Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.6.2 (72.2)

Summary: Repentance is given to the sincere, not to the hypocrites.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:202–204

Διατί οὖν, φημί, κύριε, πάντες οὐ μετενόησαν; Ὧν εἶδε, φησί, τὴν καρδίαν μέλλουσαν καθαρὰν γενέσθαι καὶ δουλεύειν αὐτῷ ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας, τούτοις ἔδωκε τὴν μετάνοιαν· ὧν δὲ εἶδε τὴν δολιότητα καὶ πονηρίαν, μελλόντων ἐν ὑποκρίσει μετανοεῖν, ἐκείνοις οὐκ ἔδωκε μετάνοιαν, μήποτε πάλιν βεβηλώσωσι τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

“Why, then, sir,” I said, “did not all repent?” “Those whose hearts he saw would become pure and serve him with their whole heart,” he said, “to them he gave repentance; but those whose deceit and wickedness he saw, who would repent in hypocrisy, to them he did not give repentance, lest they profane his name again.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:202–204 · 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. 8.6.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/6/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 8.6.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/6/2/).