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The Pastor of Hermas
Introductory Note to The Pastor of Hermas
[1] To be found, with copious annotations, in Routh’s Reliquiæ, vol. i. pp. 389–434, Oxford, 1846. See also Westcott, On the Canon of the New Testament, Cambridge, 1855.
[2] Hippolytus and His Age, vol. i. p. 315.
[3] Why “Athenian”? It was read everywhere. But possibly this is a specification based on Acts xvii. 21. They may have welcomed it as a novel and a novelty.
[4] More of this in Athenagoras; but see Kaye’s Justin Martyr, p. 179, note 3, ed. 1853.
[5] Roman fabulists know all about Pius, of course, and give us this history: “He was a native of Aquileia, and was elected bishop on the 15th of January, a.d. 158 … He governed the Church nine years, five months, and twenty-seven days.” So affirms that favourite of Popes, Artaud de Montor (Histoire de Pie VIII., p. xi. Paris, 1830).
[6] The latest learned authority among Roman Catholics, a Benedictine, gives us the dates a.d. 142–156, respectively, as those of his election and decease. See Series Episcoporum, etc. P. B. Gams, Ratisbonæ, 1873.
[7] Relying upon the invaluable aid of Dr. Routh, I had not thought of looking into Westcott, till I had worked out my own conclusions. I am greatly strengthened by his elaborate and very able argument. See his work on the Canon, pp. 213–235.
[8] 1 Cor. xiv. The value of Hermas in helping us to comprehend this mysterious chapter appears to me very great. Celsus reproached Christians as Sibyllists. See Origen, Against Celsus, book v. cap. lxi.
[9] Westcott, p. 219. Ed. 1855, London.
[10] Hieron., tom. 1. p. 988, Benedictine ed.
[11] Bull (and Grabe), Harmonia Apostolica; Works, vol. iii.
[12] Pearson, Vindiciæ Ignat., i. cap. 4. Bull, Defens. Fid. Nicæn., 1. cap. 2. sec. 3; Works, vol. v. part i. p. 15.
[13] Comment. in Rom. xvi. 14, lib. x. 31. [But see Westcott’s fuller account of all this, pp. 219, 220.]
[14] Hist. Eccl. iii. 3.
[15] De Viris Illustribus, c. x.
[16] Contra Hæres., iv. 20, 2.
[17] Strom., i. xxi. p. 426.
[18] Ut supra.
[19] De Pudicitia, c. xx., also c. x.; De Oratione, c. xvi.
[20] [This statement should be compared with Westcott’s temperate and very full account of the Muratorian Fragment, pp. 235–245.]
[21] The commencement varies. In the Vatican: “He who had brought me up, sold a certain young woman at Rome. Many years after this I saw her and recognized her.” So Lips.; Pal. has the name of the woman, Rada. The name Rhode occurs in Acts xii. 13.
[22] “On my road to the villages.” This seems to mean: as I was taking a walk into the country, or spending my time in travelling amid rural scenes. So the Æthiopic version. “Proceeding with these thoughts in my mind.”—Vat. After I had come to the city of Ostia.”—Pal. “Proceeding to some village.”—Lips. [The Christian religion begetting this enthusiasm for nature, and love for nature’s God, is to be noted. Where in all heathendom do we find spirit or expression like this?]
[23] Creatures. Creature or creation.—Lips., Vat., Æth.
[24] Pathless place. Place on the right hand.—Vat. [Rev. xvii. 3, xxi. 10. Dante, Inferno, i. 1–5.]
[25] Lord. God.—Sin. alone.
[26] Are you to be the subject of my accusation? Are you to accuse me?—Vat., Lips., Æth.
[28] How? In what place?—Vat., Sin.
[29] Wickedness. The desire of fornication.—Lips. [Prov. xxi. 10, xxiv. 9;Matt. v. 28.]
[30] Literally, his glory is made straight in the heavens. As long as his thoughts are righteous and his way of life correct, he will have the Lord in heaven merciful to him.—Vat. When he thinks righteously, he corrects himself, and his grace will be in heaven, and he will have the Lord merciful in every business.—Pal. His dignity will be straight in the skies.—Æth. [Prov. x. 24, xi. 23.]
[31] [Col. iii. 2; Ps. xlix. 6.]
[32] For many … life. For the minds of such become empty. Now this is what the doubters do who have no hope in the Lord, and despise and neglect their life.—Vat. Their souls not having the hope of life, do not resist these luxuries: for they despair of themselves and their life.—Pal. [Eph. ii. 12.]
[33] [Job xlii. 8.]
[34] Literally, perfect. How … sins. How shall I entreat the Lord in regard to my very numerous sins?—Vat. How can I propitiate the Lord God in these my sins?—Pal. How then shall I be saved, and beg pardon of the Lord for these my many sins?—Æth. [Mic. vi. 6, 7, 8.]
[35] A chair made of white wool, like snow.—Vat. A chair for reclining, and on it a covering of wool, white as hail.—Æth.
[36] And … sorrow. I leaping in spirit with joy at her salutation.—Lips. [The Monatanist austerity glanced at.]
[37] For … spirit. For this hateful thought ought not to be in a servant of God, nor ought a well-tried spirit to desire an evil deed.—Vat. [The praise here bestowed on Hermas favours the idea that a second Hermas was the author.]
[38] But that. But God is not angry with you on your own account, but on account of your house, which has.—Vat.
[39] Corrupted. To live riotously.—Vat. [1 Sam. iii. 11, 14. Traditions of the Pauline Hermas may be here preserved.]
[40] Lord. God.—Vat. [The Montanist dogma representing God as the reverse of (Neh. ix. 17) “gentle and easy to be entreated” is rebuked.]
[41] Will strengthen. Has preserved you in glory.—Vat. Strengthened and established.—Lips. Has saved your house.—Pal.
[42] Easy-minded. Only wander not, but be calm.—Vat. Omitted in Pal.
[43] Accomplishes … wishes. And exhibits it to any one to whom he wishes.—Vat.
[44] So shall you also, teaching the truth daily, cut off great sin.—Vat.
[45] I know … saints. For the Lord knows that they will repent with all their heart, and He will write you in the Book of Life.—Vat. See Phil. iv. 3;Rev. xx. 15. [He contrasts the mild spirit of the Gospel with the severity of the Law in the case of Eli.]
[46] And give ear to the glories of God, omitted in Vat.
[47] And then … her. And unfolding a book, she read gloriously, magnificently, and admirably.—Vat. [Dan. x. 9.]
[48] Gentle. For they were few and useful to us.—Vat.
[49] By His own wisdom and providence. By His mighty power.—Vat., Pal. [Scripture is here distilled like the dew. Prov. iii. 19. Ps. xxiv. 2, and marginal references.]
[50] Holy omitted by Lips.
[51] Removes. He will remove.—Vat.
[52] See 2 Pet. iii. 5.
[53] [Isa. lxv. 22. See Faber’s Historical Inquiry, as to the primitive idea of the elect, book ii. 2. New York, 1840.]
[54] Be strong, or be made strong.—Vat. [1 Cor. xvi. 13.]
[55] Country; lit. to the villages. From Cumæ—Vat. While I was journeying in the district of the Cumans.—Pal.
[56] [Ezek. i. 1; iii. 23.]
