Sophia Scriptura

Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 10.4.3 (114.3)

Hermas · Shepherd of Hermas: Similitudes · ca. 100–150 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Failing to rescue the desperate makes one guilty of their blood.

Latin text · Lake, LCL 25:304

qui igitur huiusmodi animam eripit de necessitate, magnum gaudium sibi adquirit. is enim, qui huiusmodi vexatur incommodo, pari tormento cruciatur atque torquet se qui in vincula est. multi enim propter huiusmodi calamitates, cum eas sufferre non possunt, mortem sibi adducunt. qui novit igitur calamitatem huiusmodi hominis et non eripit eum, magnum peccatum admittit et reus fit sanguinis eius.

English · Claude translation

Whoever, then, rescues such a soul from distress gains great joy for himself. For the one who is troubled by such hardship is tortured with the same torment as one who is in chains. For many, because of such calamities, when they cannot bear them, bring death on themselves. Whoever, then, knows the calamity of such a person and does not rescue him commits a great sin and becomes guilty of his blood.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 25:304 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 138–305 · 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), and from the ancient Latin version where Lake prints it because the Greek is lost (from Sim. 9.30.3); 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

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Bring death on themselves”: suicide under the pressure of poverty.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 10.4.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/10/4/3/).

Plain text
Herm. Sim. 10.4.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/10/4/3/).

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