Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 2.3 (51.3)

Summary: The vine bears good fruit only when it climbs the elm.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:142

Ἡ ἄμπελος, φησίν, αὕτη καρπὸν φέρει, ἡ δὲ πτελέα ξύλον ἄκαρπόν ἐστιν· ἀλλʼ ἡ ἄμπελος αὕτη ἐὰν μὴ ἀναβῇ ἐπὶ τὴν πτελέαν, οὐ δύναται καρποφορῆσαι πολὺ ἐρριμμένη χαμαί, καὶ ὃν φέρει καρπόν, σεσηπότα φέρει μὴ κρεμαμένη ἐπὶ τῆς πτελέας, ὅταν οὖν ἐπιρριφῇ ἡ ἄμπελος ἐπὶ τὴν πτελέαν, καὶ παρʼ ἑαυτῆς φέρει καρπὸν καὶ παρὰ τῆς πτελέας.

English · Claude translation

“This vine,” he said, “bears fruit, but the elm is a fruitless tree; yet this vine, unless it climbs the elm, cannot bear much fruit, lying on the ground, and the fruit it bears is rotten, because it does not hang on the elm. But when the vine is attached to the elm, it bears fruit both from itself and from the elm.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:142 · 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.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 2.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/2/3/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 2.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/2/3/).