Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.13.2 (90.2)

Summary: The virgins are holy spirits, powers of the Son of God; the name without their garment is useless.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:252

Αἱ δὲ παρθένοι αὗται τίνες εἰσίν; Αὗται, φησίν, ἅγια πνεύματά εἰσι· καὶ ἄλλως ἄνθρωπος οὐ δύναται εὑρεθῆναι εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐὰν μὴ αὗται αὐτὸν ἐνδύσωσι τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτῶν· ἐὰν γὰρ τὸ ὄνομα μόνον λάβῃς, τὸ δὲ ἔνδυμα παρὰ τούτων μὴ λάβῃς, οὐδὲν ὠφελήσῃ· αὗται γὰρ αἱ παρθένοι δυνάμεις εἰσὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. ἐὰν τὸ ὄνομα φορῇς, τὴν δὲ δύναμιν μὴ φορῇς αὐτοῦ, εἰς μάτην ἔσῃ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ φορῶν.

English · Claude translation

“And these virgins, who are they?” “They,” he said, “are holy spirits; and a person cannot be found in the kingdom of God in any other way unless they clothe him with their garment. For if you receive only the name, but do not receive the garment from them, you will gain nothing; for these virgins are powers of the Son of God. If you bear the name but do not bear his power, you will bear his name in vain.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:252 · 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

Christology, Baptism

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.13.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/13/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.13.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/13/2/).