Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.5.2 (82.2)

Summary: The tower awaits its lord's inspection.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:228–230

μετὰ δὲ τὸ ἀναχωρῆσαι πάντας καὶ ἀναπαυθῆναι λέγω τῷ ποιμένι· Τί ὅτι, φημί, κύριε, οὐ συνετελέσθη ἡ οἰκοδομὴ τοῦ πύργου; Οὔπω, φησί, δύναται ἀποτελεσθῆναι ὁ πύργος, ἐὰν μὴ ἔλθῃ ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ καὶ δοκιμάσῃ τὴν οἰκοδομὴν ταύτην, ἵνα, ἐάν τινες λίθοι σαπροὶ εὑρεθῶσιν, ἀλλάξῃ αὐτούς· πρὸς γὰρ τὸ ἐκείνου θέλημα οἰκοδομεῖται ὁ πύργος.

English · Claude translation

After all had withdrawn and rested, I said to the shepherd, “Why, sir,” I said, “was the building of the tower not finished?” “The tower cannot yet be completed,” he said, “unless its lord comes and tests this building, so that if any stones are found rotten he may change them; for the tower is built according to his will.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:228–230 · 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. 9.5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/5/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/5/2/).