Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
" Save my [? Thy] alone-begotten from the lions." 3
To this [Man] (H. he says) it hath been spoken :
" Thou art my Son, 0 Israel,4 fear not ; should'st thou pass through rivers, they shall not engulph thee ; should'st thou pass through fire, it shall not consume thee."5
By " rivers " (H. he says) he 6 means the Moist Essence of Genesis, and by "fire" the impulse and desire tpwards Genesis.
And : " Thou art mine ; fear not." 7
And again he 8 says :
" If a mother forget her children so as not to take pity on them or give them suck, [then] I too will forget you " 9 — saith Adamas (H. he says) to his own men.
" Nay, even if a woman shall forget them, I will not forget you. Upon my hands have I graven you." 10
And concerning His Ascent —
C. — that is his regeneration in order that he may be born spiritual, not fleshly.
J. — the Scripture saith (H. he says) :
" Lift up the gates, ye who are rulers of you, and be ye lift up ye everlasting gates, and the King of Glory shall come in." 1
1 Gf. Ps. xxviii. 10. 3 Ibid., 3.
3 Conflation of LXX. of Ps. xxiv. 17 and Ps. xxi. 21.
4 A paraphrase of LXX. — Is. xli. 8.
6 A paraphrase of LXX. — Is. xliii. 1.
6 Isaiah ; or the Word speaking through the prophet.
7 Is. xliii. 1.
8 Sc. Isaiah.
9 Paraphrase of LXX.— Is. xlix. 15.
10 Is. xlix. 16.
This is a wonder of wonders.
"For who (H. he says) is this King of Glory?2 A worm 3 and no man, the scorn of men, and the contempt of the people.4 He is the King of Glory, the Mighty in War." 5
By " War " he 6 means the " [war] in the body," for the plasm is compounded of warring elements, as it is written (H. he says) :
" Kemember the war that is [warred] in the body." 7
This (H. he says) is the Entrance, and this is the Gate, which Jacob saw, when he journeyed into Mesopotamia.8
C. Which is the passing from childhood to puberty and manhood ; that is, it was made known to him who journeyed into Mesopotamia.
J. And Meso-potamia (H. he says) is the Stream of Great Ocean flowing from the middle of the Perfect
Man.
And he 9 marvelled at the Heavenly Gate, saying :
" How terrible [is] this place ! This is naught else
than the House of God ; yea, this [is] the Gate of
Heaven."10
C. On this account (H. he says) Jesus saith :
" I am the True Door." "
J. And he12 who says these things is (H. he
I Ps. xxiii. 7 and 9. 2 Ps. xxiii. 10.
3 Sc. a " Serpent." 4 Ps. xxi. 6.
6 Ps. xxiii. 10 and 8.
6 Sc. the psalmist ; or, rather, the Logos through the psalmist.
7 Job xl. 27. 8 Gen. xxviii. 7.
9 Sc. Jacob. 10 Gen. xxviii. 17.
II Gf. John x. 9 — " true " not appearing in the traditional text.
12 Sc. " Jacob " — using the name in the Philonean sense.
says) the [one] from the Inexpressible Man, expressed from Above —
C. — as the perfect man. The not-perfect man, therefore,
cannot be saved unless he be regenerated passing through this
Gate.
(21) S. This same [Man] (H. he says) the Phrygians call also Papa;1 for He calmed2 all things which, prior to His own manifestation, were in disorderly and inharmonious movement.
For the name Papa (H. he says) is [the] Soundof -all-things-together in Heaven, and on Earth, and beneath the Earth, saying : " Calm, calm " 3 the discord of the cosmos.
C. And: Make "peace for them that are far" — that is, the material and earthy — "and peace for them that are near"4 — that is, the spiritual and knowing and perfect men.
(22) S. The Phrygians call Him also Dead — when buried in the body as though in a tomb or sepulchre.
C. This (H. he says) is what is said :
"Ye are whited sepulchres, filled (H. he says) within with bones of the dead,6 for Man, the Living [One] 6 is not in you."
And again He says :
" The dead shall leap forth from their graves " 7 — — that is, from their earthy bodies, regenerated spiritual, not fleshly.
This (H. he says) is the Resurrection which takes place
1 This is the Zeus Phrygius of Diodor. iii. 58, and Eustathius, 565, 3. Gf. E. 163, n. 3, and Zwei relig. Fragen, 104, n. 3.
2 tTraufff.
3 irave iravf, a mystical word-play on «•(£-*•«.
* Gf. Eph. ii. 17.
6 Cf. what underlies Matt, xxiii. 27, Luke xi. 44, and Acts xxiii. 3.
6 Cf. "Jesus, the Living [One]" in the Introduction to the newest found Sayings ; and also passim in the Introduction (apparently an excerpt from another document) to the First Book of leou, in the Codex Brucianus.