Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 7.1 (66.1)

Summary: Hermas is afflicted by the angel of punishment and asks why.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:182–184

Μετὰ ἡμέρας ὀλίγας εἶδον αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ πεδίον τὸ αὐτό, ὅπου καὶ τοὺς ποιμένας ἑωράκειν, καὶ λέγει μοι· Τί ἐπιζητεῖς; Πάρειμι, κύριε, ἵνα τὸν ποιμένα τὸν τιμωρητὴν κελεύσῃς ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου μου ἐξελθεῖν, ὅτι λίαν με θλίβει. Δεῖ σε, φησί, θλιβῆναι· οὕτω γάρ, φησί, προσέταξεν ὁ ἔνδοξος ἄγγελος τὰ περὶ σοῦ· θέλει γάρ σε πειρασθῆναι. Τί γάρ, φημί, κύριε, ἐποίησα οὕτω πονηρόν, ἵνα τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τούτῳ παραδοθῶ;

English · Claude translation

After a few days I saw him in the same plain where I had also seen the shepherds, and he said to me, “What are you looking for?” “I am here, sir,” I said, “so that you may order the punishing shepherd to leave my house, because he afflicts me greatly.” “You must be afflicted,” he said; “for so the glorious angel has commanded concerning you; for he wishes you to be tested.” “What, then, sir,” I said, “have I done so wicked that I should be handed over to this angel?”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:182–184 · 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)

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/7/1/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 7.1 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/7/1/).