OF HERMAS

TU THE FOU.R G

S9^

/J,

THE
WITNESS OF HERMAS

TO

THE FOUR GOSPELS

JLonBon: C. J. CLAY & SONS,
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
Ave Maria Lane.

dCamStiUsc : DEIGHTON, BELL AND CO.
%eivM: F. A. BROCKHAUS.
i&ctalort: MACMILLAN AND CO.

THE

WITNESS OF HERMAS

TO

THE FOUR GOSPELS

BY
C. TAYLOR D.D.
MASTER OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE

LONDON
C. J. CLAY AND SONS
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AVE MARIA LANE
1892
[All Rights reserved]

ClamSrtlrBe :

PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AND SONS,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

PREFACE
TH E Shepherd of Hernias is an incompletely
worked mine of allusions to the Gospels and
other writings. It has been undervalued because it
has not been understood. In form it is a lengthy
revelation to one Hermas, written down by himself;
but while some take his story for history, perhaps
more deem it an offspring of the imagination, and
place it in the same category with the famous Pilgrims
Progress. Its author, who has a sufficiency of sacred
and secular lore at command, never cites by name,
except once from the now lost Eldad and Modat, but
weaves his materials artfully together into a fabric
which must be unravelled with some care before it
can be seen of what elements it is composed.
The Wit7iess of Hermas to the Four Gospels is an
incidental result of a detailed study of the Shepherd
in relation to the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles for
the purpose of deciding which of the two writings

VI PREFACE
borrowed from the other. And first it seemed to
come out clearly that Hermas had many covert
allusions to the Teaching ; and next that his use of it
was so comprehensive that the best method of com
parison was to read through the Teaching, note things
at all remarkable in it, and search for hidden traces of
them in the Shepherd. By this a priori method I was
led to anticipate the discovery of the word Gospel
under some disguise in the work of Hermas, and I
found it in the form ayyeXta dyadij, Good Tidings.
A singular illustration in the context is usually
left unexplained, and has been thought to have no
meaning ; but as soon as it was seen that the Gospel
was referred to (as was not unnatural at the end of the
third apparition of the Church to Hermas) it became
possible to interpret the passage in the light of the
doctrine of Irenaeus, that from the nature of things
there can be neither more nor fewer than four true
Gospels, because "when God has made all things
compounded and fitted together, the form of the
Gospel too must needs have been well compounded
and compacted." Taking for granted and as known
to all that the universe was compounded of a tetrad of
elements, he infers that the complete Gospel must
have been made up of a tetrad of Gospels. When

PREFACE vn

therefore Hermas writes in his chapter oh the Good
Tidings, "for the world also is compacted of four
elements," he would have us know that it was recog
nised in his day in the metropolis of the Empire that
the Canonical Gospels were four in number.
For the date of the Shepherd of Hermas the
Muratorian fragment gives approximately the limits
140 — 150 A.D. ; and we may say that, even if the work
was finished only toward the end of the period named,
its testimony would still go back to not far from
140 A.D., since the idea of so extensive and elaborate
a composition must have been already for some time
in the mind of the writer. Not having encountered
any obstacle to acquiescence in the Muratorian date of
the Shepherd in the course of my comparisons of it
with other writings, I am content to accept that date
provisionally, without denying that there are considera
tions, urged by weighty authorities, which seem to
shew that Hermas may have written somewhat earlier.
In any case, if the argument of this essay be sound,
the Four Gospels have been shewn to have attained
to their exclusive and canonical position a third of a
century or more before Irenaeus made his statement
that there were, and could not but have Jbeen, four
" Gospels of the Apostles " and four only.

vni PREFACE
The proof that Hermas prefigured this dictum of
Irenaeus is followed by a search for traces of the
Gospels in the Shepherd, which is in the main a
fresh enquiry ; but I have profited by the perusal of
Zahn's kindred study in Der Hirt des Hermas {1868),
and have used Hilgenfeld's Hermae Pastor (1881) as
a summary of the conclusions of exegetes from Cotelier
to Harnack and Funk. For suggestive criticism and
counsel in the final revision I am indebted to the
learning and judgment of Dr Sanday. At an earlier
stage I had, with much advantage, discussed some
dubious points with Dr Gifford.
Notes of the essay were read at Sion College on
the 22nd October 1891 and shortly afterwards in
Cambridge. Two years previously I had written
of Irenaeus that "his analogies for the necessity of
there being Four Gospels must have been suggested
by Hermas." C. TAYLOR
Cambridge 2^th March 1892

HERMAS

AND

THE FOUR GOSPELS

OYAEN TAP KENON OYAE AZYMBOAON

HERMAS AND THE FOUR GOSPELS.
The late Bishop of Durham, in his volume of
replies to the book Supernatural Religion, gives this
summary of the early evidence for the Gospels at the
end of the essay on the Churches of Gaul (p. 271) :
One other remark on the testimony of Irenaeus
suggests itself before closing. Irenaeus is the first
extant writer in whom, from the nature of his work,
we have a right to expect explicit information on the
subject of the Canon. Earlier writings, which have
been preserved entire, are either epistolary, like the
letters of the Apostolic Fathers, where any references
to the Canonical books must necessarily be precarious
and incidental (to say nothing of the continuance of the
oral tradition at this date as a disturbing element) ; or
devotional, like the Shepherd of Hermas, which is
equally devoid of citations from the Old Testament

4 hermas AND
and the New ; or historical, like the account of the
martyrdoms at Vienne and Lyons, where any such
allusion is gratuitous; or apologetic, like the great
mass of the extant Christian writings of the second
century, where the reserve of the writer naturally leads
him to be silent about authorities which would carry no
zveight with the Jewish or heathen readers whom he
addressed. But the work of Irenaeus is the first con
troversial treatise addressed to Christians on questions
of Christian doctrine, wliere the appeal lies to Christian
documents. And here the testimony to our four Gospels
is full and clear and precise.
It is a prevalent opinion that the work of Llermas
is of little or no value for the history of the Canon. But
I have been led to think that its testimony, especially
to the Gospels, is strong and convincing, although
it does not lie on the surface : that it says in effect
that the number of the Gospels was actually and
necessarily four, as Irenaeus said after it : and that
Irenaeus was indebted to Hermas in respect of that
important and remarkable statement, for which the
later writer is always taken to be the independent
and original authority.

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 5
I . Hermas.
I said that I had been led to think that Hermas
has something of great value to tell us about the
Gospels ; and I meant by this that I had been led
on step by step by train of argument to a conclusion
which was as unexpected as it was unsought. I was
not thinking of any moot point in the history of
the Canon, but only of the relation of the Teaching
of the Twelve Apostles to the Shepherd of Hermas.
I was writing an article on this for the Journal of
Philology, and had satisfied myself that Hermas not
only used, but used up the Teaching; so that anything
very striking in that manual had only to be looked
for in the Shepherd, and there it would in due course
be found in one disguise or other*. Coming near to
the end of the comparison of the two writings, I was
considering the words in the last chapter but one of
the Teaching, " And your prayers and your alms and
all that ye do, so do as ye have it in the Gospel of our
Lord," when it occurred to me that there ought to
be some trace of the word Gospel in Hermas.
* The method of Hermas is to some extent shewn below by examples
independent of the Gospels in the preamble of the section on Hennas
and the Synoptic Gospels.

6 HERMAS AND
I set to work to read through the Shepherd for the
purpose of finding in it a disguised trace of the word
evayyikiov, gospel. I came to Vis. iii. 13. 2, and found
ayyeXia dyadu], good tidings, which was evidently the
thing sought. Then at once it seemed clear to me, in
the light of sayings of Irenaeus which will be quoted
below, that under the figure of the bench (cru/Ai/zeXtot'*)
standing firmly on four feet, in the immediate context,
Hermas refers to the Four Gospels, comparing them
to the four elements of the world. Thus a meaning
was found where apparently none had been found
before ; for the fullest commentary on the Shepherd,
with all the learning of all previous commentators at
its back, has nothing to add here to the laconic sentence
of a contemporary, Argumentatio mere inepta, it is
mere nonsense.
The passage in question is the peroration of the
account of the Church's appearances to Hermas in
three successive forms :
In Vis. i. she was an aged woman who sat alone
upon a great white chair of snowy wools (2. 2) and
read from a book to Hermas. When she had done
reading she rose from the chair, and four young men
* The word is from the Latin sicbselliwn. In Rabbinic Hebrew
it takes the form safsal. On the bench see also Maud. xi.

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 7
came and carried it off to the East, and two others
carried her to the same place (4. i, 3). The word
for chair or seat is that used in the saying. The scribes
sit in Moses seat, and it denotes also an easy chair
suited for a sick person. The Church accordingly
both teaches from it ex cathedra, and (as we shall see)
reclines upon it as sick and at the point of death.
In Vis. ii. she is seen walking and reading a little
book (i. 3). Hermas mistakes her for the Sibyl, but
is told that she is Ecclesia, the Church. Why then
was she presbytera, elderly ? Because she was created
first of all things, and for her sake the world was
framed (4. i). The thought of the place in creation
thus assigned to the Church necessitates a like broad
conception of the relation of the Gospel to the universe.
In this vision the Church hands her booklet to Hermas,
bidding him return it to her when read (i. 3), for the
revelation was not yet complete (4. 2).
In Vis. iii. she reappears with the six young
men : says to them. Go and build : and shews Hermas
the vision of a great tower being built by them upon
the waters, of bright square stones, itself foursquare
(2. 5). The tower (she tells him) is herself, the Church.
It is the spiritual creation, which is established upon
the floods (Ps. 24. 2), because your life was saved and

8 HERMAS AND
shall be saved by water (i Pet. 3. 20) ; and it is
founded by the word of the almighty and glorious
Name (3. 5), being the outcome of the preaching of
the Gospel to the world. When she has done speak
ing, the six young men carry her away to the tower,
and four others carry the bench thither (10. i). The
vision ends with an ostensible explanation of her three
apparitions. In the first vision she was old and dying
and seated on a chair, because every weak person sits
on a chair that the weakness of his body may be com
forted (11. 4). In the next she was standing, as if risen
to new life, and was less aged than before (12. i).
In the third she looks quite young, but for her hair,
and is very joyous and seated on a bench (10. 5).
For as when to one sorrowing come good tidings he
straightway forgetteth (Jas. i. 24) the former sorrows,
and giveth heed to naught but the tidings that he
heard, and is strengthened thenceforth unto good, and
his spirit is renewed through the joy which he received ;
so ye too have received renewal of your spirits by
seeing these good things. And whereas thou sawest
her seated on a bench, the position is a firm one ; for
the bench has four feet and stands firmly ; for the
world likewise is compacted of four elements. They
then that have repented shall be completely youno-

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 9
again and founded (Col. i. 23), if they repented with
their whole heart. Now thou hast the revelation com
plete. Thou shalt ask nothing more of revelation ;
but if aught be lacking yet it shall be revealed to thee
(13. 2 — 4). Thus the vision ends.
A general view of the three visions confirms the
hypothesis that the third alludes to the Gospel reve
lation as complete. Vis. i. described the Church
under the old dispensation as decaying and old and
ready to vanish away. She accordingly vanishes for
the moment, and her chair is carried off and is not
seen again. In Vis. iii. the bench takes its place ;
and at the end of the vision it is deposited in the
tower, and thus becomes, as it should if it represents
the Gospels, a permanent possession of the Church.
The chair was her seat of teaching and authority under
the former dispensation: what can her new seat the
bench, which stands on four feet, signify but the four
fold Gospel.'' The word founded, from Col. i. 23,
is well chosen to express firm foundation on the faith
of the Gospel by the word of the almighty and glorious
Name. We may say then that it is the Four Gospels
that are signified by the feet of the Church's seat, and
that are likened to the four elements of the world.
The reader of the Shepherd will be struck by the
T. H. 2

lO HERMAS AND

intricate connexion of its parts and the subtle way
in which attention is called to this by the use of
corresponding words and phrases.
Sim. ix. describes the building of the tower over
again and at greater length than Vis. iii. The tower
is, as we have seen, the spiritual counterpart of the
creation, Hermas evidently following the same tradition
as Papias and others, who interpreted the Mosaic
cosmogony as a mystery of Christ and the Church.
The tower in the similitude is built foursquare, so that
it could contain the whole world (2. i), and of stones
from twelve mountains representing all the nations of
the world (17. i — 2). But first of all four sets of
stones come up out of the deep, and these make four
rows or tiers in the foundation of the tower (4. 3).
The word for rows being crrolypi, and the tower being
a spiritual cosinos, the suspicion at once arises that the
four rows are meant to correspond to the four crroiyiia
or material elements spoken of in Vis. iii. 13, and to
refer, like these, to the Four Gospels. To anglicise
the wordplay we may say, that the elements of the
foundation of the tower, in Sim. ix., correspond to the
elements of the world. The words / was joyous
beholding such good things (10. i) are parallel to the
words in Vis. iii. 12,, joyous and seeing these good things.

THE FOUR GOSPELS. I I
where the good things are the good tidings of the
Gospel ; and the expression fotmded in the vision
answers to the setting of the four rows in the founda
tion of the tower. These links between the similitude
and the vision confirm the suspicion that the fourfold
foundation likewise adumbrates the fourfold Gospel.
But its four tiers are said, in the explanation of
them given to Hermas, to mean the four generations
or ages of the world from the beginning (15. 4) ; and
what have pre-Christian generations to do with the
Gospel of Christ ? The answer is, that the Gospel,
like the Church, is regarded by Hermas as ideally
prior to the creation : that because the four tiers are
parts of the tower or Church, the generations for
which they stand must in some sense have been
evangelized : and that the fourth and last generation,
consisting of apostles and teachers of the preaching of
the Son of God, is expressly said to have gone down
to the underworld after death and preached to the
preceding generations (16. 5). Each of the four so-
called generations therefore had a Gospel preached to
it, the generations being artificially reckoned so as to
make the revelations to them correspond in number to
the Canonical Gospels. The last revelation is curiously
the actual Gospel delivered to the apostles, which

l2 HERMAS AND
includes the four Gospels. What Hermas hints at by
his figures of the bench and the foundation of the
tower is put into words by Irenaeus in his great work,
the Five Books against Heresies.
The numbers of the stones in the four rows are lo,
25, 35 and 40 respectively (4. 3), of which the decades
are expressed in Greek by the initials of John, Cephas,
Luke and Matthew. S. Peter was the traditional
authority for S. Mark's Gospel. Two fives remain,
according to the best text, and a meaning might be
suggested for these also ; but we must pass on to
the sayings of Irenaeus.
2. S. Irenaeus of Lyons.
The famous sayings of S. Irenaeus on the number
oT the Gospels gave a meaning to the figure of the
bench in Vis. iii. 13 of Hermas as soon as it was seen
that the Gospel was the subject of the passage. Then
the thought occurred to me. Did Irenaeus borrow
the idea of his sayings wholly or in part from
Hermas ? It was possible, for Hermas wrote a
generation before him. Was it not only possible but
probable ? Eusebius gives the answer, in a passage
quoted by Bp Lightfoot at p. 45 of his volume above
mentioned. Eusebius is speaking of Irenaeus as

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 1 3
a witness to the New Testament. First he gives
his testimony to the Gospels : he goes on to the
Apocalypse : afterwards he says, And he has made
mention too of the First Epistle of John, adducing
very many testimonies out of it, and likewise also of
the First Epistle of Peter. And he not only knows,
but even receives the writing of the Shepherd, saying,
Well then spake the Scripture zvhich says, First of all
believe that God is one, even He that created all things.
Thus we learn that Irenaeus received the Shepherd
and quoted its first commandment as Scripture, which
implies a very high degree of respect for the work.
It was likely then or not unlikely that he would
reproduce the ideas of Hermas on the Gospels, if they
were sufficiently remarkable ; and that they certainly
were, if we are right in our interpretation of the
hieroglyphs by which we have supposed the Shepherd
to allude to the number of the Gospels.
In Iren. iii. 11. 11 — 12 (ed. Harvey) we read,
that there are not more than four Gospels, nor could
there be fewer. For since there are four regions of
the world, and four catholic winds, it was natural that
the Church, which is spread over the whole earth, and
has the Gospel for its pillar and stay and breath of
life, should have four pillars, blowing incorruption

14 HERMAS AND
from all quarters and rekindling mankind. The Word,
the artificer of all things, that sits upon the Cherubim
and holds the universe together, when He was mani
fested to men gave us the Gospel in four forms but
held together by one Spirit. For the Cherubim are
fourfaced (Ezek. i. 6) and their faces are emblems of
the working of the Son of God. For the living
creatures have respectively the aspects of lion, calf,
man, eagle. And the Gospels are consonant with
these, upon which Christ sits. The Gospels of S. John,
S. Luke, S. Matthew and S. Mark are then made to
correspond to the living creatures in the above order,
being characterised from their beginnings as (so to
say) the divine, priestly, human and spiritual Gospels
respectively. Correspondingly, continues Irenaeus,
the Word conversed with the patriarchs as Divine:
gave priestly ordinances to those under the Law :
afterwards was made Man : and sent forth the gift of
the Spirit to all the earth. This sending forth corre
sponds to S. Mark's, Go ye into all the world. ..And
they went forth and preached everywhere. As was the
working of the Son of God, which was quadriform,
such was the form of the living creatures, and such
the character of the Gospel. And on this account
there were four catholic covenants given to humanity ;

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 1 5
through Adam, Noah, Moses and our Lord Jesus
Christ, according to the Latin version, or through
Noah, Abraham, Moses and Christ, according to the
Greek text of Irenaeus. The Gospels in some order
correspond to these, the last in order corresponding
to the actual Gospel covenant.
Hence they are idle and unlearned, nay and au
dacious, that deform the Gospel by wrongly admitting
more or fewer than four faces of it. The Gospels of
the Apostles only are true and firm, and it is impossible
that there should be more or fewer than these, as we
have shewn at such length. For when God has made
all things compounded and fitted together, the form of
the Gospel too must needs have been well compounded
and compacted. This argument evidently assumes that
the world is compacted of four elements*.
The phrase "Gospels of the Apostles" illustrates
Justin Martyr's Memoirs of the Apostles, and it is
explained by the traditional ascription of the Four
Gospels to the Apostles Matthew, Peter, Paul and
John respectively. It remains to compare the series of
sayings quoted from Irenaeus with the corresponding
representations of Hermas.
* Ata reo'aapav aroix^'iav Kpareirai { Vis. iii. 13): Tatian made a Gospel
compounded of the Four Gospels, and called it the Diatessaron.

