Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.26.4 (103.4)

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

Summary: Like a neglected vine, they grow wild.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:280–282

ὡς γὰρ ἄμπελος ἐν φραγμῷ τινι καταλειφθεῖσα ἀμελείας τυγχάνουσα καταφθείρεται καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν βοτανῶν ἐρημοῦται καὶ τῷ χρόνῳ ἀγρία γίνεται, καὶ οὐκέτι εὔχρηστός ἐστι τῷ δεσπότῃ ἑαυτῆς, οὕτω καὶ οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἄνθρωποι ἑαυτοὺς ἀπεγνώκασι καὶ γίνονται ἄχρηστοι τῷ κυρίῳ ἑαυτῶν ἀγριωθέντες.

English · Claude translation

For just as a vine left in some hedge and neglected is ruined and made desolate by weeds and in time becomes wild, and is no longer useful to its owner, so also such people have given themselves up and become useless to their Lord, having grown wild.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:280–282 · 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. 9.26.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/26/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.26.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/26/4/).

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