Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 11.19 (43.19)

Hermas · Shepherd of Hermas: Mandates · ca. 100–150 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Earthly spirits are powerless.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:124

Πῶς, φημί, κύριε, δύναται ταῦτα γενέσθαι; ἀδύνατα γὰρ ἀμφότερα ταῦτα εἴρηκας. Ὡς ταῦτα οὖν, φησίν, ἀδύνατά ἐστιν, οὕτω καὶ τὰ πνεύματα τὰ ἐπίγεια ἀδύνατά ἐστι καὶ ἀδρανῆ.

English · Claude translation

“How, sir,” I said, “can these things happen? For both things you have said are impossible.” “As these things, then, are impossible,” he said, “so also the earthly spirits are powerless and weak.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:124 · 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)

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 11.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/11/19/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 11.19 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/11/19/).

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