Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 5.2.7 (34.7)

Summary: Without the Spirit, the angry are driven by evil spirits.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:92

εἶτα ὅταν ἀποστῇ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου, οὗ κατοικεῖ, γίνεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος κενὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ δικαίου, καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν πεπληρωμένος τοῖς πνεύμασι τοῖς πονηροῖς ἀκαταστατεῖ ἐν πάσῃ πράξει αὐτοῦ, περισπώμενος ὧδε κἀκεῖσε ἀπὸ τῶν πνευμάτων τῶν πονηρῶν, καὶ ὅλως ἀποτυφλοῦται ἀπὸ τῆς διανοίας τῆς ἀγαθῆς. οὕτως οὖν συμβαίνει πᾶσι τοῖς ὀξυχόλοις.

English · Claude translation

Then, when it has departed from the person in whom it dwelt, that person becomes empty of the righteous spirit, and from then on, filled with the evil spirits, is unstable in all he does, dragged here and there by the evil spirits, and is altogether blinded from good thinking. This is what happens to all the bad-tempered.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:92 · 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

Matt 12:45 · echo, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 5.2.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/5/2/7/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 5.2.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/5/2/7/).