Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.7.5 (84.5)

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

Summary: Smaller stones go inside, larger outside.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:236

Πῶς, φημί, κύριε, δύνανται περικοπέντες τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον πληρῶσαι; ἀποκριθεὶς λέγει μοι· Ὅσοι μικροὶ εὑρεθήσονται, εἰς μέσην τὴν οἰκοδομὴν βληθήσονται, ὅσοι δὲ μείζονες, ἐξώτεροι τεθήσονται καὶ συγκρατήσουσιν αὐτούς.

English · Claude translation

“How, sir,” I said, “can they fill the same place when they have been cut down?” He answered me, “Those that are found small will be put into the middle of the building, and those that are larger will be put on the outside and will hold them together.”

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:236 · 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. 9.7.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/7/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.7.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/7/5/).

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