Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.1.7 (33.7)

Summary: Guard against anger; the Shepherd will help those who repent.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:88–90

Ἤθελον, φημί, κύριε, γνῶναι τὴν ἐνέργειαν τῆς ὀξυχολίας, ἵνα φυλάξωμαι ἀπʼ αὐτῆς. Καὶ μήν, φησίν, ἐὰν μὴ φυλάξῃ ἀπʼ αὐτῆς σὺ καὶ ὁ οἶκός σου, ἀπώλεσάς σου τὴν πᾶσαν ἐλπίδα. ἀλλὰ φύλαξαι ἀπʼ αὐτῆς· ἐγὼ γὰρ μετὰ σοῦ εἰμί. καὶ πάντες δὲ ἀφέξονται ἀπʼ αὐτῆς, ὅσοι ἂν μετανοήσωσιν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν· μετʼ αὐτῶν γὰρ ἔσομαι καὶ συντηρήσω αὐτούς· ἐδικαιώθησαν γὰρ πάντες ὑπὸ τοῦ σεμνοτάτου ἀγγέλου.

English · Claude translation

“I would like to know, sir,” I said, “the working of bad temper, so that I may guard myself from it.” “Indeed,” he said, “if you and your household do not guard against it, you have lost all your hope. But guard yourself against it, for I am with you. And all will abstain from it who repent with their whole heart; for I will be with them and preserve them. For all have been justified by the most reverend angel.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:88–90 · 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. 5.1.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/5/1/7/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 5.1.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/5/1/7/).