Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.15.3 (92.3)

Summary: The twelve women are Unbelief, Incontinence, Disobedience, Deceit, and eight other vices.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:258–260

ἄκουε, φησί, καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα τῶν γυναικῶν τῶν τὰ ἱμάτια μέλανα ἐχουσῶν. καὶ ἐκ τούτων τέσσαρές εἰσι δυνατώτεραι. ἡ πρώτη Ἀπιστία, ἡ δευτέρα Ἀκρασία, ἡ δὲ τρίτη Ἀπείθεια, ἡ δὲ τετάρτη Ἀπάτη. αἱ δὲ ἀκόλουθοι αὐτῶν καλοῦνται Λύπη, Πονηρία, Ἀσέλγεια, Ὀξυχολία, Ψεῦδος, Ἀφροσύνη, Καταλαλιά, Μῖσος. ταῦτα τὰ ὀνόματα ὁ φορῶν τοῦ θεοῦ δοῦλος τὴν βασιλείαν μὲν ὄψεται τοῦ θεοῦ, εἰς αὐτὴν δὲ οὐκ εἰσελεύσεται.

English · Claude translation

Hear,” he said, “also the names of the women with the black garments. Of these too four are more powerful: the first is Unbelief, the second Incontinence, the third Disobedience, the fourth Deceit. And their followers are called Grief, Wickedness, Licentiousness, Bad temper, Falsehood, Folly, Slander, Hatred. The servant of God who bears these names will see the kingdom of God, but will not enter it.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:258–260 · 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

Ethics

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.15.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/15/3/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.15.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/15/3/).