SHEPHERD OF HERMAS

The Shepherd was a popular book among Christians of the first

four centuries. Written by Hermas, brother of Pius, bishop of
Rome, during the first half of the second century, the book was
regarded by some churches as canonical Scripture. It was
eventually excluded from the canon, however, in part because
it was known not to have been written by an Apostle. Even so,
it was included as one of the books of the New Testament in
the fourth-century codex Sinaiticus and is mentioned by other
authors of the time as standing on the margins of the canon.

David Says… One of the most “desirable” traits of a book was

to be ascribed to an apostle as author. This helps explains why
so much of the pseudagraphia is under the names such as
“The Acts of Peter” or “The Acts of Paul and Seneca”.
Ironically, one of the telling features of these books was that
fact they were written in a language source that most of the
apostles would not have known or practiced.

The book takes its name from an angelic mediator who appears
to Hermas in the form of a shepherd. Other angelic beings
appear here as well, in particular as old woman who indentifies
herself as the personification of the Christian Church. These
various figures communicate divine revelations to Hermas and,
upon request, interpret their meaning to him.

The book is divided into a series of five visions, twelve sets of

commandments (or mandates), and ten parables (or
similitude’s). The visions and similitude’s are enigmatic and
symbolic; they are usually explained to Hermas as having
spiritual significance for the Christian here on earth. The
mandates are somewhat easier to interpret, consisting for the
most part of direct exhortations to speak the truth, give alms,
do well, and avoid sexual immorality, drunkenness, gluttony
and other vices.

Indeed, the entire book is driven by an ethical concern: what

can Christians do if they have fallen into sin after being
baptized? A number of early Christians had insisted that those
who returned to lives of sin after joining the church had lost
any hope of salvation.

An alternative view is advanced by Hermas, who maintains, on

the basis of divine revelations, that Christians who have fallen
again into sin after their baptism have a second chance (but
only one second chance) to repent and return to God’s good
graces. Those who refuse to avail themselves to this
opportunity, however, or who revert to sin thereafter, will be
forced to face the judgment of God on the day of reckoning
soon to come.

The Shepherd of Hermas is the longest work to survive from

the first hundred years of the Christian church.

EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK

Chapter 8, Section 1.

“Who is this then?” I asked, “The Church”, he said. I said to

him, “Why is she elderly?” “Because”, he said, “she was
created first, before anything else. That is why she is elderly,
and for her sake the world was created>”

A passing uneducated glance would not turn over any interest

in this verse. But to Judaism, this is a direct rip-off of the well
known and taught concept about the Torah. The Rabbis and
Sages taught that all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet
gathered before God to determine who would be the first letter
spoken during creation. God counters by telling them that He
is going to create the “Torah”, which is the whole world is
being created for.

As Christianity began to grow, there was a concentrated effort

to distance their teachings from Judaism while at the same
time utilizing the rich and long history of the Jews. This was
important because in Roman circles, if it’s new, it can’t be
true. So the “borrowings” continued for about 300 years.
Worth noting: some of the “borrowings” were incidental, while
others were intended to d damage to the Jews and their
reputation. Eventually, this type of religious borrowing
became the cannon fodder for the “Replacement Theology”.

Chapter 26, Section 1.

“First of all, believe that God is One, who created and

completed all things, and made everything that exists out of
that which did not, who contains all things but is Himself,
alone, uncontained.”

The first line of the verse is very similar to the ancient Jewish
Scripture and Prayer known as “The Shema”. It then goes on
the describe the creation event in a rather “Pauline” type
writing.

One of the possible reasons that this book (along with many
others from early Christian sources) is that this book makes no
claims of understanding a doctrine of the Trinity. Many of the
earliest writings did not contain a substantial amount of
teaching on this subject.

The writer here borrows from the Shema to stress that fact
that belief and allegiance to God alone will brings about
salvation in that last day of judgment.

Chapter 66, Section 7.

“But look, Lord”, I said, “They have in fact repented from heir
whole heart.” “ I myself know they have repented from their
whole heart”, he replied. “But do you think”, he said, “ that
the sins of those ho repent are forgiven on the spot? Not at
all!”

The verses go on to address that the person that repents must

“torment his own soul” and describes a process very similar to
the Jewish practice of Teshuva. Contrary to popular Christian
teaching, the blood of Jesus does not quickly erase sin. It
takes repentance and involvement on behalf of the offender to
clear the scales.

Chapter 16, Section 3, verse 9.

I began to ask her about the times, about whether the end had
already come, and she cried out with a great voice, “You fool!
Don’t you see that the tower is still under construction? Only
when its construction is finished will the end arrive.”

Quite a few chapters are devoted to the story of the tower.

Great detail is given to describe the kinds of stones that will
contribute to its completion and the kinds of stones that
cannot be used. Generally speaking, when a stone cannot be
used, it is because there is a flaw of sin or corruption in its
material. Other stones don’t make the cut (so to speak)
because of their shape; the builders just can’t find a place for
them. Finally, one set of stones, even though they have
repented, cannot become part of the building because of a
previous transgression that cannot be erased: the death of
Messiah. Most commentators believe these stones to be
referring to the Jewish people.

Early Christian teachers were struggling with the idea that it

seemed like the end was not near and they had put a Greco-
Romanized spin on the words of Jesus. So the emphasis
changed from the apocalyptic message of Jesus to the future
coming Kingdom and reign of the Church.

Chapter 29, Section 1, verse 1.

“But if you always keep thinking about your own wife, you will
never sin.”

Another challenge of the early Christian movement was to

determine how to navigate through the newfound hope for
women. Many teachers were telling the women in their
congregations to deny their husbands sexual intimacy, much to
the despair of the men. They felt like anything that pleased
the body was sinful, so sexual intimacy should be reserved
only for the cause of procreation, and even at that, no
enjoyment was to be experienced.

Other Christians believed that the best way to prepare for

their future in heaven was to purge their bodies from evil, and
the best way to do this was to wildly embrace the passions of
the flesh until the fire of lust inside quit burning. You can
imagine which group had the larger following.

Hermas seems to embrace the idea that faithfulness to your

wife and constantly seeking her good is the best way to keep
from bringing evil desire into your life and marriage.

The problem we have indentifying with all this kind of talk is

our disassociation with the culture of the time. As Christianity
moved away from its spiritual adoptive parents, it lost its
boundary markers for moral and God pleasing behavior. The
rulebooks were being written on the fly, addressing the
clashing cultural/Christian values as best they could. Books
like the Shepherd of Hermas were written to try and bridge
those gaps.

Many of today’s Christian scholars look upon these writings

with a great contempt. I support these writings and suggest
we delve deeper into the culture and situations that brought
about their design. It is easy to look backwards through 2000
years of Christian scholarship (most of which has completely
lost its direction from the words of Jesus) and teach others
how obvious the errors of these early writers were to see.

These letters were for the most part (exceptions are also
known) trying to bring together a community of faith that had
allowed itself to veer off into each culture, taking on cultural
distinctive along the way, which was painting a very different
presentation of the faith in each of the geographical areas.