Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 8.7 (38.7)

Summary: Do not refrain from doing good.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:104

ἃ δὲ δεῖ σε μὴ ἐγκρατεύεσθαι, φησίν, ἀλλὰ ποιεῖν, ἄκουε. τὸ ἀγαθὸν μὴ ἐγκρατεύου, ἀλλὰ ποίει αὐτό.

And hear,” he said, “what you must not refrain from, but do. Do not refrain from the good, but do it.”

Source: Lake, LCL 25:104 · 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)

Herm. Mand. 8.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/8/7/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 8.7 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/8/7/).