Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.14.4 (91.4)

Summary: Why is the tower built on the rock and gate?

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:256

Νῦν, φημί, κύριε, δήλωσόν μοι, διατί ὁ πύργος χαμαὶ οὐκ ᾠκοδόμηται, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ τὴν πέτραν καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πύλην. Ἔτι, φησίν, ἄφρων εἶ καὶ ἀσύνετος; Ἀνάγκην ἔχω, φημί, κύριε, πάντα ἐπερωτᾶν σε, ὅτι οὐδʼ ὅλως οὐδὲν δύναμαι νοῆσαι· τὰ γὰρ πάντα μεγάλα καὶ ἔνδοξά ἐστι καὶ δυσνόητα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις.

English · Claude translation

“Now, sir,” I said, “make clear to me why the tower is not built on the ground, but on the rock and on the gate.” “Are you still foolish and without understanding?” he said. “I have to ask you everything, sir,” I said, “because I cannot understand anything at all; for all things are great and glorious and hard for people to understand.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:256 · 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. 9.14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/14/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.14.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/14/4/).