Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1.4.2 (4.2)

Summary: The hard words are for pagans and apostates, the gentle for the righteous.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:14–16

προσκαλεῖται δέ με καὶ ἥψατο τοῦ στήθους μου καὶ λέγει μοι· Ἤρεσέν σοι ἡ ἀνάγνωσίς μου; καὶ λέγω αὐτῇ· Κυρία, ταῦτά μοι τὰ ἔσχατα ἀρέσκει, τὰ δὲ πρῶτα χαλεπὰ καὶ σκληρά. ἡ δὲ ἔφη μοι λέγουσα· Ταῦτα τὰ ἔσχατα τοῖς δικαίοις, τὰ δὲ πρῶτα τοῖς ἔθνεσιν καὶ τοῖς ἀποστάταις.

English · Claude translation

And she called me to her and touched my breast and said to me, “Did my reading please you?” And I said to her, “Lady, these last things please me, but the first were hard and harsh.” And she said to me, “These last things are for the righteous, but the first for the Gentiles and the apostates.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:14–16 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 6–71 · 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); made independently of existing English translations.

Cite this passage

Herm. Vis. 1.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-vis/1/4/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Vis. 1.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-vis/1/4/2/).