Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.12.5 (89.5)

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:250

ἐὰν γὰρ εἰς πόλιν θελήσῃς εἰσελθεῖν τινα κἀκείνη ἡ πόλις περιτετειχισμένη κύκλῳ καὶ μίαν ἔχει πύλην, μήτι δύνῃ εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν πόλιν εἰσελθεῖν, εἰ μὴ διὰ τῆς πύλης ἧς ἔχει; Πῶς γάρ, φημί, κύριε, δύναται γενέσθαι ἄλλως; Εἰ οὖν εἰς τὴν πόλιν οὐ δύνῃ εἰσελθεῖν εἰ μὴ διὰ τῆς πύλης ἧς ἔχει, οὕτω, φησί, καὶ εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἄλλως εἰσελθεῖν οὐ δύναται ἄνθρωπος εἰ μὴ διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἠγαπημένου ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ.

English · Claude translation

For if you wish to enter a city, and that city is walled all around and has one gate, can you enter that city except through the gate it has?” “How, sir,” I said, “could it be otherwise?” “If, then, you cannot enter the city except through the gate it has, so,” he said, “a person cannot enter the kingdom of God in any other way than through the name of his Son, who is loved by him.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:250 · 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.

Scripture

John 14:6 · echo, medium confidence
John 10:9 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Christology

Notes

Notes on the original text

Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong accent)): εἰς τῆν βασιλείαν → εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν.

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.12.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/12/5/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.12.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/12/5/).