Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.3 (105.3)

Summary: All martyrs have their sins taken away.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:284

Διατί οὖν, φημί, κύριε, πάντα μὲν τὰ δένδρα καρποὺς ἔχει, τινὲς δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν καρποὶ εὐειδέστεροί εἰσιν; Ἄκουε, φησίν· ὅσοι ποτὲ ἔπαθον διὰ τὸ ὄνομα, ἔνδοξοί εἰσι παρὰ τῷ θεῷ, καὶ πάντων αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἀφῃρέθησαν, ὅτι ἔπαθον διὰ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. διατί δὲ οἱ καρποὶ αὐτῶν ποικίλοι εἰσίν, τινὲς δὲ ὑπερέχοντες, ἄκουε.

English · Claude translation

“Why, then, sir,” I said, “do all the trees have fruit, but some of their fruits are more beautiful?” “Hear,” he said: “all who ever suffered for the name are glorious before God, and the sins of all have been taken away, because they suffered for the name of the Son of God. But hear why their fruits are various, and some surpassing.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:284 · 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)

Topics

Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.28.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/28/3/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.28.3 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/28/3/).