Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.11 (29.11)

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

Summary: This is not permission to sin, but a way back for the sinner; God can heal past sin.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:80

ἐγὼ οὖν, φησίν, οὐ δίδωμι ἀφορμήν, ἵνα αὕτη ἡ πρᾶξις οὕτως συντελῆται, ἀλλὰ εἰς τὸ μηκέτι ἁμαρτάνειν τὸν ἡμαρτηκότα. περὶ δὲ τῆς προτέρας ἁμαρτίας αὐτοῦ ἔστιν ὁ δυνάμενος ἴασιν δοῦναι· αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ἔχων πάντων τὴν ἐξουσίαν.

English · Claude translation

I do not, then,” he said, “give an occasion for this matter to be done in this way, but so that the one who has sinned may sin no more. As for his former sin, there is one who can give healing; for he is the one who has authority over all things.”

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:80 · 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: Marriage

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 4.1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/4/1/11/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 4.1.11 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/4/1/11/).

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