24 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. 



C H A P T E E III. 



Sacred Discourse. 



1. GLORY of all things, The God and Divinity and Nature 

 Divine. Beginning of the Entities, 1 The God, and Mind, 

 and Nature, and Matter; being Wisdom for the manifesta- 

 tion of everything (a). Beginning is the Divinity, and 

 Nature, and Energy (6), and Necessity, and End and 

 Renovation. For there was darkness without limit in 

 Abyss (c), and Water and Spirit, subtle, intelligent (d), 

 with divine power being in Chaos. 2 Then issued forth (e) 

 Holy Light, and there were collected (/) under an 

 arena (g) elements from moist essence, and all Gods 3 

 distribute of Seminal Nature (A). 4 



2. And all things being indiscriminate and orderless (i\ 

 the light were separated off upwards (&), and the heavy 

 were made a foundation under a moist arena, the whole 



(a) oiTrdlvTuv. . (6) ivipytix. (c) lv ctfivva-u (Sept.) 



(d) "htKTOV VOSpOV. (e) dlsl0Yl. (/) I 



(i) dSiopiaTuv. dxocTCKrxsvdiaTuv (the same word as in the Septuagint). 

 (k) dTToftiapiffOYi ti$ vi]/o$. 



1 " I am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and ending, saith The 

 Lord God, Which is, and Which was and is to come, The Almighty " (Rev. 

 i. 11). " I am the First and the Last and the Living One" (ibid. 18). 



2 " And the Earth was without form and void (dopotros XKI dxara- 

 ffx,sva<TTos, KXI ffxoro; tTTKM TJjj dpvcraov, Septuagint), and darkness 

 was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the 

 face of the waters (KKI irvsv/ucc. got/ iTrsQepero knave,) rov v^otroc;, Sept.). 

 And The God said, ' Let I4ght be, and Light was (TwnQqra (pug, 

 xxl eyevsro (pu^ Sept.) And The God saw the Light that it was good 

 (x,al tTbsv o @to$ TO (p&>$ on x,ex.~hw, Sept.) And The God divided the 

 light from the darkness " (bftxapiirsv o to$ di/ot^aov^ Sept.) In the 

 margin of the Hebrew and in the Septuagint, " Between the light and 

 between the darkness" (Gen. i. 2-5). See ante, ch. i. 7, and the 



! [1 "Timseus" of Plato, 52, 53, for similar statements. 



3 It is clear that throughout this treatise by " Gods " is meant the 

 superior Intelligences, whom we know as Principal Angels, respecting 

 whom see below, and ch. i. 9 ante, and note. 



4 See post 3, and note -there. 



