Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.11.3 (88.3)

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

Summary: They invite him to stay with them as a brother.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:246

Ποῦ οὖν, φημί, μενῶ; Μεθʼ ἡμῶν, φασί, κοιμηθήσῃ ὡς ἀδελφός, καὶ οὐχ ὡς ἀνήρ· ἡμέτερος γὰρ ἀδελφὸς εἶ, καὶ τοῦ λοιποῦ μέλλομεν μετὰ σοῦ κατοικεῖν, λίαν γάρ σε ἀγαπῶμεν. ἐγὼ δὲ ᾐσχυνόμην μετʼ αὐτῶν μένειν.

English · Claude translation

“Where, then,” I said, “shall I stay?” “With us,” they said, “you will sleep as a brother, and not as a husband; for you are our brother, and from now on we are going to dwell with you, for we love you very much.” But I was ashamed to stay with them.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:246 · 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

The scene is allegorical: the virgins are holy spirits, the powers of the Son of God (9.13.2), with whom the believer is to live. The emphasis is on purity: “as a brother, and not as a husband.”

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (missing elision mark)): μετ αὐτῶν μένειν → μετʼ αὐτῶν μένειν.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.11.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/11/3/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.11.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/11/3/).

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