[57] Going … Letter. [Ezek. ii. 9; Rev. x. 4.] Now taking the book, I sat down in one place and wrote the whole of it in order.—Pal. In the ancient mss. there was nothing to mark out where one word ended and another commenced.
[58] God … against. Omitted in Vat.
[59] Not, omitted in Vat.
[60] Make known. Rebuke with these words.—Vat. [Your sister in Christ, i.e., when converted.]
[61] Let her restrain her tongue.—Vat. [Jas. iii. 5-10.]
[62] For … you. For she will be instructed, after you have rebuked her with those words which the Lord has commanded to be revealed to you.—Vat.
[63] [Against Montanism. Matt. xii. 31. xviii. 22.]
[64] [To show that the Catholic doctrine does not make Christ the minister of sin. Gal. ii. 17.]
[65] Doubt not. [Jas. i. 5.] And so act.—Vat.
[66] Passage. [Luke xvi. 22.] Your journey.—Pal.
[67] And whosoever shall not deny his own life.—Vat. [Seeking one’s life was losing it: hating one’s own life was finding it. (Matt. x. 39; Luke xiv. 26.) The great tribuation here referred to, is probably that mystery of St. Paul (2 Thess. ii. 3), which they supposed nigh at hand. Our author probably saw signs of it in Montanus and his followers.]
[68] Those … coming. The meaning of this sentence is obscure. The Vat. is evidently corrupt, but seems to mean: “The Lord has sworn by His Son, that whoever will deny Him and His Son, promising themselves life thereby, they [God and His Son] will deny them in the days that are to come.” The days that are to come would mean the day of judgment and the future state. See Matt. x. 33. [This they supposed would soon follow the great apostasy and tribulation. The words “earlier times” are against the Pauline date.]
[69] Became gracious. Will be gracious.—Pal.
[70] The Vat. adds: but forgetfulness of them, eternal life. [Lev. xix. 18. See Jeremy Taylor, Of Forgiveness, Discourse xi. vol. i. p. 217. London, Bohn, 1844.]
[71] Personal. Worldly.—Vat.
[72] You … careless. You neglected them as if they did not belong to you.—Vat. [See cap. iii. supra, “easy-minded.”]
[73] But you will be saved for not having departed from the living God. And your simplicity and singular self-control will save you, if you remain stedfast.—Vat.
[74] Now you will say: Lo! Great tribulation cometh on.—Vat. Lo! Exceedingly great tribulation cometh on.—Lips. [Maximus seems to have been a lapser, thus warned in a spirit of orthodoxy in contrast with Montanism, but with irony.]
[75] [The sense is: This is the temptation of those who pervert the promises made to the penitent. They may say, “we are threatened with terrible persecution; let us save our lives by momentarily denying Christ: we can turn again, and the Lord is nigh to all who thus turn, as Eldad and Medad told the Israelites.”] Eldad (or Eldat or Heldat or Heldam) and Modat (Mudat or Modal) are mentioned in Num. xi. 26, 27. The apocryphal book inscribed with their name is now lost. Cotelerius compares, for the passage, Ps. xxxiv. 9.
[76] The Church. The Church of God.—Vat. [See Grabe’s note, Bull’s Defens. Fid. Nicæn., 1. cap. 2. sec. 6; Works, vol. v. part. 1. p. 67.]
[77] Grapte is supposed to have been a deaconess.
[78] [Here, as in places that follow, is to be noted a development of canon law, that could hardly have existed in the days of the Pauline Hermas. He is supposed to be a lector, who might read for the edification of the elect, if permitted by the presbyters. Grapte, the deaconess, is supposed to have charge of widows and orphans; while Clement, only, has canonical right to authenticate books to foreign churches, as the Eastern bishops were accustomed to authenticate canonical Scriptures to him and others. The second Hermas falls into such anachronisms innocently, but they betray the fiction of his work. Compare the Apost. Constitutions with (apocryphal) authentications by Clement.]
[79] Fifth. Sixth.—Vat. [Here is a probable reference to canonical hours, borrowed from apostolic usage (Acts iii. 1), but not reflected in written constitutions in Clement’s day.]
[80] [Compare Cyprian’s Life and Martydom, by Pontius the deacon (sec. 16). This is doubtless a picture of the bishop’s cathedra in the days of Pius, but, for the times of the Pauline Hermas, a probable anachronism.]
[81] [Ezek. i. 28.]
[82] [For justification and sanctification.]
[83] My elders. Perhaps the translation should be: the presbyters. [No doubt; for here also is a reference to canon law. See Apost. Constitutions (so called), book ii. sec. vii. 57.]
[85] [Rev. xi. 1.]
[86] [Rev. xxi. 16.]
[87] [1 Kings vi. 7;1 Pet. ii. 4-8. The apostle interprets his own name,—shows Christ to be the Rock, himself a stone laid upon the foundation, by which also all believers are made lively stones, like the original Cephas.]
[88] Others had been made too short, not in Vat.
[89] That … glory. And that they may be made more joyful, and, hearing this, may greatly glorify the Lord.—Vat.
[90] [2 Cor. xii. 1-11. The apostle is ashamed to glory in revelations, and this seems to be the reference.]
[91] God. Lord.—Vat.
[92] I said to you before, that you were cunning, diligently inquiring in regard to the Scriptures.—Vat. You are cunning in regard to the Scriptures.—Lips. In some of the mss. of the common Latin version, “structures” is read instead of “Scriptures.”
[93] The Lord. God.—Vat. [1 Pet. iii. 20; Eph. v. 26. Both these texts seem in the author’s mind, but perhaps, also Num. xxiv. 6, 7.]
[94] The building. When therefore the building of the tower is finished, all.—Vat.
[95] Not because you are better. Are you better?—Vat. [See note 90 on 2 Cor. xii. 1-11, preceding chapter.]
[96] [1 Cor. xv. 6, 18.]
[97] [Phil. ii. 2, iii. 16; 1 Thess v. 13.]
[98] Are those. They are those who have alreay fallen asleep, and who suffered.—Vat.
[99] Cast away. Placed near the tower.—Vat.
[100] [Heb. vi. 6-8; xii. 17.]
[101] [Heb. x. 25. Barnabas (cap. iv.) reproves the same fault, almost as if directing his words against anchorites, vol. i. p. 139, this series.]
[103] Use … God. Then will they be of use for the building of the Lord.—Vat. [1 Cor. iii. 9-15. But, instead of circumscribed, let us read circumcised (with the Latin): with reference to the circumcision of wealth (of trees under the law, Lev. xix. 23), Luke xi. 41. The Greek of Hermas is ὅταν περικοπῇ αὐτῶν ὁ πλοῦτος.]
[104] For … stones. For you yourself were also one of these stones.—Vat.
[105] [Heb. iii. 12, vi. 8.]
[106] The words “draw back” are represented in Greek by the word elsewhere translated “repent;” μετανοεῖν is thus used for a change of mind, either from evil to good, or good to evil.
[107] [Perhaps the earliest reference to the penitential discipline which was developed after the Nicene Council, and to the separation of the Flentes and others from the faithful, in public worship. But compare Irenæus (vol. i. p. 335, this series), who refers to this discipline; also Apost. Constitutions, book ii. cap. 39. I prefer in this chapter Wake’s rendering; and see Bingham, book xviii. cap. 1.]
