Poimandres

evangelical teaching. Thus, one might say that he speaks in this way as a certain prophet and initiate of the hidden God. For in many other things said by him, he would not seem to differ from the most sacred teachers among us. Such is the case when, discoursing on the beautiful and the good, he says that they exist only with God. And that ignorance of Him is the greatest evil among men, and [he speaks] of the immortality of souls and their punishment, and furthermore of the common intellect in men, what kind it is and what it can do; but also indeed of rebirth and the promise of good things, where he says that the creator of rebirth is the son of God and one man; and of many other pious matters, which, because they are present in these chapters—the number of which is fifteen in all—I omit as I pass by. Yet the greatest and most wonderful of all things said by him, I did not think it was insignificant to mention. It is written by Suidas A 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedic lexicon. that Hermes was called "Thrice-Greatest" because he spoke these things concerning the Trinity:

"In the Trinity, there is one divinity. Thus was the intelligible light before the intelligible light; and there was always the mind of the luminous mind, and there was nothing else but the unity of this, or the Spirit containing all things. Outside of this there is no God, no angel, no other essence. For He is the Lord and Father and God of all, and all things are under Him and in Him. For His Word, being all-perfect and fruitful and a creator, being a child in a fruitful nature, made man pregnant in fruitful water." And...