1 6 HERMAS AND
Hermas in Vis. iii. depicts the Church as seated
on a bench with four feet, which represent the Four
Gospels ; and in Sim. ix. i. i the Shepherd explains to
him that the holy Spirit that had appeared to him in
the form of the Church was the Son of God. Irenaeus
says that the Son of God sits upon the four Cherubim,
or living creatures, and that these correspond to the
Four Gospels. Thus, briefly, both writers represent
Christ as seated on the Four Gospels. With the
Cherubim compare in Hermas the four young men who
carry off the bench to the tower.
Hermas in Vis. iii. argues that the Gospels, the
supports of the Church's seat, are four in number
because the world is compacted of four elements.
Irenaeus likewise concludes that the Gospel must have
had four constituents, in order to correspond to the
fabric of the universe, which was understood to be
made up of four elements.
Hermas in Sim. ix. hints at the Four Gospels by
the four rows in the foundation of the tower*: Irenaeus
* A study of the style of Hermas having led me to expect that his
four a-ToixfM would reappear somewhere in some disguise, the allusion to
them in the four orolp^ot seemed too obvious to be accidental. At first
the writer seemed to say that the a-rolxoi had no connexion with the
Gospels. But afterwards it was seen that he was merely giving their
interpretation in two instalments : first, they were the four cosmic
generations from the beginning (15.4): next, they had had the Gospel

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 1 7
makes the Gospels the four pillars of the Church.
Thus, briefly, both describe the Church as an edifice
supported by the Four Gospels; and at the same
time they liken them again implicitly to the four
elements, the Church being conceived of as spread
over, or able to contain the whole world.
The four rows in Hermas stand for cosmic genera
tions, each of which had received a Gospel message
corresponding to one of the Four Gospels. So, ac
cording to Irenaeus, the Logos revealed Himself to
all the four generations, and each of them received a
covenant, each revelation and covenant corresponding
to one of the Canonical Gospels. The last generation
in each case receives the actual Gospel, which com
prises the Four Gospels. The Church in Irenaeus
was the Gospel for its one pillar, and the Gospels for
its four pillars : analogous to this in Hermas are the
figures of the one bench with four feet and the one
foundation with its four rows or tiers, representing the
Gospel and the Gospels.
So many agreements of two writers in ideas so
extraordinary cannot be accidental. Their obvious
preached to them (i6. s), and it was this that qualified them to be four
rows in the foundation of the tower (4. 3), which was therefore (in a
sense) founded upon the fourfold Gospel.
T. H. 3

1 8 HERMAS AND
explanation is that Irenaeus borrowed more or less
from Hermas, whose work, as Eusebius tells us, he not
only knew but even received and quoted as Scripture.
If it should ever be proved that there was some source
from which the two may have drawn all that they had
to say independently, this must have been of not later
date than Hermas, and my case would not be impaired.
I maintain on the strength of the evidence adduced,
that the famous sayings of Irenaeus on the actual and
necessary fourfoldness of the Gospel were not his own,
but a reproduction of what Hermas had written a
generation before : that Hermas, in his enigmatic way,
represented the Four Gospels as having already ob
tained a unique and Canonical position : and that, in
any case, they had obtained this position in the life
time and to the knowledge of Hermas, who wrote, not
in any obscure corner of the world, but in its capital,
Rome. 3. Pythagoras and Philo.
The notion of Hermas and Irenaeus that the Four
Gospels correspond to the four elements of the world
implies that the Four Gospels were actually recog
nised by the Church when they wrote : that in the
nature of things, according to their view of it, there

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 1 9
could not have been more or fewer than Four Gospels :
and that the Gospel as a unit corresponds to the
world. This analysis makes it at once obvious that
the notion was a development and had a history, and
was not altogether and exclusively the product of one
mind or one age.
In Iren. in. ii. ii it was said that the Gospel
corresponds to the working of the Logos, who holds
all things together. That the Logos holds all things
together (Wisd. i. 7) was a well-known doctrine of
Philo, which was made use of even by New Testa
ment writers. See Col. i. 17, with the illustrations in
Bp Lightfoot's edition. From the Logos of Philo it
was easy and natural for a Christian writer to pass to
Christ, or the Church, or the Gospel ; and when this
had been brought into relation with the univense, it
was no less natural, as soon as the Four Gospels had
asserted their exclusive position, to compare them to
the four elements of the world, making out that its
constitution determined what must be the number of
the Gospels. An interesting variation on the idea of
Philo is found in chap. 6 of the Epistle to Diognetus,
which teaches that, as the soul is in the body, so are
Christians in the world. The soul is shut up in the
body, but itself holds it together : and Christians are

20 HERMAS AND

confined in the world as in prison, while it is they that
hold the world together. According to the Midrash,
Adam was created of cosmic dimensions, and his dust
was taken from all parts of the earth. The Sibylline
Oracles make his name an acrostic of the four points
of the compass, NWES.
But the thought of the necessary fourfoldness of
the Gospels was in part due to the Pythagoreans'
doctrine of numbers, and especially to their theory of
the tetractys or quaternion, the sum of the first four
numbers. Irenaeus, in the first paragraph of his first
Book, refers to the famous Pythagoric tetractys as the
reputed root of all things.
Philo speaks in this way of the simple tetrad or
number four, which he declares in De Op. Mundi i6
to have been the beginning or germ out of which all
heaven and the world were evolved.
Hermas lets us know that he was acquainted with
these speculations in cosmogony when he dwells upon
the squareness of his cosmic tower and the several
stones thereof. It was similimembrius (Iren. ii. 15. 3),
each part being like the whole. The rudimentary fact
that square-faced figures fit well together and fill up
space would have led the philosophers to imagine a
primeval tetrad of which the world was symmetrically

THE FOUR GOSPELS. 21
built up. Of kindred origin must have been the
expression in Aristotle's Eth. Nic. i. lo. ii for the
perfect character, "foursquare without reproach."
To conclude, as soon as it was recognised that the
" everlasting Gospel " was inherent in the system of
things, and that the true "Gospels of the Apostles"
were just four in number ; these would be made out to
be a manifestation of the mystic tetrad, and thus we
should have come by a natural process of thought, and
must sooner or later have come, to the at first sight
strange comparison, as in Irenaeus and Hermas, of
the Four Gospels to the Four Elements of the World.
The reasoning of both writers alike may fail to satisfy ;
but beneath their Argumentatio m.ere inepta lies the
solid fact, that the Church in their day was established
on the same Four Gospels on which it still stands.

II.

HERMAS

AND

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS,

HERMAS AND THE SYNOPTIC
GOSPELS.
The Shepherd of Hermas having been found to
allude to the Canonical Gospels as four in number, it
remains to shew that it makes free use of their subject
matter and phraseology, although it never cites them
expressly. But we shall first give some indication of
the peculiar method of Hermas by an example of its
application to the Old Testament followed by some
illustrations from one of his favourite authorities, the
Epistle of S. James.
In Sim. ix. we read, And he took me away to
Arcadia, unto a certain rounded mountain, and set me
on the top of the mountain ; and he shewed me a
great plain, and round about the plain twelve moun
tains (i. 4). And in the midst of the plain he shewed
me a great white rock rising up out of the plain : the
rock was higher than the mountains, foursquare, so
that it could contain the whole world (2. i). On the
T. H. 4

2 6 HERMAS AND
rock, above a gate hewn out of it, a tower is built of
stones brought from all the mountains (4. 2, 5), in the
last days (12. 3). The tower is the Church (13. i).
The rock on which it is built is therefore the mountain
of the Lord's house ; and its being higher than the
mountains alludes to the saying of Micah 4. i and
Isaiah 2. 2, And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be estab
lished in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills ; and all nations shall flow into it. The
twelve mountains, from which stones are brought for
the building of the tower, represent all the nations of
the world. This is a good example of allusion to a
writing by or with the help of symbols, a method
which Hermas applies with characteristic ingenuity in
all parts of his work. We shall next give a few ex
amples out of many of the use which he makes of the
Epistle of S. James.
S. James i. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the
sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not
that man think that he shall receive anything of the
Lord. 8 A doubleminded man is unstable in all his
ways. 'w.Z Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ; and purify
your hearts, ye doubleminded.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 2 7
The word doubleminded and words related to it are
much used by Hermas, and sometimes in contexts
which point distinctly to S. James. Thus in Mand.
ix. we read. For every doubleminded man, except he
repent, shall hardly be saved : cleanse therefore thy
heart from doublemindedness ; and put on faith, for it is
strong ; and believe in God, that thou shalt receive all
the things that thou askest (6 — 7). The epithet un
stable or "unruly" (Jas. 3. 8) is attached to the demon
of evil speaking (Jas. 4. 11) in Mand. ii. 3 : in Mand.
v. Hermas writes. And thenceforth, being filled with
the evil spirits, he is-unstable in all his action, being
drawn about hither and thither by the evil spirits
(2. 7), these taking the place of the wind or winds in
Jas. 1.6: and in Sim. vi. he adds. For many who are
-unstable in their plans project many things, and
nothing succeeds at all with them ; and they say that
they are not helped-on-the-wajj/ in their actions, and...
they blame the Lord (3. 5), as it is said in Jas. i. 13,
" I am tempted of God."
S. James i. 27 Pu,re religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and
widows in their aflliction, and to keep himself unspotted
from the world.
Traces of this verse are found in Mand. ii. 7, And

28 Hermas and
thy heart pure and undefiled : Vis. iii. 9. 2, And visit
one another, and help one another : Mand. viii. 10, To
minister to widows, to visit orphans and those in want :
Sim. i. 8, Visit widows and orphans, and overlook
them not : Vis. iv. 3. 4, The gold part (on the head of
the dragon) are ye that have escaped this world... '^
[from which] they shall be unspotted and pure that are
elect of God unto eternal life : Sim. v. 6. 7, For all
flesh found undefiled and unspotted, in which the Holy
Spirit dwelt, shall receive a reward. 7. i...thy flesh
pure and undefiled: Sim. ix. 26. 2, The stones that
have the spots are dishonest deacons, who embezzled
the livelihood of widows and orphans, and made gain
of their ministry. Thus the verse is taken to pieces,
and its parts are scattered all over the Shepherd.
S. James iv. 7 Resist the devil, and he will fiee from
you. 8 Cleanse your hands, ye sinners &c. 9 Be
afflicted, and mourn, and weep : let your laughter be
turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
The use of verse 7 is very evident in Mand. xii.,
and attention is called to this by commentators. We
have already shewn traces of verse 8 in the Shepherd ;
and the Church addresses Hermas in terms of verse 9
in Vis. i. 2. 2 sq., " Hermas, hail : and I, sorrowing
and weeping, said. Lady, hail : and she said to me, Why

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 29
art thou sullen, Hermas, the longsuffering and easy
tempered, that wast always laughing? Why thus
heavy (/cariyc^T^'s) of aspect, and not joyous ? " This
well illustrates the light touch with which the author of
the Shepherd \vs.n^Q.% his materials. As he deals with
the Epistle of S. James and with the Old Testament,
so he deals with other writings * ; and among them, as
it seems, the Four Gospels, with which we shall en
deavour to shew that he was well acquainted, be
ginning with the Synoptic Gospels.
I . The Nativity.
Of the stones approved for the building of the
tower some were shaped naturally and had no need to
be hewn. Irenaeus suggests a meaning for this, which
is found to fit in with the representations of Hermas.
In Iren. iii. 27 the prophet Daniel's stone cut out with
out hands is said to have prefigured Christ as to be
* A comparison of the Shepherd with the Teaching in the Journal
of Philology led me to write thus of Hermas (xvili. 334) : Of greater
importance than t/ie proof that Hermas knew the Didache is the discovery
of his way of using his authorities. He allegorises, he disintegrates, he
amalgamates. He plays upon the sense or varies the form of a saying,
he repeats its words in fresh combinations or replaces them by synotiyms,
but he will not cite a passage simply and in its entirety. This must be
taken into account in estimating the value of the Shepherd as a witness to
the canonical Books of the New Testament.

30 HERMAS AND
born of a virgin. He was to come into the world as
a stone from the earth by an act of God, without
operation of the hands of the men that hew stones.
Accordingly Isaiah wrote, " Therefore thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, T lay in Zion for a foundation a
stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone." For His
advent was to be not of the will of man, but of the will
of God (J oh. I. 13). Irenaeus (in. 30) compares the
framing of Adam by the hand of God, of unwrought or
virgin earth. Hermas distinguishes between hewn
and unhewn stones in both of his accounts of the
building of the tower. Hewn stone might not be used
for an altar of God (Ex. 20. 25).
In Vis. iii. the unhewn stones, which go of them
selves into the building, signify those whom the Lord
approved because they walked in the straightness of the
Lord and directed themselves by His commandments
(5. 3). S. Clement of Alexandria in Paed. i. 9 says
that the iota of the name lesus represents the straight
and natural way ; having in mind doubtless the familiar
representation of the two ways by the letter Y, which
was attributed to Pythagoras. Such play upon the
forms of the letters would have been well understood
in the days of Hermas, so that an allusion to lesus in
the words " walked in the straightness of the Lord "

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 3 1
would have occasioned no difficulty. If such allusion
there be, Hermas means the unhewn stones collectively
to signify Christ, whom Irenaeus saw prefigured in
Daniel by the stone cut out without hands. S.
Clement near the end of Strom, vi. i6 further teaches
that the Decalogue points to lesus as the Word, the
letter iota being the Greek figure for Ten.
In Sim. ix. ten square, bright, unhewn stones come
up first from the deep, and twelve virgins together
bear them stone by stone, and deliver them to the
builders (3. 4). The virgins encircle the gate (4. i),
which is the Son of God incarnate (12. 3). The tower
is built upon the rock, which is the Son of God,
regarded as preexistent (12. 2): the ten stones com
pletely cover the rock, and they make a foundation
for the tower (4. 2) : thus they represent the Son of
God, who is Himself the foundation (14. 6), and we
may suppose their number to refer again to the name
lesus. The stones brought from the twelve mountains
are hewn by the men — " the men that hew stones "
(Iren.), before they are carried through the gate by
the virgins (4. 5) ; but the four rows of foundation
stones, which come up from the deep (4. 3), are fitted
and built into the tower unhewn, as being endued with
singular native purity (16. 7). Thus the whole foun-

32 HERMAS AND
dation, Christ, is of unhewn stone ; so that in ac
cordance with the symbolism of Iren. in. 27, He is
immaculate and born of a virgin. We shall see that
the twelve virgins represent the Holy Ghost.

