Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.6.8 (83.8)

Summary: The round stones are set aside to be hewn later.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:234

καὶ ἐλατομήθησαν οἱ τετράγωνοι λίθοι καὶ ἐτέθησαν εἰς τὸν τόπον τῶν ἠρμένων· οἱ δὲ στρογγύλοι οὐκ ἐτέθησαν εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομήν, ὅτι σκληροὶ ἦσαν εἰς τὸ λατομηθῆναι αὐτοὺς καὶ βραδέως ἐγένοντο. ἐτέθησαν δὲ παρὰ τὸν πύργον, ὡς μελλόντων αὐτῶν λατομεῖσθαι καὶ τίθεσθαι εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομήν· λίαν γὰρ λαμπροὶ ἦσαν.

English · Claude translation

And the square stones were hewn and put in the place of those that had been removed; but the round ones were not put into the building, because they were hard to hew and took a long time. But they were put beside the tower, as though they were to be hewn and put into the building; for they were very bright.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:234 · 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. 9.6.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/6/8/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.6.8 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/6/8/).