Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 6.2.5 (36.5)

Summary: Anger, excess, lust, greed, and pride are signs of the evil angel.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:96–98

Πῶς, φημί, κύριε, νοήσω αὐτόν, οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι. Ἄκουε, φησίν. ὅταν ὀξυχολία σοί τις προσπέσῃ ἢ πικρία, γίνωσκε, ὅτι αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν σοί· εἶτα ἐπιθυμία πράξεων πολλῶν καὶ πολυτέλειαι ἐδεσμάτων πολλῶν καὶ μεθυσμάτων καὶ κραιπαλῶν πολλῶν καὶ ποικίλων τροφῶν καὶ οὐ δεόντων καὶ ἐπιθυμίαι γυναικῶν καὶ πλεονεξιῶν καὶ ὑπερηφανία πολλή τις καὶ ἀλαζονεία καὶ ὅσα τούτοις παραπλήσιά ἐστι καὶ ὅμοια· ταῦτα οὖν ὅταν ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν σου ἀναβῇ, γίνωσκε, ὅτι ὁ ἄγγελος τῆς πονηρίας ἐστὶν ἐν σοί.

English · Claude translation

“How, sir,” I said, “I shall perceive him, I do not know.” “Hear,” he said. “When some bad temper or bitterness comes upon you, know that he is in you; then the desire for many activities and the extravagance of many foods and drinking bouts and much drunkenness and various unnecessary delicacies, and desires for women and for possessions, and great arrogance and boasting, and whatever is like and similar to these: when these things enter your heart, know that the angel of wickedness is in you.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:96–98 · 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. 6.2.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/6/2/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 6.2.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/6/2/5/).