Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 1.5 (50.5)

Summary: Do not deny God's law for the sake of property.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:138–140

σὺ οὖν τί μέλλεις ποιεῖν, ἔχων νόμον ἐν τῇ σῇ πόλει; ἕνεκεν τῶν ἀγρῶν σου καὶ τῆς λοιπῆς ὑπάρξεως τὸν νόμον σου πάντως ἀπαρνήσῃ καὶ πορεύσῃ τῷ νόμῳ τῆς πόλεως ταύτης; βλέπε, μὴ ἀσύμφορόν ἐστιν ἀπαρνῆσαι τὸν νόμον σου· ἐὰν γὰρ ἐπανακάμψαι θελήσῃς εἰς τὴν πόλιν σου, οὐ μὴ παραδεχθήσῃ, ὅτι ἀπηρνήσω τὸν νόμον τῆς πόλεώς σου, καὶ ἐκκλεισθήσῃ ἀπʼ αὐτῆς.

English · Claude translation

What, then, are you going to do, having a law in your own city? Because of your fields and your other property, will you utterly deny your own law and walk by the law of this city? See whether it is not unprofitable to deny your law; for if you wish to return to your city, you will not be received, because you denied the law of your city, and you will be shut out of it.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:138–140 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 138–305 · 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), and from the ancient Latin version where Lake prints it because the Greek is lost (from Sim. 9.30.3); made independently of existing English translations.

Topics

Persecution

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/1/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/1/5/).