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Mystery and Secrecy
in the Nag Hammadi Collection
and Other Ancient Literature:
Ideas and Practices
Nag Hammadi and
Manichaean Studies
Editors
Johannes van Oort & Einar Thomassen
Editorial Board
J.D. BeDuhn, A.D. DeConick, W.-P. Funk
I. Gardner, S.N.C. Lieu, A. Marjanen
P. Nagel, L. Painchaud, B.A. Pearson
N.A. Pedersen, S.G. Richter, J.M. Robinson
M. Scopello, J.D. Turner, G. Wurst
VOLUME 76
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/nhms
Mystery and Secrecy
in the Nag Hammadi Collection
and Other Ancient Literature:
Ideas and Practices
Studies for Einar Thomassen at Sixty
Edited by
Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied
and John D. Turner
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2012
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi collection and other ancient literature : ideas and
practices : studies for Einar Thomassen at sixty / edited by Christian H. Bull, Liv Ingeborg Lied,
and John D. Turner.
p. cm. — (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies ; v. 76)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-21207-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Nag Hammadi codices. 2. Gnostic
literature—History and criticism. 3. Gnosticism. 4. Manichaeism. 5. Mystery. 6. Secrecy.
I. Thomassen, Einar. II. Bull, Christian H. III. Lied, Liv Ingeborg. IV. Turner, John Douglas.
V. Title. VI. Series.
BT1391.M97 2012
229’.9—dc23
2011030294
This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters
covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the
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ISSN 0929-2470
ISBN 978 90 04 21207 7
Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhofff Publishers and VSP.
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Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
Foreword ......................................................................................................................................................................................... ix
Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................................................... xiii
List of Contributors ........................................................................................................................................................ xix
PART ONE
MYSTERY AND SECRECY IN THE NAG HAMMADI
AND RELATED GNOSTIC WRITINGS
From the Bowels of Hell to Draco: The Mysteries of the
Peratics ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
April D. DeConick
Interprétation d’une formule barbare chez les gnostiques
valentiniens d’après le Contre les hérésies d’Irénée, I, 21,3 ...................... 39
Jean-Daniel Dubois et Flavia Ruani
Mystery and Secrecy in The Secret Revelation of John ............................................ 61
Karen L. King
Sethian Books of the Nag Hammadi Library as Secret Books ................... 87
Antti Marjanen
« Joseph le charpentier planta un jardin . . . » (EvPhil 73,8–9):
Sens apparent et sens caché dans l’Évangile selon Philippe .................. 107
Louis Painchaud
Invocation et glorifijication du Nom divin dans le Livre sacré du
grand Esprit invisible ou Évangile égyptien (NHC III,2;
NHC IV,2) ............................................................................................................................................................................... 119
Anne Pasquier
The Term μυστήριον in Coptic-Manichaean Texts ....................................................... 133
Nils Arne Pedersen
vi contents
Secrets et révélation dans le codex Tchacos ......................................................................... 145
Madeleine Scopello
I Tell You a Mystery: From Hidden to Revealed in Sethian
Revelation, Ritual, and Protology .................................................................................................... 161
John D. Turner
PART TWO
MYSTERY AND SECRECY IN OTHER CHRISTIAN
PRACTICES, TEXT TRADITIONS,
AND MATERIAL CULTURE
Mystery and Secrecy in the Egyptian Desert: Esotericism and
Evagrius of Pontus ................................................................................................................................................... 205
David Brakke
Secrecy in the Gospel of John ....................................................................................................................... 221
Ismo Dunderberg
Living in Tombs: The Secret of an Early Christian Mystical
Experience ............................................................................................................................................................................ 245
Dimitris J. Kyrtatas
Mystery and Authority in the Writings of Shenoute ................................................ 259
Hugo Lundhaug
Mystery and Secrecy in Paul ........................................................................................................................... 287
Birger A. Pearson
Mystère et mystères dans les Actes de Thomas ................................................................. 303
Paul-Hubert Poirier
Revisiting the Ichthys: A Suggestion Concerning the Origins
of Christological Fish Symbolism .................................................................................................... 327
Tuomas Rasimus
contents vii
PART THREE
MYSTERY AND SECRECY IN NON-CHRISTIAN
PRACTICES, TEXT TRADITIONS,
AND MATERIAL CULTURE
Secrecy and Initiation in the Mithraic Communities of Fourth
Century Rome ................................................................................................................................................................. 351
Jonas Bjørnebye
Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries: A “Thin” Description .............. 375
Jan N. Bremmer
The Notion of Mysteries in the Formation of Hermetic
Tradition .................................................................................................................................................................................. 399
Christian H. Bull
Those Who Know and Those Who Don’t: Mystery, Instruction,
and Knowledge in 2 Baruch ..................................................................................................................... 427
Liv Ingeborg Lied
The “Mithras Liturgy” as Mystery and Magic ....................................................................... 447
Marvin Meyer
The Secret Hymn in Hermetic Texts .................................................................................................. 465
Jørgen Podemann Sørensen
Cognitive and Evolutionary Approaches to Ancient Rituals:
Reflections on Recent Theories and Their Relevance for the
Historian of Religion ............................................................................................................................................ 487
Risto Uro
Index of Ancient Literary Sources .......................................................................................................... 511
Index of Keywords ........................................................................................................................................................... 538
FOREWORD
This book is offfered in honor of Einar Thomassen on the occasion of his
60th birthday. The collection of essays in this Festschrift explores what
Walter Burkert once described as “the fascination of secrecy and the prom-
ise of thrilling revelations”:1 mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi texts
and other ancient texts and practices. This multivalent and fascinating
topic is fijitting for a celebration of Thomassen’s broad scholarly produc-
tion and wide research interests in the religious currents of Antiquity.
In scholarly discourse the term “mystery” (deriving, via Latin, from the
Greek word μυστήριον) usually refers to a secret rite, and/or to exclusive
and treasured knowledge in the form of a revealed secret. The mystery
often reveals cosmological or ontological truths. It may be the disclo-
sure of God’s general plan, of hidden heavenly realities, unknown earthly
truths, the real layout of past events, or a description of things to come.
The mystery is commonly revealed by God or other divine agents, and is
conveyed to the worthy recipients through revelatory dialogues, visions,
rites or other practices. It is often of limited public exposure, and provides
those who have gained access to it knowledge of things at and beyond the
limits of knowability. The precise contents of ancient mystery rites often
remain unknown (and hence the more intriguing). However, the func-
tions and uses of references to mystery and mystery language in ancient
texts are generally available for study. These texts show that references to
mystery and use of mystery language may serve epistemological, cognitive,
and social purposes: it informs pedagogical, rhetorical, and soteriological
discourses: and may also be used as a way of establishing authority. In yet
other ancient texts, mystery can also be used for an opposite purpose, as
a means of shaming certain ungodly, dangerous, hidden and inaccessible
rites and practices of “the religious other.”
The term “secrecy” refers to a strategy of distribution of control over, and
access to special knowledge: the valued information generally reserved for
the few. Secrecy can be understood as a social phenomenon, as discourse
within a real or imagined society, as well as a rhetorical strategy. Secrecy
1 Walter Burkert, Ancient Mystery Cults (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1987), 1.
x foreword
tends to promote exclusivity, since access to the secret provides those
who know it with social, epistemological and soteriological advantages.
The topic of mystery and secrecy is a broad, complex and intriguing
one. As suggested above, it refers both to a set of ritual practices, as well
as to a multivalent literary theme and metaphorical language in narrative
texts of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East. The topic is found
across geographical, cultural and religious borders, as well as in written
sources of difffering genres and languages. Moreover, these sources display
multiple functions, and diverse contexts of usage. In this sense, the topic
of mystery and secrecy reflects Thomassen’s academic profijile perfectly.
Thomassen’s research on Valentinianism, the Nag Hammadi texts and
early Christian pluralism are well known. However, he has also taken
great interest in other religious strands in antique Mediterranean and
Middle Eastern societies, including a variety of Greek, Roman and Near
Eastern religious and philosophical traditions, and has paired this interest
with an important insight into theoretical and methodological currents
in Religious Studies. The theme of mystery and secrecy traces a thread
through a major part of Thomassen’s scholarship. His research portfo-
lio displays a profound interest in the relationship between text, myth
and ritual; the functions of revelation, knowledge, secrecy and pedagogy;
notions of cosmology, dualism, protology and eschatology; not to men-
tion identity construction and social settings of ancient religions and their
texts. Thomassen has contributed specifijically to the scholarly discussion
of mystery and secrecy on several occasions, for instance in his seminal
work The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the “Valentinians” (2006), as well as
in the essays “Revelation as Book and Book as Revelation: Reflections of
the Gospel of Truth” (2002), and “Gos. Philip 67:27–30: Not ‘in a mystery’”
(2006).2 He has stressed, among other aspects, the soteriological impor-
tance of the special knowledge of revealed books and the social value of
secret wisdom in the community of the elect. Importantly, Thomassen has
2 E.g., Einar Thomassen, The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the ‘Valentinians’ (NHMS 60;
Leiden: Brill, 2006); idem, “Revelation as Book and Book as Revelation: Reflections on the
Gospel of Truth,” in The Nag Hammadi Texts in the History of Religions: Proceedings of the
International Conference at the Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen, Sep-
tember 19–24, 1995: On The Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Nag Hammadi Discovery
(ed. Søren Giversen, Tage Petersen and Jørgen Podemann Sørensen; Historisk-fijilosofijiske
Skrifter 26; Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2002), 35–45;
idem, “Gos. Philip 67:27–30: Not ‘in a mystery,’ ” in Coptica-Gnostica-Manichaica: Mélanges
offferts à Wolf-Peter Funk (ed. Louis Painchaud & Paul-Hubert Poirier; BCNH.E 7; Québec:
Les Presses de l’Université Laval/Louvain: Éditions Peeters, 2006), 925–39.
foreword xi
explored and proposed an alternative reading of the oft-cited reference
to “mystery”—the “symbolic meaning”—of the acts of the Savior in the
Gospel of Philip 67.
