Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.4.2 (47.2)

Summary: God made the world for humankind and gave him rule over it.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:130–132

ἰδὼν δέ με τεταραγμένον ὅλον καὶ συγκεχυμένον ἤρξατό μοι ἐπιεικέστερον καὶ ἱλαρώτερον λαλεῖν καὶ λέγει· Ἄφρον, ἀσύνετε καὶ δίψυχε, οὐ νοεῖς τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ, πῶς μεγάλη ἐστὶ καὶ ἰσχυρὰ καὶ θαυμαστή, ὅτι ἔκτισε τὸν κόσμον ἕνεκα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν κτίσιν αὐτοῦ ὑπέταξε τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ τὴν ἐξουσίαν πᾶσαν ἔδωκεν αὐτῷ τοῦ κατακυριεύειν τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν πάντων;

English · Claude translation

But when he saw me all troubled and confounded, he began to speak to me more gently and cheerfully, and said, “Foolish, senseless, and double-minded man, do you not understand the glory of God, how great and strong and marvelous it is, that he created the world for the sake of man and subjected all his creation to man and gave him all authority to rule over everything under heaven?

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:130–132 · 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

Gen 1:28 · allusion, medium confidence
Ps 8:6 (8:7 LXX) · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 12.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/4/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.4.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/4/2/).