The shepherd of Hermas

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The book The Shepherd of Hermas was written in Rome around 150 AD by an otherwise unknown Christian named Hermas. It was read aloud in church services in some congregations until the fourth century. Hermas is counted among the Apostolic Fathers .

The author: Hermas

The Canon Muratori (a listing of Christian books from around AD 170–200) writes about the book Shepherd of Hermas :

“But recently Hermas wrote to the shepherds in our time from Rome, when his brother Pius was sitting on the chair of the congregation in Rome. And that's why it should be read. But it cannot be read to the people in the congregation until the end of the days, neither among the prophets , whose number is complete, nor among the apostles . "

According to this, Hermas would be a brother of Pius I , who was bishop of Rome around 150 AD . He was a married freed slave . As the author of the seemingly apocalyptic Shepherd of Hermas , he is counted among the Apostolic Fathers and thus also among the Church Fathers in the broader sense. Since his work falls in the second century, he can hardly be identical with that Hermas , who is mentioned in Romans : Rom 16,14  EU (as Origen assumed).

Remembrance day for Hermas is March 1st.

The shepherd of Hermas

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In this work Hermas describes a series of revelations to him by an angel in the form of a shepherd; that is, by the "shepherd" is meant an angel . The work is divided into five visions , twelve commandments and ten parables. Here is an outline of the Christian moral doctrine. Christians are presented as strangers in this world. Repeatedly, the church appears as a tower, the construction of which is delayed in order to extend the time to repent. In the previous visions he meets the church in the form of an old woman who reveals to him, among other things, this parable of the building of the tower and gives the basis for the commandments and parables of Hermas.

Hermas describes the Christian community very clearly. He testifies that the majority of Christians were believers and credible people, but also speaks of the wrongdoers, arrogants, and above all of the lapses who became apostates during the isolated persecution of Christians - as occurred since the pogrom under Nero ( see above also his own sons). This book plays a special role in the development of the doctrines of the sacrament of penance .

Lore

The shepherd was written in Greek because the Christian community in Rome at that time (until around 200 AD) was still clearly Greek. However, shortly thereafter, a Latin version, called Vulgate , was also created. Another Latin version was later created, the Palatina , although it is disputed whether each version was written by an author like the Greek original. Only the Latin versions have survived in full, the Greek version has only survived in one manuscript, several pages of which are missing, so that about the last fifth of the Greek text has been lost.

The Shepherd of Hermas is far more extensive than the largest book in the New Testament, about as extensive as the Gospels of Matthew and Mark put together. Isolated quotations from this book, for example by the church fathers Irenaeus and Clemens, do not indicate that Hermas was recognized or read as strongly as the books of the NT. If the extent of the NT is assumed to be 100%, Hermas has almost 21%.

The work was especially valued in the Orient (especially in Egypt) and was very popular until the Middle Ages because of its ethics. At times it was discussed whether the book should belong to the canon of the New Testament scriptures. The book is very valuable for research into early church history, as only a few Christian texts have survived from the first half of the 2nd century.

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Single receipts

  1. ↑ In theological literature mostly referred to as (The) Shepherd of Hermas .
  2. ^ Christian Tornau - Paolo Cecconi (Eds.), The Shepherd of Hermas in Latin. Critical Edition of the Oldest Translation Vulgata, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014
  3. ↑ See Franz Stuhlhofer : The Use of the Bible from Jesus to Euseb. A statistical study of the canon history. Wuppertal 1988, p. 38 f. (Extent comparisons of NT books and Hermas) and pp. 50–55 (non-New Testament books by some church writers).