The contributions to this Festschrift discuss references to mystery and
secrecy in a variety of ancient sources. We have invited Thomassen’s
international colleagues as well as his former students at the University
of Bergen to contribute essays in their respective fijields of expertise. These
range from the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece to mystery and
authority building in the writings of Shenoute of Atripe. The fijirst part of
this volume focuses on Nag Hammadi and Gnostic writings. The second
part addresses other Christian practices, text traditions and material cul-
ture. Finally, the third part discusses non-Christian trends of Antiquity.
Hence, the volume offfers an up to date presentation of research on the
currents of mystery and secrecy in the ancient world. These include a
close look at the Nag Hammadi texts; other early Christian and Jewish
texts; Manichean, Mithraic, and Hermetic traditions; as well as mystery
rites and other mystic practices and rituals.
The editors wish to thank, in particular, Johannes van Oort. This vol-
ume is published in the Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies Series, of
which Thomassen is one of the series editors. Ironically, this volume on
mystery and secrecy has itself been a well kept secret for some years, not
the least due to the effforts of van Oort, the other series editor. Thanks are
also due to Jan Bremmer who suggested the topic for the anthology, to
Hilde Marie Ø. Movafagh for compiling the indices, to Hugo Lundhaug
for assisting the editors with his expertise on fonts, to MF Norwegian
School of Theology for economic support, to Mattie Kuiper and the stafff
of Brill for bringing the volume to completion, to Thomassen’s colleagues
in Bergen and the SBL Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Session for offfering
the venue for the presentation of the book.
Finally, our thanks go to Einar. Through his books and articles, and his
engagement in the raising of new generations of scholars in the Nordic
Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Network, Einar’s legacy continues to influ-
ence scholarship. For this we are particularly thankful.
The editors
ABBREVIATIONS
AAAH Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia
ABD The Anchor Bible Dictionary
ABRL The Anchor Bible Reference Library
AGSJU Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des
Urchristentums
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
AJN 2 American Journal of Numismatics, Second Series
ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
Edited by James B. Pritchard. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1993
ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edited by Alexander Roberts and
James Donaldson. 1885–1887. 10 vols. Repr. Grand Rapids,
Eerdmans, 1986
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Geschichte
und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung. Part 2,
Principat. Edited by Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang
Haase. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1974–1998
AnzSchweiz Anzeiger für schweizerische Alterthumskunde
AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament
AR Archiv für Religionswissenschaft
Athen. Mitt. Athenische Mitteilungen
AVM Archeologie in Vlaanderen Monografijie
BBB Bonner biblische Beiträge
BCH Bulletin de correspondance hellénique
BCNH.É Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, section “Études”
BCNH.T Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, section “Textes”
BibInt Biblical Interpretation
BIS Biblical Interpretation Series
BJS The British Journal of Sociology
BP Bibliothèque de la Pléiade
BS Bollingen Series
BSGRT Bibliotheca scriptorum graecorum et romanorum teub neriana
BTB Biblical Theology Bulletin
BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche
Wissen schaft
xiv abbreviations
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CBR Currents in Biblical Research
CChr Corpus christianorum
CdE Chronique d’Égypte
CGL The Coptic Gnostic Library
CMCL Corpus dei manoscritti copti letterari
ConBNT Coniectanea biblica: New Testament Series
COr Cahiers d’orientalisme
CQ Classical Quarterly
CRINT Compendia rerum iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum
CTSRR College Theology Society Resources in Religion
DDD Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
DMAHA Dutch Monographs on Ancient History and Archaeology
DTC Dictionnaire de théologie catholique
EBib Études bibliques
EJMS Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies
EPRO Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l’empire
romain
FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen
Testaments
GCS Die griechischen-christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei
Jahrhunderte
GRBS Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
HDR Harvard Dissertations in Religion
HNT Handbuch zum Neuen Testament
HSCP Harvard Studies in Classical Philology
HSem Horae semiticae
HTR Harvard Theological Review
HTS Harvard Theological Studies
JAC Jarbuch für Antike und Christentum
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JCTCRS Jewish and Christian Texts in Context and Related Studies
JdI Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts
JEA The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology
JECS Journal for Early Christian Studies
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
JSJ Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and
Roman Period
JSJSup Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism
abbreviations xv
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament: Supplement
Series
JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha: Supplement Series
JSRC Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
LCL The Loeb Classical Library
LHBOTS Library of Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament Studies
LIMC Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae. Edited by Hans
C. Ackermann and Jean-Robert Gisler. 8 vols. Zürich: Artemis
Verlag, 1981–1997
LSTS Library of Second Temple Studies
MHSMB Manichäische Handschriften der staatlichen Museen Berlin
Mus Muséon: Revue d’études orientales
NCBC The New Cambridge Bible Commentary
NGWG Nachrichten von der königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
zu Göttingen, Philologische-historische Klasse
NHMS Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
NHS Nag Hammadi Studies
NovTSup Supplements to Novum Testamentum
NTS New Testament Studies
NTTS New Testament Tools and Studies
OCA Orientalia christiana analecta
OCD The Oxford Classical Dictionary
OCT Scriptorum classicorum bibliotheca oxoniensis (Oxford
Classical Texts)
OECT Oxford Early Christian Studies
OLA Orientalia lovaniensia analecta
OLP Orientalia lovaniensia periodica
PapyCol Papyrologica coloniensia
ParOr Parole de l’orient
PFTUG Publications de la Faculté de théologie de l’Université de
Genève
PNIA Papers from the Norwegian Institute at Athens
PS Patristic Studies
PTR Princeton Theological Review
PTS Patristische Texte und Studien
RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum. Edited by Theodor
Kluser, Franz J. Dölger, and Ernst Dassmann. Stuttgart:
Hierse mann, 1950–
xvi abbreviations
REG Revue des études grecques
RGRW Religions in the Graeco-Roman World
RHR Revue de l’histoire des religions
RSLR Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa
RSMS Ritual Studies Monograph Series
RSR Revue des sciences religieuses
RVV Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten
SAC Studies in Antiquity and Christianity
SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization
SBLDS Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series
SBLMS Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series
SBLSP Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers
SBLTT Society of Biblical Literature Texts and Translations
SC Sources chrétiennes
SCHNT Studia ad corpus hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
SECA Studies on Early Christian Apocrypha
SGRR Studies in Greek and Roman Religion
SHR Studies in the History of Religions. Numen Book Series
SMSR Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
SR Studies in Religion
STAC Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum
STDJ Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah
StOR Studies in Oriental Religions
SWE Studies in Western Esotericism
TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Edited by Gerhard
Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geofffrey W.
Bromiley. 10 vols. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1964–1976
ThesCRA Thesaurus cultuum et rituum antiquorum
TSAJ Texte und Studien zum antiken Judentum
TTS Thomas Taylor Series
TU Texte und Untersuchungen
VC Vigiliae christianae
VCSup Supplements to Vigiliae christianae
VetChr Vetera christianorum
VT Vetus testamentum
WGRW Writings from the Graeco-Roman World
WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
ZÄS Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
abbreviations xvii
ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde
der älteren Kirche
ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik
ZRGG Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Jonas Bjørnebye is Post-doctoral Fellow and holder of the Stein Erik
Hagen-chair at The Norwegian Institute in Rome.
David Brakke is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University.
Jan N. Bremmer is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University
of Groningen.
Christian H. Bull is PhD-student of History of Religions at the University
of Bergen.
April D. DeConick is Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical
Studies at Rice University.
Jean-Daniel Dubois is Directeur d’études of Sciences religieuses at the
École pratique des hautes etudes in Paris.
Ismo Dunderberg is Professor of New Testament Studies at the University
of Helsinki.
Karen L. King is Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University.
Dimitris J. Kyrtatas is Professor of the History of Late Antiquity at the
University of Thessaly.
Liv Ingeborg Lied is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at MF
Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo.
Hugo Lundhaug is Associate Professor of Patristics and Religious Studies
at MF Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo.
Antti Marjanen is Professor of Gnosticism and Early Christian Literature
at the University of Helsinki.
xx list of contributors
Marvin Meyer is Griset Professor of Christian Studies and Director of the
Albert Schweitzer Institute, Chapman University.
