Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.2.6 (79.6)

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

Summary: Do not strain to understand; ask the Lord.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:222

καὶ λέγει μοι ὁ ποιμήν· Τί ἐν σεαυτῷ διαλογίζῃ καὶ διαπορῇ καὶ σεαυτῷ λύπην ἐπισπάσαι; ὅσα γὰρ οὐ δύνασαι νοῆσαι, μὴ ἐπιχείρει, συνετὸς ὤν, ἀλλʼ ἐρώτα τὸν κύριον, ἵνα λαβὼν σύνεσιν νοῇς αὐτά.

English · Claude translation

And the shepherd said to me, “Why are you reasoning and perplexed within yourself and bringing grief on yourself? For whatever you cannot understand, do not attempt, if you are wise, but ask the Lord, so that you may receive understanding and understand them.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:222 · 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. 9.2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/2/6/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.2.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/2/6/).

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