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2 [One of the tribulations spoken of in the Apocalypse is probably intended. This Vision is full of the imagery of the Book of Revelation.]
4 He might strengthen me, omitted in Vat.
5 For ... marvels. This clause is connected with the subsequent sentence in Vat.
7 Comp. Rev. xi. 7, xii. 3,4, xiii. 1, xvii. 8, xxii. 2. [The beast was "like a whale" in size and proportion. It was not a sea-monster. This whole passage is Dantesque. See Inferno, canto xxxi., and, for the colours, canto xvii. 15.]
9 The Vat. adds: with a stroke.
10 [Those who remember the Vatican collection and other antiques, will recall the exquisite figure and veiling of the Pudicitia.]
12 Care. Loneliness and anxiety.-Vat.
15 Thegri. [Perhaps compounded from qh\r and a1greu/w.] The name of this angel is variously written, Hegrin [Query. Quasi e,grhgorei=n, or corrupted from (Sept.) ei@r kai\ a@gioj; Hir in Daniel's Chaldee], Tegri. Some have supposed the word to be for a!grion, the wild; some have taken it to mean "the watchful," as in Dan. iv. 10, 23: and some take it to be the name of a fabulous lion. [See, also, Dan. vi. 22.]
17 Send scourges. Send you help. But woe to the doubters who.-Vat.
20 [Very much resembling Dante, again, in many passages. Inferno, xxi. "Allor mi volsi," etc.]
149 1 [This vision naturally belongs to book ii., to which it is a preface.]
2 Keep them. That you may be able to keep them more easily by reading them from time to time.-Vat.
3 ["The Shepherd," then, is the "angel of repentance," here represented as a guardian angel. This gives the work its character, as enforcing primarily the anti-Montanist principle of the value of true repentance in the sight of God.]
1 [These first words are quoted by Irenaeus, vol. i. p. 488, this series. Note that this book begins with the fundamental principle of faith, which is everywhere identified by Hermas (as in Vision ii. cap. 2) with faith in the Son of God. The Holy Spirit is also everywhere exhibited in this work. But the careful student will discover a very deep plan in the treatment of this subject. Repentance and faith are the great themes, and the long-suffering of God, against the Montanists. But he begins by indicating the divine character and the law of God. He treats of sin in its relations to the law and the gospel: little by little, opening the way, he reaches a point, in the Eighth Similitude, where he introduces the New Law, identifying it, indeed, with the old, but magnifying the gospel of the Son of God. Hermas takes for Granted the "Son of man;" but everywhere he avoids the names of His humanity, and brings out "the Son of God" with emphasis, in the spirit of St. John's Gospel (cap. I.) and of the Epistle to the Hebrews (cap. I.), as if he feared the familiarities even of believers in speaking of Jesus or of Christ, without recognising His eternal power and Godhead.]
2 Contained.-Vat. and Pal. add: and who cannoy be defined in words, nor conceived by the mind. [Here we have the "Imcomprehensible," so familiar in the liturgic formula improperly called the Athanasian Creed. In the Latin immensus, in the Greek a!peiroj; i.e., "non mensurabilis, quia inlocalis, incircumscriptus, ubique totus, ubique proesens, ubique potens." Not intelligible is too frequently supposed to be the sense, but this is feeble and ambiguous. See Waterland, Works, iv. p. 320 London, 1823.]
1 If...brother. [Jas. iv. 11.] And if you believe the slanderer, you will also be guilty of sin, in that you have belived one who speaks evil of your brother.-Vat. For if you give your assent to the detractor, and believe what is said of one in his absence, you also will be like to him, and acting ruinously towards your brother, and you are guilty of the same sin as the person who slanders.-Pal.
2 For slander is ruinous.-Vat. For it is wicked to slander any one.-Pal.
3 For...condemned, omitted in Vat.
4 This service...God. And he has accomplished this service to God simply and gloriously.-Vat. [Rom. xii. 8.]
5 The Vat. Adds: and a blessing may fall on your house.
2 Dwelleth in you. Who put the spirit within you.-Vat.
3 [The seven gifts of the Spirit are here referred to, especially the gift of "true godliness," with a reference to the parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 15), and also to 1 John ii. 20-27.]
4 Cunningly to all. Have ever lived in dissimulation.-Vat. Lived cunningly with all.-Pal. [Custom-house oats and business lies among moderns.]
5 The Vat. adds: of God. [1 John iii. 19-21, iv. 6, and Eph. iv. 30.]
6 For ... truth. For even they can become worthy of credit, if you will speak the truth in future; and if you keep the truth.-Vat. [See, under the Tenth Mandate, p. 26, in this book.]
1 This thought. [Matt. v. 28. See, further, Simil. ix. cap. ii.] The thought of another man's wife or of fornication.
2 Questions. "I charge you," said he, "to guard your chastity, and let no thought enter your heart of another man's marriage (i.e., wife), or of fornication, for this produces a great transgression. But be always mindful of the Lord at all hours, and you will never sin. For if this very wicked thought enter your heart, you commit a great sin, and they who practise such deeds follow the way of death. Take heed, therefore, and refrain from this thought. For where chastity remains in the heart of a righteous man, never ought there to arise any evil thought." I said to him, "Sir, permit me to say a few words to you." "Say on,"said he.-Vat.
4 [Not frequently ... one repentance. True penitence is a habit of life. An apparent safe-guard against the reproaches of Montanism, and a caution not to turn forgiveness into a momentary sponge without avoiding renewed transgression.]
5 Who ... actions. But he who makes an image also commits adultery.-Vat.
6 Any one. She.-Vat. [2 Thess. iii. 14; 2 John ii.]
7 There ... cure. God, who has power to heal, will provide a remedy.-Vat. [This whole passage seems to refer to the separation of penitents under canonical discipline. Tertullian, Pudicit., capp. 5, 13, and De Penitent., cap. 9. 2 Thess. iii. 14.]
8 Bear ... words. Give me a few words of explanation.-Vat.
9 Repentance ... wisdom. For he who repents obtains great intelligence. For he feels that he has sinned and acted wickedly.-Vat. ["Wisdom and understanding;" spiritual gifts here instanced as requisite to true penitence and spiritual life.]
10 [Matt. xix. 17. Saint-Pierre, Harm de la Nature, iii. p. 150.]
11 [Immersion continues to be the usage, then, even in the West, at this epoch.]
12 For ... them. Since God knows the thoughts of all hearts, and the weakness of men, and the manifold wickedness of the devil which he practises in plotting against the servants of God, and in malignant designs against them.-Vat.
13 In ... life. These words occur only in Pal. [Can the following words be genuine? They reflect the very Montanism here so strictly opposed. Wake has followed a very different text. The Scriptures, it is true, use very awful language of the same kind: Heb. x. 26,27, xii, 16,17; 1 John iii. 9.
14 With ... live. With difficulty will he live to God.-Vat. And Pal.