[108] [Greek, ῥῆμα not λόγος. To translate this as if it referred to the Word (St. John i. i) is a great mistake. (Heb. xi. 3). Compare Wake’s rendering. It seems a reference to the audientes, seperated from the faithful, but admitted to hear the Word. See Bingham, and Apost. Constit., as above.]
[109] [Salvation is ascribed to faith; and works of faith follow after, being faith in action.]
[110] [Girded rather, the loins compressed.]
[111] [Their mother is Faith (ut supra), and works of faith are here represented as deriving their value from faith only.]
[112] Regulated. They have equal powers, but their powers are connected with each other.—Vat.
[113] [Appearently for fasting, and to wait for the appearance of the interpreter, in cap. x.]
[114] The Lord. God.—Vat. [See Hos. x. 12.]
[115] Or, that ye may be justified and sanctified.
[116] I have translated the Vat. Reading here. The Greek seems to mean, “Do not partake of God’s creatures alone by way of mere relish.” The Pal. Has, “Do not partake of God’s creatures alone joylessly, in a way calculated to defeat enjoyment of them.”
[117] [Jas. v. 1-4.]
[118] Those that love the first seats, omitted in Æth. [Greek, τοῖς προηγουμένοις τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ τοῖς πρωτοκαθεδρίταις. Hermas seems, purposely, colourless as to technical distinctions in the clergy; giving a more primitive cast to his fiction, by this feature.Matt. xxiii. 6; Mark xii. 39; Luke xi. 43, xx. 46.]
[119] [Rom. ii. 21; 1 Thess. v. 13.]
[121] Fast. Believe.—Pal.
[122] Literally, “stronger,” and therefore more injurious to the body.
[123] How long. Ye are not senseless.—Vat. [Matt. xvii. 17; Luke xxiv. 25.]
[124] [1 Pet. v. 7.]
[125] His spirit … renewed. He is freed from his former sorrows.—Vat.
[126] The Lord. God.—Vat.
[127] Shape … beautiful. Her countenance was serene.—Vat.
[128] [As Dupin suggest of The Shepherd, generally, one may feel that these “revelations” would be better without the symbolical part.]
[129] [This address to “brethren” sustains the form of the primitive prophesyings, in the congregation.]
[130] [One of the tribulations spoken of in the Apocalypse is probably intended. This Vision is full of the imagery of the Book of Revelation.]
[131] Rarely. Easily.—Lips., Sin.
[132] He might strengthen me, omitted in Vat.
[133] For … marvels. This clause is connected with the subsequent sentence in Vat.
[134] [Rev. ix. 3.]
[135] Comp. Rev. xi. 7, xii. 3, 4, xiii. 1, xvii. 8, xxii. 2. [The beast was “like a whale” in size and proportion. It was not a sea-monster. This whole passage is Dantesque. See Inferno, canto xxxi., and, for the colours, canto xvii. 15.]
[136] God.—Lips., Vat.
[137] The Vat. adds: with a stroke.
[138] [Those who remember the Vatican collection and other antiques, will recall the exquisite figure and veiling of the Pudicitia.]
[139] The Lord. God.—Vat.
[140] Care. Loneliness and anxiety.—Vat.
[141] God. The Lord.—Vat.
[142] [Acts iv. 12.]
[143] [Perhaps compounded from θὴρ and ἀγρεύω.] The name of this angel is variously written, Hegrin [Query. Quasi ἐγρηγορεῖν, or corrupted from (Sept.) εἲρ καὶ ἃγιος; Hir in Daniel’s Chaldee], Tegri. Some have supposed the word to be for ἄγριον, the wild; some have taken it to mean “the watchful,” as in Dan. iv. 10, 23: and some take it to be the name of a fabulous lion. [See, also, Dan. vi. 22.]
[144] The Lord. God.—Vat.
[145] Send scourges. Send you help. But woe to the doubters who.—Vat.
[148] [Very much resembling Dante, again, in many passages. Inferno, xxi. “Allor mi volsi,” etc.]
Vision Fifth. Concerning the Commandments.
[149] [This vision naturally belongs to book ii., to which it is a preface.]
[150] Keep them. That you may be able to keep them more easily by reading them from time to time.—Vat.
[151] [“The Shepherd,” then, is the “angel of repentance,” here represented as a guardian angel. This gives the work its character, as enforcing primarily the anti-Montanist principle of the value of true repentance in the sight of God.]
Commandment First. On Faith in God.
[152] [These first words are quoted by Irenæus, vol. i. p. 488, this series. Note that this book begins with the fundamental principle of faith, which is everywhere identified by Hermas (as in Vision ii. cap. 2) with faith in the Son of God. The Holy Spirit is also everywhere exhibited in this work. But the careful student will discover a very deep plan in the treatment of this subject. Repentance and faith are the great themes, and the long-suffering of God, against the Montanists. But he begins by indicating the divine character and the law of God. He treats of sin in its relations to the law and the gospel: little by little, opening the way, he reaches a point, in the Eighth Similitude, where he introduces the New Law, identifying it, indeed, with the old, but magnifying the gospel of the Son of God. Hermas takes for granted the “Son of man;” but everywhere he avoids the names of His humanity, and brings out “the Son of God” with emphasis, in the spirit of St. John’s Gospel (cap. i.) and of the Epistle to the Hebrews (cap. i.), as if he feared the familiarities even of believers in speaking of Jesus or of Christ, without recognising His eternal power and Godhead.]
[153] Contained.—Vat. and Pal. add: and who cannot be defined in words, nor conceived by the mind. [Here we have the “Incomprehensible,” so familiar in the liturgic formula improperly called the Athanasian Creed. In the Latin immensus, in the Greek ἄπειρος; i.e., “non mensurabilis, quiâ inlocalis, incircumscriptus, ubique totus, ubique prœsens, ubique potens.” Not intelligible is too frequently supposed to be the sense, but this is feeble and ambiguous. See Waterland, Works, iv. p. 320 London, 1823.]
Commandment Second. On Avoiding Evil-Speaking, and on Giving Alms in Simplicity.
[154] If … brother. [Jas. iv. 11.] And if you believe the slanderer, you will also be guilty of sin, in that you have belived one who speaks evil of your brother.—Vat. For if you give your assent to the detractor, and believe what is said of one in his absence, you also will be like to him, and acting ruinously towards your brother, and you are guilty of the same sin as the person who slanders.—Pal.
[155] For slander is ruinous.—Vat. For it is wicked to slander any one.—Pal.
[156] For … condemned, omitted in Vat.
[157] This service … God. And he has accomplished this service to God simply and gloriously.—Vat. [Rom. xii. 8.]
[158] The Vat. adds: and a blessing may fall on your house.
Commandment Third. On Avoiding Falsehood, and on the Repentance of Hermas for His Dissimulation.
[159] [Eph. iv. 25, 29.]
[160] Dwelleth in you. Who put the spirit within you.—Vat.
[161] [The seven gifts of the Spirit are here referred to, especially the gift of “true godliness,” with a reference to the parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 15), and also to 1 John ii. 20-27.]
[162] Cunningly to all. Have ever lived in dissimulation.—Vat. Lived cunningly with all.—Pal. [Custom-house oaths and business lies among moderns.]
[163] The Vat. adds: of God. [1 John iii. 19-21, iv. 6, and Eph. iv. 30.]
[164] For … truth. For even they can become worthy of credit, if you will speak the truth in future; and if you keep the truth.—Vat. [See, under the Tenth Mandate, p. 26, in this book.]
