Footnote 6 – Adam Meets the Evil Archon

There were two main classes of Manichaen “believers’: the “elect” (Latin electi) or “righteous ones” (Syriac zaddiqin), who observed all of the precepts in order to assist the release of the trapped particles of light in the world, and the “hearers” (Latin auditores), that is, the laity, whose occupational labors and alms supported the “elect” in their redemptive work,Syriac and Arabic sources indicate that Mani’s term for the “elect” was zaddiq; i.e., “righteous (or pious) one.”