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