Here, I turn to the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies and read it together with the Cologne Mani Codex. I argue that its anti-Pauline sentiment, which reaches its highest pitch when polemicizing against visionary forms of revelation, is responding to Mani’s claims to be the Apostle of Jesus Christ. I first show that the language of “seminal fluids and blood” of the two prophets in the Homilies is designed to show that the True Prophet cannot be human. The same holds for the cryptic passage about Jesus “changing forms and names,” since only a divine substance - and not a human being - can be the True Prophet. I then turn to the Homilies’ anti-Pauline critique of visionary forms of revelation. I place these together with the Cologne Mani Codex, which presents Mani as a “Second Paul” who acquires prognosis through visionary means. I ultimately argue that the Homilies’ “anti-Pauline” sentiment is directed against Mani (among others).

In the next three chapters, I argue that conceptions of “prophethood” cannot be separated from the specific rhetorical contexts in which they are articulated. In this chapter, I argue that “prophethood” as found in Baraies the Teacher’s homily in the Cologne Mani Codex shows that “Manichaeism” had not yet “parted ways” from its earlier “Jewish Christian” and “Elchasaite roots” since Baraies invents a new concept of prophethood designed to graft Mani into an already existing Elchasaite history. I show that Baraies’ notion of prophethood is new because he is responding to a problem that never arose in Mani’s lifetime, and, he cites from Mani’s own books, but none of them say what Baraies wants him to say. If Baraies is trying to demonstrate to his opponents that Mani should be included in prior history, then we cannot yet say that the two religions had definitively parted ways, only that Mani continued to be a point of contention within an already-existing community. Prophethood is thus a rhetorical tool for Baraies to make his argument, which is ultimately over who are the stewards of Elchasaite history and its true spokespeople.