Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.13.5 (90.5)

Summary: Believers clothed with the virtues become one spirit and one body.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:254

διὰ τοῦτο βλέπεις τὸν πύργον μονόλιθον γεγονότα μετὰ τῆς πέτρας· οὕτω καὶ οἱ πιστεύσαντες τῷ κυρίῳ διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐνδιδυσκόμενοι τὰ πνεύματα ταῦτα ἔσονται εἰς ἓν πνεῦμα, ἓν σῶμα, καὶ μία χρόα τῶν ἱματίων αὐτῶν. τῶν τοιούτων δὲ τῶν φορούντων τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν παρθένων ἐστὶν ἡ κατοικία εἰς τὸν πύργον.

English · Claude translation

This is why you see the tower become a single stone with the rock; so also those who have believed in the Lord through his Son and are clothed with these spirits will become one spirit, one body, and their garments of one color. And the dwelling of such as bear the names of the virgins is in the tower.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:254 · 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)

Scripture

Eph 4:4 · allusion, medium confidence

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.13.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/13/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.13.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/13/5/).