2. John the Baptist.
The features of the Baptist may be traced in the
Shepherd, the angel of repentance (Sim. ix. i), and in
his double the Shepherd, the angel of retribution {Sim.
vi. 3). The title of the former, who is sent to dwell
with Hermas (Vis. v.), is suggested by S. Mark i. 2, 4,
" Behold, T send my angel. ..Vto be a preacher] of re
pentance." The Baptist wore a girdle of a skin, and
did eat locusts and wild honey : men were in doubt
who he was, and said, "Who art thou?" (J oh. i. 19),
and so Hermas says to the angel of repentance in Vis.
V. 3, Who art thou ? The severity of the angel of
retribution answers to the preaching of the Baptist in
Matt. 3. 7 sq., "O generation of vipers... bring forth
fruit worthy of repentance. ..God. is able of these stones
to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also
the ax is laid unto the root of the trees : therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down, and cast into the fire." With this compare also

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 33
in Sim. viii.. For the Lord, being moved with com
passion, sent me to give repentance to all, although
some were not worthy on account of their deeds ( ii .
i). The worthy are those whose rods, cut from the
great willow, are given back green and flourishing :
their rods bring forth fruit which marks them as
worthy of repentance. The building of the tower is a
sustained illustration of the words, God is able of these
stones &c. In Sim. iv. 4 the dry trees are cast into
the fire. The two angels are clad in skins of the goat,
corresponding to the Baptist's girdle of skin. Is there
any sort of trace of the preacher's diet of locusts and
wild honey in the Shepherd ?
Before pronouncing that there is not, we must
notice that Hermas has a way of going off at a word,
and using it without too strict regard to the context
from which he borrowed it. Thus, whereas in chap.
1 3 of the Teaching, it is said, " When thou openest a
jar of wine or oil, take the firstfruits and give to the
prophets ; " Hermas, who has more to say against the
false prophets than in favour of the true, takes occasion
to make a parable of an empty jar packed away with
jars of wine or oil, and to compare the false prophet to
the empty jar {Mand. xi. 15). In Mand. v. he has a
parable of a jar of honey made bitter by a little worm-
T. H. 5

34 HERMAS AND
wood (i. 5), which may or may not have been sug
gested by the Baptist's " wild honey." The epithet of
this honey is transferred to the angel of retribution,
who is said in Sim. vi. to be as it were wild of aspect
(2. 5), and bitter to the sheep (3. 2) ; and the locusts
in the Gospel might easily have been transformed by
two steps into the "fiery locusts" coming out of the
mouth of the dragon in Vis. iv. i. 6. These indeed
may have been suggested by Rev. 9. 3 sq. ; but if
there had been no second mention of locusts in the
New Testament, Hermas would have found material
for a parable in S. John the Baptist's locust-food as he
does in other kinds of food.
According to S. Luke 3. 21 — 22, Jesus being
baptized by John, "and praying, the heaven was
opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily
shape." In Vis. i. i. 4, Hermas "praying, the heaven
was opened;" and in Vis. iii. and Sim. ix., as we shall
see, the Spirit is represented in the bodily shape of
seven women and twelve virgins respectively. The
title "beloved son" (Luke 3. 22) is used in Sim. v. of
the son of the owner of the field (2. 6), and it is said
of him the son is the Holy Spirit (5. 2).

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 35
3. The Temptation.
Matt. 4. I — II. Jesus was led up of the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He
fasts forty days, and the tempter comes to Him and
says. If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. He replies, Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God. A mysterious episode is described
in Sim. ix. 11, the full interpretation of which cannot be
entered upon here. Hermas and the twelve virgins
keep vigil by the tower, in preparation for a great
revelation. They pray without ceasing, and in the
morning the Shepherd comes and asks Hermas, On
what didst thou sup ? / supped, Sir, said he, on words
of the Lord all the night. This fast, during which
he was fed on words of the Lord, must have been
suggested by the Gospel narrative of the Temptation.
Next, the devil takes Jesus to the holy city, sets
Him on the pinnacle of the temple and says. If thou be
the Son of God, cast thyself down : for it is written,
He shall give His angels charge concerning thee : and
in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest haply thou
dash thy foot against a stone. Accordingly in Vis.
i. 4 two so-called men "bear up" the Church, which

36 HERMAS AND
adumbrates Christ, in their arms, and carry her off;
and in Vis. iii. 10 the six young men carry her away
to the tower. These men correspond also to the
ministering angels of Matt. 4. 1 1. Temptation by the
devil is spoken of in the Shepherd in Mand. xii. 5 and
elsewhere. He prevails against the "empty;" but
against the " full in the faith " he has no power, or
gains but transient successes (Sim,, ix. 31).
Lastly, the devil taketh Him unto an exceeding
high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of
the world, and the glory of thefn. The physical im
possibility of seeing all the kingdoms of the world
from one spot has led to much speculation about this
verse. The idea of it being so striking, Hermas
would naturally have brought it into his allegory if
he saw his way to do so. Now in Sim., ix. i (p. 25)
the Shepherd takes Hermas to an Arcadian mountain
top, and shews him a great plain surrounded by twelve
mountains, which represent all the nations of the
world. Thus, with his usual ingenuity, the writer
brings in a clear though unobtrusive allusion to the
scene of the third and last temptation, according to
S. Matthew's reckoning.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 37
4. The Transfiguration.
In Sim. ix. it is said of the gate cut out of the
rock. The gate so glistered (ea-TLXfiev) above the sun
that I marvelled at the brightness of the gate (2. 2).
The gate meaning the Son of God, and the word
for glister being found once only in the New Testa
ment, namely in S. Mark's account of the Trans
figuration, we may infer that Hermas borrowed the
word from Mark 9. 3, "-And his garments became
glistering (R. V.), exceeding white ; so as no fuller
on earth can whiten them."
5. The keys of the kingdom of heaven.
It is said in Matt. 16. 18 — 19, " Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven"
The famous controversy on the meaning of the rock in
verse 18 is of long standing. Hermas in Sim. ix.
settles it for himself by making Christ the rock on
which the tower or Church is built. The twelve
virgins are the appointed guardians of the tower, and
are ordered not to depart from it (5. i). They stand

38 HERMAS AND
round the gate (3. 2), and it is their function to carry
all the stones for the building of the tower through the
gate and deliver them to the builders, and any stones
put into the building by the mien, and not carried
through the gate by the hands of the virgins are
unable to change their colours and become fit for inser
tion in the tower (4. 6—8). The power of the keys
therefore is in the hands of the virgins. What then
do they represent ? Assuming without proof for the
present that they represent the Holy Spirit, we see at
once from their number that they are the Holy Spirit
as distributed to the Twelve Apostles. To these, in a
sense, or strictly speaking to the Holy Spirit dwelling
in them, Hermas represents the " keys of the kingdom
of heaven " as given. They have the power to open
and shut, and none can be admitted into the tower
without having been passed by them through the gate.
The change of the various colours of the stones ap
proved, namely to white, is explained by Isaiah 1.18,
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as
snow ; though they be red like cnmson, they shall be as
wool. Those not brought through the gate by the
virgins cannot obtain remission of sins, for it is said
in the Fourth Gospel, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 39
them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re
tained " (20. 22 — 24). This passage is referred to in
Sim. ix. 25, where the apostles and teachers of the
Gospel are said to have received the Holy Ghost.
6. The Sower and other Parables.
In chap. 9 of the Teaching is the striking Eu-
charistic prayer, "As this broken bread was once
scattered in grains upon the mountains, and being
gathered together became one ; so let thy Church be
gathered together from the ends of the earth unto thy
kingdom. For thine is the glory and the power
through Jesus Christ for ever." The idea of this
is found in Sim. ix. of Hermas, but for bread he gives
us a stone. Stones scattered upon the twelve moun
tains, which represent all the nations of the world,
are brought together for the building of the tower ;
and this when it is finished shews no join, but looks
like a single stone cut out of the rock, so completely
do its many once scattered stones become one (9. 7).
He deals in like manner with the parable of the
Sower, replacing seeds again by stones.
In the Gospel parable there are three cases of
failure and three degrees of success, the seed which

40 HERMAS AND
falls on the good ground bringing forth thirty, sixty or
a hundred-fold. In Vis. iii. 2. 9 some of the rejected
stones, being thrown to a distance from the tower, fall
on to the way, but roll aside to where there is no way,
thus corresponding to the seeds which fell by the way
side: other stones fall into the fire and are burned,
corresponding to the seeds which, when the sun was
up, wej^e scorched: other stones fall near the waters
and desire to roll into them, but are not able, thus
corresponding to that which withered away because it
lacked moisture*- It is a feature of the parable of the
Sower that an explanation of it is given, not without
some censure of the disciples who require it. So the
Church explains the parable of the stones to Hermas,
at the same time reproving him for his curiosity in
desiring to know all about the tower (3. i). In the
course of her exposition we come upon extracts from
the Sower, such as These are they that heard the word
(7. 3), and " when affliction ariseth, on account of their
wealth and their affairs they utterly deny their Lord "
(6. 5). The three cases of success in the Gospel
parable have their counterparts in the three kinds
* Here the seed which fell upon stony ground is referred to twice,
and that whicli fell among thorns is passed over. But this is referred
to (as we shall see) in Sim. ix. 20.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 4 1
of Stones approved for the building of the tower ;
whereof the choicest are the foundation stones, and
the remainder are distinguished in Sim. ix. as facing-
stones and smaller stones which, like rubble, have to
be placed on the inside (7. 5).
In Sim. ix. it is written. And from the third moun
tain, that had thorns and thistles, they that believed
are such as these : some are wealthy, and some en
tangled in much business. The thistles are the rich,
and the thorns they that are entangled in manifold
business. These cleave not to the servants of God,
but go astray and are choked by their transactions.
And the rich hardly (Sucr/coXws) cleave unto the
servants of God, fearing lest they should be asked for
something by them. Such therefore shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of God (20. i — 2). The symbolism
of the thorns and the being choked by the cares of
business come from the parable of the Sower (Matt.
13. 22). The saying that the rich shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of God points to a different context in
the Gospels, where it is connected with the command
to sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and with the
saying. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of God (Matt. 19. 24). We may say then that
T. H. 6

42 HERMAS AND
Hermas must have had his attention drawn to this,
and that, the saying being so remarkable, he was
likely to have made such use as he could of it. Now
in Vis. iii. many stones lie round about the tower and
not far from it, like the scribe who was not far from
the kingdom of God. Some of them are round, humped
stones which will not fit into their square places in the
building (2. 8). Hermas asks what this signifies.
How long will he be without understanding ? The
fine, round stones are they that have faith, but also
worldly wealth, which, when affliction ariseth, leads
men to deny their Lord. When will they be of use
for the building ? When their seductive wealth has
been hewn away. For as the round stone, except
some of its substance be^ cut off, cannot become
square ; so the rich in this world, except their wealth
be cut away, cannot become fit for the Lord's use
(6. 5 — 6). When they have been squared, they will
fit into their places in the building ; but how shall the
condition of giving to the poor be satisfied ? Sim. ix.
explains this. The Lord orders their riches to be cut
down, but not to be all taken away ; so that they may
be able to do some good with the residue and live unto
God, seeing that they are of a goodly sort. There
fore they are cut round about a little and fitted into

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 4;^
the tower (30. 5). They were hard to cut (6. 8), but
the Lord of the tower so valued them [Mark 10. 21]
that he would have some of them used (9. 4).
A few verses earlier in the Gospel is the saying.
Suffer the little children to come unto nte, and forbid
them not : for of such is the kingdom of God. To
this add the repeated saying that the last shall be
first, and the words from the parable of the Vineyard,
"beginning from the last unto the first" (Matt. 20. 8).
Now in describing the twelve mountains in Sim. ix.
19 — 29, Hermas begins with the last in order of merit
and ends with the first: "From the first mountain, the
black one, they that believed are such as these :
apostates and blasphemers against the Lord and be
trayers of the servants of God... And from the twelfth
mountain, the white one, they that believed are such
as these : they are as babes into whose heart no guile
entereth...As many of you, saith he, as shall continue
and be as babes, not having guile, shall be more
glorious than all the aforesaid. For all babes are
glorious before God and first in His sight. Blessed
then are ye, as many as put away wickedness from
you and put on guilelessness : as first of all ye shall
live unto God." Ye, the last, shall be first.
The parable of the Tares also is interpreted in

44 HERMAS AND
the Gospel, and it is said. The field is the world : so
Hermas explains his parable of a Vineyard in Sim. v.,
and says. The field is this world (5. 2). Angels play
a part in both parables. In the parable of Hermas it
will be seen that expressions from several Gospel
parables come in incidentally. In the parable of the
Tares the wicked and the good look alike, and are
only separated at the end of the world. Hermas
changes tares to trees, as he changed seeds to stones,
and gives us his own short parable in Sim. iii. of many
trees not having leaves, which seem all alike dead in
the winter of this world. Sim. iv. again is a parable
of trees, some sprouting and some dry : the righteous
shall dwell in the world to come, but the wicked shall
be burned as logs, as it is said, bind the tares in
bundles to burn them (Matt. 13. 30).
It would be in the manner of Hermas to turn the
Mustard Seed into a hailstone. We may think there
fore that his very small granule of hail in Mand. xi. 20
hints at that least of all seeds. Irenaeus in Fragm. 29
(quoted by Zahn) seems to connect Sim. viii., on the
great willow overshadowing plains and mountains,
with the mustard seed, and thus to suggest that
Hermas was thinking of it again in his similitude.
Those who give up their rods dry, but having a very

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 45
little green (lo. 3), are those who have faith as a
grain of mustard seed, and repent and work right
eousness. The reader of the Shepherd will easily find
traces of other Gospel parables therein.
7. Miracles and Signs.
Most of the Gospel miracles were wrought upon
the persons of men, the remainder being signs of
lordship over the material world. The latter will be
touched upon in the next section, on Hermas and the
Fourth Gospel. Under the former head come miracles
of healing, which the Shepherd, in the sections on the
tower, converts into the shaping of stones rejected by
the builders. Many such stones are seen in Vis. iii.
lying about the tower, seamed, stunted, or otherwise
unfit for use (2. 8); like the "great multitude of impo
tent folk, of blind, halt, withered," who lay about the
pool of Bethesda, waiting to step or be cast into the
water when it was troubled (Joh. 5. 7). In Sim. ix.
the stones lying by the tower are given over to the
Shepherd to cleanse, and he says that he will hew
most of them, -axAcast them into. the building (7. i — 4).
Although cleansing, which goes with hewing (8. 4),
applies to all the stones, it suggests in particular the

46 HERMAS AND
cleansing of lepers, who are graphically symbolised by
the stones with a scab or scurf (e\/»co/jta«roTes). " These
are they that denied and returned not unto their Lord,
but became barren and desolate : they that cleave not
to the servants of God, but keep apart and destroy
their own souls " (26. 3). This is explained by the
customary isolation of lepers and the spiritual death
typified by their disease. Lastly, as it is said in the
Gospels that some afflicted persons could not be healed,
and that miracles in certain cases could not be wrought
on account of men's hardness of heart and unbelief; so
it is said in Sim. ix. that some of the stones were so
hard that they could not be hewn (8. 6).
Akin to miracles of healing is the casting out of
devils. The idea of possession by evil spirits runs
through Mand. v. Men of little faith cannot cast out
devils (Matt. 17. 20); but they that have much faith
withstand the devil, and he departs from them, finding
no entrance (Mand. xii. 5). Hermas personifies evil
speaking and the like, and selfwill, as demons, in
Mand. ii. 3 and Sim. ix. 22—23. He makes double
mindedness a daughter of the devil {Mand. ix. 9),
grief and sharp temper her sisters (x. i. i), and evil
desire a daughter of the devil (xii. 2. 2) ; somewhat as
in the Gospel persons whose works are evil are called

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 47
children of the devil. We need not now attempt to
disentangle the writer's doctrine of demoniacal pos
session from its allegorical accessories : it is enough
to see that he writes as such a writer might have
written with the Gospels as his point of departure.
A conspicuous word in these is Swajnis, in the sense
both of divine pozver and of its manifestation by
miracles or " mighty works." Hermas takes it up
and uses it frequently : he calls one of his twelve
virgins Power ; and in Mandates vii. ix. xi. xii. he
insists upon the lack of power in the devil and all
that is earthly, and upon the power of faith and of the
Holy Spirit, as coming " from above."
Of signs, the Shepherd seems to glance at the sign
of the prophet Jonah, when in Vis. iv. i it compares
the great beast which Hermas encounters to a /C17TOS*
(Matt. 12. 40), that is a "whale" or sea-monster (R. V.
marg.). The comparison does not of itself help us
much to determine the creature's form, since in a
figurative work any sort of monster might be regarded
as coming up out of the sea (Rev. 13. i) ; but it does
point, and may have been intended merely to point,
* The most effective word to describe the beast is dr(igon, which is
an alternative to k^tos in the Greek of Gen. i. 21. The beast seems to
be of a composite order, as we shall indicate in a subsequent section.

