Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.5.1 (48.1)

Summary: Hermas says the devil overpowers those who want to obey.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:132–134

Λέγω αὐτῷ· Κύριε, ἄκουσόν μου ὀλίγων ῥημάτων. Λέγε, φησίν, ὃ βούλει. Ὁ μὲν ἄνθρωπος, φημί, κύριε, πρόθυμός ἐστι τὰς ἐντολὰς τοῦ θεοῦ φυλάσσειν, καὶ οὐδείς ἐστιν ὁ μὴ αἰτούμενος παρὰ τοῦ κυρίου, ἵνα ἐνδυναμωθῇ ἐν ταῖς ἐντολαῖς αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑποταγῇ αὐταῖς· ἀλλʼ ὁ διάβολος σκληρός ἐστι καὶ καταδυναστεύει αὐτῶν.

English · Claude translation

I said to him, “Sir, hear a few words from me.” “Say what you wish,” he said. “Man, sir,” I said, “is eager to keep God's commandments, and there is no one who does not ask the Lord to be strengthened in his commandments and to submit to them; but the devil is hard and overpowers them.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:132–134 · 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. 12.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/5/1/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.5.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/5/1/).