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he proceeds to say what might seem, at first hearing, to 
almost agree with the statements of inspired prophets. 
“ Before the things that really exist, and before the begin- 
ning of them all, there is one God ; before even the first god 
and king.” This first god and king he has already said to be 
the sun, or in the sun. “ He is immutable, abiding in the 
singleness of his own unity. For neither is anything intel- 
lectual, nor any other thing, to be confounded with him. He 
stands firm, pattern of the self-father, avToirarpog, of the self- 
begotten and only-father God, who is truly good. For this 
is that which is greatest and first, the foundation of all things, 
and the root of intelligible ideas of existing beings. And from 
this one the self-sufficient god shone forth upon himself, iavrov 
e£lA a/jLxpe ; wherefore he is his own father, and self-sufficient. 
So this is the beginning, and god of gods, monad of that which 
is one, povag Ik too hog, first existing and beginning of ex- 
istence ; for of him is the essentiality of essence ; wherefore 
also he is hailed as the intellectual principle, vorirapxrig- Now 
these are the very oldest principles of all things, which Hermes 
places before the ethereal and empyreal gods, and them that 
are above the heavens” (sec. viii. chap. 2). 
In this chapter there are forms of speech which recall pas- 
sages in the Jewish and Christian theologians of Egypt in an 
early age ; and we must remember that Jamblicus the Egyp- 
tian, living in the very centre of primitive Christendom, by 
education an Egyptian, by language a Grecian, resident in a 
land where true monotheism was known and upheld, and 
“ the Most High God ” worshipped from the days of Abraham 
and Melchizedek, and therefore fully cognizant of this truth, 
that there is but one God, is endeavouring to defend the gods 
of Egypt against the taunts of the most keen of sceptics, and 
borrows for this purpose the familiar terms of Greek philo- 
sophy, as they might be employed by a Philo or a Clement. 
It must also be noticed that, these few passages excepted, the 
shadow of Bible monotheism is exceedingly faint, and the 
verbal resemblances few, and very incidental, while the sub- 
stance of Egyptian polytheism remains intact. There has not 
been a glimpse of real monotheism, so far as I can find, in the 
preceding sections of this elaborate apology, and that of the 
kind which has now been quoted is unsaid in the very next 
chapter, which I translate closely. 
“ But he,” that is, the Egyptian god of wisdom, and author 
of many books, “ pi'esents another god, Hemeph, as leader of 
the celestial gods, whom he says to be the mind that under- 
stands itself, and converts the intelligences to itself, and before 
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