Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.3.5 (46.5)

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

Summary: Believe they can be kept, and they will be easy.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:130

ἀποκριθεὶς λέγει μοι· Ἐὰν σὺ σεαυτῷ προθῇς, ὅτι δύνανται φυλαχθῆναι, εὐκόλως αὐτὰς φυλάξεις καὶ οὐκ ἔσονται σκληραί· ἐὰν δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν σου ἤδη ἀναβῇ μὴ δύνασθαι αὐτὰς ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπου φυλαχθῆναι, οὐ φυλάξεις αὐτάς.

English · Claude translation

He answered me, “If you set before yourself that they can be kept, you will keep them easily, and they will not be hard; but if it already enters your heart that they cannot be kept by a human being, you will not keep them.

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. 12.3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/3/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/3/5/).

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