Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.3.4 (46.4)

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

Summary: Hermas fears the commandments are too hard to keep.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:130

Λέγω αὐτῷ· Κύριε, αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὗται μεγάλαι καὶ καλαὶ καὶ ἔνδοξοί εἰσι καὶ δυνάμεναι εὐφρᾶναι καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου τοῦ δυναμένου τηρῆσαι αὐτάς. οὐκ οἶδα δέ, εἰ δύνανται αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὗται ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπου φυλαχθῆναι, διότι σκληραί εἰσι λίαν.

English · Claude translation

I said to him, “Sir, these commandments are great and beautiful and glorious, and able to gladden the heart of a person who is able to keep them. But I do not know whether these commandments can be kept by a human being, because they are very hard.”

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:130 · 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. 12.3.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/3/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.3.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/3/4/).

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