Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 11.4 (43.4)

Summary: Consulting a false prophet is idolatry.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:118

ὅσοι οὖν ἰσχυροί εἰσιν ἐν τῇ πίστει τοῦ κυρίου, ἐνδεδυμένοι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, τοῖς τοιούτοις πνεύμασιν οὐ κολλῶνται, ἀλλʼ ἀπέχονται ἀπʼ αὐτῶν· ὅσοι δὲ δίψυχοί εἰσι καὶ πυκνῶς μετανοοῦσι, μαντεύονται ὡς καὶ τὰ ἔθνη καὶ ἑαυτοῖς μείζονα ἁμαρτίαν ἐπιφέρουσιν εἰδωλολατροῦντες· ὁ γὰρ ἐπερωτῶν ψευδοπροφήτην περὶ πράξεώς τινος εἰδωλολάτρης ἐστὶ καὶ κενὸς ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ἄφρων.

English · Claude translation

Those, then, who are strong in the faith of the Lord, clothed with the truth, do not cling to such spirits, but keep away from them; but those who are double-minded and repent often practice divination like the Gentiles and bring greater sin on themselves by committing idolatry. For whoever consults a false prophet about any matter is an idolater and empty of the truth and foolish.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:118 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 70–137 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.

Topics

Heresy

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 11.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/11/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 11.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/11/4/).