God cannot be stripped of his works; this — life, the beautiful, the good — is God
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Nous — ὥσπερ γάρ, ἂν τούτων καταργηθῇς, οὐκ ἔτι ζῶον εἶ, οὕτως οὐδ᾽ ἂν ἐκείνων καταργηθῇ ὁ θεός, ὃ μὴ θέμις ἐστὶν εἰπεῖν, οὐκ ἔτι ἐστὶ θεός. εἰ γὰρ ἀποδέδεικται μηδὲν δυνάμενον εἶναι πόσῳ μᾶλλον ὁ θεός. εἰ γάρ τί ἐστιν ὃ μὴ ποιεῖ, εἰ θέμις εἰπεῖν, ἀτελής ἐστιν. εἰ δὲ μήτε ἀργός ἐστι, τέλειος δέ, ἄρα πάντα ῥᾴδιον νοήσεις τὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἔργον ἓν ὄν, ἵνα πάντα γένηται τὰ γινόμενα ἢ τὰ ἅπαξ γεγονότα ἢ τὰ μέλλοντα γίνεσθαι. ἔστι δὲ τοῦτο, ὦ φίλτατε, ζωή, τοῦτο δέ ἐστι τὸ καλόν, τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ ἀγαθόν, τοῦτό ἐστιν ὁ θεός. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἔργῳ αὐτὸ θέλεις νοῆσαι, ἰδέ, τί σοι ἐγγίνεται θέλοντι γεννῆσαι. ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ ἐκείνῳ τοῦτο ὅμοιον, ἐκεῖνος ἄρα οὐχ ἥδεται. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἄλλον ἔχει συνεργόν. αὐτουργὸς γὰρ ὢν ἀεὶ ἐστιν ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ, αὐτὸς ὢν ὃ ποιεῖ.
For just as, if you were deprived of these, you are no longer a living being, so too, if God were deprived of those — which it is not lawful to say — he is no longer God. For if it has been shown that nothing is able to be, how much more God! For if there is anything which he does not make, if it be lawful to say, he is incomplete; but if he is neither idle but perfect, then all things you will easily grasp, God's work being one, so that all things may come to be — the things coming to be, or the things once made, or those about to come to be. And this, O dearest, is life; and this is the beautiful; this is the good; this is God. And if you wish to grasp it also by work, see what arises in you when you wish to beget. But this is not like to him, for he then takes no pleasure. Nor does he have another as fellow-worker. For being self-working, he is always in his work, himself being what he makes.
Nous: for just as, if you were deprived of these, you would no longer be a living being, so too, if God were deprived of those — which it is not lawful to say — he would no longer be God. For if it has been shown that nothing can be without him, how much more God! For if there is anything he does not make, if it be lawful to say, he is incomplete; but if he is neither idle nor incomplete but perfect, then you will easily grasp that all is God's work, being one, so that all things may come to be — the things coming to be, or once made, or about to come to be. And this, dearest, is life; this is the beautiful; this is the good; this is God. And if you wish to grasp it also by work, see what arises in you when you wish to beget. But this is not like to him, for he takes no pleasure, nor has he another as fellow-worker. For being self-working, he is always in his work, himself being what he makes.
The proof of the one God is pressed to its most radical point — the mutual necessity of God and his works — and then dissolves into doxology. 'Just as, if you were deprived of these [body, soul, motion], you are no longer a living being, so too, if God were deprived of those, he is no longer God.' Hermes has already been told God is not self-sufficient apart from his creation (§5); now the converse is stated with a shudder — 'which it is not lawful to say (ὃ μὴ θέμις ἐστὶν εἰπεῖν).' To imagine God without his creating is not merely false but unspeakable, θέμις marking the boundary of pious speech. The logic is tight: a God who failed to make anything would be 'incomplete (ἀτελής),' and since he is 'neither idle nor incomplete but perfect,' his whole work is 'one,' embracing everything that comes to be, has been, or will be.
Then the argument breaks into worship, and the four great names fall like hammer-blows: 'this, dearest, is life; this is the beautiful; this is the good; this is God (τοῦτο… ζωή… τὸ καλόν… τὸ ἀγαθόν… ὁ θεός).' The demonstrative τοῦτο, repeated, points at the single reality the reasoning has cornered — the one activity that is at once Life, Beauty, Goodness, and God. This is the Hermetic habit of ending proof in acclamation; the mind that has followed the chain of necessity arrives not at a QED but at a name to adore.
The close turns experiential, offering Hermes a way to 'grasp it also by work (ἔργῳ).' Look inward at generation: 'see what arises in you when you wish to beget (θέλοντι γεννῆσαι).' The stirring of the creative will in a human being is a faint pointer toward God's making — but only a pointer, and the disanalogy is the real teaching. God's creating is 'not like' ours in two ways: 'he takes no pleasure (οὐχ ἥδεται)' — his making is not driven by desire or the relief of a lack — and 'he has no other as fellow-worker (συνεργόν)' — no partner, no matter, no instrument outside himself. The passage lands on one of the treatise's boldest phrases: God is 'self-working (αὐτουργός), always in his work, himself being what he makes (αὐτὸς ὢν ὃ ποιεῖ).' Maker, making, and made are one; God does not act upon another but is the very activity — creation is not something God does but something God is.
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