[165] This thought. [Matt. v. 28. See, further, Simil. ix. cap. II.] The thought of another man’s wife or of fornication.
[166] Questions. “I charge you,” said he, “to guard your chastity, and let no thought enter your heart of another man’s marriage (i.e., wife), or of fornication, for this produces a great transgression. But be always mindful of the Lord at all hours, and you will never sin. For if this very wicked thought enter your heart, you commit a great sin, and they who practice such deeds follow the way of death. Take heed, therefore, and refrain from this thought. For where chastity remains in the heart of a righteous man, never ought there to arise any evil thought.” I said to him,” Sir, permit me to say a few words to you.” “Say on,” said he.—Vat.
[167] Matt. v. 32, xix. 9.
[168] [Not frequently … one repentance. True penitence is a habit of life. An apparent safe-guard against the reproaches of Montanism, and a caution not to turn forgiveness into a momentary sponge without avoiding renewed transgression.]
[169] Who … actions. But he who makes an image also commits adultery.—Vat.
[170] Any one. She.—Vat. [2 Thess. iii. 14; 2 John 11.]
[171] There … cure. God, who has power to heal, will provide a remedy.—Vat. [This whole passage seems to refer to the separation of penitents under canonical discipline. Tertullian, Pudicit., capp. 5, 13, and De Penitent., cap. 9. 2 Thess. iii. 14.]
[172] Bear … words. Give me a few words of explanation.—Vat.
[173] Repentance … wisdom. For he who repents obtains great intelligence. For he feels that he has sinned and acted wickedly.—Vat. [“Wisdom and understanding;” spiritual gifts here instanced as requisite to true penitence and spiritual life.]
[174] [Matt. xix. 17. Saint-Pierre, Harm. de la Nature, iii. p. 150.]
[175] [Immersion continues to be the usage, then, even in the West, at this epoch.]
[176] For … them. Since God knows the thoughts of all hearts, and the weakness of men, and the manifold wickedness of the devil which he practices in plotting against the servants of God, and in malignant designs against them.—Vat.
[177] In … life. These words occur only in Pal. [Can the following words be genuine? They reflect the very Montanism here so strictly opposed. Wake has followed a very different text. The Scriptures, it is true, use very awful language of the same kind: Heb. x. 26, 27; xii. 16, 17; 1 John iii. 9.
[178] With … live. With difficulty will he live to God.—Vat. And Pal.
[179] [1 Cor. vii. 39; Rom. vii. 3. See my note on Simil. ix. cap. 28. Here are touching illustrations of the new spirit as to the sanctity of marriage, to which the Gospel was awakening the heathen mind.]
[180] It will be noticed that space is attributed to the heart or soul, and that joy and goodness expand the heart, and produce width, while sadness and wickedness contract and straiten.
[181] But … himself. But rejoicing he will be expanded, and he will feast in the vessel in which he dwells, and he will serve the Lord joyfully in the midst of great peace.—Vat. He will serve the Lord in great gladness, having abundance of all things within himself.—Pal.
[182] For … anger, omitted in Vat.; fuller in Pal.: For the Lord dwells in calmness and greatness of mind, but anger is the devil’s house of entertainment. [Eph. iv. 26, 27.]
[183] [Jas iii. 11.]
[184] Patience if polluted. The mind is distressed.—Vat.; omitted in Pal.
[185] I … heart. I, the angel [or messenger] of righteousness, am with you, and all who depart from anger, and repent with their whole heart, will live to God.—Vat.
[186] Are justified. Are received into the number of the just by the most holy angel (or messenger).—Pal. [i.e., As the instrument of justification; but the superlative here used seems to indentify this angel with that of the covenant (Mal. iii. 1); i.e., the meritorious cause, “the Lord.”]
[187] Hear … away. “Hear now,” said he, “how great is the wickedness of anger, and how injurious, and in what way it overthrows the servants of God. For they who are full of faith receive no harm from it, for the power of God is with them; for it is the doubters and those destitute [of faith] that it overturns.”—Vat. [The philosophic difference between anger and indignation is here in view.]
[188] [Matt. xii. 45; Luke xi. 26.]
[189] You … Lord. You will be found by God in the company of purity and chastity.—Vat.
[190] And put … them. That you may live to God, and they who keep these commandments will live to God.—Vat. [The beauty of this chapter must be felt by all, especially in the eulogy on patience. A pious and learned critic remarks on the emphasis and frequent recurrence of scriptural exhortations to patience, which he thinks have been to little enlarged upon in Christian literature.]
[191] [See Tob. iii. 8, 17. The impure spirit, and the healing angel. This apocryphal book greatly influenced the Church’s ideas of angels, and may have suggested this early reference to one’s good and evil angel. The mediæval ideas on this subject are powerfully illustrated in the German legends preserved by Sir. W. Scott in The Wild Huntsman and The Fire-King.]
[192] Forthwith … heart, omitted in Lips.
[193] Transactions. I think the writer means, when a longing is felt to engage with too great devotedness to business and the pursuit of wealth. [“That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.” 1 Cor. vii. 35.]
[194] Trust … deed. Trust the angel of righteousness, beacause his instruction is good.—Vat.
[195] Faithful. Most happy.—Vat.
[196] But to bid farewell. The Vat. ends quite differently from this point: If, then, you follow him, and trust to his works, you will live to God; and they who trust to his works will live to God.—Vat.
Commandment Seventh. On Fearing God, and Not Fearing the Devil.
[198] [Prov. xxviii. 14; 1 John iv. 18. This chapter seems based on Jas. iv. 7.]
[199] Why … they only who fear the Lord, omitted in Vat.
[200] God. Lord.—Vat.
Commandment Eighth. We Ought to Shun that Which is Evil, and Do that Which is Good.
[201] [Command. vi. cap. i. p. 24, supra. The idea taken fromEcclus. xxxiii. 15, and Eccles. vii. 14.]
[202] For … sin, omitted in Lips.
[203] [Gal. v. 10, 21; 1 Pet. iv. 3.]
[204] [First of all, faith, holy fear, love etc. Then, works of mercy. Could evangelical morality be more beautifully illustrated?]
[205] [1 Pet. iv. 9. Who does not feel humbled and instructed by these rules of holy living. No wonder Athanasius, while rejecting it from the canon (Contra Hæresim Arian., p. 380) calls this a “most useful book.” De Incarnatione, p. 38. Paris, 1537.]
[206] From them … all who act thus will live to God, omitted in Vat., which ends thus: If you keep all these commandments, you will live to God, and all who keep these commandments will live to God.
Commandment Ninth. Prayer Must Be Made to God Without Ceasing, and with Unwavering Confidence.
[207] [Jas. i. 6-8 is here the text of the Shepherd’s comment.]
[208] With difficulty be saved. Will with difficulty live to God.—Vat.
[209] Lord. God.—Vat.
[210] The Vat. has here a considerable number of sentences, found in the Greek, the Palatine, and the Æthiopic, in Commandment Eleventh. In consequence of this transference, the Eleventh Commandment in the Vatican differs considerably from the others in the position of the sentences, but otherwise it is substantially the same.
[211] And … business. This part is omitted in the Leipzig Codex, and is supplied from the Latin and Æthiopic translation. [Luke viii. 14.]
[212] This … repented, omitted in Vat. [2 Cor. vii. 10. Compare this Commandment in Wake’s translation and notes.]