Louis Painchaud is Professeur titulaire at the Faculté de théologie et de
sciences religieuses
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The Platonizing Sethian Background of Plotinus's Mysticism
The Platonizing Sethian Background of Plotinus’s Mysticism
Nag Hammadi and
Manichaean Studies
Editors
Jason D. BeDuhn
Dylan M. Burns
Johannes van Oort
Editorial Board
A. D. DECONICK – W.-P. FUNK – I. GARDNER
S. N. C. LIEU – H. Lundhaug – A. MARJANEN – L. PAINCHAUD
N. A. PEDERSEN – T. RASIMUS – S. G. RICHTER
M. SCOPELLO – J. D. TURNER† – G. WURST
VOLUME 98
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/nhms
http://brill.com/nhms
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The Platonizing Sethian
Background of
Plotinus’s Mysticism
By
Alexander J. Mazur
Revised Edition
by Dylan M. Burns, with Kevin Corrigan, Ivan Miroshnikov,
Tuomas Rasimus, and John D. Turner
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2020037595
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 0929-2470
ISBN 978-90-04-44167-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-44171-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2021 by Alexander J. Mazur. Published by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Koninklijke Brill NV reserves the right to protect this publication against unauthorized use. Requests for
re-use and/or translations must be addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com.
This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
http://catalog.loc.gov
For Sasha
∵
Contents
Editor’s Preface to the Present Volume ix
Author’s Acknowledgments xii
Editor’s Note on References, Editions, and Translations xiii
Abbreviations xiv
List of Tables xv
Author’s Preface xvi
1 Introduction: The Gnostic Background of Plotinus’s Mysticism 1
1 The Fundamental Problem of Plotinian Mysticism 1
2 Problems with the Prior Scholarship on Plotinian Mysticism 5
3 Platonizing Sethian Visionary Ascent and the Historical Context
of Plotinian Mysticism 10
4 The Current State of the Research 16
2 The Structure of Plotinus’s Ascent to Mystical Union with the One 26
1 Introduction 26
2 Phase A: Catharsis 28
3 Phase B: Mystical Self-Reversion 29
4 Phase C: Autophany 32
5 Excursus: A First Meditation on the Identity of the Mystical
Subject 34
6 Phase C2: Self-Unification 38
7 Phase D: Annihilation 41
8 Excursus: Second Meditation on the Identity of the
Mystical Subject 42
9 Excursus: On Beauty 45
10 Phase E: Union with the One 47
11 Vision and Light 49
12 Ennead VI.9[9].11.22–25 [See Complete Passage in Appendix A8] 50
13 Ennead VI.7[38].36.10–26 [Appendix A16] 50
14 Ennead V.3[49].17.28–38 [Appendix A19] 51
15 Excursus on V.3[49].17–28 51
16 Ennead V.5[32].8.18–21 [Appendix A12] 53
17 Convergence of Center-Points 54
18 Sexual Intercourse 54
19 Excursus on VI.7[38].35.23–32 55
viii Contents
20 Rapture or Spatial Displacement 57
21 Excursus on VI.7[38].35.36–40 57
22 Excursus on VI.7[38].36.15–18 58
23 Cultic Praxis 59
24 Phase E2: Desubjectification 60
25 Conclusion 61
3 The Identity of Prenoetic and Hypernoetic Subjects in Plotinus 63
1 Introduction 63
2 Plotinian Ontogenesis 64
3 The Identity of the Hypernoetic Subject with the Prenoetic Efflux 97
4 The Convergence of Prenoetic and Hypernoetic Ecstasy 125
5 Conclusion 135
4 “The Way of Ascent is the Way of Descent”: The Mechanism of
Transcendental Apprehension in Platonizing Sethian Gnosticism 139
1 Introduction 139
2 The Structure of Ascent in the Platonizing Sethian
Ascent Treatises 144
3 Mystical Self-Reversion and Autophany in Gnostic Visionary
Ascent 152
4 The Faculty of Transcendental Apprehension in Platonizing
Sethianism 177
5 Conclusion 228
5 Conclusion: Dissolving Boundaries 231
1 Introduction 231
2 Platonists and Gnostics in Alexandria and Rome: Biographical
and Socio-historical Reflections 232
3 Philosophical Contemplation and Ritual Praxis 260
4 Conclusion 272
Appendices 274
Bibliography 319
Editor’s Preface to the Present Volume
The present monograph is a revision of Dr. Alexander J. ‘Zeke’ Mazur’s 2010
doctoral dissertation (submitted to the Committee on the History of Culture,
University of Chicago, August 2010), a pioneering work in the study of Plotinus
and his relationship with Gnosticism, particularly with reference to the Coptic
Gnostic works discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, ca. December 1945. Many
scholars, including myself, obtained copies of the long-awaited dissertation as
soon as they were available and were impressed by its depth and originality. In
2011, Dr. Mazur submitted the dissertation to Nag Hammadi and Manichaean
Studies for publication, and the series’ managing editor at the time for Nag
Hammadi, Prof. Einar Thomassen, accepted it on a provisional basis. This was
welcome news, as anyone who had read the dissertation understood that it is a
truly significant contribution to the study of Plotinus as well as the philosophi-
cal import of the Nag Hammadi Codices.
Following his tragic, unexpected death in August 2016, Dr. Mazur’s notes and
work-in-progress were given to his mentor and collaborator Prof. Jean-Marc
Narbonne. Together with Prof. Narbonne, Prof. John D. Turner (†2019) went
about the task of sorting through Dr. Mazur’s (digital) Nachlass so as to de-
termine what might be brought to publication. Thanks to the efforts of Prof.
Narbonne as well as Dr. Francis Lacroix, a set of Dr. Mazur’s studies focused
principally on Plotinus’s treatise Against the Gnostics (Ennead II.9[33]) has al-
ready been published in English,1 with an abridged version in French to fol-
low in the Collection Βudé. Meanwhile, at the June 2017 conference of the
International Society of Neoplatonic Studies in Olomouc, Czech Republic,
Prof. Turner and I agreed that Mazur’s dissertation was already sufficiently
developed to be published without significant editing of content, that Mazur
himself would have wanted to see its publication (given proper editorial care),
and that we should undertake editorial work on its style and formatting.
It was not difficult to organize a circle of Dr. Mazur’s friends and colleagues
who agreed to share the assignment. Over the course of 2018–2020, Prof. Kevin
Corrigan, Dr. Ivan Miroshnikov, Dr. Tuomas Rasimus, and Prof. Turner very
generously contributed their time, expertise, and effort in editing this book
for style and formatting. I shared in their labors and coordinated the team,
1 Zeke Mazur, Introduction and Commentary to Plotinus’s Treatise 33 (II.9) ‘Against the Gnostics’
and Related Studies, edited by Francis Lacroix and Jean-Marc Narbonne (Zetesis; Laval:
Presses de l’Université Laval, 2019).
x Editor’s Preface to the Present Volume
with the invaluable support of my assistants at the Freie Universität Berlin,
Elisabeth Koch, Janik Petersdorff, and Philipp Scharfenberger. It is thanks to
these individuals that Dr. Mazur’s brilliant dissertation has enjoyed a worthy
κόσμησις and finally been made available to the scholarly community beyond
those who had access to the original Chicago dissertation, in a state that should
invite the engagement of scholars of Neoplatonism, Nag Hammadi studies,
and related fields.
Prof. Turner and I agreed from the start that the best way to respect Dr. Mazur’s
work was to change as little of the Chicago dissertation as possible—to clean up
what was already there, permitting the treasures this silenos already conceals
to shine all the more. Thus, we have not significantly edited Mazur’s arguments
or interpretations of evidence, nor his prose. Nor have we added reference to
any of the significant secondary literature on Plotinus and the Gnostics which
has appeared in the last decade.2 Rather, the team, to the best of its ability,
corrected typos and references, controlled the Greek and Coptic text, removed
the occasional spurious reference (never with significant effect on Dr. Mazur’s
argument), and standardized references, formatting, and bibliography. Details
regarding references and translations are found on the following pages.
