Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 8.10 (38.10)

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:104–106

εἶτα τούτων τὰ ἀκόλουθα ἄκουσον· χήραις ὑπηρετεῖν, ὀρφανοὺς καὶ ὑστερουμένους ἐπισκέπτεσθαι, ἐξ ἀναγκῶν λυτροῦσθαι τοὺς δούλους τοῦ θεοῦ, φιλόξενον εἶναι ʽἐν γὰρ τῇ φιλοξενίᾳ εὑρίσκεται ἀγαθοποίησίς ποτεʼ, μηδενὶ ἀντιτάσσεσθαι, ἡσύχιον εἶναι, ἐνδεέστερον γίνεσθαι πάντων ἀνθρώπων, πρεσβύτας σέβεσθαι, δικαιοσύνην ἀσκεῖν, ἀδελφότητα συντηρεῖν, ὕβριν ὑποφέρειν, μακρόθυμον εἶναι, μνησικακίαν μὴ ἔχειν, κάμνοντας τῇ ψυχῇ παρακαλεῖν, ἐσκανδαλισμένους ἀπὸ τῆς πίστεως μὴ ἀποβάλλεσθαι, ἀλλʼ ἐπιστρέφειν καὶ εὐθύμους ποιεῖν, ἁμαρτάνοντας νουθετεῖν, χρεώστας μὴ θλίβειν καὶ ἐνδεεῖς, καὶ εἴ τινα τούτοις ὅμοιά ἐστι.

English · Claude translation

Then hear what follows from these: to serve widows, to visit orphans and those in need, to ransom God's servants from their distress, to be hospitable (for in hospitality good deeds are sometimes found), to oppose no one, to be quiet, to become humbler than all people, to honor the aged, to practice righteousness, to preserve brotherhood, to bear insult, to be patient, to bear no grudge, to comfort those weary in soul, not to cast off those who have stumbled in the faith but to turn them back and encourage them, to admonish sinners, not to oppress debtors and the needy, and whatever else is like these.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:104–106 · 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

Jas 1:27 · echo, medium confidence
Heb 13:2 · echo, medium confidence

Topics

Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

“To ransom God's servants from their distress”: probably buying the release of Christian prisoners or slaves.

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong letter); digitization slip: a closing parenthesis mark rendered as an accent): τῇ φυχῇ → τῇ ψυχῇ; ποτἐ, → ποτεʼ,.

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 8.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/8/10/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 8.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/8/10/).