[213] God. The Lord.—Vat., Æth.
[214] God. The Lord.—Vat.
[215] Grief. Injustice.—Vat.
[216] [Eph. iv. 30.]
[217] ἐξομολογοὑμενος one would expect here to mean “giving thanks,” a meaning which it has in the New Testament: but as ἐξομολογοῦμαι means to “confess” throughout the Pastor of Hermas, it is likely that it means “confessing” here also.
[218] [Matt. vi. 16, 17: Is. lviii. 5;2 Cor. vi. 10; John xvi. 33; Rom. xii. 8.]
[219] Is … God. He who sits in the chair is a terrestrial spirit.—Vat. And then follows the dislocation of sentences noticed above.
[220] The spirit of all men is earthly, etc. This passage, down to “it is not possible that the prophet of God should do this,” is found in the Vat. and other mss. of the common translation, with the exception of the Lambeth, in Command Twelfth. [Consult Wake upon omissions and transpositions in this and the former Commandment. And note, especially, his valuable caution against confounding what is here said, so confusedly, of the Spirit in man, and of the Spirit of God in his essence (1 Cor. ii. 11, 12).
[221] Angel of the prophetic Spirit. The holy messenger (angel) of Divinity.—Vat. [1 Cor. xiv.passim.]
[222] [Here is a caution against divers Phrygian prophesyings.]
[223] [This proverb is found in many languages. Hermas may have been familiar with Ovid, or with the Greek of the poetaster Chœrilus, from whom Ovid, with other Latin poets, condescended to borrow it.]
[224] Earth. After this the Vatican reads: Join yourself, therefore, to that which has power, and withdraw from that one which is empty. [Hermas seems to apply to the Spirit, in carrying out his figure, those words of the Psalmist, lxxii. 6.]
[225] [Concupiscence is here shown to have the nature of sin.]
[226] [See the Greek of Athanasius, and Grabe’s transposition, in Wake’s version of the Eleventh and Twelfth Commandments.]
[227] For … God. This desire, therefore, is wicked and destructive, bringing death on the servants of God. Whoever, therefore, shall abstain from evil desire, shall live to God.—Vat.
[228] God. The Lord.—Vat.
[229] Go … wishes. And you will obtain the victory, and will be crowned on account of it, and you will arrive at good desire, and you will deliver up the victory which you have obtained to God, and you will serve Him by acting even as you yourself wish to act.—Vat.
[230] Chapters third, fourth, and a part of fifth, are omitted in the Palatine. [This chapter seems based on Heb. v. 14.]
[231] God. The Lord.—Vat.
[232] [Here is the commission to be a prophet, and to speak prophesyings in the congregation. If the Montanists resisted these teachings, they were self-condemned. Such is the idea here conveyed. 1 Cor. xiv. 32, 37.]
[233] If … kept, omitted in Vat.
[234] [Boyle beautifully reconciles “those two current assertions, that (1) God made all things for His own glory, and that (2) He made all things for man.” See Usefulness of Nat. Philos., part i., essay 3, or Leighton’s Works, vol. iii. p. 235, London, 1870.]
[235] Isa. xxix. 13; Matt. xv. 8.
[236] John xii. 40; 2 Cor. iii. 14.
[237] [Jas. ii. 19, iv. 6, 7.]
[238] Empty. Half full.—Vat.
[239] [Eph. iv. 27.]
[240] Trust God. Believe ye, then, who on account of your sins have forgotten God.—Vat.
[241] Practise … days, omitted in Vat.
[242] Matt. x. 28; Luke xii. 5.
[243] Rule over … commandments. But we shall conquer him completely, if we can keep these commandments.—Vat.
Similitude First. As in This World We Have No Abiding City, We Ought to Seek One to Come.
[244] [We have seen in Justin and Irenæus what seem to us an overstrained allegorizing, and more will be encountered in Origen. On this whole subject, however, as it struck the Oriental and primitive instincts, take the following very illustrative remarks, attributed to Hartley of Winwich:—
“Nature, in its proper order, is the book of God, and exhibits spiritual things in material forms. The knowledge of correspondences being so little understood, is one main cause of the obscurity of the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which were chiefly written by the rules of this science: and not Scripture alone, but man, also, as an image of the spiritual and natural worlds, contains in himself the correspondences of both: of the former, in his interior, and of the latter in his exterior or bodily, part, and so is called the microcosm, or little world.”
Such texts as Heb. ix. 24, 1 Cor. ii. 13, 14, go far to explain to us the childlike faith of the Fathers. See note on Leighton’s St. Peter, p. 238, vol. iii. Ed. Of William West, B.A. 1870.]
[245] [Heb. xiii. 14 is the text of this very beautiful chapter. But he original Greek of Phil. iii. 20 seems, also, to be in the author’s mind. St. Paul addressed it to the church of a Roman “colony,” whose citizenship was not Macedonian but Roman: hence its beautiful propriety.]
[246] This sentence may be also rendered thus, giving ἕνεκεν the meaning of “as regards,” “respecting”—a usual enough signification: “What then do you intend to do, as you have a law in your own city regarding your lands and the rest of your possessions?” The Vatican punctuates the passage so that it runs as follows: “What then will you do, who have a law in your own city? Will you, on account of your land, or any other of your preparations, be able to deny your law?” The Vatican also omits several clauses that are in the Greek, down to “for if thou shalt deny, and shalt desire to return,” etc.
[247] See … law, omitted in Lips. [The θρησκεία of Jas. i. 27.]
[248] The Vatican has: “Acquit widows, and do justice to orphans.”
[249] The Vatican renders, “Do not covet, therefore, the riches of the heathen.” [Here follows, in the Lambeth ms., an allusion to Luke xix. 15, which Wake renders: “Trade with your own riches.” See, also, Luke xii. 33.]
[250] The Vatican, rendering παραχαράσσετε, adulterare, proceeds as if the reference were to adultery. “Neither touch another man’s wife, nor lust after her, but desire your own work, and you will be saved.”
[251] The Vatican reads: “Unless this vine be attached to the elm, and rest upon it, it cannot bear much fruit. For, lying upon the ground, it produces bad fruit, because it is not suspended upon the elm.”
[252] The Vatican here makes Hermas interrupt the Shepherd, and ask, “How greater than the vine?”
[253] [Based on Jas. i. 9-11, 27, and ii. 1–9: introducing the heathen world to just ideas of human brotherhood, and the mutual relations of the poor and the rich.]
[254] The translation of the text is based on the Palatine. Lips. Reads: “When the rich man fills out upon the poor.” Hilgenfeld amends this: “When the rich man recovers breath upon the poor.” Neither gives sense. The Æthiopic has: “But if the rich man lean on the poor;” and the Greek of Hilgenfeld might mean: “When the rich man recovers his breath by leaning on the poor.” The Vatican is quite different: “When, therefore, the rich man helps the poor in those things which he needs, the poor man prays to the Lord for the rich man, and God bestows all blessings upon the rich man, because the poor man is rich in prayer, and his prayer has great merit with God. Then the rich man accordingly assists the poor man’s things, because he feels that he is fully heard (exaudiri) by the Lord; and the more willingly and unhesitatingly does he give him every help, and takes care that he wants for nothing. The poor man gives thanks to God for the rich man, because they do their duty in respect to the Lord (a Domino).”
