Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.5.2 (48.2)

Summary: The devil can wrestle but cannot win against those who hope in God.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:134

Οὐ δύναται, φησί, καταδυναστεύειν τῶν δούλων τοῦ θεοῦ τῶν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας ἐλπιζόντων ἐπʼ αὐτόν. δύναται ὁ διάβολος ἀντιπαλαῖσαι, καταπαλαῖσαι δὲ οὐ δύναται. ἐὰν οὖν ἀντισταθῆτε αὐτῷ, νικηθεὶς φεύξεται ἀφʼ ὑμῶν κατῃσχυμμένος. ὅσοι δέ, φησίν, ἀπόκενοί εἰσι, φοβοῦνται τὸν διάβολον ὡς δύναμιν ἔχοντα.

English · Claude translation

“He cannot,” he said, “overpower God's servants who hope in him with their whole heart. The devil can wrestle against them, but he cannot throw them. If, then, you resist him, he will flee from you defeated and put to shame. But those who are empty,” he said, “fear the devil as though he had power.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:134 · 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)

Scripture

Jas 4:7 · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 12.5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/5/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 12.5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/12/5/2/).