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The Pastor of Hermas
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Introductory Note to The Pastor of Hermas
[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.
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