Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 7.2 (66.2)

Summary: Hermas suffers so that his household may repent.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:184

Ἄκουε, φησίν· αἱ μὲν ἁμαρτίαι σου πολλαί, ἀλλʼ οὐ τοσαῦται, ὥστε τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τούτῳ παραδοθῆναι· ἀλλʼ ὁ οἶκός σου μεγάλας ἀνομίας καὶ ἁμαρτίας εἰργάσατο, καὶ παρεπικράνθη ὁ ἔνδοξος ἄγγελος ἐπὶ τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτῶν καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐκέλευσέ σε χρόνον τινὰ θλιβῆναι, ἵνα κἀκεῖνοι μετανοήσωσι καὶ καθαρίσωσιν ἑαυτοὺς ἀπὸ πάσης ἐπιθυμίας τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου. ὅταν οὖν μετανοήσωσι καὶ καθαρισθῶσι, τότε ἀποστήσεται ἀπὸ σοῦ ὁ ἄγγελος τῆς τιμωρίας.

English · Claude translation

“Hear,” he said: “your sins are many, but not so many that you should be handed over to this angel; but your household has committed great lawless deeds and sins, and the glorious angel was provoked at their deeds, and for this reason he ordered you to be afflicted for a time, so that they too might repent and cleanse themselves from every desire of this world. When, then, they have repented and been cleansed, then the angel of punishment will depart from you.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:184 · 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. 7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/7/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 7.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/7/2/).