[255] [I note this use of the word “influential,” because it was formerly denounced as an Americanism.]
[257] The sentence in brackets is not in Lips. It is taken from Pal.
[258] The Vatican renders this thus: “Why do they resemble those that are, as it were, withered?”
[260] Summer. Throne.—Lips. [Rom. viii. 22-24.]
[261] The Vatican has, “And all the merry and joyful shall be restored in that age.”
[262] [1 Cor. vii. 30-35;Rom. xii. 11.]
[263] [This anachronism betrays the later origin of “The Pastor.” The Pauline Hermas would not have used this technical term. These fasts were very early fixed by canon for Wednesdays and Fridays. See Canon lxix. of canons called “Apostolical;” also Bingham, book xiii. cap. 9, and this volume, p. 34, note 4.]
[264] [See cap. iii. of this similitude.]
[265] The Vatican adds, “for his successors.”
[266] i.e., attach the vines to stakes.
[267] The Vatican adds, “Having called together his friends.” [The gospel parables of the vineyard, and of the sower, and of the man travelling into a far country, are here reflected passim. I cannot but refer to a parable which greatly resembles this, and is yet more beautiful, occurring in Mrs. Sherwood’s Stories on the Catechism (Fijou), a book for children. It is not unworthy of Bunyan.]
[268] [To read into this passage the idea of “supererogatory merit” is an unpardonable anachronism. (Compare Command. iv. 4.) The writer everywhere denies human merit, extols mercy, and imputes good works to grace. He has in view St. Paul’s advice (1 Cor. vii. 25-28), or our blessed Lord’s saying (Matt. xix. 12). The abuse of such Scriptures propped up a false system (2 Pet. iii. 16) after it had been invented by Pelagians and monastic enthusiasts. But it has no place in the mind of Hermas, nor in the mind of Christ.]
[269] [Thus he does not object to the “station,” if kept with evangelical acts of devotion and penitence. Isa. lviii. 5-8.]
[270] Pseudo-Athanasius gives this paragraph as follows: “First of all be on your guard to fast from every evil word and evil report, and purify your heart from every defilement and revenge, and base covetousness. And on the day on which you fast, be content with bread, and herbs, and water, giving thanks to God. And having calculated the amount of the cost of the meal which you intended to have eaten on that day, give it to a widow, or an orphan, or to some one in want, so that, having clearly filled his own soul, he shall pray to the Lord on your behalf. If you therefore perform your fasting as I enjoined you, your sacrifice will be acceptable before the Lord, and inscribed in the heavens in the day of the requital of the good things that have been prepared for the righteous.”
[271] [Note this detailed account of primitive fasting (2 Cor. vi. 5, ix. 27, xi. 27). Amid all the apostle’s sufferings and dying daily, he adds fastings to involuntary hunger and thirst.]
[272] Literally, “self-willed.” (αὐθάδης).
[273] [Matt. xiii. 11; Jas. i. 5.]
[275] [Part of the commission again.]
[276] This clause occurs only in the Vatican. It does not occur in Lips., Pal., or in the Æth.
[277] [Phil. ii. 7. But no longer is He such.]
[278] [Heb. i. 3; Ps. xvi. 11]
[279] The sentence in brackets is omitted in Lips. And Æth., occurs in Vat. And Pal.
[280] This passage varies in each of the forms in which it has come down, and is corrupt in most, if not in all. The Vatican (Lat.) has, “Because the messenger hears the Holy Spirit, which was the first of all that was poured (infusus) into a body in which God might dwell. For understanding (intellectus) placed it in a body as seemed proper to Him.” The Pal. reads: “For that Holy Spirit which was created pure [first] of all in a body in which it might dwell, God made and appointed a chosen body which pleased Him.” The Æth. reads: “The Holy Spirit, who created all things, dwelt in a body in which He wished to dwell.” [See Grabe’s collation and emendation here, in Wake’s translation.]
[281] The Vatican renders this sentence: “This body, therefore, into which the Holy Spirit was led, was subject to that Spirit, walking rightly, modestly, and chastely, and did not at all defile that Spirit. Since, then, that body had always obeyed the Holy Spirit, and had laboured rightly and chastely with it, and had not at any time given way, that wearied body passed its time as a slave; but having strongly approved itself along with the Holy Spirit, it was received unto God.” The Palatine is similar. The Æth. reads: “That body served well in righteousness and purity, nor did it ever defile that Spirit, and it became His partner, since that body pleased God.”
[282] πορεία. Vatican, potens cursus.
[283] The passages within brackets are omitted by Lips. and Æth.
[284] The passages within brackets are omitted by Lips. and Æth.
[285] [If the reader feels that the explanation itself needs to be explained, let him attribute it to the confused and inaccurate state of the text. Grabe says emphatically, that “the created Spirit of Christ as a man and not the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity,” is spoken of in this chapter chiefly. The apparent confusion of words and phrases must be the result of ignorant copying. It is a sufficient answer to certain German critics to cite the providential approval of Athanasius, a fact of the utmost moment. Nobody doubts that Athanasius was sensitive to any discoloration of the Nicene Faith. In the text of Hermas, therefore, as it was in his copy, there could have been nothing heretical, or favouring heresy. That Hermas was an artist, and purposely gave his fiction a very primitive air, is evident. He fears to name the Scriptures he quoted, lest any one should doubt their use, in the days of Clement, in the Western churches.]
[286] [1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Owen, On the Spirit, passim. Ambiguities, cap. ii.]
[288] Omitted in Lips. Æth. has simply, “But be on your guard now.”
[289] The Vatican has a sentence before this: “For if you sin not afterwards, you will greatly fall away from your former [transgressions].”
[290] Found only in Pseudo-Athanasius. It occurs in none of the translations.
[291] [The use of the word “angel,” here, may possibly coincide with that in the Apocalypse, rebuking an unfaithful and luxurious pastor, like the angel of Sardis (Rev. iii. 1-5). The “yellow” raiment may be introduced as a contrast to the words, “thou has a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white.”]
[292] καταφθοράν, translated in Pal. And Vat. by defectio, apostasy, as departure from goodness and truth. The Æthiopic has “ruin.”
[293] Of … deceit, omitted in Lips. Our translation is made from the Vat.
[294] Pseudo-Athanasius has, “of such men the life is death.”
[295] Pseudo-Athanasius has, “Corruption, therefore, has a hope of resurrection up to a certain point.” [Death here must mean final apostasy (Heb. vi. 4-6, x. 26–31, xii. 15–17). But a certain death-in-life, which is not final, is instanced in Rev. iii. 1; note also 1 John iii. 14, 15, v. 16, 17.]
[296] [The idea is, the minister of discipline, as St. Ambrose is represented with a scourge in his hand. The Greek (ἐκ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν δικαίων) favours the idea that faithful pastors are here symbolized,—just stewards and righteous men.]
[297] βιωτικαί. The Vatican and Pal. render this, “the various punishments and tortures which men suffer daily in their lives.” Pseudo-Athanasius has: “For when they revolt from God, thinking to be in rest and in wealth, then they are punished, some meeting with losses,” etc. [1 Tim. i. 20. Remedial discipline is thus spoken of, 1 Cor. v. 5.]
[298] Pseudo-Athanasius has: “And they cannot bear for the rest of their days to turn and serve the Lord with a pure heart. But if they repent and become sober again, then they understand that they were not prosperous on account of their evil deeds; and so they glorify the Lord, because He is a just Judge, and because they suffered justly, and were punished (ἐπαιδεύθησαν) according to their deeds.”
