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