48 HERMAS AND
to the one place in the New Testament where the
word "whale" occurs, and thus to the sign of Jonah.

8. The cleansing of the Tower.
In Sim. ix. 6 — 7 a great array of men are seen to
approach, and among them one of such lofty stature
as to overtop the tower. He scrutinises every stone
of it, and strikes each with a rod three times. Some
thereupon become black as "a coal" (Lam. 4. 8), and
others are found faulty in one way or other. All these
are cast out and laid by the side of the tower, and
other stones are put in their place. The stones which
had been laid aside are then ordered to be cleansed
carefully: those which will fit in are replaced in the
building: and the rest are cast far away from the
tower. Searching the Gospels for parallels to the
approach of the colossal man in his glory, to test
and discriminate between the stones that had been
placed in the walls of the tower, we notice in Matt.
25. 31 sq., When the Son of man shall come in his
glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory : And before him shall
be gathered all nations : and he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 49
goats (2fc. This accounts for the attendant array of
"men" or angels in the similitude. The process of
testing may be described after the manner of the
Baptist, with stones again for seeds, and with a phrase
borrowed from Sim. ix. 30. 3, in the words. His rod
IS in his hand, and he throughly purges his tower : the
charring of worthless stones at the touch of the rod
represents the burning of the chaff in Matt. 3. 12. A
further question might be asked. Are the Gospel narra
tives of the cleansing of the temple also hinted at by
the cleansing of the tower }
9. The Cross.
It is a commonplace in patristic literature that the
Crucifixion was prefigured by Isaiah 65. 2, " I have
spread oitt v^y hands all the day unto a rebellious
people;" and by the holding up of the hands of Moses
by Aaron and Hur, whereby Jesus (Acts 7. 45) was
enabled to discomfit Amalek at Rephidim (Ex. 17. 12).
The Teaching, in its last chapter, enumerates three
signs of the truth, the first the sign of an outspreading
(iKniraa-ii) in heaven. The meaning of this is dis
puted ; but it seems to denote a spreading out as of
bright clouds (Job 36. 29) in heaven, so as to form a
cross. Interpreting the sign thus, I assumed that traces
T. H. 7

50 HERMAS AND
of it were to be found in Hermas; feeling that, what
ever else might have led him to denote cruciform
extension by mere extension not so defined, the fact
that this " sign " was in the Teaching was good ground
for the surmise that it was not absent from the Shep
herd. And first I found a trace of it in Vis. iv., which
will be commented upon under the head of Hermas
and the Fourth Gospel. Next I noticed in Sim. ix..
And the virgins had spread out their hands, as if about
to receive something from the men (3. 2). Here was
the phrase which in Isaiah was understood to point to
the Crucifixion : in the Shepherd it clearly had a mystic
meaning, for it is said that such stones as were not
borne through the gate, the Son of God, by the hands
of the virgins, could not change their colours (4. 8):
and, the allusion in change of colours being obviously to
the remission of sins (p. 38), a reference to the Cross*
and the Atonement was seen to be appropriate and
necessary. Thus the context justified the interpreta
tion suggested by the Teaching.
In Vis. iii. 2 actual crosses are spoken of, and an
indirect allusion to the Crucifixion follows. But first

* Remission of sins through the Holy Ghost presupposes the Cruci
fixion, as in Joh. 20. 20 sq. Accordingly the virgins, who represent the
Holy Ghost, sign the stones with the sign of the Cross.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 5 I
there is a display of courtesy between the Church and
Hermas. She says to him. Sit thou here (Jas. 2. 3)
upon the bench, and she insists upon his being seated
while she stands, although he prays her to be seated
first. But when he assays to seat himself upon the
right hand, to his vexation she motions him to the left.
He had been unmindful of the Lord's saying, "Sit
not down in the highest room" (Luke 14. 8). The
right hand was for those who had won a certain
honour, as having suffered scourgings, imprisonments,
great afiflictions, crosses, wild beasts for the Name.
When therefore she at last seats herself upon the
right, she claims to have suffered crosses, as she has
indeed done in the person of all her members who
had undergone that form of martyrdom. But since
the Church is also a manifestation of the Son of God,
her session on the right hand implies in particular the
Crucifixion of Christ, and His consequent exaltation
to the right hand of God, according to S. Mark 16. 19,
and Heb. 12. 2 and other passages.
I o. The final tnission of the Apostles.
S, Matthew's Gospel ends thus (28. 18 — 20), "All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go

52 HERMAS AND
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you : and lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
Amen." In S. Mark i6. 15—16 the apostles are
commanded. Go ye into all the world, and preach the
Gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved. According to S. John 20. 22,
Jesus " breathed on them, and saith unto them, Re
ceive ye the Holy Ghost!' These three passages seem
to be referred to in Sim. ix. 25: "And from the
eighth mountain, where were the many springs, and
the whole creation of the Lord was watered by the
springs, they that believed are of this sort : apostles
and teachers who preached to all the world and who
taught reverendly and purely the word of the Lord,
and kept back nothing at all for evil desire, but always
walked in righteousness and truth, as they also re
ceived the Holy Ghost," With All power is given
unto me &c. (Matt. 28. 18), and with the saying, that
the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins,
(Matt. 9. 6), and other like passages, compare in
Mand. iv., And concerning his former sin, there is
one that can give healing ; for He it is that hath the

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 53
power over all things (i. ii). Unto me is given
the power over this repentance (3. 5).
The commission to preach to the whole creation
(Mark 16. 15), followed by the requirement of baptism,
suggests an explanation of one of the most singular
sections in the Shepherd, the account in Sim. ix. of
the apostles' preaching to and baptizing the men of
former ages from the beginning of the world. Why
did the foundation stones of the tower come up from
the deep, wearing the spirits of the virgins ? Because
they must needs have come up through water, that
they might be made alive. The stones of the fourth
row were the apostles and teachers who preached
the Son of God. These, having fallen asleep in the
power and faith of the Son of God, went down and
preached also to them that had fallen asleep aforetime
{irpoKeKoiiJ,r)fjievoL';) , and themselves gave them the seal
of the preaching (16. i — 5). Hermas goes on to
speak of the twelve mountains, representing the
nations of all the world, to which the Son of God
was preached (17. i). Observing the reference in
"preached to all the world," to S. Mark 16. 15, we
may from the same verse account for the preachers'
ministry in Hades as follows.
First there is a tacit allusion to the descent of

54 HERMAS AND
Christ to "the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12. 40),
or Sheol, which is typified by the belly of the fish in
Jonah 2. 2, and His preaching to the spirits in prison
(i Pet. 3. 19). After this S. Mark's form of the
Lord's last words is a sufficient hint to Hermas to
make the disciples do as He had done ; and so,
because they had to preach to the whole creation,
and did accordingly preach everywhere, he makes
them preach, not only upon earth, but in Sheol,
and not only to living men, but to all the bygone
generations from the beginning of the creation.
The notion of Hermas that Christ must have been
preached to the four ages of the world may have
suggested to Irenaeus (11. 33. 2) that He must have
lived long enough upon earth to sanctify the four ages
of man, by being an infant to infants, a child to
children, a youth to youth, an elder to elders ¦'^ We
find in Irenaeus the apocryphal citation, The holy
Lord remembered his dead who fell asleep aforetime
(iv. 55. 3), and descended to them to preach the Gospel
of his salvation, that he might save them (in. 22. i).
This was known to Justin Martyr (Tiypho 72), and

* This illustrates the principle that the Gospel as preached to the
four generations or ages of the world must have had " four faces,'' each
age desiderating a Gospel conformed to itself.

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 55
may have been known to Hermas. The very rare
compound fell-asleep-aforetime, which is not found in
Justin, may have been borrowed by Irenaeus {prae-
dormierunt) from Hermas.

1 1 . The baptismal formula.
The full baptismal formula (Matt. 28. 19) is not
found in the Shepherd, but a special search reveals
hidden traces of it therein. The short form from the
Acts of the Apostles occurs in Vis. iii.. These are
they that heard the word, and were willing to be
baptized into the name of the Lord (7. 3).
S. Luke 3. 22 suggests the representation of the
Spirit " in a bodily shape." The Hebrew for spirit
being feminine, the Spirit was sometimes represented
as a woman. Hermas goes a step further, and re
solves the one woman into seven women in Vis. iii.,
and into twelve virgins in Sim. ix. These by their
plurality represent the distributions of the Holy Ghost
(Heb. 2. 4) ; but their personalities are everywhere
inseparable, and their oneness* and their significance
are carefully indicated by the form of expression, " clad
in the Holy Spirit of these virgins" (24. 2).
* Those clad in these spirits become one spirit (13, 5).

56 HERMAS AND
The virgins then represent the Holy Ghost. Now
in Sim. ix. we read, that the tower is the Church, and
that no man can be found in the kingdom of God,
unless the virgins have clothed him with their gar
ment (Matt. 2 2. ii); for if thou receive the Name
only, and receive not the garment from these, it pro-
fiteth thee nothing. For these virgins are powers of
the Son of God. The names themselves are their
raiment. Whosoever wears the name of the Son of
God should wear their names also; for the Son himself
wears the names of these virgins (13. i — 3). To be
baptized into Christ is to put on Christ (Gal. 3. 27).
To be baptized into His name is to put it on and
wear it as a garment : " They that wear soft raiment
are in kings' houses" (Matt. 11. 8): "As we have
worn the image of the earthy, we shall also wear the
image of the heavenly" (i Cor. 15. 49). He who
would enter into the kingdom of heaven must be
baptized into the name of the Son and into the name
of the Holy Ghost ; or, as Hermas expresses it,
he must wear the name of the Son of God and the
names of the virgins. The Son himself wears their
names, for He was baptized, and the Spirit descended
upon Him. But the virgins are also powers of the
Son of God : that is to say, the Spirit proceeds from

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 57
the Son. The identification of the twelve virgins with
the Holy Ghost is confirmed by the way in which
It works out in the various contexts which make
mention of the virgins.

12. The ending of S. Maries Gospel.
The last twelve verses of the Gospel according to
S. Mark (i6. 9 — 20) have been said to be no integral
part of it; but to have been appended in more or
less primitive times to the original or what remained
of it, according as it was conjectured that the Evan
gelist's work was left unfinished, or that its last
section was soon lost. The question has been
debated at great length, and much learning has been
brought to bear upon it. Here it would be out of
place to do much more than seek for possible traces of
the disputed section in the Shepherd, which we accord
ingly proceed to do, giving the verses themselves as
rendered by the revisers of 1881.
9 — -I i] Now when he was risen early on the first
day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
from, whom he had cast out seven devils. She went
and told them that had been with him, as they mourned
T. H. 8

58 HERMAS AND
and wept. And they, when they heard that he was
alive, and had been seen of her, disbelieved.
12 — 13] And after these things he was manifested
in another form unto two of them, as they walked,
on their way into the country. And they went away
and told it unto the rest : neither believed they them.
The expression "manifested" is to be noticed, and the
manner and the occasion of the manifestation. Hermas,
as if imitating S. Mark, writes in Sim. ii. i. As I
walked into the countiy... the Shepherd is manifested
unto me, and saith &c. In Vis. i. r and again in Vis.
ii. I he is walking when the Spirit carries him away :
in Vis. iii. 1 he is summoned into the country that the
Church may appear to him : in Vis. iv. i he . is
walking... into the country when he encounters the
great beast. The idea of change of form is illus
trated by the different forms of the Church. In Vis.
v. 4 Hermas fails to recognise the Shepherd (Luke
24. 16), until his aspect is changed.
14] And afterward he was manifested unto the
eleven themselves as they sat at meat ; and he up
braided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart,
because they believed not them which had seen him.
after he was risen. A salient feature of the section is
its censure of unbelief (amo-ria), and its requirement

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 59
of faith for salvation (ver. i6). All this is found
in the Shepherd, where, not to speak of the repeated
denunciation of doublemindedness, one of the oppo-
sites of faith {Mand. xi.), there is an express contrast
of Faith and Unfaith {dincnia) ; the former in Sim. ix.
being the first of the twelve virgins, whose ways lead
to the house of God (14. i), and the latter the first
of the twelve women in black, who slay their votaries
(20. 4). Faith is also the first of the seven holy
women who bear up the tower in Vis. iii., and through
her the elect of God are saved (8. 3). The word
hardness of heart is found in Matt. 19. 8 and Mark 10.
5; and is used in Vis. iii. 7. 6, "they are not saved
because of their hardness of heart."
\^ — \(r\^ And he said unto them, Go ye into all the
world, and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but
he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. Here only do
we find the command to preach the Gospel to the
whole Creadon : in Col. i. 23 it is narrated that it was
so preached. S. Mark in two places has the phrase
from the beginning of the creation, and he alone of the
Evangelists has the words creation and create (10. 6 ;
13. 19), which are used so frequently by Hermas.
The building of the tower is an obvious allegory

6o HERMAS AND
of the preaching of the Gospel of Christ ; and if
this was to be preached to all the world, it was natural
(if not necessary) that the tower should be made able
to contain " the whole world." A stronger expression
is " the whole creation ; " and Hermas, as we have
seen, spiritualises the cosmogony, and identifies his
tower with the creation (p. 7). He does this as nearly
as may be in express terms, making the Church reply
to Hermas in Vis. iii., that the builders of the tower
were the first created holy angels, to whom the Lord
delivered His whole creation, to increase, and to
build, and to rule over the whole creation (4. i).
Thus the tower is built by the builders of the creation :
its building is the effectual preaching of Christ : and
therefore the command, Go ye and edify (i. 7), is the
command in S. Mark 16. 15 to preach the Gospel
to the whole creation : and the necessity of baptism
(ver, 16) is symbolised in Vis. iii, by the foundation
of the tower upon the waters (p, 7), We have seen
that these verses explain why the preachers preached
to the men of the past, as in Sim. ix, 1 6, and we have
found another allusion to them in Sim. ix, 25, where
the watering from the many springs is a symbol of
the baptism of "the whole creation of the Lord"
(p, 52). Add that in Sim. viii. the great willow

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 6 1
is the law of God given to the whole world, which
law is the Son of God preached to the ends of the
earth, and given into the heart of believers (3. 2 — 3) ;
and that the dry rods are baptized, in the hope that
most of them may come to life again (2. 9).
17 — ^18] And these signs shall follow them that
believe : in my name shall they cast out devils ; they
shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall in
no wise hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover. That true believers can work
wonders is a leading doctrine of the Shepherd. On
account of his faith (2. 4) Hermas is not harmed at
all by the beast in Vis. iv. He who believes is able
to cast off all wickedness {Mand. i.), and drive away
the devil (xii. 5. 4). Hermas, slightly varying the
word for deadly, speaks in Mand. xii. of deadly lusts,
daughters of the devil (2. 2 — 3) ; and in Sim. ix.
of deadly reptiles, living on the dry mountain, that
destroy men (i. 9). Poison, with him, is carried not
in boxes, but in the heart ( Vis. iii. 9) ; or means
harmful words {Sim. ix. 26). Sin is a sickness, which
will be healed if men believe {Mand. xii. 6. 2). Some
what in this way he would have used the above verses,
if he had known them and thought fit to use them.

