Thesis: Hermeticism Influenced Philo

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billd89
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Thesis: Hermeticism Influenced Philo

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Tracking back to Reitzenstein?

Judaica: Festschrift zu Hermann Cohens siebzigstem Geburtstage [1912], p.315:
With the assumption of a far-reaching Jewish speculation before Philo, E. SCHWARTZ (1908) enters into a precarious contrast with certain results of more recent Philonic research. With it he again picks up the idea of earlier researchers, which we already thought eliminated, that the "Alexandrian philosophy of religion" was established and current long before Philo. And had Philo only been one representative among many others? SCHWARTZ comes back to that "phantom of a general Jewish theosophy."3 There is a difference, however, in that he does not, like GFRÖRER and DÄHNE, cite other products of Jewish-Hellenistic literature as evidence, but concludes from the example of the Therapeutae (among whom the Bible was interpreted allegorically, according to Philo) that Philonic spiritualism originated from such circles as that of the Therapeuts. However they have also been declared by GFRÖRER and DÄHNE to be representatives of the Alexandrian theosophy which already existed before Philo. But nothing useful can be inferred from Philo's description the content of the Bible exegesis of the Therapeuts and about their religious or philosophical views. As WENDLAND has shown, Philo has subordinated his philosophical views to the Therapeuts as motives for their contemplative life and asceticism. It is therefore a complete reversal of the facts when SCHWARTZ derives the spiritualism of Philo from the Therapeuts. He is trying in every way to depress Philo's meaning as much as possible and to present the entirety of the Alexandrian's teaching not as his very own, but as the product of pre-Philonic Jewish speculation.

3 WENDLAND, Die Therapeuten (Jahrb. f. klass. Philol. Suppl. 22, 736). The somewhat unclear sentence "that not only Hellenistic philosophies, but also Oriental theosophies, which up to now cannot be grasped with certainty, helped in this spiritualization, should become ... readily admitted." One would almost like to believe that SCHWARTZ wants to fall back on the unfortunate idea of older researchers who assumed the source of the "Alexandrian Theosophy" in ancient Eastern mystery-wisdom. Or is SCHWARTZ thinking about REITZENSTEIN's baseless hypothesis of Philo's influence by Hermetic writings?

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Re: Thesis: Hermeticism Influenced Philo

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In Personal Religion in Egypt Before Christianity, W.M. Flinders Petrie wrote, p.79: “Hermetic works are in fact the scriptures of the Ascetics {e.g. Therapeutae}.” Petrie (1909) does not mention either Ménard or Delaunay, and his would appear to be the first academic work in the English language which attributed the Hermetica to Philo’s Jews.

Petrie (1909) ascribes the Hermetica to a period hundreds of years BEFORE the lifetime of Philo Judaeus. Ergo, Philo would have known or been influenced by the older Egyptian material, though Petrie doesn't explicitly make this connection -- that Therapeutae were the AUTHORS of the Hermetica.

The time period 1900-1910 is key to this debate, apparently.

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andrewcriddle
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Re: Thesis: Hermeticism Influenced Philo

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billd89 wrote: Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:27 am In Personal Religion in Egypt Before Christianity, W.M. Flinders Petrie wrote, p.79: “Hermetic works are in fact the scriptures of the Ascetics {e.g. Therapeutae}.” Petrie (1909) does not mention either Ménard or Delaunay, and his would appear to be the first academic work in the English language which attributed the Hermetica to Philo’s Jews.

Petrie (1909) ascribes the Hermetica to a period hundreds of years BEFORE the lifetime of Philo Judaeus. Ergo, Philo would have known or been influenced by the older Egyptian material, though Petrie doesn't explicitly make this connection -- that Therapeutae were the AUTHORS of the Hermetica.

The time period 1900-1910 is key to this debate, apparently.

Petrie is almost certainly wrong see e.g. Scott

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Reitzenstein believed Hermeticism Influenced Philo J.

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Yes, I am well aware of that. I am tracing the origins of a theory, not evaluating why it found no acceptance (I already know it did not.) Addressing a theory is not implying full and uncritical agreement, either.