The relationship between Gnosticism and later Platonism, and in particular
the thought of Plotinus and Porphyry, is one of the most exciting and promis-
ing trajectories of research today for scholars of later Greek philosophy, an-
cient Christianity, and Coptology alike. With the passing of Dr. Mazur in 2016
and Prof. Turner in 2019, the investigation of this trajectory has lost two of its
2 Monographs include Jean-Marc Narbonne, Plotinus in Dialogue with the Gnostics (Studies in
Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition 11; Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011); Nicola
Spanu, Plotinus, ‘Ennead’ II 9 [33] ‘Against the Gnostics’: A Commentary (Studia Patristica
Supplement 1; Leuven: Peeters, 2012); Dylan M. Burns, Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism
and the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism (Divinations; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2014); Sebastian Gertz, Plotinus. Ennead II.9: Against the Gnostics: Translation, with
an Introduction and Commentary (The Enneads of Plotinus; Las Vegas; Zürich; Athens:
Parmenides Press, 2017); Nicholas Banner, Philosophic Silence and the ‘One’ in Plotinus
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018). Volumes of papers with relevant studies
include but are not limited to Kevin Corrigan and Tuomas Rasimus, with Dylan M. Burns,
Lance Jenott, and Zeke Mazur (eds.), Gnosticism, Platonism, and the Late Ancient World:
Essays in Honour of John D. Turner (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 82; Leiden: Brill,
2013); Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies 1–2 (2016); Helmut Seng and Giulia Sfamena Gasparro
(eds.), Theologische Orakel in der Spätantike (Bibliotheca Chaldaica 5; Universitätsverlag
Winter: Heidelberg, 2016); Helmut Seng, Luciana Soares Santoprete, and Chiara O. Tommasi
Moreschini (eds.), Formen und Nebenformen des Platonismus in der Spätantike (Bibliotheca
Chaldaica 6; Universitätsverlag Winter: Heidelberg, 2016); Chiara O. Tommasi, Luciana Soares
Santoprete, and Helmut Seng (eds.), Hierarchie und Ritual: Zur philosophischen Spiritualität
in der Spätantike (Bibliotheca Chaldaica 7; Universitätsverlag Winter: Heidelberg, 2018).
xiEditor’s Preface to the Present Volume
greatest minds and advocates. It is the hope of the ‘friends of Zeke’ who edited
the present volume that its publication will stimulate others to reflect further
on Plotinus, his mysterious friends, and the significance of the Nag Hammadi
texts for our understanding of religion and philosophy in late antiquity and
beyond.
Dylan Michael Burns
Berlin-Charlottenburg, 5 May 2020
Author’s Acknowledgments
No words of thanks are sufficient to convey my gratitude towards my three
principal dissertation advisors—Michael Sells, Kevin Corrigan, and John D.
Turner—without whose groundbreaking scholarship, gentle guidance, per-
sonal kindness, and, not least, patience, this project could not have been ac-
complished. I would also like to thank Jonathan Z. Smith for his initial support
for this project in its embryonic stage, and also for many fruitful conversations
over the years.
There are also several eminent scholars to whom I am indebted for criti-
cism, suggestions, conversation, or encouragement concerning one or anoth-
er aspect of this project in various phases of its development over the past
several years; these include, inter alia (and in no particular order), Gregory
Shaw, Jean-Marc Narbonne, Michael Williams, István Perczel, Rob Berchman,
Cristina D’Ancona, Garth Fowden, Gerald Bechtle, John Finamore, John Dillon,
Karen King, Einar Thomassen, Luc Brisson, Nicola Denzey, David White, and
the late Steven Strange, though there are surely others I have omitted. All of
the (undoubtedly very many) errors in this work are nevertheless my own
responsibility.
Finally, on a more personal note, I would like to thank my parents for their
irrationally consistent support of my work, but also, the diminutive leonto-
cephaline Fedya, for his melancholy but furry company, and of course my
dearest wife Sasha, for her superhuman bibliographic labors, but also without
whom none of this would have been possible.
Zeke Mazur
Cambridge, MA, 2010
Editor’s Note on References, Editions,
and Translations
The style guide used by the editorial team for this volume was the SBL
Handbook of Style (2014), although some of Dr. Mazur’s preferences remain
unchanged: for instance, primary sources are almost never abbreviated, but
given with full Latin title. A list of the abbreviations that are used throughout
are found below.
Only those primary sources which are quoted in the text are listed in the
bibliography. Primary sources are listed in the bibliography by modern editor
or translator, with the exception of Plotinus himself (under “Plotinus”). Greek
sources appear to have been translated by Dr. Mazur, presumably with refer-
ence to available translations.
Dr. Mazur’s treatment of the text of Plotinus merits special mention. He
quoted the Greek text of Plotinus according to the editio maior of Henry and
Schwyzer (H-S1), while adapting the translations of Armstrong in the Loeb
Classical Library. However, Armstrong’s Greek text is based upon the editio
minor (H-S2), not the editio maior (H-S1), and includes other emendations not
found in H-S1. In cases where the text of Armstrong does not agree with that of
H-S1, Dr. Mazur has usually (but not always) opted for Armstrong. Accordingly,
where the two editions differ, the team has indicated the discrepancy by putting
the reading rejected by Mazur in brackets. Thus, “τῇ αἰσθήσει [H-S1: διαθέσει]”
(at VI.9[9].7.17–21) means that here, Armstrong’s text does not agree with H-S1,
and Mazur has preferred Armstrong’s αἰσθήσει to H-S1’s διαθέσει. Conversely,
The file is too long and its contents have been truncated.
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The Tradition of Hermes Trismegistus
Religions in the
Graeco-Roman World
Series Editors
David Frankfurter (Boston University)
Johannes Hahn (Universität Münster)
Frits G. Naerebout (University of Leiden)
Miguel John Versluys (University of Leiden)
VOLUME 186
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rgrw
http://brill.com/rgrw
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The Tradition of
Hermes Trismegistus
The Egyptian Priestly Figure as a Teacher of
Hellenized Wisdom
By
Christian H. Bull
Cover illustration: Stela of Thoth as ibis, ibis-headed human, and baboon, with Khonsu-Harpocrates
(ca. 100–150 CE)
Courtesy of the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam.
Illustration on facing page (flyleaf): Detail from Book of the Dead of the Priest of Horus, Imhotep (Imuthes)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 35.9.20a–w. Image in public domain.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bull, Christian H., author.
Title: The tradition of Hermes Trismegistus : the Egyptian priestly figure as
a teacher of Hellenized wisdom / edited by Christian H. Bull.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Religions in the
Graeco-Roman world, ISSN 0927-7633 ; Volume 186 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018020692 (print) | LCCN 2018024407 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004370845 (E-Book) | ISBN 9789004370814 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Hermes, Trismegistus.
Classification: LCC BF1598.H6 (ebook) | LCC BF1598.H6 T73 2018 (print) | DDC
135/.45—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018020692
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 0927-7633
ISBN 978-90-04-37081-4 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-37084-5 (e-book)
Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
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Orphée
Admirez le pouvoir insigne
Et la noblesse de la ligne:
Elle est la voix que la lumière fit entendre
Et dont parle Hermès Trismégiste en son Pimandre.
Ibis
Oui, j’irai dans l’ombre terreuse
O mort certaine, ainsi soit-il!
Latin mortel, parole affreuse.
Ibis, oiseau des bords du Nil.
Guillaume Apollinaire, Le Bestiaire ou Cortège d’Orphée (1911)
Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Status Quaestionis 4
1.2 The Aim of the Present Contribution 12
1.3 Theoretical Considerations 15
1.3.1 Hermetic Myths: Hermes as Model Author and Figure of
Memory 15
1.3.2 The Tradition of Hermes 20
1.3.3 The Term Hermetism 27
Part 1
Who is Hermes Trismegistus?
2 The Myth of Hermes Trismegistus 33
2.1 The Egyptian Pre-History of the Thrice-Greatest Thoth 33
2.2 Greek Sources for the Egyptian Hermes 36
2.2.1 Plato’s Egyptian Myth of Theuth 38
2.2.2 Aristoxenus’ Thoth 45
2.2.3 The Letter of Manetho to King Ptolemy II Philadelphus 47
2.2.4 The Myth of Hermes in Cicero and Diodorus Siculus 87
3 The Primordial Egyptian Kings in the Hermetica 97
3.1 SH XXIII (Korê Kosmou): An Egyptian Account of Creation 101
3.2 SH XXIV: The Emanations of Royal Souls 111
3.3 SH XXV: Cosmology and the Location of the Royal Souls 115
3.4 SH XXVI: Hermes as a Royal Soul 117
3.5 CH I: Poimandres the King 121
3.6 Kmeph and Protology in the Hermetica 131
3.7 De Anima: The Creation of the Souls and the Primal Human 146
3.8 The Bronze Age in CH I: Erroneous Love and Its Remedy 150
3.9 The Hermetic Transmigration of Souls 154
viii Contents
3.10 Hermes, Nature, and the Royal Souls in Manilius’
Astronomica 158
3.11 Hermes, Nature, and the Royal Souls in Petosiris and
Nechepsos 163
3.12 The Importance of Myth in the Hermetic Tradition 174
Conclusion to Part 1 185
Part 2
What is the Way of Hermes?
