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

With this it will be of interest to compare Matt, vi. 6 : " When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in the Hidden ; and thy Father who seeth in the Hidden, shall reward thee. "

It is said that among the " Pharisees " there was a praying-room in every house.

We may also compare with the above reference to the Mysteries Luke xii. 2 = Matt. x. 26, from a " source " which promised the revelation of all mysteries, following on the famous logos also quoted in Mark iv. 22 and Luke viii. 17;

"For there is nothing veiled which shall not be revealed, and hidden which shall not be made known." " Therefore, whatsoever ye (M., I) have spoken in darkness, shall be heard in the light, and what ye have spoken (M., heard) in the ear in the closets, shall be heralded forth on the house-tops."

Both Evangelists have evidently adapted their " source " to their own purposes, but the main sense of the original form is not difficult to recover.

It is further of interest to compare with the first clause of the above passages the new-found logos :

" Jesus saith, Everything that is not before thy face and that which is hidden from thee, shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing hidden that shall

1 Or shrine — a small room or closet.

2 That is, a sanctuary or monastery, the latter in the sense of a place where one can be alone or in solitude. This is the first use of the term " monastery " known in classical antiquity, and, as we see, it bears a special and not a general meaning.

3 Ibid., § 3 ; M. ii. 475, P. 892 (Ri. v. 309, C. 60).

not be made manifest, nor buried that shall not be raised." l

But there are other and more general mysteries referred to in Philo ; for, in speaking of the command that the unholy man who is a speaker of evil against divine things, should be removed from the most holy places and punished, our initiated philosopher bursts forth:

" Drive forth, drive forth, ye of the closed lips, and ye revealers 2 of the divine mysteries,3 the promiscuous and rabble crowd of the defiled — souls unamenable to purification, and hard to wash clean, who wear ears that cannot be closed, and tongues that cannot be kept within the doors [of their lips] — organs that they ever keep ready for their own most grievous mischance, hearing all things and things not law [to hear]." *

Of these "ineffable mysteries,"5 he elsewhere says, in explaining that the wives of the patriarchs stand allegorically as types of virtues :

" But in order that we may describe the conception and birth-throes of the Virtues, let bigots6 stop their ears, or else let them depart. For that we give a higher teaching of the mysteries divine, to mystae who are worthy of the holiest rites [of all].

"And these are they who, free from arrogance, practise real and truly genuine piety, free from display

1 Grenfell and Hunt, New Sayings of Jesus (London, 1904), p. 18.

2 Lit., ye mystae and hierophants.

3 Lit., orgies — that is, " burstings forth " of inspiration, or revealings.

4 De Prof., § 16 ; M. i. 558, P. 462 (Hi. iii. 128).
6 Leg. Alleg., i. 39, 4.

c StifftSainovfs — here meaning the literalists ; it generally signifies the religious in a good sense, and the superstitious in a bad one.

of any kind. But unto them who are afflicted with incorrigible ill — the vanity of words, close-sticking unto names, and empty show of manners, who measure purity and holiness by no other rule [than this] — [for them] we will not play the part of hierophant." l

Touching on the mystery of the Virgin-birth, to which we will refer later on, Philo continues :

" These things receive into your souls, ye mystse, ye whose ears are purified, as truly sacred mysteries, and see that ye speak not of them to any who may be without initiation, but storing them away within your hearts, guard well your treasure - house ; not as a treasury in which gold and silver are laid up, things that do perish, but as the pick and prize of all possessions— the knowledge of the Cause [of all] and Virtue, and of the third, the child of both." 2

Now the " Divine Spirit " (Oeiov Trvev/jia), says Philo, does not remain among the many, though it may dwell with them for a short time.