Thus the Jewish Gnostic commentator of the Naassene Document writes:
“One is the Nature Below which is subject to Death; and one is the Race without a king [that is, those who are kings of themselves] which is born Above” (H., i., 164.).
And the Christian Gnostic commentator refers to the “ineffable Race of perfect men” (H., i., 166), who are in the Logos.
Such illuminati were called by one tradition of the Christianized Gnosis the Race of Elxai, the Hidden Power or Holy Spirit, the Spouse of Iexai, the Hidden Lord or Logos. (H., ii., 242; see my Did Jesus live 100 B.C.? chap. xviii.)
Philo of Alexandria tells us that “Wisdom, who, after the fashion of a mother, brings forth the self-taught Race, declares that God is the Sower of it” (H., i., 220). This is the term he applies to his beloved Therapeuts, adding that “this Race is rare and found with difficulty.”
Elsewhere he tells us that the angels are the “people” of God; but there is a still higher degree of union, whereby a man becomes one of the Race, or Kin, of God. This Race is an intimate union of all them who are “kin to Him”; they become one. For this Race “is one, the highest one; but ‘people’ is the name of many.”
“As many, then, as have advanced in discipline and instruction, and been perfected therein, have their lot among this ‘many.’
“But they who have passed beyond these introductory exercises, becoming natural disciples of God, receiving Wisdom free from all toil, migrate to this incorruptible and perfect Race, receiving a lot superior to their former lives in genesis” (H., i., 554.).
And so in one of the Hymns of Thrice Greatest Hermes, after the triple trisagion, the “Hermes” or Illuminated prays:
“And fill me with Thy Power and with this Grace of Thine, that I may give the Light to those in ignorance of the Race—my Brethren and Thy Sons.” (H., ii., 20.).