62 HERMAS AND
19 — 20] So then the Lord Jesus, after he had
spoken unto them, was received up into heaven, and
sat down at the right hand of God. And they went
forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with
them, and confirming the word by the signs that
followed. Amen. To be received up is a word used
of the Ascension here, and in Acts i, and in i Tim. 3.
16 only in the New Testament. Rhoda in Vis. i.,
looking down from heaven, says / was received up &c.
(i. 5). When it is said in Vis. iii. that the Church
seated herself upon the right hand (2. 4), this is a
figurative rendering of the statement of S. Mark,
which is unique in the Gospels, that "the Lord
Jesus... sat down at the right hand of God." Seated
at the right hand upon the bench, the fourfold Gospel,
the Church raises a bright rod, and says, " Seest thou
a great thing," the building of the tower ? The idea
of the rod is from Ps. no, "Sit thou at my right
hand... The Lord shall send forth the rod of thy
strength." Thus in the Shepherd we see in a figure
the Lord's session at the right hand of God, ac
companied by a sign of the confirmation of the word ;
the universal preaching of which is symbolised by the
building of a world-wide tower, whose base goes down
to the roots of the creation. The waving of a wand is

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 63
the natural precursor of a "sign," for which "great
thing" is a synonym, as in Iren. in. 26. 2.
If we had known beforehand that Hermas knew
the last twelve verses of S. Mark, we should not have
expected him to use them more largely ; for, not to
speak of turns of expression which they may have
suggested to him, they underlie his parables of the
Great Willow and the Tower. The inference from
the Shepherd itself that he knew them is confirmed by
the comparison of other writings, as below.
In searching for signs of acquaintance with the
Gospels in early Church writers, we must make
allowance for their tendency to express the New
Testament in terms of the Old. Thus in Epist.
Barn. 1 1 we read, " Let us enquire whether the Lord
was minded to manifest beforehand concerning the
Water and the Cross. Concerning the water it is
written of Israel how that they would not receive the
baptism that brings remission of sins, but would build
for themselves. For the prophet saith (Jer. 2. 13)...
they abandoned me the spring of life, and they digged
for themselves a pit of death... And again he saith in
another prophet (Ps. i. 3 sq.), And he that doeth these
things shall be as the tree that is planted at the partings
of the waters (2fc." From the bare mention of the

64 HERMAS AND
Cross and Baptism we gather that Barnabas had
knowledge of some sort of written or oral Gospel ;
but he tells us little or nothing of its form, his one
anxiety being to make out that the substance of it
was manifested beforehand in the Prophets and the
Psalms. He finds the Water and the Cross again in
the river and the trees of Ezek. 47. i — 12, ending his
quotation with a seeming reminiscence of S. John
6. 51, And whosoever shall eat of them shall live
for ever. In like manner Irenaeus, who cites Mark
16. 19 as S. Mark's, interweaves allusions to the Old
and New Testaments as follows (ni. 11. 6), "Where
fore also Mark, the interpreter and follower of Peter,
begins his Gospel thus. The beginning of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the
prophets, Behold I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way. The voice of one crying in
the desert. Prepare ye the way of the Lord : make
straight paths before our God (Mark i. i sq.) ; mani
festly saying that the voices of the holy prophets were
the beginning of the Gospel, and pointing to Him
whom they confessed to be Lord and God as the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who also promised
to send him His angel before his face : which angel
was John, crying in the spirit and power of Elias

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 65
(Luke I. 17) in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of
the Lord, make straight paths before our God... Now
at the end of his Gospel Mark sayeth. So then the
Lord Jesus, after he had spoken unto them, was re
ceived up into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand
of God (Mark i6. 19), confirming what was said
[ver. 20] by the prophet (Ps. no. i). The Lord said
unto m.y Lord, Sit thou at m,y right hand, until I
make thy enemies thy footstool." Thus Irenaeus not
only quotes the received ending of S. Mark's Gospel,
but declares it to be entirely consonant with the
beginning. In another place (iv. 56. 3 — 4) he alludes
cursorily to the words. And they went forth and
preached everywhere (Mark 16. 20), thus: First he
quotes Isaiah 2. 3 — 4, For from Sion shall go forth a
law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, &c.
Then he continues, "Now if the law of liberty, that is
the word of God proclaimed to all the earth by the
Apostles, who went forth from Jerusalem, had such
effect as to change swords and spears into implements
of peace... so that men now know not how to fight,
but when smitten turn the other cheek (Matt. 5. 39) ;
the prophets spake these things not of some other
man (Acts 8. 34), but of our Lord who did these
things." Thus he says that the apostles, in pursuance
T. H, 9

66 HermAs and
of their charge to preach to all the world, went forth
from Jerusalem into all the earth ; quoting went forth
from S. Mark, and adding from Jerusalem, or Sion,
from the Old Testament.
Justin Martyr refers in like fashion to the last
verse of S. Mark, if not to other verses also of the
disputed twelve, writing in Apol. i. 45, " Now that
God the Father of all would take the Christ to heaven
after raising him from the dead, and keep him there
until He should have smitten the demons hostile to
him. ..hear the things said by David the prophet,
which are these : The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy
footstool. A rod of power shall the Lord send forth
for thee from Jerusalem... thus making proclamation
beforehand of the strong [Wisd. 18. 15] word, which
his apostles went forth from Jerusalem and preached
everywhere." They " went forth and preached every
where," he says, according to S. Mark ; the words
from Jerusalem being interpolated from the Old
Testament, as we have seen that they were by
Irenaeus. The expression "strong word" sufficiently
alludes to the Lord's confif^ming the word (ver. 20) ;
and the fact of the session at the right hand of
God (ver. 19) is expressed in terms of one of the

THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 67
Psalms of David. The Ascension is described as a
taking {dyayelv) to heaven, synonymously with S.
Mark's receive up ; and the mention of the subsequent
smiting of the hostile demons, as if predicted in the
Psalm quoted, is accounted for by S. Mark's signs that
followed (ver. 20), whereof one was. In my Name
shall they cast out devils (ver. 17). From Justin's
words in themselves and in relation to words of
Irenaeus we may infer that the earlier writer also was
familiar with the peroration of S. Mark ; and if Justin
knew it, it would probably have been known to
Hermas. That it was known to Hermas we have
inferred from the phenomena of his own work ; and
the case for his reference to it in Vis. iii. 2. 4 (p. 62),
partly in terms of the Old Testament, is strengthened
by the fact and the manner of Justin's allusion to it in
his first Apology, and especially by the correspondence
of his Messianic rod of dominion with the bright rod
waved by the Church, as she sits upon the bench and
shews the sign of the building of the tower.
In chapter 15 of the Apology of Aristides it is said
of the Lord Jesus Christ, The fame of whose advent
thou mayest know, O king, by reading their Evangelic
Holy Scripture, as they call it. He had twelve disciples,
who after his ascent to heaven went forth to the pro-

68 HERMAS AND THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS.
vinces of the inhabited {world), and taught his majesty.
Their written Gospel or Gospels must accordingly
have narrated that the Lord ascended to heaven ; that
He sat down at the right hand of God, sharing the
majesty on high (Heb. i. 3) ; and that the disciples
went forth and preached everywhere. These things
are all recorded in S. Mark 16. 9 — 20, and two of
them nowhere else in our Gospels. The same verses
account for the addition to Acts i. 2 in Codex Bezae,
And he commanded to preach the Gospel.
The Apology of Aristides is edited by Prof. J. R.
Harris and Mr J. A. Robinson in the first number of
the Cambridge Texts and Studies (1891). The above
citation from the Apology is from the Greek (p. 1 10),
and it corresponds to words of chapter 2 in the Syriac
(p. 36), and to the latter part of the little that is now
extant of the Armenian (p. 30 sq.).

III.

HERMAS

AND

THE FOURTH GOSPEL.

HERMAS AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
In this section the chapters of the Fourth Gospel
are taken in their order, and traces of them are sought
in the Shepherd of Hermas.
Chap. i. I In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. 3 ./4//
things were made by him; and without him was not
anything made that was made. 9 That was the true
Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. 1 2 But as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become children of God. 1 3 Which were
born, not of ...the will of man, but of God. 14. And the
Word was made fiesh, and dwelt among us. 33 Upon
whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and re
maining on him, the same is he. 34 And I saw, and
bare record that this is the Son of God. 5 1 Hereafter
ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God as
cending and descending upon the Son of man.

72 HERMAS AND
I, 3, 14] The prologue of the Fourth Gospel
enunciates the doctrine of the personal Logos or
Word, who existed in the beginning, and was God :
by whom all things were made : and who became flesh,
and dwelt or tabernacled {icriajvoDcrev) among us. It
might have been anticipated that the Christian teacher
would sometimes vary the abstruse terminology of the
doctrine, for the purpose of bringing it home to his
less instructed hearers. The Logos, he would have
said, means Christ : and then, working backwards
from the phrase " became flesh" he could scarcely
have avoided the antithesis, that He preexisted as
Spirit. Taking now, for example, the homily called
S. Clement of Rome's Second Epistle to the Corin
thians, we read in its prologue. Brethren, we ought
so to think of Jesus Christ as of God, corresponding
to "the Word was God;" and a little below, For
He graciously gave us the light; and in chap. 10,
Let us flee ungodliness, lest evils overtake us, where
there is perhaps a reminiscence of Joh. i. 5 (cf
12. 35.../^.$'^? darkness overtake you). Chap. 9 of the
homily runs thus. And let none of you say that this
flesh is not judged, nor riseth again. Know ye,
In what, but in this flesh, were ye saved ? in what
did ye recover sight ? We ought therefore to guard the

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 73
flesh as a temple of God. For like as ye were called
in the flesh, in the flesh ye shall also come. If Christ
the Lord, who saved us, being first SpiHt, became
fiesh, and so called us, so we also in this fiesh shall
receive the reward. Let us therefore love one another
&c. (i — 5). The Word, "being" from the beginning
as Spirit, became flesh. Singularly like Clem. Rom.
II. 9 is the passage in Sim. v. of Hermas, The pre
existent Holy Spirit, that created all the creation, did
Godm,ake to dwell in flesh which He chose... For the
way of this flesh was well pleasing, because it defiled
not itself upon earth, having the Holy Spirit. He
took counsel therefore with the Son and the glorious
angels, that this flesh also, having served the Spirit
blamelessly, might have some place of tabernacling
{Karaa-KTjvcocrecjs), and might not seem to have lost
the reward of its service. For all flesh found un
defiled and unspotted, wherein the Holy Spirit dwelt,
shall receive a reward (6. 5 — 7). Both writers seem
to start from the Logos doctrine, and each varies
its expression in his own way ; the one copies the
phrase became flesh, while the other alludes to the
complementary clause and tabernacled among us (and
at the same time to Ps. i6. 9 or Acts 2, 26) by means
of the rare substantive rendered "nest" in Matt, 8. 20:
T. H. 10

74 HERMAS AND
both pass from the flesh of Christ to flesh generally, in
which the Spirit has dwelt, and its reward : Hermas
adds words to the effect that by the preexistent Holy
Spirit "all things were made" (Joh. i. 3). The pas
sage from the homily seems to have further affinities
with the Fourth Gospel ; and its phrases come in the
flesh and let us love one another have the ring of the
Epistles of S. John. If the homilist drew from the
Johannine writings, this strengthens the case for the
dependence of the Shepherd upon them.
Hermas in Sim. ix. 12 uses the rock, which was
old, and the gate, which was new, as symbols of
Christ preexistent and Christ incarnate respectively.
How (asks Hermas) can both rock and gate represent
the Son of God, if the one is old and the other new }
Hermas is without understanding. The Son of God
was begotten before the whole creation, and became
the Father's counsellor in His creation : therefore,
as symbolised by the rock. He is old. And why was
the gate new ? Because in the last days of the
consummation He became manifest "in the flesh"
(i Tim. 3. 16). Therefore was the gate new, that
such as were to be saved might enter through it into
the kingdom of God (12. i — 3). A link between
Sim. ix. 12 and the Gospel doctrine of the Logos

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 75
is chap. 1 1 of the Epistle to Diognetus, which speaks
expressly of the Word as He which was from the
beginning (i Joh. i. i), who appeared as new and was
old. The writer of chapters ii^ — ^12, which do not
properly belong to the Epistle, but have been run
on to it by a clerical error, was probably acquainted
with the Shepherd of Hermas, with which he agrees
also in spiritualising the cosmogony, making them that
love God a Paradise of Delight. It is somewhat
strange to speak of Christ as new and old, in the
sense of the Epistle ; but it was natural in Hermas to
identify the Son of God figuratively with a thing new
and a thing old ; and the later writer may have
alluded briefly to this, transferring the epithets of
the symbols to the Person signified. Flis use of
these epithets, as descriptive of the Logos, confirms
the impression that the same connexion of thought
was in the mind of Hermas.
9] In the glistering of the gate we found a verbal
allusion to the Transfiguration as described by S.
Mark, who records \h2X His garments became glistering
(p- lil) ; but something more than this must be meant
by the intense intrinsic brightness of the gate, which
answers so well to the description of the Son of God
as the " true Light," the preternatural light of men.

76 HERMAS AND
12 — 13] For Which were born there is an alter
native reading Which was born* (ver. 13), suiting the
application of the verse by Irenaeus to the nativity
of Christ (p. 30), while giving the sense, that He
who was born not of the will of man but of God
empowered believers on His Name to become children
of God (ver. 12). Such, with either reading, they are
said to become, and as such they are potentially like
Him (i Joh. 3. 2) : as He is, so are we in this world
(4. 17). He says, / am the Light of the world
(Joh. 8. 12), and Ye are the light of the world (Matt.
5. 14). And so Hermas in Sim. ix. makes the gate of
the tower brighter than the sun (2. 2), and the building
and all its stones bright as the sun ( 1 7. 3 — 4) : the
tower foursquare, and its stones foursquare : its foun
dation stones unhewn, in order that its Foundation
may be unhewn (p. 31). In like manner, as we have
seen in Sim. v. 6 and Clem. Rom. 11. 9, the flesh
of members of Christ is a temple of God, as the
flesh of Christ is the temple of God (Joh. 2. 21). This
principle explains some other things in the Shepherd,
* Dr Sanday, in the Expositor for December 1891 (p. 412), describes
this reading as "known to several of the Latin Fathers, Irenaeus (twice),
Tertullian (three times), and Ambrose and Augustine (once each), and
found also in Cod. Veronensis {b) of the Old Latin." He also shews
traces of it in Justin Martyr's Apol. I. 32 and Dial. 54. 63. 76.

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 77
as we shall see forthwith. The use of verse 13 by
Irenaeus suggests that Hermas may have had it in
mind when he wrote in Sim. ix.. Some stones were
being added to the building by the men, and did not
become bright (4. 6) ; for such as are born " of the will
of man " cannot become " children of God."
33 — 34] The Spirit descending and remaining on
Jesus was a sign to the Baptist that He was the Son
of God. Now in Sim. ix. 6 the twelve virgins, on the
approach of the Lord of the tower, run to him, attach
themselves closely to him, and begin to walk near him
round the tower. This adhesion of the virgins, if they
be the Holy Ghost, to the tall man who overtops the
tower ought to designate him as the Son of God ; and
accordingly it is said of him in the interpretation of
incident. The glorious man is the Son of God (12. 8).
The like behaviour of the virgins to Hermas (11. 4)
illustrates the principle just enunciated, that as He is,
so (in their measure) are His members : the Spirit of
truth abides with them, as with the Son of God. He
abides with the Foundation and with its component
parts, of which it is said. They first wore these spirits ;
and they departed not at all from one another, neither
the spirits from the men, nor the men from the spirits ;
but the spirits remained with them till their last sleep,

78 HERMAS AND
and but for this they would not have been of use for
the building of the tower (15. 6). Inseparable from
the tower, which is both the Church, or Christ, and
the aggregate of the children of God, are the seven
women, who are the sevenfold Spirit of God, In Vis.
iii., and the twelve virgins in Sim. ix., who stand
round about the tower as its warders, under strict
injunctions not to depart from it (5. i) ; and round the
gate (4. I ), which is again the Son of God.
51] The Son of man is, even to the angels of
God, the way between heaven and earth, the realisa
tion of the dream of Jacob (Gen, 28, 12). The
preternaturally tall man in Sim. ix. 6, who is the Son
of God (12. 8), corresponds to the Evangelist's divine
Son of man ; and at the same time to the Talmudic
first Adam, who extended from the earth to the
firmament*, and was thus a Jacob's ladder, whose head
was in heaven. The colossal man, if not a ladder
to the angels, is their "gate of heaven," and thus
stands in much the same relation to them as the Son
of man in the Gospel. The Lord (writes Hermas) is
encompassed by angels as a wall, the gate in which is
the Son of God. He is the one entrance to the Lord;
* Talm. Bab. C/uzgigah 12 a, p. 58 ed. Streane (Camb. 1891).

