Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.7.6 (84.6)

Summary: The stones must be cleansed before the master returns unexpectedly.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:236

ταῦτά μοι λαλήσας λέγει μοι· Ἄγωμεν καὶ μετὰ ἡμέρας δύο ἔλθωμεν καὶ καθαρίσωμεν τοὺς λίθους τούτους καὶ βάλωμεν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομήν· τὰ γὰρ κύκλῳ τοῦ πύργου πάντα καθαρισθῆναι δεῖ, μήποτε ὁ δεσπότης ἐξάπινα ἔλθῃ καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν πύργον ῥυπαρὰ εὕρῃ καὶ προσοχθίσῃ, καὶ οὗτοι οἱ λίθοι οὐκ ἀπελεύσονται εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ πύργου, κἀγὼ ἀμελὴς δόξω εἶναι παρὰ τῷ δεσπότῃ.

English · Claude translation

Having said these things to me, he said to me, “Let us go, and after two days let us come and cleanse these stones and put them into the building; for everything around the tower must be cleansed, lest the master come suddenly and find the surroundings of the tower dirty and be offended, and these stones not go into the building of the tower, and I seem negligent to the master.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:236 · 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.

Scripture

Mark 13:36 · echo, low confidence

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.7.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/7/6/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.7.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/7/6/).