Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 2.1 (51.1)

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

Summary: Hermas looks at a vine growing on an elm.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:142

Περιπατοῦντός μου εἰς τὸν ἀγρὸν καὶ κατανοοῦντος πτελέαν καὶ ἄμπελον καὶ διακρίνοντος περὶ αὐτῶν καὶ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν, φανεροῦταί μοι ὁ ποιμὴν καὶ λέγει· Τί σὺ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ζητεῖς περὶ τῆς πτελέας καὶ τῆς ἀμπέλου; Συζητῶ, φημί, κύριε, ὅτι εὐπρεπέσταταί εἰσιν ἀλλήλαις.

English · Claude translation

As I was walking in the field and looking at an elm and a vine, and considering them and their fruits, the shepherd appeared to me and said, “What are you pondering to yourself about the elm and the vine?” “I am considering, sir,” I said, “that they suit each other very well.”

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:142 · 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)

Notes

Translation notes

In Italy vines were commonly trained to grow up elm trees.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/2/1/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 2.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/2/1/).

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