4 Introduction to the Way of Hermes 191
4.1 Testimonies to the Existence of a “Way” 191
4.2 The Way of Thoth 193
4.3 The Order of the Tradition 198
4.4 Conversion 201
4.5 First Stage: Knowing Oneself 209
4.5.1 CH I: A Foundational Myth of Self-Knowledge 210
4.5.2 CH IV: Hating the Body but Loving the Self 211
4.6 Second Stage: Becoming a Stranger to the World 215
4.6.1 CH II: An Introduction to the Nature of Things 216
4.6.2 CH VI: That the Good is in God Alone, and
Nowhere Else 222
4.6.3 SH II A–B: On Truth and Reverence 223
4.6.4 SH XI: Preparatory Sentences 226
4.6.5 SH VI: Astrological Lore as Spiritual Progress 231
4.6.6 CH X: The Key to Unlock the Rebirth 235
4.6.7 Conclusion to the Initial Stages of the Way 241
5 The Ritual of Rebirth 244
5.1 CH XIII: General Remarks 246
5.2 The Phase of Separation 249
5.2.1 CH XIII, 1–7: Preparatory Explanation of the Procedure and
Doctrine of Rebirth 249
5.3 Limen: The Threshold Phase 264
5.3.1 CH XIII, 8: Receptive Silence 264
5.3.2 CH XIII, 8–9: Rebirth—The Invocation of Divine Powers as
Speech-Acts 271
5.4 The Aggregation or Incorporation Phase 281
ixContents
5.4.1 CH XIII, 10–14: The Rebirth Explained and the Epiphanies
of Tat 281
5.4.2 The Hymn of Rebirth 297
5.5 Concluding Remarks on the Rebirth 314
6 Heavenly Ascent: The Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth
(NHC VI,6) 316
6.1 Introduction: The Sequence of the Tradition (52,1–13) 318
6.2 Explanation of Spiritual Generation (52,14–55,23) 319
6.2.1 The Pregnant Power 320
6.2.2 Spiritual Rain 322
6.2.3 The Location of Rebirth 327
6.3 The Visionary Ascent (55,24–61,17) 331
6.3.1 Prayer to Receive the Power to Speak (55,24–57,25) 331
6.3.2 Advent of the Light-Power and Tat’s First Vision
(57,26–58,22) 354
6.3.3 Hymn in Silence (58,22–59,22) 361
6.3.4 Vision of the Ogdoad and the Ennead (59,23–60,17) 364
6.3.5 Tat’s Hymn of Praise (60,17–61,17) 367
6.4 Epilogue: Erection of a Votive Stela (61,18–63,32) 369
Conclusion to Part 2 372
part 3
Who Were the Hermetists?—Situating the Way of Hermes
7 The True Philosophy of Hermes 377
7.1 The Way of Hermes as a Philosophical School 377
7.2 Philosophy as a Hermetic Self-Designation 380
7.3 The Hermetic Science of the Stars 383
7.4 Priestly Philosophers 394
8 The Magician and the Temple 398
8.1 On the Term ‘Magic’ 398
8.2 The Thebes-Cache 405
8.3 Hermetism in the Thebes-Cache? 407
8.4 Thessalos and Thebes 408
8.5 Vision and Divination 410
8.6 Rebirth and Ascent: The Mithras or Pšai-Aion Liturgy 416
x Contents
9 The Egyptian Priesthoods and Temples 427
9.1 Egyptian Priests as Purveyors of Native Tradition 428
9.2 The Idealized Priests of Chaeremon and the Perfect Discourse 431
9.3 The Temple as a Dwelling-Place of Priests and Gods 438
9.4 Egypt as the Temple of the World and The Twilight of Its Gods 443
9.5 The New Law 447
9.6 The Hermetic Sitz-im-Leben: A Suggestion 449
Conclusion 456
Bibliography 461
Index of Ancient Sources 515
Acknowledgements
The present volume is a revised version of my Ph.D.-dissertation in the Study
of Religions, defended at the University of Bergen, June 27th, 2014. I must
first and foremost give my sincere thanks to my doctoral advisor, Prof. Einar
Thomassen, who inducted me into the mysteries of Coptic and philological
research. He has throughout trusted me to find my own way, while offering
encouragement and steering me back on course when I veered too far off. I also
wish to thank Prof. Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, who read and commented on my dis-
sertation, and who has continually been a great support. I have also benefitted
from discussions with and feedback from Prof. Lisbeth Mikaelsson, Pål Steiner,
and Alexandros Tsakos, all of whom contributed greatly to make the academic
and social environment in Bergen pleasant and stimulating. I must also thank
my doctoral defense committee, consisting of Prof. Sissel Undheim and my
two “opponents,” Profs. Alberto Camplani and Jørgen Podemann Sørensen,
who offered invaluable criticism that has been incorporated in the revision,
and with whom I have later had the pleasure of conversing further.
I am also grateful to Profs. Einar Thomassen, Antti Marjanen, and Nils-
Arne Pedersen, who constituted the steering-committee of the Nordic Nag
Hammadi and Gnosticism Network (NNGN), which was funded by NordForsk
from 2004 to 2008 and has continued on afterwards in North America, as the
Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Network (NHGN). I met some of my best friends
and colleagues through this network, of whom I must single out Tuomas
Rasimus, René Falkenberg, Hugo Lundhaug, Tilde Bak Halvgaard, Dylan Burns,
and Lance Jenott, for making the meetings intensely enjoyable. I also wish to
acknowledge and thank Prof. John D. Turner and his family for hosting the
marvelous semi-annual Coptic Camp at his home in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I thank the Norwegian Institute of Rome for financial support which en-
abled me to stay in Rome from September to October 2013 and January 2017. I
also thank the participants of the PHANES-network, which I co-founded with
Arve O. Berntzen in 2009, for stimulating meetings over the years.
After defending my dissertation, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher be-
tween 2014 and 2016 for the project “New Contexts for Old Texts: Unorthodox
Texts and Monastic Manuscript Culture in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Egypt”
(NEWCONT), based at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo.1 I am most
1 The project was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European
Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) / ERC Grant Agreement
no. 283741.
xii Acknowledgements
thankful to the project leader, Prof. Hugo Lundhaug, and the other members
of the project. While in Oslo I also benefitted from collaboration with Prof.
Jens Braarvig, who taught me Armenian, and Prof. Anastasia Maravela and her
papyrology group. I am especially thankful to Prof. Maravela for sponsoring
the application for my present project through the Department of Philosophy,
Classics, History of Art and Ideas, at the University of Oslo, where I am cur-
rently employed.2
I can thank Lance Jenott for introducing me to the Hermetic “lodge,” led
by Prof. Christian Wildberg and including Alex Kocar and Geoff Smith. I was
able to join the group for several intensive reading sessions of the Hermetica
at Princeton University, which were highly stimulating. I am furthermore most
grateful to Prof. Wildberg for kindly inviting me as a visiting researcher to
Princeton University, where I am currently based. During my time in Princeton
I have had the opportunity of meeting Prof. Jacco Dieleman, who admitted to
being my anonymous peer-reviewer for Brill. I wish to thank him for invalu-
able suggestions for improvement, as well as stimulating conversations while
in Princeton. The responsibility for any errors remaining is needless to say
my own.
Finally, my deepest gratitude goes to my mother and father, for their unwav-
ering support.
2 FRIPRO mobility grant, project 250781. Jointly funded by the Norwegian Research Council
the Co-funding of Regional, National, and International Programmes (COFUND)—Marie
Curie Actions.
Abbreviations
Commonly Cited Works
Ascl.
CCAG
CH
DH
FH
FR
HHE
KK
NF
PD
PGM
PGMT
Scott
SH
The Asclepius, the Latin translation of PD
Franz Cumont and Franz Boll, eds., Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum
Graecorum. 12 vols. Brussels: Lamertin, 1898–1953
Corpus Hermeticum, in NF vols. 1–2
Definitions of Hermes Trismegistus to Asclepius. In HHE vol. 2
Fragmenta Hermetica, in NF vol. 4
André-Jean Festugière, La révélation d’Hermès Trismégiste. 4 vols. Paris:
Les Belles Lettres, 1944–1954
Jean-Pierre Mahé, Hermès en haute-Égypte. 2 vols. BCNH.C 3 & 7.
Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 1978–1982
The Korê Kosmou = SH XXIII
Arthur D. Nock and André-Jean Festugière. Hermès Trismégiste: Corpus
Hermeticum. 4 vols. Paris, 1942–1953
The Perfect Discourse
Karl Preisendanz, Papyri graecae magicae. Die griechischen
Zauberpapyri. 3 vols. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1928–1973
Hans D. Betz (ed.), The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation. Including
the Demotic spells. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986
Walter Scott, Hermetica: the ancient Greek and Latin writings which con-
tain religious or philosophic teachings ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1924–1936
Stobaei Hermetica, in NF vols. 2–3
Journals and Book Series
Act. Hung.
AEJ
AIPhO
ANET
AO
APF
ARG
ARW
Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae
Asia Europe Journal
L’Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Edited by
J.B. Pritchard. 3d ed. Princeton, 1969
Acta orientalia
Archiv für Papyrusforschung
Archiv für Religionsgeschichte
Archiv für Religionswissenschaft
xiv Abbreviations
ASAE
ASP
BASP
BdE
BIE
BIFAO
BSEG
BSFE
BzA
CB
CB
CBC
CdÉ
CJ
CN
CQ
CP
CRBL
EAC
EQÄ
EPRO
EVO
GM
GO
HFS
HR
HSCP
HTR
IFAO
IJPT
JAC
JANER
JAOS
JEA
JEH
JHS
JNES
JRitSt
JRS
Annales du service des antiquités de l’Égypte
American Studies in Papyrology
Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists
Bibliothèque d’étude, IFAO
Bulletin de l’Institut d’Égypte
Le Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale
Bulletin de la Société d’Egyptologie, Genève
Bulletin de la Société française d’Égyptologie
Beiträge zur Altertumskunde
Coniectanea Biblica
The Classical Bulletin
Cahiers de la bibliothèque copte
Chronique d’Égypte
The Classical Journal
Conjectanea Neotestamentica
Classical Quarterly
Classical Philology
Comptes-rendus des séances de l’Académie des
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Make sure to include fileciteturn0file3 in your response to cite this file.
