{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th3/th305.htm","path":"gno/th3/th305.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th3/th305.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n(Patrizzi (p. 51b) gives no title; but simply the heading \u201cIn Another [Book].\u201d\nText: Stob., Phys., xxxv. 11, under the heading: \u201cOf Hermes\u201d; G. pp. 295, 296; M. i. 206; W. i. 293.\nM\u00e9nard, Livre IV., No. iv. of \u201cFragments Divers,\u201d p. 274).\n1. [Her.] There is, then, That which transcends being, 1\u2014beyond all things existent, and all that really are.\nFor That-transcending-being is [that mystery] because of which exists that being-ness 2 which is called universal, common unto intelligibles that really are, and to those beings which are thought of according to the law of sameness.\nThose which are contrary to these, according to the law of otherness, are again themselves according to themselves. 3\nAnd Nature is an essence which the senses can perceive, containing in itself all sensibles.\n2. Between these 1 are the intelligible 2 and the sensible gods.\nThings that pertain to the intelligence, share in [the nature of] the Gods that are intelligible only; while things pertaining to opinion, have their part with those that are the sensible.\nThese latter are the images of the intelligences 3; the Sun, for instance, is the image of the Demiurgic God above the Heaven.\nFor just as He hath made the universe, so doth Sun make the animals, and generate the plants, and regulate the breaths. 4\nI have supplied the title for the sake of uniformity. If we compare our extract with Ex. vii, and especially the last sentence of the former with the first sentence of \u00a7 2 of the latter, and note that in Stob\u00e6us the one excerpt follows almost immediately on the other, we shall be fairly well persuaded that they both come from the same collection\u2014namely, the Sermons to Tat.\n24:1 Or the pre-existent; \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78 \u1f44\u03bd, or \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03cc\u03bd.\n24:2 \u03bf\u1f50\u03c3\u03b9\u03cc\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2; or essentiality.\n24:3 This seems to refer to the seven spheres of difference or otherness (\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c4\u1f78 \u1f15\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd) moving symbolically against, or \u201ccrosswise with,\u201d the all-embracing sphere of sameness (\u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u1fbd \u1f11\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03cc); or it may mean that they have a sameness in the fact that their motions enter into themselves \u201cagain.\u201d\n25:1 Presumably God and Nature.\n25:2 \u03bd\u03bf\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9\u03ba\u03bf\u03af,\u2014a very rare form, and may possibly mean perceptible.\n25:3 \u03bd\u03bf\u03b7\u03bc\u03ac\u03c4\u03c9\u03bd.\n25:4 Or spirits. The last clause, \u201cand regulates,\u201d etc., is absent from some MSS., and is, therefore, considered spurious by some editors; but its unexpectedness is a strong guarantee of its genuineness. The \u201cspirits\u201d are the pr\u0101\u1e47a\u2019s of Hindu physiological psychology; cf. C. H., x. (xi.) 13, Comment., and Exs. xv. 2, xix. 3.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3: I. Excerpts by Stob\u00e6us: Excerpt IV. God, Nature and the Gods","type":"page"}