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 79
and not even the most glonous angels can come unto
God except through Him (12. 6 — 8).
Chap. ii. 6 And there were set there six waterpots
of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews,
containing ttvo or three firkins apiece. 7 Jesus saith
unto them. Fill the waterpots with water. And they
filled them up to the brim,. 8 And he saith unto them,
Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.
10 Every man at the beginning doth set forth good
wine... but thou hast kept the good wine until now,
19 Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up. 21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
6 — 10] The miracle of the Water made Wine is
made a parable by Hermas. The large waterpots, at
first partly empty, are filled to the brim ; and their
contents are then found to be good wine. Accordingly
Hermas writes in Mand. xii.. For the devil tempts
the servants of God, and if he find them empty,
corrupts them. When a man has filled {yeiiLarj) a
great abundance of jars with good wine, if there be
a few half empty among them, when he comes to the
jars, he does not examine the full ones, but only the
empty ones ; for these soon turn sour, and the flavour
of the wine is lost. So when the devil tempts the

8o HERMAS AND
servants of God, he finds no place to enter them
that are full in the faith ; but he enters into the empty,
and works his will with them, and they become sub
servient unto him (5. 2 — 4).
19 — 21] In Clem. Rom. 11. 9 it was said. We ought
to guard the flesh as a temple of God, and further, that
Christ, being first Spirit, became flesh (p. "Ji). If the
writer thus associates the idea that the flesh is a
temple of God with the prologue of S. John's Gospel,
we may think that the word temple was suggested
to him as much by the phrase the temple of his body
in Joh. 2. 21 as by I Cor. 6. 19.
Chap. iii. 3 Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. 5 Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God. 12 If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you
of heavenly things? 13 A fid no man hath ascended
tip to heaven, but he that came down from heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder
ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. 31 He
that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the
earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth.
3] As Moses merely saw the promised land from

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 8 1
Pisgah (Deut. 34. 4), and as others of old saw the
promises afar off; so Hermas takes seeing literally,
and plays thus upon the distinction between seeing
and entering into the kingdom of God in Sim. ix..
He who wears the names of the virgins and the name
of the Son of God shall be able to enter into the
kingdom of God. But the servant of God who wears
the names of the women in black shall see the kitig-
dom of God, but shall not enter into it (15, 2 — 3),
5] And why (asks Hermas) did the foundation
stones come up from the deep wearing these spirits ?
It was necessary that they should come up through
water, that they might be made alive ; for they could
not otherwise enter into the kingdom of God (2fc.
Before a man wears the name of the Son of God he is
dead ; but when he has received the seal, he puts off
the deadness and receives back the life. Now the
seal is the water: into this they go down dead, and
they come up from it alive (16, i — 4). Thus water
and "these spirits," the Holy Spirit of the virgins,
are the means by which men must be born again.
12, 13, 31] Hermas dwells upon the distinction
between things earthly and things from above. Faith,
he says in Mand. ix. 11, is from above, from the
Lord, and hath great power ; but doublemindedness is
T. H. I I

82 HERMAS AND
an earthly spirit and from the devil [Jas. 3. 15], and
hath not power. Mand. xi. 6 describes the spirit of
the false prophet as earthly, and speaking according to
the desires- of men, that is "of the earth," and only
when interrogated. Lower down we read, with allu
sion to I Joh. 4. I, Try the claimant to inspiration by
his life and works, and believe the Spirit that comes
from God and hath power. Hear this parable which
I will tell thee. Throw a stone at the heaven and see
if thou canst strike it ; or pump at it with a water
siphon, and see if thou canst bore it. As these things
are beyond men's power, so earthly spirits are without
power and weak. But see the power that cometh
from above. Hail is the least of granules, but when
it falls upon the head of a man, how it pains him. Or
take the drop {a-raycov) that falls from the roof to the
ground, and bores through stone. Thou seest that
the least things falling from above to the earth have
great power. So too the Divine Spirit coming from
above is powerful. This Spirit then believe thou, and
from the other keep away (16 — 20).
That drops of water bore into hard stone was a
very ancient adage, to which Hermas gives a fresh
application. Water being a familiar symbol of the
Spirit, he makes dropping water a symbol of the Spirit

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 83
coming from above ; with allusion as we may suppose
to baptism, both here and in the dropping {ard^avTos)
of righteousness upon the children of the Church in
Vis. iii. 9, I. Compare the rules for baptism in
chap. 7 of the Teaching. The normal form of it being
by immersion in living water, if such water be not
accessible, the use of other water is sanctioned. And
if thou have not either, pour out water thrice upon the
head, unto the name of Father and Son and Holy
Ghost. The instruction to pour-out, namely from the
hand or from some vessel, is very suggestive of
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as in Acts 2. 17, /
will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and Tit. 3.
5 — 6, By the washing of regeneration, and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he poured out upon us. Thus
the Didache by its word ^Kyeov teaches implicitly that
the baptismal water dropping upon the head of a
man represents the Spirit descending upon him.
14] Searching the Shepherd for traces of the sign
of outspreading, the sign of the Cross, in the Teaching
(p. 50), I first noticed the dragon of tribulation's
extension of itself upon the ground, which seemed to
be a counterpart of the " sign of the truth " in heaven.
This was eventually found to be confirmed by the
saying on the serpent in the Fourth Gospel, and

84 HERMAS AND
further by chap. xxi. 18, which will be commented
upon in its place. The encounter of Hermas with the
beast, which prefigured the coming tribulation, is
described in Vis. iv. He was glorifying and giving
thanks to God, when a voice replied, Be not double-
minded, Hermas. He went forward a little, and
behold dust rising as it were to heaven. Were cattle
coming } The dust thickened, and he suspected that
there was something superhuman. The sun glimmered
faintly, and behold a huge beast like a sort of sea-
monster, with fiery locusts coming out of its mouth, a
hundred feet long, and with the horned head of a
cerastes. He faces it boldly in faith, as it comes on
with a whirr as though it could lay a city in ruins ;
and on his near approach that so great beast stretches
itself out upon the ground, and it did nothing but put
out its tongue till he had passed by (i. 4 — 9). This
beast may be an amalgam of different animals, like
the beast of Rev. 13. i sq., which had seven heads
and ten horns, and was like a leopard, and had the
feet of a bear, and the mouth of a lion, with power
given him by the dragon. It may therefore allude
to the "whale" of Jonah (p. 47), and to other things
besides. The dust rising as it were to heaven, like
the stone thrown at the heaven but failing to reach it,

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 85
in Mand. xi. 18, implies vain assumption and essential
earthliness. The phrase upon the ground is also
significant, as it is in Sim. ix. 14. 4, where it is asked,
why the tower was built not upon the ground but upon
the rock and upon the gate. The length a hundred
feet gives the idea of a great serpent ; and the further
thought then suggests itself that there is an allusion
to the words spoken to the serpent in Gen. 3. 14,
" Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life." The Teaching had
suggested that the beast's extension of itself was in
the form of a cross. But as Moses lifted up, or impaled,
or crucified, the serpent in the wilderness, even so (it is
written) must the Son of man be lifted up, or crucified.
This suggests that Vis. iv. alludes also to the " lifting
up " of the serpent of Moses, with which it was natural
to associate the serpent of Eve. Thus the Gospel and
the Teaching point to the same interpretation of the
gesture of the beast on the approach of Hermas. The
author of the Shepherd may have referred to verse 14
merely as recording the act of Moses. The serpent
of Hermas was able to destroy peoples (2. 3), as the
serpents in the wilderness slew much people (Numb.
21. 6). The Teaching predicts that the world-deceiver
will appear as Son of God. I n Lagarde's Hippol. quae

86 HERMAS AND
feruntur 14. 20 (1858) the assimilation is extended to
all particulars, so that as the Christ gave to believers
upon him the precious and vivifying Cross, the deceiver
will likewise give his own Sign.
Two features of the beast call for further remark.
Its head, according to the manuscripts, was like a tile,
or "pottery," for which Hilgenfeld reads conjecturally,
like that of a cerastes. This word means a horned
serpent in Prov. 23. 32, and it is an epithet of a
bullock "that hath horns" in Ps. 69. 31. It was
likely, for reasons to which it would be inappropriate
to digress now, that Hermas would allude to the
horned beast of Dan. 7. 7 ; and this is of itself a
reason for adopting the simple and sound emendation,
KspdcTTov for KepdfJiov. And the length of the beast
being a hundred feet, if we suppose this number to be
significant, like the number of the beast in the Apoca
lypse, then, since the letter R in Greek is the figure
for a hundred, we have at once an allusion to Rome,
which in fact lies so near the surface that Hermas
cannot have failed to notice it, and must therefore
have intended it. Examples of the uniliteral acrostic
abound in the Sibylline Oracles, in one place of which
(xi. 1 14) the number a hundred designates both
Romulus and Remus. The enormous bulk and brute

THE FOURTPl GOSPEL. 87
force of the beast, its horned head, and its prefigure-
ment of persecution all point to imperial Rome.
Chap. iv. 6 Jesus therefore, being wearied with his
journey, sat thus on the well. 15 Sir, give me this
water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
24 God is a Spirit : and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. 34 My m,eat is to
do the will of him, that sent me, and to finish his work.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth
fruit unto life eternal.
6, 15] In the explanation of the parable of the
Vineyard in Sim. v. it is said that the Son himself
cleansed the sins of the people of God, having toiled
much and endured many toils (6. 2 ) ; where toiled may
have been suggested by the fact that Jesus was
physically wearied or toil-worn (ver. 6). The word
for endure {dvr\€iv) is used, but in a different sense, in
this chapter and chap. ii. of S. John's Gospel.
24] God is a Spirit or God is Spirit. If " the
Word was God," and " God is Spirit," the Word (or
Christ) preexisted as Spirit, according to Clem. Rom.
II, I, 9 and Sim. v. 6 (p. 73). When it is said, as
it is often said, that Hermas confounds the Persons
of the Son and the Spirit, it should be remarked that

88 HERMAS AND
he places himself in a dilemma by making the house
holder, the slave, and the son in the parable of the
Vineyard play the parts of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost respectively ; for by keeping the
three absolutely separate he would have fallen into
an opposite heresy, and failed again to represent the
" Trinity in Unity." Due allowance must be made
for the necessary incompleteness of any such parable,
and especially of the representation of the Spirit in a
bodily, human shape. With Sim. ix. i. i compare
2 Cor. 3. 17, The Lord is the Spirit.
In spirit and in truth &c. Is this combination of
spirit and truth traceable in Hermas ? There are
sayings on truth in Mand. iii. which are allowed to be
akin to sayings of or recorded by S. John : Again
he saith to me. Love truth, and let all truth proceed out
of thy mouth, that the Spirit which God made to dwell
in this flesh may be found truthful with all me^i ;
and thus the Lord that dwelleth in thee shall be
glorified. For the Lord is true {dXtjOivo?) in every
word, and with him is no lie.... Thou, saith he, thinkest
well and truly ; for thou oughtest as a sei^vant of God
to walk in truth, and an evil conscience ought not to
dwell with the Spirit of truth (i, 4). Notice the
word d\.r)6Lv6<;, which is much used by S. John : the

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 89
form of expression "true, and no lie," comparing
I Joh. 2. 27: the phrase "to walk in truth," com
paring the nearly identical phrase in 2 Joh. 4 and
3 Joh. 3 : and the expression " Spirit of truth," which
is found only in the Fourth Gospel and i Joh. 4. 6 in
the New Testament. To all this add the requirement
of truth in the spirit which God has " made to dwell in
this flesh," that so the Lord which dwelleth in thee
may " be glorified ; " and we have in the citation from
Mand. iii., as a paraphrase of the saying of which
traces were sought. The servant of God must glorify
Him in spirit and in truth.
34] In the parable of the Vineyard in Sim. v.,
a certain man had a field and many slaves ; and
part of the field he planted as a vineyard, and he put
a trusty and well-pleasing slave in charge of it, with
orders merely to stake it, and went on a journey.
The slave did as he was bidden, and then said, /
have finished this commandment of the Lord, now
I will also dig the vineyard : he digged it, and
plucked out the weeds, and the Master on his return
rejoiced greatly at the works of the slave : and he
told his beloved son and his counsellors what he had
commanded, and what he had found done, and they
rejoiced with the slave at the witness which the Master
T. H. 12

90 HERMAS AND
witnessed unto him (Joh. 5. 32). After some days the
Master of the house made a supper, and sent the slave
many meats (eSe'cr/xaTa) from it ; and the slave kept a
bare sufficiency for himself, and distributed the rest to
his fellow slaves (2. i — 9). The field is this world,
the weeds are the iniquities of the people of God, the
slave is the Son of God, and the meats are the com
mandments which God gave through His Son (5. 2 — 3).
The meat (/Spwjua) of Jesus was to do the will of the
Father, and to finish His work : the meats sent
to the servant who personates the Son of God in the
parable, and distributed (Joh. 6. 11) by him to his
fellow servants, are said by the Shepherd to be the
commandments which God gave through His Son,
according to Joh. 10. 18; 12. 49; 13. 34.
36] The reaper's gathering fruit unto life eternal
is reproduced in Sim. iv.. Do thou therefore bear fruit,
that in that summer thy fruit may be known. These
things therefore if thou do, thou canst bear fruit unto
the world to come (5, 7).
Chap. V. 3 In these lay a great multitude of
impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered. 5 And a
certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty
and eight years. 6 Wilt thou be made whole ? 7 Sir,
I have no 7nan, when the water is troubled, to cast me

THE FOURTPI GOSPEL. 9 1
into the pool : but while I am coming, another goeth
down before me. 1 4 Behold, thou art made whole : sin
no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. 21... even
so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 24 He that
hear eth my word... hath everlasting life. 32 There is
another that beareth witness of me ; and I know that
the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 39
Search the Scriptures &c. 40 And ye will not come
to me, that ye may have life.
3 — 7] With these verses we have compared
the Shepherd' s picture of the faulty stones lying
round about the tower, waiting to be hewn and
cast into the building (p. 45). The word whole or
sound in the New Testament always implies a work of
healing, except in the phrase " sound speech " in Tit.
2. 8. In Sim., viii. i. 3 sq. it is used of the Great
Willow, which remained miraculously whole when
so many branches had been cut from it ; and in
Sim. ix. of stones healed by hewing, and so made
fit to be facing stones of the tower (8. 5).
14] Sin no more comes as a surprise, after the
record of a miracle of healing which seems to imply
nothing more than bodily infirmity. The saying,
whether here only or in a later verse also, had made
an impression upon Hermas, who most strongly urges
the duty which it inculcates. In Mand. iv. the

92 HERMAS AND
Shepherd counsels a certain tolerance in the treatment
of those who have once fallen, not to encourage delin
quency, but in order that he who has sinned may sin
no more. Of his former sin there is one that can give
healing (i. ii). Have I heard rightly (asks Hermas)
that there is no repentance after that when we went
down into water and received remission of our former
sins .'' Yes, for he who has received remission of sins
must sin no more (3. i — 2). To go-down into the
water is to be baptized. Compare Sim. ix. 16. 4,
Into the water then they go-down dead, and they come
up alive; Epist. Barn. 11. 8, 11; and Acts 8. 38.
\i to go-down into the water, with or without mention
of " baptism," meant to be baptized, Hermas may have
taken the goings down into the pool of Bethesda in
that sense. Then, applying Sin no m,ore to those
who went down (ver. 7), he would have inferred that
they received remission of sins once for all. The
impotent man's infirmity suggests men's infirmity
against the wiliness of the devil, as in Mand. iv. 3. 4.
It was to be expected that Hermas, if he noticed the
cures at Bethesda, would take a hint from " Sin no
more," and convert them into cases of the healing of
sin. The expression has a scriptural basis, and the
idea pervades the Shepherd.
The thought that sin in general is a malady to be

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 93
cured leads up to the thought of sin incurable, which
is sm unto death and blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost, according to S. John and the Synoptic
Gospels respectively. Of such sin under its various
names there are traces in the Mandates and Similitudes
of Hermas. In Mand. v. we read, Sharp temper, at
first merely senseless, engenders bitterness, anger,
rage, fury, which becomes sin great and incurable. For
when these spirits dwell in one vessel, where also the
Holy Spirit dwells, it becomes over full, and the Holy
Spirit departs from the man... But refrain from temper;
and if thou keep this commandment, thou shalt be
able to keep all the rest which I shall command thee
(2. 4 — 8). In Sim. vi. it is said, of the erring sheep
shepherded by the angel of luxury. For they forget
the commandments of the living God, and walk in
vain deceits and luxuries, and are destroyed by this
angel, some to death and some to corruption. In some
(it is explained) there is no repentance unto life,
because they added to their other sins that they
blasphemed against the na-tne of the Lord. Such men
therefore are eis ddvarov, to death. But those who,
however corrupted from the truth, did not blaspheme
at all against the Lord, have hope of repentance
whereby they may live. Corruption then hath hope

