Asclepius 21-29: Excerpt from the Perfect Discourse
Home > Gnostics > Asclepius 21-29 Excerpt from the Perfect Discourse (Asclepius 21-29) At a Glance Treatise Genre: (5/5) ***** Reliability of Dating: (5/5) ***** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: Estimated Range of Dating: 250-300 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text Excerpt from the Perfect Discourse Offsite Links French Translation Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia: Asclepius 21-29 The facsimile edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices The Nag Hammadi Library in English: Asclepius 21-29 Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation Mercer Dictionary of the Bible: Asclepius Nag Hammadi Bibliography: Asclepius 21-29 Books Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation With Annotations and Introductions (Doubleday 1987) Marvin Meyer, ed., The Nag Hammadi Scriptures (HarperOne 2009) Birger A.
Pearson, Ancient Gnosticism: Traditions And Literature (Fortress Press 2007) Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on Excerpt from the Perfect Discourse Jean-Pierre Mah writes (The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, pp. 425-426): The eighth tractate of Nag Hammadi Codex VI derives from a teaching of Hermes Trismegistus to his main disciples Asclepius, Tat, and Ammon (72,30). Only small fragments of the Greek original, whose title was Perfect Discourse, have been preserved. The Latin Asclepius, sometimes attributed to Apuleius, provides us with a complete version of the work. However, a comparison of all the extant evidence proves that the Coptic is a fairly accurate translation from the Greek, whereas the Latin is a rather free adaptation.
The Coptic Excerpt from the Perfect Discourse contains the central elements of the dialogue (Asclepius 21-29), with a vibrant eulogy to Egypt. More than any other Hermetic writing, this text raises the question of the links between Alexandrian culture and old Egyptian literature and civilization. We cannot fully explain the prediction of Tismegistus concerning Egypt and its gods by simply looking for hints in the historical events of the third century CE. In fact, the text revives a literary genre that appeared as early as the first intermediate period (2190-2070 BCE). The Lamentations of Ipou-our, from that period, is not exactly a prediction. It deplores the present misfortune of Egypt and recalls the happiness of the old days.
It concludes by describing an appeasement, which is less a prophecy than a wish. Nevertheless, its evocation of foreign invasions, slaughters, inversion of moral values, and exaltation of traditional piety are rather close to our Hermetic oracle. Later on, about 2000 BCE, Neferty's Prediction pretends to foretell to Snefru, the father of Kheops, the disturbances of the first intermediate period and the successful reign of Amenemhat I. As in the Perfect Discourse, the text has two parts: it anticipates a catastrophe and the gradual restoration of order. Through foreign invasions, human disorder brings about cosmic disasters. The Demotic Chronicle of the third century BCE comments upon several oracles concerning the last Egyptian pharaohs as well as Persian and Macedonian invaders.
Just like the Hermetic writer of the Perfect Discourse (74,7-11), the chronicler refers to astral necessity to account for the rebirth of Egypt after foreign domination. Shortly after the victorious campaigns of Ptolemy III (246-231 BCE), who had brought back to Egypt the statues of the gods captured by the Persians, the Oracle of the Lamb offers what is intended as a prediction of these events to King Bocchoris (722-716 BCE). Likewise, in the Perfect Discourse, Hermes foretells to his disciples (75,27-33) the retreat of the gods and the foundation of the Alexandrian shrines. About 130 BCE, the Greek Oracle of the Potter - a cryptic name of Khnum, the ancestral god of the Hermetic Good Genius - deals with the same themes as Trismegistus: withdrawal of the gods, foreign wars, omnipresence of death, return of Egypt to the desert, horrible crimes, perversion of values, cosmic perturbations, and final restoration of order.