Sophia Scriptura

Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.21.2 (98.2)

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

Summary: Their words live but their works are dead.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:272

διὰ τοῦτο τὰ θεμέλια αὐτῶν ξηρά ἐστι καὶ δύναμιν μὴ ἔχοντα, καὶ τὰ ῥήματα αὐτῶν μόνα ζῶσι, τὰ δὲ ἔργα αὐτῶν νεκρά ἐστιν. οἱ τοιοῦτοι οὔτε ζῶσιν οὔτε τεθνήκασιν. ὅμοιοι οὖν εἰσὶ τοῖς διψύχοις· καὶ γὰρ οἱ δίψυχοι οὔτε χλωροί εἰσιν οὔτε ξηροί· οὔτε γὰρ ζῶσιν οὔτε τεθνήκασιν.

English · Claude translation

This is why their foundations are dry and without power, and only their words live, but their works are dead. Such people are neither alive nor dead. They are like the double-minded; for the double-minded too are neither green nor dry; for they are neither alive nor dead.

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)
Scripture

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.21.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/21/2/).

Plain text
Herm. Sim. 9.21.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/21/2/).

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