Scott is so widely derided, disregarded by scholars, it is unwise to cite him approvingly. I use his work cautiously because I'm not so narrow-minded and I can well appreciate his 'alternative' interpretations.

On VERY Late-Dating the Hermetica, however, he is wrong. That doesn't make Petrie's Early Dating correct either, obviously.

April de Conick writes "R. Reitzenstein, Poimandres (Leipzig, 1906) is of the opinion that Philo was influenced by Hermeticism" without further elaboration. Though I am yet unable to locate where Reitzenstein has specifically claimed this*, I have found de Conick in agreement with other scholars. As a period influence upon our Edelsteins, the putative Reitzenstein claim -- and whatever supporting evidence -- remains our interest here. In any case, we need to identify and (re-)examine Reitzenstein's sources on this key point. The Edelsteins were friends w/ Rudolf Bultmann, who edited multiple editions of Wilhelm Bousset's seminal work; their friends also studied under Bousset. Was Bousset the unknown link, here?

I can only guess that Reitzenstein considered -- for example -- Philo's complex interpretation of God as Chronos Passage (Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff) as 'Hermetic' after this passage from CH 11, 'Mind Unto Hermes'.

{CH 11.2} [ὁ χρόνος]. – Ἄκουε, ὦ τέκνον, ὡς ἔχει ὁ θεὸς καὶ τὸ πᾶν. θεός, ὁ αἰών, ὁ κόσμος, ὁ χρόνος, ἡ γένεσις. ὁ θεὸς αἰῶνα ποιεῖ, ὁ αἰὼν δὲ τὸν κόσμον, ὁ κόσμος δὲ χρόνον, ὁ χρόνος δὲ γένεσιν. τοῦ δὲ θεοῦ ὥσπερ οὐσία ἐστὶ [τὸ ἀγαθόν, τὸ καλόν, ἡ εὐδαιμονία,] ἡ σοφία· τοῦ δὲ αἰῶνος ἡ ταυτότης· τοῦ δὲ κόσμου ἡ τάξις· τοῦ δὲ χρόνου ἡ μεταβολή· τῆς δὲ γενέσεως ἡ ζωὴ καὶ ὁ θάνατος. ἐνέργεια δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ νοῦς καὶ ψυχή· τοῦ δὲ αἰῶνος διαμονὴ καὶ ἀθανασία· τοῦ δὲ κόσμου ἀποκατάστασις καὶ ἀνταποκατάστασις· τοῦ δὲ χρόνου αὔξησις καὶ μείωσις· τῆς δὲ γενέσεως ποιότης . ὁ οὖν αἰὼν ἐν τῶι θεῶι, ὁ δὲ κόσμος ἐν τῶι αἰῶνι, ὁ δὲ χρόνος ἐν τῶι κόσμωι, ἡ δὲ γένεσις ἐν τῶι χρόνωι. καὶ ὁ μὲν αἰὼν ἕστηκε περὶ τὸν θεόν, ὁ δὲ κόσμος κινεῖται ἐν τῶι αἰῶνι, ὁ δὲ χρόνος περαιοῦται ἐν τῶι κόσμωι, ἡ δὲ γένεσις γίνεται ἐν τῶι χρόνωι. {3} πηγὴ μὲν οὖν πάντων ὁ θεός, οὐσία δὲ ὁ αἰών, ὕλη δὲ ὁ κόσμος, δύναμις δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἰών, ἔργον δὲ τοῦ αἰῶνος ὁ κόσμος, γενόμενος οὔποτε, καὶ ἀεὶ γινόμενος ὑπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος· διὸ οὐδὲ φθαρήσεταί ποτε (αἰὼν γὰρ ἄφθαρτος) οὐδὲ ἀπολεῖταί τι τῶν ἐν τῶι κόσμωι, τοῦ κόσμου ὑπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἐμπεριεχομένου. – Ἡ δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ σοφία τί ἔστι;

