Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.20.4 (97.4)

Summary: They can still repent if they do good quickly.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:272

ἀλλὰ τούτοις πᾶσι μετάνοιά ἐστι, ταχινὴ δέ, ἵνʼ ὃ τοῖς προτέροις χρόνοις οὐκ εἰργάσαντο νῦν ἀναδράμωσιν ταῖς ἡμέραις καὶ ἀγαθόν τι ποιήσωσιν. ἐὰν οὖν μετανοήσωσι καὶ ἀγαθόν τι ποιήσωσι, ζήσονται τῷ θεῷ· ἐὰν δὲ ἐπιμείνωσι ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτῶν, παραδοθήσονται ταῖς γυναιξὶν ἐκείναις, αἵτινες αὐτοὺς θανατώσουσιν.

English · Claude translation

But for all these there is repentance, but it must be quick, so that what they did not do in former times they may now make up in these days, and do some good. If, then, they repent and do some good, they will live to God; but if they remain in their deeds, they will be handed over to those women, who will put them to death.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:272 · 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. 9.20.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/20/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.20.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/20/4/).