Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 10.1.5 (40.5)

Summary: Like neglected vineyards, the worldly become overgrown.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:112

καθὼς οἱ ἀμπελῶνες οἱ καλοί, ὅταν ἀμελείας τύχωσι, χερσοῦνται ἀπὸ τῶν ἀκανθῶν καὶ βοτανῶν ποικίλων, οὕτως οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ πιστεύσαντες καὶ εἰς ταύτας τὰς πράξεις τὰς πολλὰς ἐμπίπτοντες τὰς προειρημένας, ἀποπλανῶνται ἀπὸ τῆς διανοίας αὐτῶν, καὶ οὐδὲν ὅλως νοοῦσι περὶ δικαιοσύνης, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅταν ἀκούσωσι περὶ θεότητος καὶ ἀληθείας, ὁ νοῦς αὐτῶν περὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν αὐτῶν καταγίνεται, καὶ οὐδὲν ὅλως νοοῦσιν.

English · Claude translation

Just as good vineyards, when they are neglected, become barren from thorns and various weeds, so people who have believed and fall into these many activities mentioned before are led astray from their understanding and understand nothing at all about righteousness; but even when they hear about the divine nature and truth, their mind is occupied with their business, and they understand nothing at all.

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)

Scripture

Matt 13:22 · echo, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 10.1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/10/1/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 10.1.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/10/1/5/).