Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.8.4 (85.4)

Summary: Some shortened stones are rejected; the rest are used inside.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 25:238

εἶτα κατενόει τοὺς κολοβούς, καὶ εὑρέθησαν πολλοὶ ἐν αὐτοῖς μέλανες, τινὲς δὲ σχισμὰς μεγάλας πεποιηκότες· καὶ ἐκέλευσε καὶ τούτους τεθῆναι μετὰ τῶν ἀποβεβλημένων. τοὺς δὲ περισσεύοντας αὐτῶν καθαρίσας καὶ λατομήσας ἐκέλευσεν εἰς τὴν οἰκοδομὴν τεθῆναι. αἱ δὲ παρθένοι αὐτοὺς ἄρασαι εἰς μέσην τὴν οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ πύργου ἥρμοσαν· ἀσθενέστεροι γὰρ ἦσαν.

English · Claude translation

Then he examined the ones cut short, and many among them were found black, and some had developed great cracks; and he ordered these too to be put with the rejected ones. The rest of them he cleansed and hewed and ordered to be put into the building. And the virgins took them up and fitted them into the middle of the building of the tower; for they were weaker.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 25:238 · 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. 9.8.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/8/4/).

Plain text

Herm. Sim. 9.8.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/herm-sim/9/8/4/).