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