Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 11.18 (43.18)

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

Summary: A parable: you cannot hit heaven with a stone.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:122–124

ἄκουσον οὖν τὴν παραβολήν, ἣν μέλλω σοι λέγειν· λάβε λίθον καὶ βάλε εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἴδε, εἰ δύνασαι ἅψασθαι αὐτοῦ· ἢ πάλιν λάβε σίφωνα ὕδατος καὶ σιφώνισον εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἴδε, εἰ δύνασαι τρυπῆσαι τὸν οὐρανόν.

English · Claude translation

Hear, then, the parable that I am about to tell you. Take a stone and throw it at the sky; see whether you can touch it. Or again, take a water squirt and squirt it at the sky; see whether you can pierce the sky.”

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:122–124 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 2, LCL 25 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1913), 70–137 · 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
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 25, 1913); made independently of existing English translations.

Cite this passage

Herm. Mand. 11.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/11/18/).

Plain text

Herm. Mand. 11.18 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-mand/11/18/).

Download citation:BibTeX ·RIS (Zotero, EndNote)

Whole work:BibTeX ·RIS ·Markdown text

Report an error in this passage