Sophia Scriptura

Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.30.4 (107.4)

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

Summary: The round stones are believers whose wealth dimmed them but who stayed faithful.

Latin text · Lake, LCL 25:290

ἄκουε νῦν καὶ περὶ τῶν λίθων τῶν στρογγύλων καὶ λαμπρῶν. καὶ αὐτοὶ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ λευκοῦ εἰσίν. audi autem, quare rotundi sunt reperti. divitiae suae eos pusillum obscuraverunt a veritate atque obfuscaverunt, a deo vero nunquam recesserunt, nec ullum verbum malum processit de ore eorum, sed omnis aequitas et virtus veritatis.

English · Claude translation

Hear now also about the round and bright stones. These too are all from the white mountain. Hear, then, why they were found round. Their riches darkened them a little from the truth and dimmed them, but they never departed from God, nor did any evil word come out of their mouth, but all fairness and the virtue of truth.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 25:290 · 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
Ethics

Notes

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (Latin decoded from Greek letters: wrong letter): obscuranerunt → obscuraverunt.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.30.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/30/4/).

Plain text
Herm. Sim. 9.30.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/30/4/).

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