Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 6.3.2 (63.2)

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

Summary: He is the angel of punishment, a righteous angel.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:176

λέγω τῷ ποιμένι τῷ μετʼ ἐμοῦ λαλοῦντι· Κύριε, τίς ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ οὕτως ἄσπλαγχνος καὶ πικρὸς καὶ ὅλως μὴ σπλαγχνιζόμενος ἐπὶ τὰ πρόβατα ταῦτα; Οὗτος, φησίν, ἐστὶν ὁ ἄγγελος τῆς τιμωρίας· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων τῶν δικαίων ἐστί, κείμενος δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς τιμωρίας.

English · Claude translation

I said to the shepherd who was talking with me, “Sir, who is this shepherd who is so pitiless and bitter and has no compassion at all on these sheep?” “This,” he said, “is the angel of punishment; he is one of the righteous angels, but is set over punishment.

About this passage

Source: Lake, LCL 25:176 · 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
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.

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): ὅλως μή σπλαγχνιζόμενος → ὅλως μὴ σπλαγχνιζόμενος.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 6.3.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/6/3/2/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 6.3.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/6/3/2/).

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