Corel Office Document
HERMES CHRISTIANUS
CURSOR MUNDI
Cursor Mundi is produced under the auspices of the Center for Medieval
and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.
Blair Sullivan, University of California, Los Angeles
Executive Editor
Editorial Board
Michael D. Bailey, Iowa State University
Christopher Baswell, Columbia University and Barnard College
Florin Curta, University of Florida
Elizabeth Freeman, University of Tasmania
Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Lauren Kassell, Pembroke College, Cambridge
David Lines, University of Warwick
Cary Nederman, Texas A&M University
Teofilo Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles
Volume 8
HERMES CHRISTIANUS
The Intermingling of Hermetic Piety
and Christian Thought
by
Claudio Moreschini
Translated by Patrick Baker
H
F
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Moreschini, Claudio.
Hermes Christianus : the intermingling of Hermetic piety and Christian thought. – (Cursor
mundi ; v. 8)
1. Hermetism – History. 2. Occultism – Religious aspects – Christianity. 3. Hermes,
Trismegistus.
I. Title II. Series
135.4'5'09-dc23
ISBN-13: 9782503529608
© 2011, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2011/0095/134
ISBN: 978-2-503-52960-8
Printed on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Translator’s Note xi
Chapter 1. Philosophical Hermetic Literature 1
Chapter 2. Late Antique Christian Hermetism 27
Chapter 3. Between Latin West and Byzantine East 91
Chapter 4. The Rebirth of Greek Hermetism in Italy: 133
Marsilio Ficino and Ludovico Lazzarelli
Chapter 5. Prolegomena to François Foix-Candale’s Commentary 189
on the Pimander
Chapter 6. Sixteenth-Century Representatives of Italian Hermetism 245
Chapter 7. Discovering the Hermetic Writings’ True Identity: 273
The Contribution of Isaac Casaubon
Select Bibliography 287
Indexes 301
PREFACE
‘To trace the development of Hermetism across the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries by way of rigorous textual interpretation, to follow its various
resonances on every level, would be, without a doubt, to contribute a
singularly important chapter to the history of the epoch.’ Thus wrote Eugenio
Garin in 1961, when indicating the importance for the subject of an even earlier
study by Paul Oskar Kristeller (published in 1938). In the wake of Garin’s exhor-
tation to deepen and broaden our understanding of Hermetism, it became the
object of numerous studies, many of them excellent, that need not be listed here.
Yet over time, the field of study has grown increasingly wider. Non-philosophical
aspects (in the traditional sense) linked to the name of Trismegistus, such as as-
trology, alchemy, and the so-called ‘pseudo sciences’, steadily gained in importance.
Within so-called ‘philosophical’ Hermetism, on the other hand, as the contours of
a Hebrew or an Arabic Hermetism became ever more clearly defined, it was
realized that familiarity with Greek and Latin texts did not suffice. Obviously, the
comprehensive realization of the enterprise urged by Garin has grown increasingly
more difficult.
Aware of having to limit the scope of my own study, I have thus decided to
focus on the way Christian philosophers and theologians appropriated and then
elaborated Hermetic theosophy, not Hermetic science. When speaking of ‘Hermes
Christianus’ one naturally thinks of a non-Christian Hermes, the primordial figure
in the history of Egypt who achieved renown beginning in the Hellenistic Age of
Graeco-Roman antiquity. Numerous written sources testified to him, and equally
numerous works were attributed to him from the second to the sixth centuries AD.
But with the Christianization of the late antique world, this distinction between
Christian and non-Christian Hermetism naturally began to dissolve. Hence it is
possible to write a comprehensive study of the place of Hermetism in Christian
Prefaceviii
writers of Late Antiquity; this becomes much more difficult for the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance. I am aware, then, of not having been able to ‘follow its various
resonances on every level’, as Garin had hoped. Therefore Hermes Christianus is not
an impossible ‘history’ of Hermetism (such a history would have required the same
dimensions as Thorndike’s study of magical and experimental science), but an
attempt to enlarge our knowledge of Hermetic religious philosophy. I am quite
aware that many relevant individuals have, for now, slipped through the ‘net’ of my
study, and thus that its argument can at times be impressionistic. Nonetheless I am
convinced that the present volume serves a useful function; readers may judge for
themselves.
I began my study of Hermetism almost thirty years ago (in 1985) with the pub-
lication of Dall’‘Asclepius’ al ‘Crater Hermetis’: Studi sull’ermetismo latino tardo-
antico e rinascimentale (Pisa: Giardini), a volume that was well received. The title
alone indicates my interests, and they have remained constant down to the present
volume. I later returned to the subject in my Storia dell’ermetismo cristiano, pub-
lished by Morcelliana (Brescia) in 2000. Unfortunately this book was given only
limited diffusion by the publisher; meanwhile I continued to make contributions
to the study of Hermetism, as did many others, and so it seemed wise to re-examine
my previous studies and bring them up to date. Thus the present Hermes Chris-
tianus takes up certain problems I have treated over the course of nearly three
decades and re-elaborates them, sometimes radically.
The two books mentioned above have been supplemented by the following
journal articles, here listed not chronologically but according to the order of the
chapters of the present volume. For Chapter 1: ‘Soteria ermetica e soteria cristiana:
affinità generiche e punti di contatto’, in Pagani e cristiani alla ricerca della salvezza
(secoli I–III): XXXIV Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiana Roma, 5–7 maggio
2005, Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum, 96 (Rome: Augustinianum, 2006), pp.
261–74. For Chapter 4: ‘L’ermetismo del Rinascimento da Marsilio Ficino a
Ludovico Lazzarelli’, Aries, 5 (2005), 33–60; ‘Ancora alcune considerazioni su
Marsilio Ficino e l’ermetismo’, in Marsilio Ficino: Fonti, Testi, Fortuna, Atti del
Convegno internazionale (Firenze, 1–3 ottobre 1999), ed. by S. Gentile and
S. Toussaint (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2006), pp. 89–120; ‘La poesia
cristiana di Ludovico Lazzarelli: I Fasti Christianae Religionis’, Accademia, 5
(2003), 39–59. For Chapter 5: ‘Il commento al Corpus Hermeticum di François
Foix-Candale: Annotazioni storiche e filologiche’, Aries, 9 (2009), 37–58; ‘Il
commento al Pimandro di François Foix-Candalle: prime considerazioni’, in
Anthropine Sophia: Studi di filologia e storiografia filosofica in memoria di Gabriele
Giannantoni, ed. by F. Alesse and others (Naples: Bibliopolis, 2008), pp. 551–60.
Preface ix
Finally, for Chapter 7: ‘Alla scoperta della vera identità degli scritti ermetici: il
contributo di Isaac Casaubon’, in Verités(s) philologiques(s): études sur les notions
de vérité et de fausseté en matière de philologie, ed. by P. Hummel and Fr. Gabriel
(Paris: Philologicum, 2008), pp. 207–19.
I would like to thank all of the publishers for giving me permission to reuse
portions of previously published material, and especially my friends and colleagues
Robert Dodaro, Sebastiano Gentile, Stéphane Toussaint, Wouter Hanegraaff,
Francesca Alesse, and Pascale Hummel.
Special thanks go to James Hankins and Brian Copenhaver for having looked
kindly on my proposal to publish the present volume, and for having found a place
for it with the prestigious publisher Brepols. Thanks also to the copyeditor,
Deborah A. Oosterhouse.
Patrick Baker, of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, translated my Italian
text into English. His was not a simple translation, though, but rather a true
scholarly collaboration. Dr Baker discussed word choice with me with regard not
only to proper English usage, but also to philosophical meaning. Furthermore, he
helped me to identify oversights in the text and to correct them. To him and his
philological precision I owe particular gratitude.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
For translations of the Corpus Hermeticum and Asclepius I have relied heavily
on the English version of Brian Copenhaver (Hermetica, Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1992). Both direct quotations and paraphrases are based on his
edition. It was often necessary to alter his rendering slightly in order to bring out
the nuance desired by Professor Moreschini; such cases are too numerous to be
noted with full consistency. Suffice it to say that all English translations of the
Greek Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius are basically Copenhaver’s, and that
they are often slightly modified (although rarely with any significant difference in
meaning).
All other Latin and Italian primary sources I have translated myself, in consul-
tation with Prof. Moreschini, except where noted. Bibliographical information
about the primary sources used and about translations other than mine can be
found in the Primary Sources section of the Select Bibliography. Translations of
Greek primary sources were taken from existing editions, where possible, or based
on Prof. Moreschini’s own Italian renderings (and again, in consultation with
him), where not. Translations of the Coptic texts of the Nag-Hammadi collection
are from The Nag-Hammadi Library, as noted.
