That God is unseen — because he always is, and only the generated appears
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Hermes — Καὶ τόνδε σοι τὸν λόγον, ὦ Τάτ, διεξελεύσομαι, ὅπως μὴ ἀμύητος ᾖς τοῦ κρείττονος θεοῦ ὀνόματος. σὺ δὲ νόει πῶς τὸ δοκοῦν τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀφανὲς φανερώτατόν σοι γενήσεται. οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἦν ἀεὶ εἰ μὴ ἀφανὲς ἦν· πᾶν γὰρ τὸ φαινόμενον γεννητόν· ἐφάνη γάρ· τὸ δὲ ἀφανὲς ἀεί ἐστι· τοῦ γὰρ φανῆναι οὐ χρῄζει· ἀεὶ γάρ ἐστι. καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα φανερὰ ποιεῖ, αὐτὸς ἀφανὴς ὤν, ὡς ἀεὶ ὢν φανερῶν αὐτὸς οὐ φανεροῦται, γεννᾷ οὐκ αὐτὸς γεννώμενος, ἐν φαντασίᾳ δὲ οὐκ ἔστι πάντα φαντασιῶν. ἡ γὰρ φαντασία μόνων τῶν γεννητῶν ἐστίν. οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστιν ἢ φαντασία ἡ
And this discourse too, O Tat, I will expound to you, so that you not be uninitiated into the name of the greater God. Consider how what seems unseen to the many will become most manifest to you. For it would not be forever, if it were not unseen; for everything that appears is generated, since it came into appearance. But the unseen always is, for it has no need of appearing: it always is. And it makes all other things manifest, being itself unseen; being always, it makes manifest but is not made manifest; it generates without being generated; and in appearance it is not at all — for appearance belongs only to the generated things, since coming-to-be is nothing other than appearance.
CH V opens the answer to IV.9's paradox. Hermes will expound this discourse to Tat, so that he not be uninitiated into the name of the greater God. Consider how what seems unseen to the many will become most manifest to you. For it would not be forever, if it were not unseen; everything that appears is generated, for it came into appearance. But the unseen always is, for it has no need of appearing: it always is. And it makes all other things manifest while being itself unseen; being always, it makes manifest but is not made manifest; it generates without being generated; and in appearance it is not at all — for appearance belongs only to generated things, since coming-to-be is nothing other than appearance.
The fifth treatise takes up the exact problem IV.9 left hanging — the Good is 'unseen to the manifest' — and turns it from a difficulty into the deepest proof of God's reality. Its title states the paradox: 'that God, though unseen, is most manifest.' Hermes frames the teaching as initiation ('so that you not be uninitiated, ἀμύητος'), and the interlinear keeps the φαν-/ἀφαν- family in constant view, because the whole argument is a play on one root: φαίνομαι (appear), φανερός (manifest), ἀφανής (unseen), φαντασία (appearance).
The logic is elegant and complete. 'Everything that appears is generated (πᾶν… τὸ φαινόμενον γεννητόν), for it came into appearance' — to appear is to have come to be. Therefore what is eternal cannot appear: 'it would not be forever, if it were not unseen (οὐ… ἂν ἦν ἀεί, εἰ μὴ ἀφανὲς ἦν).' God's invisibility is not a limitation but the signature of his eternity — 'he has no need of appearing, for he always is.' Then the great chain of active/passive antitheses, which the interlinear lines up one under another: he makes all manifest but is not made manifest; he generates but is not generated; he is 'in appearance not at all (ἐν φαντασίᾳ… οὐκ ἔστι),' because 'appearance belongs only to the generated (ἡ… φαντασία μόνων τῶν γεννητῶν).' The closing definition is the philosophical hinge: 'coming-to-be is nothing other than appearance (οὐδὲν… ἐστιν ἢ φαντασία ἡ γένεσις)' — to be born is simply to appear. God, who never came to be, therefore never appears, and is by that very fact the most real and (V.2 will say) the most manifest of all.
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