“Lest Mysteries of Such Greatness Come to the Greeks”—Divine Revelation and Distorted Teachings in Hermetica

Interpretations of the circumstances that formed the development of the Hermetic texts are still to be debated. However, these difficulties are not only philological in nature but also address the revelatory quality of the texts. The author of the sixteenth dialogue of the Corpus Hermeticum (CH) diminishes his work by claiming that the teachings contained in the treatise would actually only be understood properly if it were in the Egyptian language, not in its current form, Greek, because the Greek language is not able to reveal the truth conveyed by the divine power of the Egyptian language, but is only useful for logical debates and joking. The role of the written word, as well as its connection to oral initiation in Hermetism, is examined first in this paper. Second, we look at how the book and Egyptian writing mediating the teachings is portrayed as a sacred item in Hermetic initiation texts, as well as its importance in the initiation process. Finally, we examine the peculiar claim of the author of the sixteenth treatise of Corpus Hermeticum that, despite all this, it is possible to misuse Hermetic texts if they are translated, specifically, into the Greek language in which we can read most of them today. In studying CH XVI, I propose that Hermetic authors try to retain the famous character of the works by highlighting their Egyptian origin. They claim that Hermetic teachings can only lead to initiation in their original form but if they are translated into any language, they lose their divine power.