My translation:
{CH 11.2} [Time]. - O child, hear about how God and everything is: God, Aion, Kosmos, Time, Generation. God creates Aion, Aion the Kosmos, Kosmos the Kronos, and Kronos the Genesis. But God's Essence is [Supreme Good, Beauty, Bliss,] Wisdom. Aion's essence is immutable Identity, Kosmos' essence is Order, Time's essence is Change, and Generation's essence is Life and Death. And the active Power of God is Mind and Soul, the Power of Aion is Permanence and Immortality, the Power of the Kosmos is Restoration and Restitution; Kronos is Increase and Decrease, and Generation is the definition of States. So Aion was created in God, and Kosmos in Aion, and Kronos in Kosmos, and Genesis in Kronos. {3} God is the source of All, and Aion the Essence, and Cosmos the Matter. Aion is the Power of God; and the work of Aion is Kosmos, which was never born but is ever coming into being by the action of Aion. And so Kosmos will never be destroyed (for Aion is indestructible), nor will anything in Kosmos perish; for Kosmos is encompassed by Aion. - But what is God's Wisdom?

GRS Mead, Mind Unto Hermes (LINK):
CH 11.2: 2. Mind: Hear [then], My son, how standeth God and All.
God; Aeon; Cosmos; Time; Becoming.
God maketh Aeon; Aeon, Cosmos; Cosmos, Time; and Time, Becoming <or Genesis>.
The Good - the Beautiful, Wisdom, Blessedness - is <the> essence, as it were, of God; of Aeon, <the essence is> Sameness; of Cosmos, Order; of Time, Change; and of Becoming, Life and Death.
The energies of God are Mind and Soul; of Æon, lastingness and deathlessness; of Cosmos, restoration and the opposite thereof; of Time, increase and decrease; and of Becoming, quality.
Æon is, then, in God; Cosmos, in Æon; in Cosmos, Time; in Time, Becoming.
Æon stands firm round God; Cosmos is moved in Æon; Time hath its limits in the Cosmos; Becoming doth become in Time.

3. The source, therefore, of all is God; their essence, Æon; their matter, Cosmos.
God’s power is Æon; Æon’s work is Cosmos — which never hath become, yet ever doth become by Æon.

Brian Copenhaver, Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction, [1992], p.37:
"God, Eternity, Cosmos, Time, Becoming."
CH 11.2: "God makes Eternity; Eternity makes the Cosmos; the Cosmos makes Time; Time makes Becoming. The essence (so to speak) of God is [the Good, the Beautiful, Happiness,] Wisdom; the essence of Eternity is identity; of the Cosmos, Order; of Time, Change; of Becoming, Life and Death. But the energy of god is Mind and Soul; the energy of Eternity is Permanence and Immortality; of the Cosmos, Recurrence and Counter-Recurrence; of Time, Increase and Decrease; of Becoming, Quality (and Quantity). Eternity, therefore, is in god, the Cosmos in Eternity, Time in the Cosmos, and Becoming in Time. And while Eternity has stood still in god's presence, the Cosmos moves in Eternity, Time passes in the Cosmos, but Becoming comes to be in Time." [3] "The source of all things is god; Eternity is their Essence; the Cosmos is their Matter. Eternity is the Power of God, and the Cosmos is Eternity's Work, but the Cosmos has never come into Being; It comes to be forever from Eternity.


p.167:
In one place a magical text (PGM IV.3168 [Betz, p. 94]) addresses Aion as "holy Agathos Daimon," on which identification see also Reitzenstein, Erlosungsmysterium, pp.188-94; elsewhere the same papyrus (1205 [Betz, p.61]) calls Aion "Wisdom" or (520 [Betz, p. 48]) "immortal Aion ... master of the fiery diadems"; cf. "the invariable Aion" (V.467 [Betz, p. 110]). Commenting on the doctrine of the Chaldaean Oracles, Lewy (Oracles, pp.99-105, 140-4, 152-7, 401-9) writes that "the Chaldaean Aion is not only a divinity, but also a noetic hypostasis." For Aion in the Orphic literature, see West, Orphic Poems, pp.219-20, 230-1. In statuary, he was represented as a naked, lion-headed man bearing four wings on his back, carrying keys and a scepter in his hands, and encircled six times by a serpent whose head appears atop the lion-head. Figures of Aion are sometimes ringed by the zodiac, reflecting Mithraic interest in the soul's voyage through the heavens. For aion and the Hebrew 'olam, see: Dodds, Fourth Gospel, pp. 144-5; Scott III, 188; see also Peters, Terms, pp.7-8; Bousset (1919), pp.192-230; Festugiere (1951a), pp.201-9; Derchain (1969), pp.31-4; Barb (1971), pp.162-3; Mastandrea, Labeo, pp.32-4; TDNT I, 197-8, 207-8; and notes on C.H. 1.1; 4.1,4.

