{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th3/th307.htm","path":"gno/th3/th307.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th3/th307.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\n(Title from Patrizzi (p. 38b); followed by: \u201cTo the Same Tat.\u201d\nText: Stob., Phys., viii. 41, under heading: \u201cOf Hermes from the [Sermons] to Tat\u201d; G. p. 93; M. i. 64.\nM\u00e9nard, Livre IV., No. v. of \u201cFragments from the Books of Hermes to his Son Tat,\u201d p. 241.)\n1. Now to find out concerning the three times; for they are neither by themselves, nor [yet] are they at-oned; and [yet] again they are at-oned, and by themselves [as well].\nFor should\u2019st thou think the present is without the past, it can\u2019t be present unless it has become already past. 1\nFor from the past the present comes, and from the present future goes.\nBut if we have to scrutinize more closely, thus let us argue:\n2. Past time doth pass into no longer being\nthis, 1 and future [time] doth not exist, in its not being present; nay, present even is not present, in its continuing.\nTime, then, which stands not [steady] (\u1f15\u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03ba\u03b5), but which is on the turn, without a central point at which to stop,\u2014how can it be called in-stant (\u1f10\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03ce\u03c2), 2 seeing even that it hath no power to stand (\u1f11\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9)?\nAgain, past joining present, and present [joining] future, they [thus] are one; for they are not without them 3 in their sameness, and their oneness, and their continuity.\nThus, [then], time\u2019s both continuous and discontinuous, though one and the same [time].\n28:1 That is, apparently, you cannot think of the present until it is already past.\n29:1 That is, apparently, \u201cpresent.\u201d\n29:2 The usual term in Greek for \u201cpresent,\u201d but I have here translated it by \u201cinstant\u201d in order to keep the word-play, which would otherwise entirely vanish in translation.\n29:3 That is, apparently, any one without the other two, or any two without the other one.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 3: I. Excerpts by Stob\u00e6us: Excerpt VI. Of Time","type":"page"}