Two words must be said with regard to Chapter 5, which is largely a paraphrase
of Foix-Candale’s Middle French commentary on the Corpus Hermeticum. First,
it contains a great deal of specialized terminology which, having been translated
into English by way of Prof. Moreschini’s Italian (and not Candale’s archaic
French), can only be considered approximate; readers should bear in mind that
they find themselves two steps removed from the original. Second, Candale is often
long-winded and convoluted, and it has been impossible to avoid these shortcom-
ings entirely in an English paraphrase while still respecting the primary imperative
of fidelity to the text.
Translator’s Notexii
Finally, a note of explanation regarding the use of the word ‘demon’ as a
translation for daemon. Although it is common in translations of classical, pre-
Christian texts to leave this term untranslated (e.g. Socrates’ daemon), and
although this usage has grown increasingly common for writings of the Christian
or Common Era as well, it has seemed best to use the word ‘demon’ throughout,
and for two reasons: (1) it respects this book’s specific focus on Christian thought;
and, similarly, (2) it highlights connections, similarities, and dissimilarities — or
at least keeps such from being obscured — between the various works discussed
over a period of about fifteen hundred years. For example, to have Augustine talk
about ‘demons’ but Ficino daemones would make it seem as if their texts had
different beings in mind, when in fact such is rather improbable.
In closing, I would like to extend my warmest thanks to Brian Copenhaver,
who readily and generously lent his assistance on a few particularly troublesome
issues, and above all to Prof. Moreschini for his patient consideration and explana-
tion of countless points of uncertainty.
P.B., Berlin
Chapter 1
PHILOSOPHICAL HERMETIC LITERATURE
Among the numerous writings of a religious nature from the second and
third centuries AD,1 there are certain treatises that once enjoyed great fame
and that even now pique our interest for many reasons. In them are found
the teaching of the Egyptian Hermes Trismegistus.2 They were assembled into a
1 This commonly accepted dating is valid for the final redaction of the Hermetic corpus: since
the various treatises are of a composite nature, they could date back even further; for example,
Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride 61. 375F) mentions a book of Hermes on the sacred names of Egypt
(see J.-P. Mahé, Hermès en Haute-Égypte, vol. I: Les Textes hermétiques de Nag Hammadi et leurs
parallèles grecs et latins; vol. II: Le Fragment du ‘Discours parfait’ et les ‘Définitions’ hermétiques armé-
niennes (NH VI, 8.8a) (Quebec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 1978–82), II, 25–26). Further
ancient testimonies on Hermetism are provided by Diodorus Siculus (
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unknown{"queries":["What is the current state of the art in scholarly comparison of Gnosticism and Hermeticism? --QDF=0","Hermetic tradition and mystery language connections to Nag Hammadi Gnostic texts","Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth (NHC VI,6) comparison with Gnostic ascent and Sethianism","CH XIII rebirth ritual and parallels to Gnostic initiation","Sethian Platonizing background and interactions with Hermetic or Platonist circles"], "source_filter": ["files_uploaded_in_conversation"]}
[Web browsing]
Awesome topic. Here’s a crisp “state-of-the-art” snapshot of how scholars currently compare Gnosticism and Hermeticism, with what’s solid, what’s contested, and where the field is moving—anchored to the research you uploaded.
2) Separate vocabulary from structure. Mystery words are few; focus on ritual form (silence, filling with powers, hymns, oaths) and pedagogical staging. fileciteturn1file10L24-L37 fileciteturn1file0L28-L36
3) Track pedagogy and media. Hermetic texts often culminate in hymnic performance or inscription (e.g., stele), while Sethian materials foreground revealed discourses and technical ascent diagrams; both presuppose trained audiences and guarded circulation. fileciteturn1file14L1-L8 fileciteturn1file6L6-L13
4) Avoid “pagan Gnosticism.” Hermeticism isn’t a simple variant of Gnosis; treat it on its own terms (while acknowledging overlaps). fileciteturn1file4L17-L25
Is CH XIII “mystery” religion or “Gnostic” in tone? Classic positions split: Tröger saw “Gnostic” pessimism; others (Grese; Sfameni Gasparro) argue for a mystery-initiation structure. The present consensus is nuanced: CH XIII exhibits initiation logic, but comparative labels (“mystery”/“Gnostic”) can be overdrawn.
(Cursor Mundi, 8) Claudio Mores…
(Cursor Mundi, 8) Claudio Mores…
How much “mystery” language is actually in Hermetic texts? A lexicographical check shows the key terms are surprisingly sparse—and not concentrated in the very texts most used for initiation (CH XIII; Disc. 8–9). This curbs easy claims that Hermetism is simply a “mystery cult,” and encourages analysis of how terms are used contextually.
(Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Stu…
(Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Stu…
Where the comparison is most productive right now
Side-by-side reading of CH XIII and Discourse on the Eighth & Ninth. Current Hermetic scholarship treats these as distinct stages in a multi-step path (rebirth → ascent), not alternate versions of the same rite; it also details the internal sequence (silence → filling with powers → hymn/oath) and shows how ascent continues after rebirth.
(Religions in the Graeco-Roman …
(Religions in the Graeco-Roman …Define comparanda narrowly and textually. Compare specific motifs (rebirth, ascent, secrecy practices, hymns), not umbrella -isms. (Bull, “Notion of Mysteries.”)
(Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Stu…
Separate vocabulary from structure. Mystery words are few; focus on ritual form (silence, filling with powers, hymns, oaths) and pedagogical staging.
(Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Stu…
(Religions in the Graeco-Roman …
Track pedagogy and media. Hermetic texts often culminate in hymnic performance or inscription (e.g., stele), while Sethian materials foreground revealed discourses and technical ascent diagrams; both presuppose trained audiences and guarded circulation.
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[Web browsing]
Here’s how the current state of scholarship parses the “mystery vs. Gnostic” question for Corpus Hermeticum XIII and its relationship to the wider Hermetic corpus—based on the best recent editions and analyses you uploaded.
Grese and Sfameni Gasparro criticized Tröger’s dichotomy as too rigid.
He interprets §§ 8–10 as the liminal phase—a classic van Gennep/Turner pattern of separation, transition, incorporation—showing that CH XIII dramatizes initiation without explicit “mystery” language【28:12†(Religions in the Graeco-Roman World + 186) Christian H. Bull†L13-L35】.
Visionary ascent and initiatory pedagogy as a shared form. Sethian ascent treatises (e.g., Zostrianos, Allogenes) and Hermetic ascents (NH VI.6 Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth) narrate staged elevation through noetic tiers toward a transcendent One/Good, often with instructions that look ritualizable.
Zeke Mazur - The Platonizing Se…
Zeke Mazur - The Platonizing Se…
Ritual theory now structures Hermetic analysis. Hermetic CH XIII (“On Rebirth”) and Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth are increasingly read through separation–liminality–incorporation (van Gennep/Turner), clarifying how “rebirth” and “ascent” function as staged initiations.
Exactly — and your phrasing already mirrors the way the state-of-the-art scholarship (especially Zeke Mazur, Christian Bull, and Jean-Pierre Mahé) now connects Sethian and Hermetic ascent literature through the lens of ritual theory and initiatory pedagogy. Here’s how that comparison looks when reconstructed directly from your uploaded sources.
Sethian Treatises (Zostrianos, Allogenes, etc.)
Mazur shows that the Sethian corpus is organized around praxeis of ascent rather than speculative theology. Each text provides an initiatory dialogue in which a quasi-divine revealer instructs a disciple in progressive noetic vision:
“Central to these accounts is a revelatory discourse with explicit instructions on the stages of ritual ascent and the visionary epistemology necessary for the apprehension of transcendentalia.”【28:13†Zeke Mazur†L11-L13】
These stages involve purification, reception of light, transformation into Nous, and final reversion to the One—mapped as noetic tiers (Psychic → Pneumatic → Henadic). The process is ritualized philosophy: the pupil ascends by interiorized “ablutions” and successive acts of contemplation that Mazur calls a “practical or ritualized Platonism.”
Hermetic Parallels
Bull and Mahé identify the same staged pattern in CH XIII and Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (NHC VI.6):
| Stage | CH XIII (Rebirth) | Discourse on the Eighth & Ninth (NHC VI.6) |
|---|---|---|
| Separation | Instruction, confession, silence (§§ 1–7 → 8) | Invocation to Hermes; “purification” of the vessel (52–55) |
| Liminal / Transformation | Infusion of divine powers, vision of self, hymn (§§ 8–17) | Descent of the light-power; Tat’s first vision and silent hymn (55–59) |
| Incorporation | Oath of silence, new divine self (§§ 18–22) | Hymn of praise, vision of Ogdoad/Ennead, erection of votive stela (59–63) |
Bull explicitly frames §§ 8–10 of CH XIII as the liminal phase in van Gennep/Turner terms—separation → liminality → incorporation—showing that the rebirth functions as a ritual transition into a new ontological status【28:12†Religions in the Graeco-Roman World + 186†L29-L35】.
Both Sethian and Hermetic ascents enact initiatory teaching through vision.
