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By John Michael Greer

THE FIFTEEN TRACTATES OF THE CORPUS HERMETICUM, along with the Perfect Sermon or Asclepius, are the foundation documents of the Hermetic tradition. Written by unknown authors in Egypt sometime before the end of the third century C.E., they were part of a once substantial literature attributed to the mythic figure of Hermes Trismegistus, a Hellenistic fusion of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.

This literature came out of the same religious and philosophical ferment that produced Neoplatonism, Christianity, and the diverse collection of teachings usually lumped together under the label “Gnosticism”: a ferment which had its roots in the impact of Platonic thought on the older traditions of the Hellenized East. There are obvious connections and common themes linking each of these traditions, although each had its own answer to the major questions of the time.

The treatises we now call the Corpus Hermeticum were collected into a single volume in Byzantine times, and a copy of this volume survived to come into the hands of Lorenzo de Medici’s agents in the fifteenth century. Marsilio Ficino, the head of the Florentine Academy, was pulled off the task of translating the dialogues of Plato in order to put the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin first. His translation saw print in 1463, and was reprinted at least twenty-two times over the next century and a half.

Translated
By
G. R. S. Mead

THIS DIALOGUE SETS FORTH THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND METAPHYSICAL WORLDS in the context of Greek natural philosophy. Some of the language is fairly technical: the “errant spheres” of sections 6 and 7 are the celestial spheres carrying the planets, while the “inerrant sphere” is that of the fixed stars. It’s useful to keep in mind, also, that “air” and “spirit” are interchangeable concepts in Greek thought, and that the concept of the Good has a range of implications which don’t come across in the English word: one is that the good of any being, in Greek thought, was also that being’s necessary goal.

The criticism of childlessness in section 17 should probably be read as a response to the Christian ideal of celibacy, which horrified many people in the ancient world. – J M G

1. Hermes: All that is moved, Asclepius, is it not moved in something and by something?

Asclepius: Assuredly.

H: And must not that in which it’s moved be greater than the moved?

A: It must.

H: Mover, again, has greater power than moved?

A: It has, of course.

H: The nature, furthermore, of that in which it’s moved must be quite other from the nature of the moved?

1—4. Announcement of the coming Destruction of Jerusalem to Baruch

Chapter 1 1 And it came to pass in the twenty-fifth year of Jeconiah, king of Judah, that the word of the Lord came to Baruch, the son of Neriah, and said to him:

2 ‘Have you seen all that this people are doing to Me, that the evils which these two tribes which remained have done are greater than (those of) the ten tribes which were carried away captive? 3 For the former tribes were forced by their kings to commit sin, but these two of themselves have been forcing and compelling their kings to commit sin. 4 For this reason, behold I bring evil upon this city, and upon its inhabitants, and it shall be removed from before Me for a time, and I will scatter this people among the Gentiles that they may do good to the Gentiles. And My people shall be chastened, and the time shall come when they will seek for the prosperity of their times.

Chapter 2 1 For I have said these things to you that you may bid Jeremiah, and all those that are like you, to retire from this city.

2 For your works are to this city as a firm pillar, And your prayers as a strong wall.’

THIS IS THE MOST FAMOUS OF THE HERMETIC DOCUMENTS, a revelation account describing a vision of the creation of the universe and the nature and fate of humanity. Authors from the Renaissance onward have been struck by the way in which its creation myth seems partly inspired by Genesis, partly reacting against it. The Fall has here become the descent of the Primal Man through the spheres of the planets to the world of Nature, a descent caused not by disobedience but by love, and done with the blessing of God.

The seven rulers of fate discussed in sections 9, 14 and 25 are the archons of the seven planets, which also appear in Plato’s Timaeus and in a number of the ancient writings usually lumped together as “Gnostic”. Their role here is an oddly ambivalent one, powers of Harmony who are nonetheless the sources of humanity’s tendencies to evil. – JMG

1. It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back – just as men who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.

Methought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?

2. And I do say: Who art thou?

He saith: I am Man-Shepherd (Poemandres), Mind of all-masterhood; I know what thou desirest and I’m with thee everywhere.

3. [And] I reply: I long to learn the things that are, and comprehend their nature, and know God. This is, I said, what I desire to hear.

