nw’g) šhr’n (New Kingdoms).7 There are a number of references to it as the goal of the dead, of which the following will suffice as examples:

I reverence you, O God; forgive my sins, save my soul, lead it up to the New Paradise!8

"The souls will go to the Light, they will put on the body of the Father. They will be in glory within the New Aeon for ever and ever."9

1. See Mir. Man. iii, a 85–90.
2. See Hymnscroll 143a (W.-L. ii, p. 488).
3. See Polotsky, Man. Homilien, p. 41^18-20 and n. b.
4. See Mir. Man. iii, a 2–15; Keph. xxxix (p. 103^2-10).
5. See Mir. Man. iii, p. 853 a 140–3 and n. 5 with references.
6. See ibid. p. 852 a 100–2 and n. 3 with references.
7. That the term nwg šhr sometimes embodies a conception of the New Paradise as the New Aeon, existing in time rather than space, is due to the dual meaning of the word (Syr. ‘ālmā) rendered by šhr; see Polotsky, ‘Manichäische Studien’, Le Muséon, xlvi, pp. 259–60. For the plural form šhr’n see Mir. Man. iii, p. 885, n. 2.
8. BBB., p. 21, ll. 94–97.
9. M 285, ll. 88–92 (an unpublished Parthian text).