Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.3 (93.3)

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

Summary: Before receiving the seal a person is dead; with it he receives life.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:262

ἔλαβον οὖν καὶ οὗτοι οἱ κεκοιμημένοι τὴν σφραγῖδα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ· πρὶν γάρ, φησί, φορέσαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, νεκρός ἐστιν· ὅταν δὲ λάβῃ τὴν σφραγῖδα, ἀποτίθεται τὴν νέκρωσιν καὶ ἀναλαμβάνει τὴν ζωήν.

English · Claude translation

So these too, who had fallen asleep, received the seal of the Son of God and entered the kingdom of God. For before a person bears the name of the Son of God,” he said, “he is dead; but when he receives the seal, he puts off deadness and takes up life.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:262 · 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: Baptism

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.16.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/16/3/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.16.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/16/3/).

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