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Corpus Hermeticum CH2.4 · CH2.4

The place is incorporeal — divine, and ungenerated

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Hermes — Ποταπῆς δὲ φύσεως; τῆς ἐναντίας ἆρα, ὦ Ἀσκληπιέ; σώματι δὲ ἐναντία φύσις τὸ ἀσώματον.
Asclepius — Ὡμολόγηται.
Hermes — Ἀσώματος οὖν ὁ τόπος, τὸ δὲ ἀσώματον ἢ θεῖόν ἐστιν ἢ θεός. τὸ δὲ θεῖον λέγω νῦν, οὐ τὸ γεννητόν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἀγέννητον.

— And of what nature? Of the contrary, surely, O Asclepius? And contrary to body is the incorporeal. — It is agreed. — Incorporeal, then, is the place; and the incorporeal is either divine or God. And by 'the divine' I mean now not the generated, but the ungenerated.

Word by word

Hermes
ΠοταπῆςPotapêsof what natureδὲdèandφύσεως;phýseōsnatureτῆςtêstheἐναντίαςenantíascontraryἆρα,ârasurelyὦōOἈσκληπιέ;AsklēpiéAsclepiusσώματιsṓmatito bodyδὲdèandἐναντίαenantíacontraryφύσιςphýsisthe natureτὸtòtheἀσώματον.asṓmatonincorporeal
Asclepius
Ὡμολόγηται.Hōmológētaiit is agreed
Hermes
ἈσώματοςAsṓmatosincorporealοὖνoûnthenὁhotheτόπος,tóposplaceτὸtòtheδὲdèandἀσώματονasṓmatonincorporealἢḕeitherθεῖόνtheîóndivineἐστινestinisἢḕorθεός.theósGodτὸtòtheδὲdèandθεῖονtheîondivineλέγωlégōI meanνῦν,nŷnnowοὐounotτὸtòtheγεννητόν,gennētóngeneratedἀλλὰallàbutτὸtòtheἀγέννητον.agénnētonungenerated

The setting

The proof lands. Of what nature is the place? Of the contrary nature to body — and contrary to body is the incorporeal (ἀσώματον). So the place is incorporeal; and the incorporeal is either divine or God. And 'the divine' here, Hermes specifies, means not the generated but the ungenerated (ἀγέννητον).

A note on this passage

The dialectic delivers its verdict. Body has run out (II.2), so the place of the world's motion must be 'of the contrary nature to body' — the incorporeal (ἀσώματον). And the incorporeal, Hermes says, is 'either divine or God.' The physics has become theology: the room the cosmos moves in is God.

What the interlinear can make vivid is that the whole proof runs on negations lined up against their positives — ἀσώματον against σῶμα, ἀγέννητον against γεννητόν. Hermes even stops to fix the term: 'the divine' means 'not the generated but the ungenerated' — the uncreated, the sourceless. This is the vocabulary of negative theology being assembled in real time, each divine attribute defined by the bodily, born thing it is not. The reader watching the Greek sees God arrived at by subtraction, exactly as the soul in Book I was saved by subtraction.

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Corpus Hermeticum CH2.4 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/hermetica/CH2.4/