Christian Gnostic teachers and schools are at the origin of the Christian interpretation of the Bible. Gnostic teachers were among the first to write commentaries on New Testament writings. The emergence of the first commentaries on writings of the New Testament marks an important watershed in the history of the Christian Bible. A more or less continuous commentary was only one of several ways in which Christian Gnostic theologians could engage with biblical texts. The Persian prophet Mani's self-styling as a prophet drew on the Bible and apocryphal writings: he claimed that the Spirit, the Paraclete, had descended on him and spoken to him. Like Jesus, Mani was crucified, and the crucifixions of both Mani and Jesus were a focus of Manichaean theology and spirituality. For Manichaeans, the crucifixion and subsequent ascent to heaven of Mani signalled a spectacular defeat of, and liberation from, the evil powers.