94 HERMAS AND
of some renewal, but death hath eternal destruction
(2. 2 — 4). In Sim. viii, it is said of those whose rods
were found dry and moth eaten, These are the apo
states and betrayers of the Church, and they that
blasphemed the Lord in their sins, and furthermore
were ashamed of the name of the Lord by which they
were called. These therefore utterly perished unto God
(6. 4). Of those whose rods were half green and half
dry, many, when they heard the commandments of
the angel of repentance, repented. But some of them
apostatised utterly. These have no repentance ; for
on account of their transactions they blasphemed the
Lord and denied Him (8. i — 2). In Sim. ix, in like
manner it is said, From the black mountain the
believers are apostates, blasphemers against the Lord,
betrayers of the servants of God, For them there is
not repentance, but death (19. i). In these passages
we have the idea of a sin of blasphemy, which cannot
be repented of and forgiven : a sin against the Holy
Ghost, whom it grieves and makes to depart from
a man : a sm unto death and everlasting destruction :
a sin incurable, and therefore eternal, according to
S. Mark 3. 29, But whosoever shall blaspheme against
the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty
of an eternal sin (R. V.), On "sin unto death"

THE FOURTH GOSPEL, 95
in the First Epistle of S, John see Bp Westcott's
notes, comparing with the Shepherd's " some to death
and some to corruption" the words from Origen's
Hom. in Ex. x. 3, " There are some sins which are
ad damnum... some ad interitum."
21, 24] The word quicken or make alive is used
in Mand. iv,, I was quickened on hearing these things
from thee thus exactly (3, 7) ; where the turn of
expression was possibly suggested by verse 24, He
that Juareth my words &c., in connexion with verse
21, It is also used in Sim. ix, 16, 2 of the quickening
or new birth through baptism. Whom he will is
illustrated by Sim. ix. 9. 3, where it is said to the
Lord of the tower, who insists that some of the fine,
round stones must be made use of, If, Sir, there is
necessity, why vex thyself, and not choose for the
building whom (what stones) thou wilt ?
32] The noun and the verb witness are predomi
nantly Johannine in the New Testament, and their
combination in this verse (cf Rev. i. 2) would have
suggested the witness witnessed by the Master to the
slave who personates the Son of God in the parable
of the Vineyard in Sim. v. (p. 90).
39^ — 40] Search ye (or Ye search) the scriptures.
It is against the principle of Hermas to allude plainly

96 HERMAS AND
to the Scriptures ; but in Mand. x. he writes, that
men who merely believe, and have never searched and
investigated concerning the truth and divine things,
but give their whole minds to money making and the
affairs of the world, lose the spiritual sense, and grow
barren, like neglected vineyards (i. 4 — 6). Sim. x.
teaches, Whosoever do his commandments shall have
life. But all who keep them not fiee from their life
and turn away from him (2. 4) : they will not come
unto him who is " the life " that they may have life.
The simple phrase " have life" without qualification,
points to the Fourth Gospel.
Chap. vi. II And Jesus took the loaves; and
when he had given thanks, he distributed to the
disciples. 2 7 Work not for the meat which perisheth,
but for that 7neat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you : for him
hath God the Father sealed. 28 Then said they unto
him. What shall ipe do, that we might work the works
of God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. 44 No man can come to me, except the
Father which hath sent me draw him : and I will raise
him up at the last day. 47 He that believeth on me hath

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 97
everlasting life. 48 / am the bread of life. 63 The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life. 70 Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of
you is a devil? 71 He spake of Judas... for he it was
that should betray him, being one of the twelve.
II, 27] As Jesus distributed the loaves for the
feeding of the Five Thousand, so (as we have seen)
the slave who represents the Son of God in the
parable of the Vineyard in Sim. v. distributed the
meats sent to him from the Master's table, which were
the commandments of God, to his fellowservants (p.
90). The meats in the parable are interpreted ac
cording to the saying of Jesus, My meat is to do the
will of him that sent me, and to finish his work (Joh.
4. 34). In this chapter likewise, from verse 27 on
wards. He spiritualises the idea of meat or bread;
which would have led Hermas to do the same in the
preceding verses, and spiritualise the loaves for the
feeding of the multitude. This enhances the sig
nificance of his use of the word distributed, and
justifies the opinion that he took it from the account
of the miracle. The Tneat which endureth unto ever
lasting life being the commandments of God, we see
an allusion to verse 27 in Vis. ii., These things have
saved thee, if thou abide in them ; and they save all
T. H. 13

98 HERMAS AND
that work such things, and walk in guilelessness and
simplicity. These prevail over all wickedness, and
shall endure unto everlasting life (3. 2). With the
sealing of the Son of man by God contrast the seal of
the Son of God in Sim. ix. 31. \.
28 — 29, 47] As in the Gospel to work the works of
God is to believe on him whom He hath sent, so Hermas
identifies the former duty with the operation of faith,
and writes in Sim. i. 7, Work ye the works of God,
remembering his commandments and the promises which
He promised, and believe him that He will do them if
his commandments be kept. The essence of Mand. i.
is Believe (i Joh. 3. 23) ; and it is said that he who
keeps it shall "live unto God." Compare Mand. xii.
3. I, Work truth, faith &c., and thou shalt live unto
him ; noticing the phrase " work truth,'' which is but
slightly varied from do the truth in chap. iii. 21 and
I Joh. I. 6. See also in i Joh. 2. 25 and Vis. i. 3. 4,
the promise which He promised, comparing the phrases
to work works (Joh. 9. 4) and witness witness (p. 95)
in S. John and Hermas.
44, 48, 63] Peculiar to S. John in the New
Testament is the phrase the last day (sing.), which
Hermas uses in Vis. ii.. But for the Gentiles there is
repentance until the last day (2. 5) ; and in Vis. iii..

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 99
He expecteth nothing but the last day of his life
(i2. 2). The idea of the saying, / am the bread of life,
may be resolved into two parts : first, the Torah or
Law, the sum of the commandments of God, is the
true bread ; and next the Son of God is the embodi
ment of the Law, and therefore Himself the true bread,
the bread of life. The former thought has been
sufficiently dwelt upon in connexion with Sim. v.
As to the latter, Hermas in Sim. viii. 3. 2 sq. makes
the great willow mean " the law of God given to the
whole world," adding that This law is the Son of God
preached to the ends of the earth ; and he speaks of
such as had pleased {evrjpea-Trjaav) the law and kept it,
remembering his attribution of a divine personality to
the law. The words that I speak unto you, are life
may have suggested in Sim. ix, 21. 2, Their words
only live, but their works are dead (Heb, 6. i),
54^ — 58] The word rputytiv, to eat, which occurs
four times in these verses, is used in Sim. v. 3. 7.
70 — 71] Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, the
betrayer being, as remarked by the four Evangelists,
one of the twelve, Hermas peoples one of his twelve
mountains, the black one, the first "which shall be
last," with apostates, blasphemers of the Lord, and
betrayers of the servants of God {Sim. ix. 19).

lOO HERMAS AND
Chap. vii. 28 But he that sent me is true.
In the Gospels the word d\r)dLv6<; is used once by
S. Luke, of the true mammon, and nine times by
S. John. It is used once in i Thess. i. 9, three or
four times in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and fourteen
times in the Apocalypse and First Epistle of John.
Thus it is so far characteristic of S. John that its use
would have been suggested by an acquaintance with
his writings. Hermas (as we have seen) uses it in
Mand. iii. i as an epithet of the Lord : he uses it also
in Vis. iii. 7. i, where he writes, their true way, as a
variation upon " the way of truth," probably under the
influence of the Fourth Gospel.
Chap. viii. 3 And the scribes and Pharisees
brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. 7 So
when they continued asking him, he... said unto them.
He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a
stone at her. 1 1 And Jesus said unto her. Neither do
I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. 32 The truth
shall make you free. 41 Ye do the deeds of your
father. 44 Ye are of your father the devil.
The Shepherd in Mand. iv. charges a man to keep
purity, and not to harbour thoughts about his neigh
bour's wife, or about any act of fornication, or any evil

THE FOURTPI GOSPEL. lOI
practices like to such things (i. i). I say to him. Sir,
suffer me to ask thee a few things. If one that hath
a wife who is faithful in the Lord find her in some
adultery, doth the man sin in living with her ? It was
no sin so long as he was in ignorance ; but when he
has learned the fact, if she repent not, he becomes a
partner in her adultery if he continues to live with her
(i. 5). What then must he do? Let him put her
away and abide alone. But if she repent after being
put away, and desire to return to her own husband,
shall she not be received ? Certainly if the husband
receive her not he sinneth. He that hath sinned and
repents should be received ; yet not repeatedly, for to
the servants of God there is but one repentance (i. 8).
The case of man and wife is said to be typical. Not
only is it adultery to defile the fiesh, but also to do
things like the Gentiles. The Shepherd adds that he
counsels condonation of a first offence, not by way of
giving occasion for sin, but in order that he who has
sinned may sin no more ( i . 11).
3, 7, 11] The pericope of the Woman taken in
Adultery supplies a basis for this teaching of Mand.
iv., which supposes the case oi a woman found in some
adultery. Hermas, like the scribes and Pharisees,
continues asking about the case ; and the Shepherd in

I02 HERMAS AND
reply says in effect that he who casts the first stone,
the husband who disallows the wife's repentance, is
not without sin. The Shepherd, like Jesus, does not
finally condemn the sinner for one sin, but would have
him sin no more. He allows repentance, but once
only, and he defends his lenience as the best means of
securing that he who has sinned shall sin no more : he
(not she), for the reason given below.
Tertullian in De Pudicit. 21 admits that the
Church has power to forgive a sin ; but he deprecates
its use, lest men should sin more. Thus while, as
befits a Montanist, he denounces the Shepherd of
Hermas for its lack of severity, he differs from it not
so much in theory, as on the question what it is
expedient to allow in practice. But in judging of
Hermas it is essential to notice that, after his manner,
he spiritualises the special case of the woman found in
adultery, and gives the sin of the adulteress a very
wide connotation, making it the type of all manner of
heathen living and worldliness. The conclusion of
the whole matter with him is that he, tw rnxapr-qKora,
the sinner generally, should sin no more. The woman
that is a sinner has the same typical character in the
Shepherd as in Jas. 4. 4, Ye adulteresses, know ye not
that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ?

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 103
To this verse, where alone in the whole New Testa
ment the word ^iXia, friendship, occurs, Hermas
alludes in Mand. x., speaking of otiose believers as
blinded to the things of God by woridly business and
wealth and Gentile friendships (i. 4). Adultery, the
old-world symbol of idolatry, appropriated to itself
those extensions of meaning which had been read
into "idolatry" itself Compare in Mark 8. 38, this
adulterous and sinful generation ; and i Joh. 5. 21,
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. There
remains the question, which we must leave to the
judgment of the reader, whether Hermas, if he knew
the pericope of the Woman taken in Adultery, knew
it as part of the Fourth Gospel or of some other
writing*. 32—34] The truth shall make you free... He that
doeth sin is a servant of sin. The thought of these
* In his Study of Codex Bezae (1891) in the Cambridge Texts and
Studies Professor J. R. Harris, who supposes the pericope to have been
expunged from copies of the Gospel through Montanist influence, finds
traces of it in the Cod. Bez. text of Acts 5. 18 sq. and in the Shepherd's
prjKiri apapraveiv (p. 195). The Cod. Bez. text of Acts I. 2 {ib. p. 154) runs
thus in the Latin (and correspondingly in the Greek), usque in eum diem
quern susceptus est, quo praecepit apostolis per Spm. Sanctum quos elegit,
et praecepit praedicare evangelium ; where et praecepit &^c. must have
been interpolated from Mark 16. 15, 19, the sole authority for the com
bination of the statement dve\rjp<j>dr] with the command Krjpv^are ro ev-
ayyeXiov. On Acts 1. 2 see also Tischendorf's Nov. Test. Graece.

I04 HERMAS AND
verses, with or without vestige of their form, should
be discoverable in the Shepherd. That true freedom
is independence of the lower self was a maxim of
religion and philosophy. Aristotle speaks of servitude
to pleasures; and Hermas in Mand. xii. writes. If
thou serve {Sov\evcrr)<;) the Good Desire and submit
thyself to it, thou shalt be able to have dominion over
the Evil Desire and subdue it (2, 5). Thus he says
of the good principle, Cui servire regnare, "whose
service is perfect freedom," Such freedom comes of
serving the Spirit (Sim. v. 6, 5), which is to serve God
and walk in truth {Mand. iii, 4), To swerve from
the truth because of its purity is to follow evil desires
{Vis. iii, 7, 3), and "they that plan evil in their
hearts draw death and captivity upon themselves "
(i, I, 8), Here, for the sense, some compare these
verses; to which (we may add) Iren, l i, 6 perhaps
refers by the expression lead captive (Rom. 7. 23)
from the truth. The phrase to know the truth (ver.
32) is found in Vis. iii. 6. 2 (2 Joh. i). To the servant
in Sim. v. it is said (2. 2, 7), Keep my commandment
and thou shalt be free with me (ver. 36).
41, 44] The angel of righteousness teaches in
Mand. xii. 6. 2 that by returning to God men may
overmaster the works of the devil (i Joh. 3. 8).

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 105
Chap. ix. I And as he passed by, he saw a man
blind from his birth. 3 Neither hath this man sinned,
nor his parents : but that the works of God should be
manifest in him. 4 / must work the worths of him
that sent me, while it is day. 24 Give glory to God.
I — 3, 24J Sayings in this chapter associate sin
with blindness, in a way to suggest the expression
of deliverance from sin in terms of the "recovering
of sight to the blind" (Luke 4. 18), as in Clem. Rom.
II. 9 (p. 72), In what but in this flesh did we recover
sight? Here the homilist spiritualises miracles of
recovery of sight in the flesh, and among them
doubtless the case of the man blind from birth. To
this he seems to allude in his first chapter also, which
has points of contact with the ninth, when he writes.
What praise should we give Him or reward in recom
pense for what we received ? Being mentally blind
{tTr^poi) . . .we I'ecovered sight. The simple word "being"
expresses being by nature and " from birth," and the
word TTTjpos may be a substitute for S. John's Twt^Xos,
blind (ver. i), as it is in some early writings quoted
in Resch's Agrapha § 4, p. 24 (1889); the man that
was blind from birth being called " Try)p6<; from birth "
in Clem. Hom. xix. 22 and Apost. Const, v. 7, while
Justin Martyr uses the phrase in the plural in Apol
T. H. 14

I06 HERMAS AND
I. 2 2, and again in Dial. 69, them that were from birth
and according to the flesh TTr)pov<s. Ii Clem. Rom. 11.
was thinking of the miracle in question, what he says
of giving praise to God for opening the eyes of the
mind (chaps, i, 9) would be accounted for by verse 24,
Give glory to God. Hermas in Mand. v. speaks of
the passionate as blinded, and of patience as glorifying
the Lord at all seasons (2, 3, 7), Here and elsewhere,
under the figure of spiritual darkening and its antidote
(Mand. x, i ), he may have been thinking more or less
of the cognate Gospel miracles ; but the former passage
has closer relationship with i Joh, 2, 11, He that
hateth his brother is in darkness... the darkness hath
blinded his eyes.
3 — 6] The phrases works of God and work works
are Johannine, and both are used by Hermas. We
may notice also that the word ^p.al, on the ground,
is found in the New Testament only in ver. 6 and
chap, xviii. 6, They went backward, and fell to the
ground; and that it is an emphatic word with Hermas,
who uses it of the dragon of tribulation which extends
itself upon the ground, and of the tower as built upon
the rock, and not upon the ground (p. 85). Compare
the parable of the house built upon the rock, and not
upon the sand (Matt. 7. 24 — 26).

