Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.2.1 (45.1)

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

Summary: Chief evil desires: another's spouse, wealth, food, drink, luxury.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:126

Πάντων προέχουσα ἐπιθυμία γυναικὸς ἀλλοτρίας ἢ ἀνδρὸς καὶ πολυτελείας πλούτου καὶ ἐδεσμάτων πολλῶν ματαίων καὶ μεθυσμάτων καὶ ἑτέρων τρυφῶν πολλῶν καὶ μωρῶν· πᾶσα γὰρ τρυφὴ μωρά ἐστι καὶ κενὴ τοῖς δούλοις τοῦ θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

Above all, desire for another's wife or husband, and for extravagant wealth and many vain foods and drinking bouts and many other foolish luxuries; for every luxury is foolish and empty for the servants of God.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:126 · 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, Marriage

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 12.2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/2/1/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/2/1/).

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