Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 3.5 (28.5)

Summary: From now on speak only truth, and you will live.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:76

Νῦν οὖν, φησίν, ἀκούεις· φύλασσε αὐτά, ἵνα καὶ τὰ πρότερον ἃ ἐλάλησας ψευδὴ ἐν ταῖς πραγματείαις σου, τούτων εὑρεθέντων ἀληθινῶν, κἀκεῖνα πιστὰ γένηται· δύναται γὰρ κἀκεῖνα πιστὰ γενέσθαι. ἐὰν ταῦτα φυλάξῃς καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν πᾶσαν ἀλήθειαν λαλήσῃς, δυνήσῃ σεαυτῷ ζωὴν περιποιήσασθαι· καὶ ὃς ἂν ἀκούσῃ τὴν ἐντολὴν ταύτην καὶ ἀπέξεται τοῦ πονηροτάτου ψεύσματος ζήσεται τῷ θεῷ.

English · Claude translation

“Now, then,” he said, “you hear them; keep them, so that the lies you told before in your business dealings may themselves become trustworthy, once these are found true; for those also can become trustworthy. If you keep these things and from now on speak all truth, you will be able to gain life for yourself; and whoever hears this commandment and abstains from lying, that most wicked thing, will live to God.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:76 · 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)

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/3/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/3/5/).