Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 8.8.5 (74.5)

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:210

πολλοὶ οὖν μετενόησαν ἐξ αὐτῶν, καὶ ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὸν πύργον κατοικεῖν· πολλοὶ δὲ ἀπέστησαν εἰς τέλος τοῦ θεοῦ· οὗτοι τὸ ζῆν εἰς τέλος ἀπώλεσαν. τινὲς δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐδιψύχησαν καὶ ἐδιχοστάτησαν. τούτοις οὖν ἐστὶ μετάνοια, ἐὰν ταχὺ μετανοήσωσι καὶ μὴ ἐπιμείνωσι ταῖς ἡδοναῖς αὐτῶν· ἐὰν δὲ ἐπιμείνωσι ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ οὗτοι θάνατον ἑαυτοῖς κατεργάζονται.

English · Claude translation

Many of them, then, repented and went away to dwell in the tower; but many finally departed from God; these have finally lost life. And some of them were double-minded and caused divisions. For these, then, there is repentance, if they repent quickly and do not remain in their pleasures; but if they remain in their deeds, these too are bringing death on themselves.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:210 · 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)): τὸ ζὴν εἰς τέλος → τὸ ζῆν εἰς τέλος.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 8.8.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/8/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 8.8.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/8/8/5/).