Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.1.4 (40.4)

Summary: Those absorbed in worldly business cannot understand divine things.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:112

Ἄκουε, φησίν· οἱ μηδέποτε ἐρευνήσαντες περὶ τῆς ἀληθείας μηδὲ ἐπιζητήσαντες περὶ τῆς θεότητος, πιστεύσαντες δὲ μόνον, ἐμπεφυρμένοι δὲ πραγματείαις καὶ πλούτῳ καὶ φιλίαις ἐθνικαῖς καὶ ἄλλαις πολλαῖς πραγματείαις τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου· ὅσοι οὖν τούτοις πρόσκεινται, οὐ νοοῦσι τὰς παραβολὰς τῆς θεότητος· ἐπισκοτοῦνται γὰρ ὑπὸ τούτων τῶν πράξεων καὶ καταφθείρονται καὶ γίνονται κεχερσωμένοι.

English · Claude translation

“Hear,” he said. “Those who have never searched about the truth nor inquired about the divine nature, but have merely believed, and are mixed up in business and wealth and pagan friendships and many other affairs of this world: all who are devoted to these things do not understand the parables about the divine nature; for they are darkened by these activities and ruined and become barren.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:112 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 70–137 · 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

Text

As printed in Lake, LCL 25. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

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.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 10.1.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/10/1/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 10.1.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/10/1/4/).