[299] The Vatican inserts the following sentence before this: “And when they begin to repent of their sins, then the works in which they have wickedly exercised themselves arise in their hearts; and then they give honour to God, saying that He is a just Judge, and that they have deservedly suffered everything according to their deeds.” So does Pal. The Æthiopic becomes very condensed in this portion. [Note this class of offenders, having suffered remedial chastisement, are not delivered over the Satan finally, but “delivered unto me (the angel of repentance) for good training.”]
[300] τρόπον. The Vat. and Pal. have, “for the same time” (per idem tempus).
[301] Omitted in Lips.
[302] Pseudo-Athanasius has “nothing” (οὐδέν) instead of ἐλάχιστος.
[303] ποτέ. [The pleasures of sin are “for a season” (Heb. xi. 25), at most: impenitence is the “treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom. ii. 5).]
[304] [Ps. iv. 6, 7, cxix. 14, lxxxiv. 10. Dr. Doddridge’s epigram on Dum Vivimus Vivamus will be brought to mind.]
Similitude Seventh. They Who Repent Must Bring Forth Fruits Worthy of Repentance.
[305] The Vat. and Pal. have protinus, “immediately.” [Wake adopts this reading, which appears to be required by the context.]
[306] The Lips. has lost here a few words, which are supplied from the Latin translations. [Mal. iii. 3;Isa. i. 22; Ps. xxvi. 2, cxxxix. 23, 24. Is there not much teaching here for our easy living, and light ideas of the sinfulness of sin?]
[307] The Vatican has: “But rather give thanks to the Lord, that He, knowing what is to come to pass, has deemed you worthy to tell you beforehand that affiction is coming upon those who are able to bear it.” [1 Cor. x. 13. But the whole argument turns on Jas. i. 2, as Hermas delights in this practical apostle.]
[308] [Sam. iii. 31, 32, 33.]
[309] Omitted by Lips.
[310] Omitted in Lips. and Vat.
[311] Omitted in Lips.
[312] Num. xvii. 8. [Willows are chosen, perhaps, with reference to Isa. xliv. 4; but Ezekiel’s willow supplies the thought here (Ezek. xvii. 5, 6).]
[313] 2 Esdras ii. 43.
[314] [Eph. i. 13, iv. 30.]
[315] [Rev. xix. 8.]
[316] [Rev. viii. 3; Num. xvii. 7.]
[318] [Rom. xi. 16.]
[320] “And by this law the Son of God was preached to all the ends of the earth.”—Vat. [Hermas again introduces here the name which he made his base in Vision ii. 2.]
[321] [Dan. x. 21, xii 1; Rev. xii. 7. It is not necessary to accept this statement as doctrine, but the idea may be traced to these texts.]
[322] [That is, the New Law, the gospel of the Son of God.]
[323] [Vision ii. 2. Denying the Son.]
[324] And … cut, omitted in Pal.
[325] [Wake reads “cleft.”]
[326] [Clefts.]
[327] Omitted in Lips. Translation is made from Vat.
[328] The versions vary in some of the minute particulars.
[329] [The by-gone quarrels about foreknowledge and predestination are innocently enough anticipated here.]
[330] [Jas. ii. 7.]
[331] [Heb. x. 39.]
[332] [Here is a note of Hermas’ time. Not only does it imply the history of heresies as of some progress, but it marks the Montanist refusal to receive penitent lapsers.]
[333] [He has in view the passages Matt. xx. 23, Luke xxii. 24, and hence is lenient in judgment.]
[334] [Why “naturally”? Latin, “de ipsis tamen qui boni fuerunt.” Greek, ἀγαθοὶ ὄντες. Gebhardt and Harnack, Lips. 1877.]
[336] [Jas. ii. 26.]
[337] [1 Tim. v. 6.]
[338] [A note of the time of composing The Shepherd. This chapter speaks of experiences of life among heathen and of wordly Christians, inconsistent with the times of Clement.]
[339] Omitted in Lips.; supplied from Vat.
[340] “Withered, all but their tops, which alone were green.”—Vat. and Pal.
[341] [Matt. x. 40-42 influences this judgment of Hermas.]
[342] Omitted in Lips., which has, instead, “are afraid.”
[343] [A cheering conclusion of his severe judgments, and aimed at the despair created by Montanist prophesyings.]
[344] Literally, “the calling that was made by His Son to be saved.” The Vatican renders this, “He wishes to preserve the invitation made by His Son.” The Pal. has, “wishes to save His Church, which belongs to His Son.” In the text, κλῆσις is taken as = κλητοί.
[345] The Spirit.—Vat. [He is called “the Spirit of Christ” by St. Peter (i. 11); and perhaps this is a key to the non-dogmatic language of Hermas, if indeed he is here speaking of the Holy Spirit personally, and not of the Son exclusively. See Simil. v. 6, Isa. v. 1.]
[346] To a fruitful hill.—Pal. Omitted in Vat. [Hermas delights in the picturesque, and introduces Arcadia in harmony with his pastoral fiction.]
[347] Omitted in Lips.
[348] [As of Eden. Gen. iii. 24;Rev. xxi. 11. The Tsohar.]
[349] [Vision iii. 1, 2.]
[350] All carried the gate.—Pal.
[351] Omitted in Lips.
[352] Omitted in Lips.
[353] And they replied that he would forthwith come.—Vat.
[354] 2 Esdras ii. 43.
[355] Omitted in Lips. The text is from Vat.; slight variations in Pal. And Æth.
[356] Also omitted from Lips. The text is in all the translations.
[357] Omitted in Lips. The text is in all the translations.
[358] [Mark xiii. 36; Matt. xxiv. 46-51.]
[359] [This curious chapter, be it remembered, is but a dream and a similitude. In the pure homes of Christians, it is almost unintelligible. Amid the abominations of heathenism, it taught a lesson which afterwards required enforcement by the canons and stern discipline of the whole Chuirch. The lesson is, that what “begins in the spirit” may “end in the flesh.” Those who shunning the horrible inpurities of the pagans abused spiritual relationships as “brothers and sisters,” were on the verge of a precipice. “To the pure, all things are pure;” but they who presume on this great truth to indulge in kissings and like familiarities are tempting a dangerous downfall. In this vision, Hermas resorted to “watching and praying;” and the virgins rejoiced because he thus saved himself. The behaviour of the maidens was what heathen women constantly practiced, and what Christian women, bred in such habits of life, did, perhaps, without evil thought, relying on their “sun-clad power of chastity.” Nothing in this picture is the product of Christianity, except the self-mastery inculcated as the only safeguard even amongst good women. But see “Elucidation,” at end of this book.]
[360] [Hermas confirms the doctrine of St. John (i. 3); also Col. i. 15, 16. Of this Athanasius would approve.]
[362] His. God’s.—Lips.
[363] [Ex. xxviii. 12, 29.]
[364] Omitted in Lips. The text in Vat. and Pal. The Æth different in form, but in meaning the same.
[365] Lord. God.—Vat.
[366] [Heb. i. 3. Hermas drips with Scripture like a honeycomb.]
[367] [Isa. xxviii. 16;1 Cor. iii. 11.]
[368] This portion of the Leipzig Codex is much eaten away, and therefore the text is derived to a considerable extent from the translations.
