[13] Ancient Greek interpretations were skeuos (σκεῦος, vessel, instrument) and homilia (ὁμιλία, intercourse, company, communion, instruction).

Mani’s names became the object of uplifting transformation (Greek, Coptic Mannichaios, Latin Mannichaeus, i.e., Mannam fundens "pouring out Manna").

[17] For an updated critique of the standard account and a radically alternative proposal see Iain Gardner's The Founder of Manichaeism: Rethinking the Life of Mani.

Mani's father Pātik (Middle Persian Pattūg;[19] Koinē Greek: Παττικιος, Arabic: Futtuq), a native of Ecbatana[20] (now Hamadan, Iran), was a member of the Jewish Christian sect of the Elcesaites.

The Elcesaite community was ostensibly Jewish Christian, though with some Gnostic features due to their Ebionite heritage, such as the belief in recurring incarnations of heavenly apostles, one of whom was a docetic Christ.

[24] At ages 12 and 24 Mani had visionary experiences of a "heavenly twin" of his (syzygos), calling him to leave his father's sect and preach the true message of Jesus in a new gospel.

[27] Mani then travelled to India (Sakas in present day Afghanistan), where he studied Hinduism and its various extant philosophies, as well as Buddhism.

According to sources, he passed his last days comforting his visiting disciples, teaching that his death would have no other consequence than the return of his soul to the realm of light.

There is a story which claims that he was flayed, and his corpse suspended over the main gate of the great city of Gundeshapur;[32] however, there is no historical basis for this account.

Examples of surviving portions of his works include: the Shabuhragan (Middle Persian), the Book of Giants (numerous fragments in many languages), the Fundamental Epistle (quoted in length by Saint Augustine), a number of fragments of his Living Gospel (or Great Gospel), a Syriac excerpt quoted by Theodore Bar Konai, and his Letter to Edessa contained in the Cologne Mani-Codex.

[37] However according to Lodewijk J. R. Ort, the term last prophet may "in all probability derived from the Quran by Al-Buruni in order to formulate Mani's pretensions and religious claims".

According to this account, one Scythianos, a Saracen, husband of an Egyptian woman, "introduced the doctrine of Empedocles and Pythagoras into Christianity"; that he had a disciple, "Buddas, formerly named Terebinthus", who travelled in Persia, where he alleged that he had been born of a virgin, and afterwards wrote four books, one of Mysteries, a second The Gospel, a third The Treasure, and a fourth Heads.

Thence he escaped, flying into Mesopotamia, but was traced, captured, and flayed alive by the Persian king's orders, the skin being then stuffed with chaff and hung up before the gate of the city.

By Photius it is stated that Heraclean, bishop of Chalcedon, in his book against the Manichæans, said the Disputation of Archelaus was written by one Hegemonius, an author not otherwise traceable, and of unknown date.

[41] Furthermore, that in the disputation he taught concerning the sphere, the two luminaries, the transmigration of souls, and the war of the Principia against God, that "Corbicius" or Corbicus, about the age of sixty, translated the books of Terebinthus.

According to the Latin narrative, finally, Manes on his return to Arabion was seized and taken to the Persian king, by whose orders he was flayed, his body being left to the birds, and his skin, filled with air, hung at the city gate.

He was persecuted by Shapur I and fled to Central Asia, where he made disciples and embellished with paintings a Tchighil (or picturarum domus Chinensis) and another temple called Ghalbita.