Another mention of Aion, in the Nag Hammadi Library, is relevant. Aion is a projection or paradigm of Logos. Topos (Seat/locus) recalls Semeion, 'Point in Space' and Philo's hidden closet, the Semneion, where the Therapeut prays. Philo implies also a Consistory and Council-Chamber of the mind. Semneion was also a divine herb, possibly cannabis, of God; perhaps the Semneion was originally a medicinal storehouse in the Semitic mercenary's barracks? The 'Synagogue of Salvation' implies a (Jewish) spiritual, healing center. See The Tripartite Tractate (c.35 AD ?):
The thought of Logos, who had returned to His Stability and ruled over those who had come into being because of Him, was called 'Aion' and 'Topos' of all those whom He had brought forth in accord with the Law, and it is also called 'Synagogue of Salvation,' because He healed Him(self) from the Dispersal, which is multifarious thought, and returned to Single Mind. Similarly, it is called 'Storehouse'/Repository {Matthew 13:30: ἀποθήκην} because of the repose which He obtained, given to Himself alone.

IF Philo's God=Chronos formula (Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis 30ff) is presumed to somehow derive from the Hermetica, that requires much clarification. In fact, the lineage CH 11.2-3 is not identical (these Five Powers are more complex than Philo's Trinity), and it's by no means obvious Philo must have simplified his schema from that Hermetic model. Both passages may have been derived from a third an older source, not even necessarily Hermetic. Surprisingly, Copenhaver cites Hans Lewy who suggests a "Chaldaean" (Jewish?) origin above. Since Lewy and Edelstein studied together, does this Chaldaean idea come from a Berlin theory? IF both Philo and the Hermetica are borrowing from an older Judaic source (c.50 BC?), a host of additional questions arise, but (contra Reitzenstein) that possibility would also not presuppose nor confirm the precedence of the Hermetica (i.e. Philo's Hermetic knowledge). More troubling still, any formal theory the Hermetica (i.e. an elaborated Alexandrian occult philosophy and myth complex) comes out of a Chaldaean (Jewish) philosophy is nowhere developed by any modern scholar known? For their part, Lewy, Goodenough and the Edelsteins are all "merely suggestive" here. Such a hypothesis would be radical but by not implausible because the OT itself describes thinly-veiled Chaldaeans in Egypt (c.300 BC). This means, of course, that an older alternative (Proto-)'Jewish theosophy -- developing in parallel to the Jerusalem cult (= 'official Judaism', presumed) -- actually informed Hermetic writings, or that later anonymous authors of those works were (formerly? or renegade) Jewish theosophers themselves, from a literary Jewish circle tapping some heterodox philosophical tradition lost to time and the censors. Here is the great mystery of identity and authorship apparently encoded in an unstated or forgotten radical thesis from the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule: that Philo Judaeus responded to (a therefore older, known) Hermetic philosophy in some Egyptian-Chaldaean form. Meta-conceptually, Philo's A. A. (Aletheian Anthropoi = scribes & wise-men) and the Anonymous Authors ( = philosophers) were Jews syncretizing Greek, Egyptian and Jewish ideas from before the First Century AD. The Edelsteins would have concluded this was the Alexandrian School of 'Therapeuts' (however they were called.)

