Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.1.2 (44.2)

Summary: Evil desire is wild and consumes the worldly.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:124–126

ἀγρία γάρ ἐστιν ἡ ἐπιθυμία ἡ πονηρὰ καὶ δυσκόλως ἡμεροῦται. φοβερὰ γάρ ἐστι καὶ λίαν τῇ ἀγριότητι αὐτῆς δαπανᾷ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· μάλιστα δὲ ἐὰν ἐμπέσῃ εἰς αὐτὴν δοῦλος θεοῦ καὶ μὴ ᾖ συνετός, δαπανᾶται ὑπʼ αὐτῆς δεινῶς· δαπανᾷ δὲ τοὺς τοιούτους τοὺς μὴ ἔχοντας ἔνδυμα τῆς ἐπιθυμίας τῆς ἀγαθῆς, ἀλλὰ ἐμπεφυρμένους τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ· τούτους οὖν παραδίδωσιν εἰς θάνατον.

English · Claude translation

For evil desire is wild and is tamed with difficulty. For it is terrible and consumes people greatly by its wildness; especially if a servant of God falls into it and is not wise, he is terribly consumed by it. It consumes such as do not have the garment of good desire, but are mixed up with this world; these it hands over to death.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:124–126 · 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

Ethics

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 12.1.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/1/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.1.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/1/2/).