DiotimosReading Desk

Theology

Three generations of sacred history

generatione; Generatione; regeneratione; tertia generatione; Generatio

Generatio often concerns the production of bodies elsewhere in the work, but in these passages it also divides sacred history into first, second, and third conditions.

From the book

Nine Books on the Nature of Things

Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordGeneratio often concerns the production of bodies elsewhere in the work, but in these passages it also divides sacred history into first, second, and third conditions.
  • In the workThe final separation of Book Eight takes place in the third generation, when the Son of God comes in majesty.
  • In this editionNote 104 explicitly connects Old-Testament first generation, New-Testament second generation, and Book Eight’s final-judgement third generation.
  • A place to read“in tertia generatione”

Meaning

Generatio often concerns the production of bodies elsewhere in the work, but in these passages it also divides sacred history into first, second, and third conditions. Regeneratio names the Christian condition associated with the second. The first is linked with the Old Testament; the second with the New; the third with final judgement. These are not ordinary familial generations or a measured three-stage biological development.

Use in the book

The final separation of Book Eight takes place in the third generation, when the Son of God comes in majesty. The accompanying signs invert worldly pomp: instruments of the Passion replace royal regalia, and angelic trumpets replace a military retinue. The dead are raised for judgement and the separation of blessed from cursed. “Third” thus points to an eschatological condition, not an unspecified future cohort.

Book Nine supplies the relation between the first two generations when it regulates visions and magic. The ancient practitioners lived in the first generation and used ceremonies and conjurations. Christians in regeneration now occupy the second, and their proper approach is prayer through faith. Earlier practices are interpreted as prefigurations, not simply repeated instructions still binding in the same form.

These uses explain why chronology matters to the source’s account of legitimate practice. A method may be described as belonging to an earlier dispensation without being authorized for the author’s Christian present. At the same time, the word continues to occur in ordinary discussions of bodily generation and inherited or natal signs. The sacred-historical scheme is therefore distinct from local reproductive uses: the threefold theological structure does not govern every occurrence of generatio in the nine books.

Places to read

  1. Book 8 · Separation · Passage 42Latin“in tertia generatione” The third generation is the final separation.
  2. Book 9 · Signature · Passage 22Latin“secundum generationem” A reproductive or natal use remains distinct.
  3. Book 9 · Signature · Passage 52Latin“in prima, verum in secunda Generatione” The present is distinguished from an earlier dispensation.
  4. Book 9 · Signature · Passage 52Latin“in regeneratione” Christian practice is framed through regeneration.

Translation in this edition

Note 104 explicitly connects Old-Testament first generation, New-Testament second generation, and Book Eight’s final-judgement third generation. The edition’s “regeneration” retains the Christian theological sense.