Apostolic Fathers (Lightfoot)

0:1 The Church of God which sojourneth at Smyrna to the Church of God which sojourneth in Philomelium and to all the brotherhoods of the holy and universal Church sojourning in every place;
0:2 mercy and peace and love from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied.
1:1 We write unto you, brethren, an account of what befell those that suffered martyrdom and especially the blessed Polycarp, who stayed the persecution, having as it were set his seal upon it by his martyrdom.
1:2 For nearly all the foregoing events came to pass that the Lord might show us once more an example of martyrdom which is conformable to the Gospel.
1:3 For he lingered that he might be delivered up, even as the Lord did, to the end that we too might be imitators of him, {not looking} only {to that which concerneth ourselves, but also to that which concerneth our neighbours.}
1:4 For it is the office of true and steadfast love, not only to desire that oneself be saved, but all the brethren also.
2:1 Blessed therefore and noble are all the martyrdoms which have taken place according to the will of God (for it behoveth us to be very scrupulous and to assign to God the power over all things).
2:2 For who could fail to admire their nobleness and patient endurance and loyalty to the Master?
2:3 seeing that when they were so torn by lashes that the mechanism of their flesh was visible even as far as the inward veins and arteries, they endured patiently, so that the very bystanders had pity and wept;

0:1 Polycarp and the presbyters that are with him unto the Church of God which sojourneth at Philippi;
0:2 mercy unto you and peace from God Almighty and Jesus Christ our Saviour be multiplied.
1:1 I rejoiced with you greatly in our Lord Jesus Christ, for that ye received the followers of the true Love and escorted them on their way, as befitted you–those men encircled in saintly bonds which are the diadems of them that be truly chosen of God and our Lord;
1:2 and that the stedfast root of your faith which was famed from primitive times abideth until now and beareth fruit unto our Lord Jesus Christ, who endured to face even death for our sins, {whom God raised, having loosed the pangs of Hades;
1:3 on whom, though ye saw Him not, ye believe with joy unutterable and full of glory;}
1:4 unto which joy many desire to enter in;
1:5 forasmuch as ye know that it is {by grace ye are saved, not of works,} but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.
2:1 {Wherefore gird up your loins and serve God in fear} and truth, forsaking the vain and empty talking and the error of the many, {for that ye have believed on Him that raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead and gave unto Him glory} and a throne on His right hand;
2:2 unto whom all things were made subject that are in heaven and that are on the earth;

Ignatius, the martyr of Antioch, is regarded as the most important and most successful ecclesiastical representative in the second-century struggle against heresy prior to Justin. He is an organization man whose significance H. Lietzmann recently characterized thus: “In Ignatius we already find that the monarchial episcopate is an accomplished fact and is applicable to both Syria and western Asia Minor.”[1] I think that with a man like Ignatius who, in his exuberance, time and again loses all sense of proportion, one must be especially careful in evaluating the accuracy of his statements. Indeed, he even speaks of communities such as Magnesia and Tralles, whose situation he knows primarily from the descriptions of their “bishops,” who had no reason to place themselves and their influence in an unfavourable light. That Ignatius is less concerned with depicting the actual situation than with portraying the ideal is already suggested by the fact that, for the most part, his approach takes the form of admonition rather than of description.

What is it that makes the monarchial episcopacy seem so attractive to a man like Ignatius? First of all, he does not begin from a position in which he sees a plurality of ecclesiastical bodies of officials who for practical reasons may be governed by one particular office which, nevertheless, is not necessarily superior. No, for him the first and foremost figure is the bishop, who is like God or Christ in whose place he stands.[2] And [66] just as there can be no second, even [[ET 62]] approximately similar position beside them, neither can there be such beside the bishop.

Apostolic Fathers (Lightfoot)

I. Irenaeus Heresies, Preface to Bk. I.

According to what was said of such cases by one better than we are:

the precious stone, The emerald, accounted of much worth, Is shamed by artful mimicry in glass,

whenever he is not by, who hath power to prove it, and Detect the craft so cunningly devised.

Again, when alloy of brass Is mixed with silver, who that simple is Shall easily be able to assay?

The Greek is preserved in Epiphanius Haer. xxxi. 9 (ed. Dindorf, 1859-62, 11. p. 148).

II. IRENAEUS i. 13. 3.

As he that was better than we are affirmed of such persons, A daring and shameless thing is a soul heated with empty air.

The Greek from Epiphanius Haer. xxxiv.2 (Dindorf, II. p. 220).