Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.28.6 (105.6)

Summary: Suffering for the name is God's gift of life, not the believer's great deed.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:286

οὐκοῦν μακαρίζετε ἑαυτούς· ἀλλὰ δοκεῖτε ἔργον μέγα πεποιηκέναι, ἐάν τις ὑμῶν διὰ τὸν θεὸν πάθῃ. ζωὴν ὑμῖν ὁ κύριος χαρίζεται, καὶ οὐ νοεῖτε· αἱ γὰρ ἁμαρτίαι ὑμῶν κατεβάρησαν, καὶ εἰ μὴ πεπόνθατε ἕνεκεν τοῦ ὀνόματος κυρίου, διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ὑμῶν τεθνήκειτε ἂν τῷ θεῷ.

English · Claude translation

So count yourselves blessed; but you think you have done a great work if any of you suffers for God's sake. The Lord is granting you life, and you do not understand; for your sins weighed you down, and if you had not suffered for the name of the Lord, you would have died to God because of your sins.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:286 · 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.

Topics

Martyrdom

Cite this passage

Herm. Sim. 9.28.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/28/6/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.28.6 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/28/6/).