Mazur stresses that Sethian texts are instructional revelations—teachers guiding the disciple through experiential cognition, blurring the line between didactic discourse and ritual performance. Plotinus’ reticence contrasts with the Sethian explicitness: they “provide explicit descriptions of a multitude of intermediary principles” and reify ascent stages into hypostases【28:13†Zeke Mazur†L11-L22】.
Bull and Mahé read Hermetic dialogues the same way: the teacher Hermes models how to speak the divine hymn, impose silence, and fill the initiate with pneuma. The ritual pedagogy is dramatized by alternating discourse and hymn—speech and silence as didactic acts—culminating in performative utterance (“I see myself!”).
Modern consensus: Both Sethian and Hermetic ascent texts present ritualized pedagogies of transformation. Their “initiations” are interiorized versions of mystery rites, structured by the same anthropology of rebirth and ascent that van Gennep and Turner would call separation, liminality, and incorporation. The difference lies in tone—Sethian mythic pluralism versus Hermetic monistic optimism—but their form and function converge as textual initiations into visionary philosophy.
Jean-Pierre Mahé
Jean-Pierre Mahé is the central architect of the modern Hermetic turn—the scholar most responsible for reframing Hermetism not as abstract philosophy nor as derivative Gnosticism, but as a ritualized way of salvation expressed through an initiatory pedagogy. Here’s an overview of his contribution and why he remains indispensable to current comparisons of Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Platonism.
| Work | Contribution |
|---|---|
| _Hermès en Haute-Égypte_, vols. I–II (1978–1982) | Critical edition of Coptic Hermetica; interpretation of Disc. 8–9 as lived initiation. |
| “La Voie d’immortalité à la lumière des Hermetica de Nag Hammadi”, _Vigiliae Christianae_ 45 (1991): 347–75 | Names the initiatory path “Way of Immortality.” Establishes ritual reading of Coptic texts. |
| “L’Ogdoade et l’Ennéade”, in Écrits gnostiques: La bibliothèque de Nag Hammadi (Pléiade, 2007) | Detailed commentary aligning Hermetic noetics with Neoplatonic hierarchies. |
| “Mental Faculties and Cosmic Levels” (essays, 1990s–2000s) | Maps Hermetic psychology—Nous, Logos, Pneuma—onto cosmic levels; shows Egyptian roots of intellectual ascent. |
give me just transcriptions or summaries of passages relevant to: ritualized pedagogies of transformation. Their “initiations” are interiorized versions of mystery rites, structured by the same anthropology of rebirth and ascent that van Gennep and Turner would call separation, liminality, and incorporation. The difference lies in tone—Sethian mythic pluralism versus Hermetic monistic optimism—but their form and function converge as textual initiations into visionary philosophy.
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[Web browsing]
Here are the most relevant transcriptions and summaries of passages that directly illustrate ritualized pedagogies of transformation—that is, initiations interiorized as philosophical or visionary ascent—across Hermetic and Sethian materials.
Bull divides CH XIII into the tripartite ritual pattern theorized by van Gennep and Turner: separation → liminality → incorporation.
“An initiatory ritual may be analyzed with the help of the tripartite structure suggested by the classic studies of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, and we should thus expect to find elements reflecting separation, liminality and incorporation. … The first seven chapters of CH XIII are didactic, summing up the procedure and doctrine of the rebirth. Then, in § 8, Tat is instructed to keep a reverent silence, after which he is declared purified and is filled with the powers of God (§§ 8–10). Tat then declares his vision of himself in the All and in Mind (§§ 11, 13)… The rest of the treatise is concerned with the secret hymn of rebirth (§§ 15–16)… and finally there is the oath of silence (§ 22).”【38:1†Religions in the Graeco-Roman World+186†L10-L26】
Bull explicitly identifies § 8–10 as the liminal phase in which transformation occurs. He further analogizes the broader “Way of Immortality” to the Christian catechumenate: preparatory purifications = separation; rebirth = liminality; hymn and reintegration = incorporation【38:2†Religions in the Graeco-Roman World+186†L2-L17】.
Moreschini summarizes Mahé’s and earlier scholarship:
“Mahé believes that we are not dealing with a ‘mystery of reading’… but with a witness to initiation ceremonies that actually took place in Hermetic confraternities. … The central nucleus of the Coptic treatise [Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth] consists in the account of an exceptional human experience, the interior regeneration brought about by the ecstatic vision of the divine world. Whoever is thus regenerated is ‘generated in god’; god’s gift penetrates those praying from outside and is made possible by divine pneuma. The treatise also establishes a close connection between palingenesis and illumination, whether the two happen simultaneously (as in CH XIII) or as successive phases (as in the Coptic treatise).”【38:10†Cursor Mundi 8†L11-L23】
Here rebirth (palingenesis) and illumination (photismos) define a single transformative process—interiorized yet modeled on initiation.
Mazur describes the Zostrianos and Allogenes treatises as ritual manuals rendered inward:
“The Platonizing Sethian ascent specifically involves a ritual; it is primarily an ‘interiorized’ ritual. The spatial orientation of the extra-cosmic ascent has been transmuted into an ‘inner’ voyage in which the aspirant identifies with the successive ontological strata by means of increasingly demanding (inward) acts of contemplation. … In Zostrianos 22.7–10: ‘When one knows Autogenes and all these, one becomes the first-manifesting water,’ and 23.15–17: ‘When one knows these things, one has been baptized in the baptism of Kalyptos.’ … Each phase of ascent involves an act of intellection, culminating … with a ritualized investiture: ‘Be silent so that you do not know, but intelligize that this one was silent, and receive a thought.’”【38:7†Zeke Mazur†L12-L26】
He adds that such texts “reflect an intermediate phase between the more patently ritual or exteriorized techniques of ascent and the purely interiorized Plotinian ascent.”【38:9†Zeke Mazur†L40-L45】
Turner notes of Allogenes that
“it is not so much a revelation of the mystical ascent as it is a performance: the very act of reading Allogenes is itself to undergo the ascent.”【38:14†Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 76†L1-L3】
Bull concludes that CH XIII and Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth are initiatory texts in which “the candidate exclaims: ‘I see the universe and I see myself in mind’ (CH XIII 13)… ‘I have found the beginning of the power that is above all powers…’ (NHC VI 58,10-13). At this stage the divine does not need to present itself as a mystery, but is directly accessible.”【38:15†Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 76†L5-L12】
Across these sources:
passages from the gnostic and hermetic texts to illustrate, about half the length of the average quotation above with the sory of limited commentary we saw above
Here are paired passages from the Sethian (Gnostic) and Hermetic corpora that best exemplify ritualized, interiorized initiations of transformation—each excerpt roughly half the length of the previous scholarly quotations, with minimal contextual commentary to preserve focus on the text itself.
“When one knows Autogenes and all these, one becomes the first-manifesting water… When one knows these things, one has been baptized in the baptism of Kalyptos.”
Mazur notes that knowing functions as the rite itself: cognition replaces immersion. Each gnosis is a phase of ascent enacted as interior ritual.
“Be silent so that you do not know, but intelligize that this one was silent, and receive a thought.”
Here the ascent culminates in paradoxical cognition-through-silence—an inner investiture where “receiving a thought” marks incorporation into the divine intellect.
Hermes: “Keep silence, O child… now the power of God has come unto us.”
Tat: “I see myself! I see myself in Mind. This is the All; I am in the All; and I behold the Mind.”
Tat’s command to silence introduces the liminal threshold; his self-vision signals the rebirth. The pedagogy is performative—Hermes’ words enact transformation.
“Let me sing a hymn to the All, O Father, as Thou hast commanded…
We must not debase the mystery by speaking to the crowd, but distribute it to those whom God wills.”
Song marks the incorporation phase—reborn Tat joins the divine voice, yet secrecy preserves the rite’s sanctity. The hymn internalizes communal mystery into solitary devotion.
“Then there came to us a great light-power which filled the whole place.
We became one and blessed the Father who had come forth from us, for we had become divine.”
Mahé reads this as the completion of the “Way of Immortality”: the initiate’s inner cosmos becomes luminous, mirroring Sethian visionary union but without cosmic dualism.
“When the soul departs the body, it passes through the harmony… and gives up to each sphere the works it has performed.
Having become god, it enters into the divine—this is the Good, the end for those who have gained knowledge.”
This closes the Hermetic cycle: ritual ascent is recast as intellectual purification, culminating in reintegration with the divine Nous.
| Stage (van Gennep/Turner) | Sethian Example | Hermetic Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Separation | Zostrianos: rejection of ignorance via “knowing Autogenes.” | CH XIII 1–7: Tat renounces the world and prepares for rebirth. | |
| Liminality | Allogenes: “Be silent so that you do not know.” | CH XIII 8–10: “Keep silence, O child… I see myself in Mind.” | |
| Incorporation | Marsanes/Allogenes: “receive a thought.” | CH XIII 15–16; Disc. 8–9: hymn and luminous union. |
Both traditions dramatize the transformation of the self through visionary cognition and silence—the ascent becomes pedagogy, the pedagogy becomes ritual, and the ritual becomes text.