[369] [The tenacity with which Hermas everywhere exalts the primary importance of Faith, makes it inexcusable that he should be charged with mere legalizing morality.]
[370] [Eph. ii. 20; Rev xxi. 14.]
[371] The name of the Son of God. The name of God.—Lips. [1 John v. 11, 12.]
[372] All the translations and Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom., vi. 6, 46) have this passage. It is omitted in Lips.
[373] [Rev. vii. 4.]
[374] Name of the Son of God. Name of God.—Lips. [Rom. x. 17.]
[375] [Rev. xiv. 4.]
[376] God in Pal.; Lord in Vat. and Æth.; Christ in Lips.
[378] Omitted in Vat., Æth., Lips.
[379] [Eph. v. 27.]
[380] Omitted in Lips. The text from Vat. Substantially the same in the other two. [Matt. xiii. 5.]
[381] Matt. xix. 23, 24. [Mark x. 23.]
[382] Omitted in Lips.
[383] [The imagery of our Lord’s parables everywhere apparent. Also, the words of Scripture recur constantly.]
[384] Jas. iv. 12. [Matt. xviii. 33.]
[385] Ecclus. xx. 15, xli. 22; Jas. i. 5.
[386] Cf. Donaldson’s Hist. of Christ. Lit., vol. i. p. 291. [This beautiful chapter, and its parable of the fountains of living water, may well be read with that passage of Leighton which delighted Coleridge: Com. on 1 Pet. i. 10-12.]
[387] διάκονοι. [Deacons, evidently, or stewards. Acts vi. 1]
[389] Bishops. Bishops, that is, presidents of the churches.—Vat. [This textual peculiarity must have originated at the period when the Ignatian use of episcopus was becoming naturalized in Rome. It was originally common to all pastors, local or regionary.]
[390] [This passage (with Vision iii. 2, and especially Similitude v. 3) has been pressed into the service of those who seek to find “super-erogatory merit” in the Fathers. See 1 Cor. vii. 38. But why not begin with the Scriptures which Hermas doubtless has in mind, such as Rev. iii. 4, 5, “They are worthy”? Does this ascribe to them any merit apart from (“worthy is the Lamb”) the only meritorious cause of salvation? So also Rev. vii. 14, xiv. 4, 5. The primitive Fathers accepted such truths like innocent children, and loved them. They believed St. Paul as to degrees of glory (1 Cor. xv. 41), and our Lord Himself as to the awards (Matt. xx. 21-23) of mercy to fruits of grace: and they are no more responsible for forced constructions that have been put upon them by afterthought and subsequent heresy, then our blessed Lord can be charged with all that has overloaded His precious sayings (Matt. xix. 12 or xiv. 18). The principle of deficient works of faith, which is the corresponding idea of the negative side, appears in St. Paul (1 Cor. iii. 13-15), and has been abused to sustain the whole system of creature merit, and the monstrous atfterthought of purgatory. Those, therefore, who read such ideas into “The Ante-Nicene Fathers,” to diminish their credit, often, unintentionally (1) help the perverters of truth to claim the Fathers, and (2) give them the like aid in claiming the Scriptures. See p. 34, supra, note 3.]
[392] [Mark ix. 36.]
[393] Here ends Codex Lipsiensis. The rest of the text is from common translation corrected by the Palatine and Æthiopic.
[394] [Born good. Not in the text of Gebhardt and Harnack (the Greek is wanting); nor do they note any such text, though the Æthiopic favours it. See p. 42, supra, note 2.]
[395] [Here again the Latin has the reading before noted, on the circumcision of wealth, p. 15, note 2, supra.]
[396] Matt. xviii. 3, xix. 14.
[397] [Jer. xiii. 20; Zech. xi. 15-17.]
[398] [Jas. v. 9. Who can fail to feel the searching spirit of the gospel here? Matt. v. 23, 24, vi. 14.]
[399] Servants of God. Servant of the Lord.—Æth.
[400] [Heb. viii 12, x. 17.]
[401] Lord. God.—Pal.
[402] But he has his own honour … despise him, omitted in Vat.
[403] [Cap. xiii. p. 48, supra.]
[405] Angel, Æth.; Pastor, Pal.; omitted in Vat.
[406] God, common version; Lord, Æth., Pal.; Lord God, Vat.
[407] [Here might follow that beautiful fragment of Irenæus, on God’s goodness accepting the feeblest efforts of the soul in drawing near to Him. Vol. i. Frag. lv. p. 577, this series.]
[408] [Jas. v. 19, 20. As St. James concludes with this principle, so also Hermas, who evidently delights in this apostle’s teaching and has thrown it into this allegorical metaphrase.]
[409] The Vatican has: “Here ends the Book of the Shepherd, the disciple of the blessed apostle Paul. Thanks be to God.” The Æthiopic has: “May the name of him who wrote this book be written on a pillar of gold. With thanksgiving to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this book of the prophet Hermas has been finished. Amen. Finished are the visions, and commandments, and similitudes of the prophet Hermas, who is Paul, in the year 191 of mercy, 23d night and 22d day of the month,” etc. The writer goes on [fruitlessly] to show that Hermas is Paul, appealing to Acts xiv. 12.
[410] Tom. i. pp. 393–434.
[411] On the Canon, p. 235. Ed. 1855.
[412] Such as Lightfoot, Westcott, Canon Cook, and others.
[413] Candidly treated by Guettée, L’Eglise de France, vol. xii. p. 15. See also Parton’s Voltaire, vol. i. pp. 260–270.
[414] Comment., book x. sec. 31, as quoted in Westcott, p. 219.
[415] I subjoin Westcott’s references: Clem. Alex., Stromata, i. 17, sec. 85; Ibid., i. 29, sec. 29; Ibid., ii. 1, sec. 3. Also Ibid., ii. 12, sec. 55; iv. 9. sec. 76; vi. 6, sec. 46. Also Tertull., Pudicitia, capp. 10 and 20. These I have verified in Ed. Oehler, pp. 468, 488. I add De Oratione, capp. xvi. p. 311. Let me also add Athanasius, De Incarnatione, p. 38; Contra Hæresim Arian., p. 369; Ibid., 380. To the testimony of this great Father and defender of the faith I attach the greatest importance; because his approval shows that there was nothing in the book, as he had it in its pure text, to justify the attempts of moderns to disprove its orthodoxy. Athanasius calls is “a most useful book,” and quotes it again (“although that book is not in the Canon”) with great respect. Ed. Paris, 1572.
Modern theories of inspiration appear to me untenable, with reference to canonical Scripture; but they precisely illustrate the sort of inspiration with which these prophesyings were probably first credited. The human element is largely intermixed with divine suggestions; or you may state the proposition conversely.
[416] Eusebius, iii. 3, and Hieronym., catal. x. See Westcott, p. 220.
[417] Milman’s Gibbon, vol. i. p. 550. The editor’s notes are not over severe, and might be greatly strengthened as refutations.
[418] Van Lennep, Bible-lands, p. 440.
[419] See Vision iii. cap. 8, for the relation of encraty to faith, in the view of Hermas; also (cap. 7 and passim) note his uncompromising reproofs of lust, and his beautiful delineations of chastity. The third canon of the Nicene Synod proscribed the syneisactæ, and also the nineteenth of Ancyra, adopted at Chalcedon into the Catholic discipline.
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