Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 7.4 (66.4)

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:184–186

Ἀλλʼ ἰδού, φημί, κύριε, μετανενοήκασιν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας αὐτῶν. Οἶδα, φησί, κἀγώ, ὅτι μετανενοήκασιν ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας αὐτῶν· τῶν οὖν μετανοούντων εὐθὺς δοκεῖς τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἀφίεσθαι; οὐ παντελῶς· ἀλλὰ δεῖ τὸν μετανοοῦντα βασανίσαι τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχὴν καὶ ταπεινοφρονῆσαι ἐν πάσῃ πράξει αὐτοῦ ἰσχυρῶς καὶ θλιβῆναι ἐν πάσαις θλίψεσι ποικίλαις· καὶ ἐὰν ὑπενέγκῃ τὰς θλίψεις τὰς ἐπερχομένας αὐτῷ, πάντως σπλαγχνισθήσεται ὁ τὰ πάντα κτίσας καὶ ἐνδυναμώσας καὶ ἴασίν τινα δώσει αὐτῷ·

English · Claude translation

“But look, sir,” I said, “they have repented with their whole heart.” “I know too,” he said, “that they have repented with their whole heart. Do you think, then, that the sins of those who repent are forgiven at once? Not at all; but the one who repents must torment his own soul and be strongly humble in all he does and be afflicted with all kinds of afflictions; and if he endures the afflictions that come upon him, surely the one who created and strengthened all things will have compassion and give him some healing;

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:184–186 · 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 (dropped letter); digitization slip against Lake's printed text (missing accent)): τὰς ἁμαρτιας ἀφίεσθαι → τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἀφίεσθαι; ἐν πάσαις θίψεσι → ἐν πάσαις θλίψεσι.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/7/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 7.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/7/4/).