Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.3.5 (69.5)

Summary: Transgressors are left to the Shepherd for repentance.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:196

λέγω αὐτῷ· Κύριε, διατί οὓς μὲν ἀπέλυσεν εἰς τὸν πύργον, οὓς δὲ σοὶ κατέλειψεν; Ὅσοι, φησί, παρέβησαν τὸν νόμον, ὃν ἔλαβον παρʼ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἐξουσίαν κατέλιπεν αὐτοὺς εἰς μετάνοιαν· ὅσοι δὲ ἤδη εὐηρέστησαν τῷ νόμῳ καὶ τετηρήκασιν αὐτόν, ὑπὸ τὴν ἰδίαν ἐξουσίαν ἔχει αὐτούς.

English · Claude translation

I said to him, “Sir, why did he send some away into the tower and leave others to you?” “All who transgressed the law,” he said, “which they received from him, he left under my authority for repentance; but those who have already pleased the law and kept it, he keeps under his own authority.”

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:196 · 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.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 8.3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/3/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 8.3.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/3/5/).