Sophia Scriptura

Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.16.4 (93.4)

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

Summary: The seal is the water of baptism: they go down dead and come up alive.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:262

ἡ σφραγὶς οὖν τὸ ὕδωρ ἐστίν· εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ οὖν καταβαίνουσι νεκροὶ καὶ ἀναβαίνουσι ζῶντες. κἀκείνοις οὖν ἐκηρύχθη ἡ σφραγὶς αὕτη καὶ ἐχρήσαντο αὐτῇ, ἵνα εἰσέλθωσιν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

The seal, then, is the water; they go down into the water dead and come up alive. So to them too this seal was preached, and they made use of it, so that they might enter the kingdom of God.”

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)
Scripture
Topics
Baptism

Notes

Translation notes

  • A clear early statement that “the seal” means baptism.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.16.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/16/4/).

Plain text
Herm. Sim. 9.16.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/16/4/).

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