Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

We have, therefore, here in these Greek-Egyptian and Early Christian documents the possibility of methodical work, seeing that it is a question of the comparative study of two contemporaneous literatures ; moreover, the language and typology of the Christian literature is bound to betray traces of the general Hellenistic theology of the time (pp. v., vi.).

The study of Eeitzenstein is thus a consideration of our Trismegistic literature as a whole, and the analysis and comparison of two of the most typical sermons with other Hellenistic documents and with Early Christian writings.

This he does with praiseworthy and painstaking industry, with great acumen and admirable scholarly equipment; but his work is of no service to any but scholars, and that, too, to scholars who are specialists. It is a work bristling with technicalities of every description, and crammed with untranslated texts. Indeed, Reitzenstein belongs to that school of philological purists who think it a loss of dignity to translate anything ; this is a very convenient convention, and I myself have often wished that I could have availed myself of it when face to face with innumerable difficulties of translation.

Eeitzenstein, then, translates nothing, but busies himself with texts and the higher criticism of the subject. He, however, does not give us the text of our literature as a whole, or even of the Corpus Hermeticum, but only of four chapters and the fragments of a fifth. Moreover, the results of bis investigations are very difficult to summarise ; indeed, he nowhere summarises them himself in any certain fashion, his chapters being on the whole of the nature of studies in the Trismegistic literature rather than a complete exposition.

Nevertheless these studies are, beyond comparison, the most important and suggestive work that has yet been done on the subject ; and as I shall avail myself of his labours on so many occasions in the sequel, I cannot refrain from acknowledging here the special debt of gratitude which all lovers of our sermons must feel to him, for compelling the attention of scholars to the first importance of the Trismegistic literature in the domain of the history of the development of religious thought in the first centuries.

The general scope of his studies will be seen from the titles of the main chapters : — I. Age of the " Poimandres " ; by " Poimandres " R means G. H., i. only. II. Analysis of the "Poimandres"; III. Fundamental Conception of the " Poimandres " ; IV. " Poimandres ' and the Egyptian Apocalyptic Literature ; V. Expansion of the Hermetic Literature ; VI. The Hermetic Corpus ; VII. The Later " Poimandres" Document (The Prophet- Initiation).

The theory of plagiarism from Christianity must for ever be abandoned. The whole literature is based on the "Po3mandres" as its original gospel, and the original form of this scripture must be placed at least prior to the second century A.D. How much earlier it goes back we cannot at present say with any exactitude ; before the beginning of the second century is the terminus ad quern — that is to say it cannot possibly be later than this; to seek, therefore, for traditional Christian thoughts in this document is henceforth deprived of any prospect of success (p. 36).

Reitzenstein tells us (p. 2) that these writings in the first place interested him solely through their literary form, but that this interest became deepened as he gradually learned to value them as important records of that powerful religious movement which, like a flood, overflowed the West from the East, and, after preparing the way for Christianity, subsequently bore it along with it ; the best and surest evidence of this religious revival is to be found in the literary form of Hellenistic theology.

This in itself is of interest enough and to spare ; and at a time when every scrap of contemporary literature is being so eagerly scanned for the smallest side-light it can throw on the environment and development of Christian origins, it is amazing that the Trismegistic writings should have been hitherto so studiously neglected.

A KEY TO EGYPT'S WISDOM