Reitzenstein explicitly identified Aion with Jesus Christ (perhaps: the Sethian/Nazorean Water-God?); Carl Jung was deeply influenced by this stated parallel. Aion is also the Second God, Administrator/Ruler, and -- as a Dualistic Deity, associated by "Judaism" with Beliar (i.e. Horon as the Destroyer). See Das iranische Erlösung Mysterium: Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchugen [1921], p.244:
A relation to Time/Chronos is almost always palpable [...] But then it seems certain to me, especially after Weinreich's remarks on the Indian parallels (Archiv für Religionswissenschaft Vol.19 [1919], p.181), that Christ's self-declaration in John's Revelation: “I am the Alpha and the Omega — the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord God. “I am the One who Is, who Always Was, and who is Still to Come — the Pantokrator.”(1.8, cf. 21:6 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the Fountain of the Water of Life" ; 22:13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega...") is intended to designate him Aion as denoted. After all, the literal mysticism always associated with Hellenism's Aion doctrine has also been adopted. It is the complete opposite of the Pauline view (according to which Aion is the adversary of God, Beliar: antithesis of Christ) discussed at the start, yet it is obvious it grew from the same source: Persian Zurvan lore {Oriental ideas of the First Principle}. But the conception of that Aion-God was two-fold (supramundane and intramundane) and the sense of Aion as a protector-god, giver of blessings, preserver of life, and messenger had already developed too strongly for that of a dualistic exaggeration in Judaism and its immediate environment for the conception of Aion as Satan and Death to prevail. The belief in the divine world-dominion asserts itself victoriously; all Aion conceptions are given to Christ as the Secondary God and Governor for God, and a hellenistic joy in the Cosmos' Beauty finds its expression again.


Dating the origin of this Chaldaean Aion becomes a central point, resolving the question of whether or not Philo borrowed from the Hermetica (in some form), or vice-versa. Aion as a Sphinx-like character suggests furthermore some relation to the Judeo-Egyptian Horon; is Aion the Son of Horon? Aion symbolized by the Ouroboros (Circling Serpent, biting its tail) connects the deity again to Agathodaimon, Patron God of Alexandria; Aion as the Son of Kore/Isis was known in the Alexandria of Antiquity, and Nabataean Dushara (He-of-Seir, Son of Allat) as Aion is also definitely suggested from scant proto-Islamic sources. According to Tertullian (c.205 AD; Against the Valentinians, Chapter 13), Alexandrian Gnostics (c.125 AD) had a vastly more complex, elaborated lineage abstracting both the Horos (Limit) and Aeons. The archeological evidence from synagogue mosaics in Palestine seems conclusive. In Jewish art, it would be the Personification of El Olam. Logically, the Philonic/Hermetic source-concept is so primitive and mythic that it must be generations older and quasi-folkloric among some Hellenistic Jews.

Discovered in Israel, this Hellenistic Jewish synagogue image -- representational art of a Jewish god who is not Yahweh -- evokes the "Master of the Fiery Diadems" as Helios:
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Aion is Age, Epoch. However cryptic or occult, prophecy of a New Age (implying both the Aquarian 'Water-Carrier' and Sethian Water-Drinkers) is not coincidental here, if Philo's Therapeutae (i.e. as Jessaeans) were the immediate precursors of Christianity or indeed a Christ-like Aion cult before Jesus:
These facts appear to be of extreme medical importance; because of the extraordinary possibilities of rapid growth inherent in this group they may mark a new epoch in the annals of alcoholism.

Did the Edelsteins' A. A. not mark a "new epoch" in fact, with millions cured by a Therapeutic method?

Aion is the true Alpha and Omega, where human intelligence is an expression of Nous (i.e. Divine Mind) but not the Poimandres (i.e. Sovereign Mind of God) itself.
Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all.


* Poimandres [1906], p.116:

This shows from which feeling the author of Poimandres, who could very well be close to Philo in time, created the name and concept of his god.

p.188:
That Philo feels himself as a prophet, namely as 'prophetic' in that sense of Egyptian-Greek mysticism, we will deal with later. But we may now already emphasize that the authors of the Hermetic writings are his colleagues, that these inventors of such magic prayers and spells are lower comrades of the same field. That there was no lack of successors, even those who did not involve Christianity in the general process of equalization, but only connected Egyptian-Greek mysticism with Judaism, is taught by the magic papyri and the development (for example) of the Poimandres community.

