Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.9.1 (75.1)

Summary: Two-thirds dry sticks are believers who grew rich and proud and lived like pagans.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:210

Οἱ δὲ ἐπιδεδωκότες τὰς ῥάβδους τὰ μὲν δύο μέρη ξηρά, τὸ δὲ τρίτον χλωρόν, οὗτοί εἰσι πιστοὶ μὲν γεγονότες, πλουτήσαντες δὲ καὶ γενόμενοι ἔνδοξοι παρὰ τοῖς ἔθνεσιν· ὑπερηφανίαν μεγάλην ἐνεδύσαντο καὶ ὑψηλόφρονες ἐγένοντο καὶ κατέλιπον τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ οὐκ ἐκολλήθησαν τοῖς δικαίοις, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τῶν ἐθνῶν συνέζησαν, καὶ αὕτη ἡ ὁδὸς ἡδυτέρα αὐτοῖς ἐγένετο· ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐκ ἀπέστησαν, ἀλλʼ ἐνέμειναν τῇ πίστει, μὴ ἐργαζόμενοι τὰ ἔργα τῆς πίστεως.

English · Claude translation

Those who gave in their sticks two parts dry and the third green are those who became believers but grew rich and became honored among the Gentiles; they put on great arrogance and became proud, and abandoned the truth and did not cling to the righteous, but lived together with the Gentiles, and this way became more pleasant to them; yet they did not depart from God, but remained in the faith, though not doing the works of faith.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:210 · 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

Ethics

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 8.9.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/9/1/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 8.9.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/9/1/).