The soul's virtue is knowledge — and understanding is the gift of God
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Hermes — τοὐναντίον δὲ ἀρετὴ ψυχῆς γνῶσις· ὁ γὰρ γνοὺς καὶ ἀγαθὸς καὶ εὐσεβὴς καὶ ἤδη θεῖος.
Tat — Τίς δέ ἐστιν οὗτος, ὦ πάτερ;
Hermes — ῾Ο μὴ πολλὰ λαλῶν, μηδὲ πολλὰ ἀκούων· ὃ γὰρ δύο λόγοις σχολάζων καὶ ἀκοαῖς, ὦ τέκνον, σκιαμαχεῖ. ὁ γὰρ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ καὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν οὔτε λέγεται οὔτε ἀκούεται· τούτου δὲ οὕτως ἔχοντος, ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσιν αἱ αἰσθήσεις εἰσί, διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι εἶναι χωρὶς αὐτοῦ· γνῶσις δὲ αἰσθήσεως πολὺ διαφέρει· αἴσθησις μὲν γὰρ γίνεται τοῦ ἐπικρατοῦντος, γνῶσις δέ ἐστιν ἐπιστήμης τὸ τέλος, ἐπιστήμη δὲ δῶρον τοῦ θεοῦ.
On the contrary, the virtue of the soul is knowledge; for the one who has known is both good and pious and already divine. — And who is this one, O father? — The one not speaking much, nor hearing much; for the one who busies himself with the two — talk and hearing — is shadow-boxing, O child, since God and Father and the Good is neither spoken nor heard. And this being so, the senses exist in all the things that are, because they cannot be without him; but knowledge differs much from sense-perception. For sense-perception comes to be of whatever prevails, but knowledge is the end of understanding — and understanding is the gift of God.
On the contrary, the virtue of the soul is knowledge; for the one who has known is good and pious and already divine. Tat asks: who is this, father? Hermes: the one not speaking much nor hearing much; for whoever busies himself with the two — talk and hearing — is shadow-boxing, child, since God and Father and the Good is neither spoken nor heard. This being so, the senses exist in all things that are, because they cannot be without him; but knowledge differs greatly from sense-perception. For sense-perception comes to be from whatever prevails, but knowledge is the end of understanding — and understanding is the gift of God.
Against ignorance stands its cure, and 'The Key' states it as a flat equation: 'the virtue of the soul is knowledge (ἀρετὴ ψυχῆς γνῶσις).' This is Socrates' paradox — virtue is knowledge — recast as a mystical soteriology: 'the one who has known (ὁ γνούς) is good and pious and already divine (ἤδη θεῖος).' Note 'already': the knower does not earn divinity later, but is divine now, in the knowing. Deification and gnosis are the same event seen twice.
But what kind of knower? Tat asks, and Hermes gives a startling answer for a book of discourses: 'the one not speaking much, nor hearing much (ὁ μὴ πολλὰ λαλῶν, μηδὲ πολλὰ ἀκούων).' Whoever chases God through 'talk and hearing (λόγοις… καὶ ἀκοαῖς)' is 'shadow-boxing (σκιαμαχεῖ)' — sparring with a phantom — 'since God is neither spoken nor heard (οὔτε λέγεται οὔτε ἀκούεται).' The treatise that called itself a summary of all the discourses ends by warning against discourse itself: words are shadows of the wordless. Then the final distinction, and the last sentence of our tranche, which rank among the most quoted in the Hermetica: 'knowledge differs much from sense-perception (γνῶσις δὲ αἰσθήσεως πολὺ διαφέρει).' Sense-perception is passive — it 'comes to be of whatever prevails (τοῦ ἐπικρατοῦντος),' produced by whatever force presses on the organs. Knowledge is not produced by anything in the world at all: 'knowledge is the end of understanding, and understanding is the gift of God (γνῶσις δέ ἐστιν ἐπιστήμης τὸ τέλος, ἐπιστήμη δὲ δῶρον τοῦ θεοῦ).' The whole ladder — soul, virtue, knowledge, deification — rests at its summit not on human effort but on grace. The Key's last turn of the lock is that the door is opened from the other side.
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