Cited in Cerfaux [1924],p.1/29:
Alternately, I know of no one save Richard Reitzenstein who has disturbed a reputation so firmly established: as early as the end of the 2nd C BC (with Jewish historian Artapanus of Alexandria), he has shown quite apparent traces of Hermetic influences and claimed that Philo, while still outstanding in talent and in the gravity of his philosophical training, is but one among a group of writers subject to influences of Graeco-Egyptian mysticism: Artapanus, theurgists to whom we owe the Magical Formulae, and theologians of the Hermetic literature (2). {Citing 1904 edition, p.188.}

p.200:
2) ... Drawing entirely from Hermetic ideas, Philo's De Somniis, ii., § 37, [Thomas] Mangey i. 691 {2.153} in Philonis Judaei Opera quae reperiri potuerunt omnia [1742]. "Do we not think that even in ourselves there is a herd of irrational cattle, inasmuch as the irrational multitude of the soul is deprived of reason, and that the shepherd is the governing mind?"

investigate
691M: καὶ τὸν χρώμενον αὐταῖς σοφὸν βασιλέα, κεχειροτονημένον οὐ πρὸς ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλ’ ὑπὸ τῆς ἀψευδοῦς καὶ ἀδεκάστου καὶ μόνης ἐλευθέρας φύσεως. λέγουσι γὰρ τῷ Ἀβραὰμ οἱ κατιδόντες αὐτοῦ τὸ ἀστεῖον· „βασιλεὺς παρὰ θεοῦ εἶ σὺ ἐν ἡμῖν“ (Genesis 23:6), δόγμα
τιθέμενοι τοῖς περὶ φιλοσοφίαν διατρίβουσιν, ὅτι μόνος 6 σοφὸς ἄρχων καὶ βασιλεὺς καὶ ἡ ἀρετὴ ἀνυπεύθυνος ἀρχή τε καὶ βασιλεία.τοῦτον τὸν λόγον εἰκάσας ποταμῷ τις τῶν ἑταίρων Μωυσέως ἐν ὕμνοις εἶπεν· „ὁ ποταμὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπληρώθη ὑδάτων“ (Psalm. 64, 10). τοι τινὰ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ῥεόντων ἄλογον κυριολογεῖσθαι· ὡς ἔοικε, πλήρη τοῦ σοφίας νάματος τὸν θεῖον λόγον διασυνίστησι, μηδὲν ἔρημον καὶ κενὸν ἑαυτοῦ μέρος ἔχοντα, μᾶλλον δέ, ὡς εἶπέ ὅλον δι’ ὅλων ἀναχεόμενον καὶ αἰρόμενον εἰς ὕψος διὰ τὴν συνεχῆ καὶ ἐπάλληλον τῆς ἀεννάου πηγῆς ἐκείνης φοράν.

H. Lewy, Sobria Ebrietas [1929], Foreword:
I owe special thanks to my teacher, Eduard Norden, who followed the work with constant interest and encouraged it with suggestions, and to Werner Jaeger, who pointed out to me the relationship between the Philonic concept and Hermetic writings. Those familiar with modern religio-historical research need not be told how markedly this investigation is determined by groundbreaking research of Norden, Reitzenstein and Bousset.

See John F. Horman, The Text of the Hermetic Literature and the Tendencies of Its Major Collections, [PhD Diss., 1974], p.viii:
... both Louis Ménard, in Hermès Trismégiste, Traduction Complète, Précédée D'une Étude Sur L'origine Des Livres Hermétiques (1867), pp. 56-58 Intro., and B. J. Hilgers. De Hermetis Trismegisti Poimandro commentatio (Bonn: Litteris G. Georgianis, 1855), p.17, apparently independently, ascribed the Poimandres to Philo's Therapeutae.

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