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 107
Chap. x. I He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the
same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth
m by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 9 / am the
door : by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.
11/ am. the good shepherd : the good shepherd giveth
his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling...
leaveth the sheep, and fleetk : and the wolf catcheth
them, and scatter eth the sheep. 16 And other sheep I
have, which are not of this fold &c. ; and there shall
be one flock, one shepherd. 37 If I do not the works
of my Father, believe- me not. 38 But if I do, though
ye believe not me, believe the works.
I — 9] In Sim. ix. the gate, which was newly cut
out of the rock (2. 2), is the Son of God manifest in
the flesh (12. i — 3). It has been argued that this
cannot refer to the saying / am the door (ver. 9), the
change of word from Qipa in the Gospel to trvkr^ in
the similitude being thought to be an insuperable
difficulty. But since Hermas systematically disguises
his allusions, one of his artifices being to replace a
word in its proper connexion by some synonym; it
would have been quite after his manner, in working up
the parable of the Good Shepherd, to write gate for
door, not altogether omitting the latter word, but

I08 HERMAS AND
using it in Vis. iii.. And ye be shut out with your
goods outside the door [Matt. 25. 10] of the tower
(9, 6), This he might have done merely to veil his
allusion; as in Vis. iii, 13, seemingly for no other
reason, he writes straightway forgetteth, instead of
remembereth no more (p, 8). But the word gate may
have been preferred as more congruous with its sur
roundings in Sim. ix,, and as the resultant of allusions
at once to the door, the Son of God, and to passages
which use the figure of the gate. On the whole, the
change of word counts for little in Hermas ; the real
question being whether a connexion can be made out
between the contexts of door and gate in the Fourth
Gospel and the Shepherd respectively. Now in the
Gospel we read, T am the door : by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved; to which corresponds very
closely in Sim. ix., as Zahn has remarked, The gate
was made new, that those who were to be saved might
enter by it (12. 3). And not only so, but as the
Gospel recognises other possible ways of entry than
by the door (ver. i), Hermas accordingly makes
some stones find a temporary lodgment in the tower,
which have not been carried through the gate by the
hands of the virgins (4. 8). Thus it appears that
the gate is a transfiguration of the door.

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 109
2, 12, 16] Some of the various shepherds in
Hermas have traits taken from passages of Holy
Writ, including the section on the Good Shepherd.
In Sim. vi. the angel of retribution is depicted as a
great shepherd (2. 5), and he and others were called
the shepherds of the sheep (i. 5), with twofold reference
perhaps to the "shepherd of the sheep" in verse 2,
and the "great shepherd of the sheep" in Heb. 13. 20.
The Good Shepherd is also the Lord of scattered
flocks, which he purposes to unite in one under one
shepherd. Hermas in Sim. ix. supposes a Lord of
flocks tended by a plurality of shepherds. If when he
comes (i Pet. 5. 4) he should find some of the sheep
scattered, woe to the shepherds ; but if the very
shepherds be scattered, what shall they answer him
for the flocks ? Will they say that they were worried
by the flocks ? They would not be believed, for it is
a thing incredible that a shepherd would be harmed
by sheep : he would only be the more punished for his
mendacity. And I am a Shepherd, and am under
the strongest obligation to give account concerning
you (31. 4 — 6). This may be accounted for as an
adaptation of sayings of the Good Shepherd to the
schisms of unworthy overseers (Acts 20. 28 sq.),
which rend the flock; the shepherds, not the sheep

I ID HERMAS AND
as in the Teaching (chap. i6), being " turned to
wolves." The phrase to feed sheep, used in Sim. vi.
I. 6, occurs in the charge to S. Peter in chap. xxi. 17.
38] Believe the works is a unique and remarkable
precept, which Hermas makes his own in Mand. vi..
These then are the works of the angel of righteous
ness : him therefore believe thou and his works. ..The
things concerning the faith this commandment sheweth,
even that thou shouldest believe the works of the angel
of righteousness, and do them (2. 3, 10).
Chap, xi, 9 Are there not twelve hours in the day ?
If any man walk in the day, he stuinbleth not, because
he seeth the light of this world. 10 But if a m.an
walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light
in him. 1 1 Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. 1 3 How-
beit Jesus spake of his death : but they thought that he
had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. 40 The glory of
God. 48 If we let him thus alone... the Romans shall
come and take away both our place and nation.
9] First, taking the day to include " the evening
and the morning," or leaving the night out of con
sideration, we find the formula that there are twelve
hours in the day assumed in the following curious
equation of a day of torment to a year in Sim. vi,,

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. Til
The time of luxury is one hour, but an hour of tor
ment has the force of thirty days. If then a man has
lived one day in luxury and deceits, and has been
tormented one day, the day of torment has the effect
of a whole year (4. 4) ; each of its twelve hours having
the force of 30 days, and the twelve together of 360
days. 9 — 10] He who walks in the light stumbleth not :
he who walks in the darkness stumbleth. Mand. vi. i
teaches that the crooked way of unrighteousness has
not paths, but no-ways and many things-to-stumble-at,
and is rough and thorny ; but they who go in the
straight way walk smoothly and without-stumbling.
Thus the Lord's sayings on day and night, the seasons
of light and darkness, are transferred to the two ways,
which were well known to Hermas and to every one
as the Way of Light and the Way of Darkness.
1 3] The substantive Kot/ATjo-ts, taking rest in sleep,
being found here only in the Canonical Scriptures (not
including Ecclesiasticus), it is of some significance that
Hermas uses it in Vis. iii. 11. 3, they are expectant of
nothing but their last-sleep ; and in Sim. ix. 15. 6, but
the spirits retnained with them till their last-sleep.
40] The glory of God is spoken of here and in
verse 4, and again in chap. xii. 43, For they loved the

112 HERMAS AND
glory of men more than the glory of God. Hermas in
Vis. iii, 1 , 5 is affrighted when he sees " these things
lying, and no one in the place," but he remembers
the glory of God and takes courage. In Mand. xii,
4. 2 it is said to him, Perceivest thou not the glory of
God, how great and strong and wondrous it is ?
48] This mention of the Romans stands alone in
the Gospels, except that a version of the inscription on
the Cross is said to have been in their language. The
dragon of persecution in Si?n. iv. is very suggestive of
imperial Rome. If its "number," the Greek R, was
meant to point to Rome (p. 86) ; the question arises.
Did Hermas, Hke Irenaeus (v. 30. 3), know of
Lateinos (in Greek letters) as one of the solutions of
the number of the beast in the Apocalypse }
Chap. xii. 24 Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit. 28 Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from heaven <2fc.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men unto me. 33 This he said, signifyino-
what death he should die. 37 But though he had
done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. i<^ .. .because that Esaias said again.

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. II3
40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their
heart. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his
glory, and spake of him.
24] The Church in Vis. i. sits alone upon her
chair (2. 2), but in Vis. iii. Hermas sits with her upon
the bench (2. 4), The false prophet in Mand. xi, i
sits alone upon his chair, while faithful men sit to
gether on the bench. The Church upon her chair was
sick and at the point of death : her erect posture in
Vis. ii. was the sign that she had risen again (p. 8) :
after her resurrection she has the companionship of
Hermas, himself a typical character, and she shews
him a vision of the building of the tower, which is
again the Church. Thus she claims for herself a
countless progeny of living stones (Matt. 3. 9),
answering (as stones elsewhere in the Shepherd re
place seeds) to the much fruit of the corn of wheat
which falls into the ground and dies.
28] In Vis. ii. i. 2 Hermas begins to pray to the
Lord and glorify His name ; and when he has made
an end the Church is seen and speaks to him. In Vis.
iii. 4. 3 he is told that it is not because of his great
merit that he is chosen to receive revelations (Matt.
II. 25), but that the name of God may be glorified.
See also Vis. iv. i. 3 and Sim. ix. 18. 5.
T. H. 15

114 HERMAS AND
32 — 33] As the Cross lifts up Christ, or the temple
of his body (Joh, 2, 21), so Ignatius makes it lift up
the several stones of the spiritual temple ; writing in
Ephes. 9, as rendered by Bp Lightfoot, But I have
learned that certain persons passed through you from
yonder, bringing evil doctrine ; whom ye suffered not to
sow seed in you, for ye stopped your ears, so that ye
might not receive the seed sown by them ; forasmuch
as ye are stones of a temple, which were prepared before
hand for a building of God the Father, being hoisted up
to the heights (vt/nj) through the engine of Jesus Christ,
which is the Cross, and using for a rope the Holy
Spirit ; while your faith is your windlass, and love is
the way that leadeth up to God. Very like this is
the building of the tower upon the rock higher than
the mountains in Sim. ix. of Hermas. But although
the resemblance has been remarked upon in general
terms, I do not know that it has been worked out in
detail. The points to be noticed are that both writers
make the Cross and the Holy Spirit instrumental in
the building. Without thinking of Ignatius, and solely
from a comparison of the Shepherd with the Teaching,
we found an allusion to the Cross in the spreading out
of the hands of the virgins to receive the stones which
they were to carry up to the tower ; and we made out

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. II5
that the virgins represented the Holy Ghost, who was
thus seen to be instrumental in building it. Again,
while Ignat. Ephes. 9 brings in Faith and Love,
Hermas has a string of seven virtues from Faith to
Love in Vis. iii., and of twelve in Sim. ix. ; and he
concatenates the virtues in each series and makes
them inseparable. Of the seven he says that they are
"daughters of one another," with Faith for the mother
of all ; and adds that their powers are laid hold oj by
one another and follow one another (8. 7). Thus they
make an endless chain or "rope"; and they stand in
a circle round the tower, which is upheld by them,
by the command of the Lord (8. 2). Like them are
the virgins of Sim. ix., who stand round the tower ;
and they bear, not the whole tower at once, but its
stones one by one. The twelve coil themselves round
each stone ; four strong cardinal virtues standing at
the corners, and the rest in pairs between ; and so,
making themselves a chain, they carry them (4. i).
But to return to the Gospel, it is said, / will draw all
men unto me (ver. 32), and No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw him (Joh.
6. 44). The drawing might be " with cords of a man,
with bands of love " (Hos. 1 1. 4) ; or it might be with
the cord of the Holy Spirit, of which the holy spirit

I 1 6 HERMAS AND
Love in Hermas is a partial manifestation. From all
this it seems to follow that Hermas borrowed from
Ignatius, and both from the Fourth Gospel, in their
accounts of the building of the temple or tower.
In Lagarde's Hippol. R. i. S9 (p- 30) the Church is
likened to a ship in a storm upon the sea of the world,
having Christ for pilot and the Cross for mast, and
bound about with ropes of love. It has angels for
sailors, and the symbol of the Passion as a ladder that
leadeth up to the height, drawing {eXKovaa) the faithful
to the ascent of the heavens ; where the drawing
or attraction of men upwards through the Cross is
accounted for by verse 32, and the grouping of angels,
ladder, heaven in part by chap. i. 51. But the imagery
bears the stamp of Ignatius also, who (a century before)
had in the same realistic way made the Cross a
mechanism for raising men up on high * ; and the pre
sumption hence arising that Hippolytus is a witness
to Ignatius is strengthened by the consideration that
his figure of ship, storm, pilot may owe its origin to
* Cotelier and later writers on Ignatius add words from Methodius
On the Cross (Migne P. G. i8. 400) to the effect that it is a prjxav^ for
drawing up foursquare stones to be fitted into the building of the Church.
The epithet seemed to be from Hermas, and I found in the context the
idea of Justin Martyr that a man spreading his hands is cruciform, like
the virgins as they received the stones in Sim. ix. 3. 2 (p, 50). Irenaeus
sees the uplifting power of the cross in 2 Kings 6. 6 (Gebh.).

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. I I 7
Ignat. Polyc. 2. 3, which it has been thought merely
to illustrate. Returning to the Shepherd and searching
it for some form of the word draw (ver. 32), we read
in Vis. iii. 2. 6 (cf 5. 2) of stones drawn {eXKo/jievovs)
up from the deep and set in the building.
37 — 40] Hardening of heart* in the Gospels con
notes imperviousness to conviction, with respect to
miracles or signs. Here it is said to have entailed
incapacity for belief, though he had done so many signs
before them. The expression is found again in Mark
3. 5, Being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he
saith unto the man. Stretch forth thine hand: Mark
6, 52, For they understood not concerning the loaves,
but their heart was hardened: and Mark 8. 17 — 19,
Why reason ye, because ye have no bread ? perceive ye
not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart
hardened ? When I brake the five loaves among the
five thousand &c. Hermas addresses the Shepherd
in Mand. iv., Since the Lord judged me worthy that
thou shouldest dwell with me for ever, bear with me
for a few words further, because / understand not at
all, and my heart is hardened by my former doings
(2. i). The combination of understand not with the
phrase in question points plainly to the Gospels ; and
* The hardening here spoken of is TrapaxTts.

Il8 HERMAS AND
if Hermas took the latter phrase from that source, he
must have been acquainted more or less with the
accounts of miracles with which it is associated in the
Gospels. The phrase being used twice out of three
times in S. Mark with allusion to the feeding of the
Five Thousand, and so as to include it with other
miracles in S. John ; this makes it the more likely
that Sim. v. 2 touches upon that miracle, as we had
inferred on other grounds (p. 97). Hardening of
heart is spoken of again in Mand. xii., Perceivest
thou not the glory of God, how great and strong and
marvellous it is ; in that He created the world for the
sake of man, and placed all His creation in subjection
to man, and gave him all power to have dominion over
all things under heaven ? If then, saith he, man is
Lord of the creatures of God, and hath dominion over
all, the man that hath the Lord in his heart is able to
have dominion over these commandments. But such
as have the Lord on their lips, but have their heart
hardened and are far from the Lord, to them these
commandments are hard and impracticable (4. 2 — 4).
This brings together widely separated sayings on the
lordship of mankind or the Son of man over the
creation, as Gen. i. 28 (/caTa/cupteucraTe) ; Psalm 8. 6,
with its applications in the New Testament ; Matt.

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. II9
28. 18, All power is given unto me &c. As this last is
followed by the charge to teach "to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you," so Hermas
passes from man's lordship over the material world
to his power to keep the Shepherd's commandments.
At the end of the passage from Mand. xii. he perhaps
refers especially to S. Mark 7. 6 — Z...For laying aside
the commandment of God <2fc., in connexion with
hardness of heart, and thus implicitly with the Gospel
miracles, which he regards as special signs of the Son
of man's lordship over nature. While, for the purposes
of his allegory, the writer spiritualises the whole crea
tion and the ideal man's dominion over it, not speaking
expressly of any of the miracles as such ; he gives
sufficient slight indications of acquaintance with the
narratives of them in the Gospels.
41] Isaiah saw "his glory," the glory oi Jesus
(ver. 36). On the same principle of Old Testament
exegesis it is said in Epist. Barn. 12. 7, that in the
elevation of the serpent of brass by Moses (Numb.
21. 9) "thou hast again the glory of Jesus!' Did
Barnabas know the Fourth Gospel?^' Chap. 21. 2
of the Epistle, as von Gebhardt notes, may be based
on verse 8, " the poor always ye have with you"
* See The Gospels in the Second Century by Dr Sanday.

I20 HERMAS AND
Chap. xiii. i Having loved his own which were in
the world, he loved them unto the end. 4 He riseth
from supper, and... took a towel, and girded himself.
3 1 Now is the Son of man glorified.
i] Having loved them before, at this crisis He
loved them to an extreme, to the uttermost (Westcott).
This sense of the phrase occurs "most often in con
nexion with words of destruction." For an example
of its use in a different connexion see Vis. iii., where
the Church on her third appearance is described as
of exceeding beauty ^v\.d, joyous ets reXos (10. 5).
4 — 5] The rare word Xivriov, towel, is used by
Hermas in a context which points to this Gospel, as
we shall see under chap. xx. 5 sq. Gird thyself ...and
serve me in Sim. viii. 4. i is suggestive of S. Luke
17.8. 31] Here it is said that the Son of man is glorified ;
and the Synoptists speak of his coming in his glory.
With this agrees the epithet evho^o^ given in Sim. ix.
12. 8 to the colossal man, the Son of God, whom we
identified (pp. 48, 78) with the "Son of man."
Chap. xiv. 2 In my Father's house are many
mansions. 6 I am the way, the truth, and the life... no
man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 16 And I

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 121
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may be with you for ever ; 17 Even
the Spirit of truth... for he abideth with you, and shall
be in you. 20 Ye in me, and I in you.
2, 20] The words dwell, dwelling are used below
for words related to ot/cta, which is rendered " house "
in verse 2. In Iren. iii. 20. 3 we read, that Christ
offered the firstfruits of the resurrection in Himself
(i Cor. 15. 23) ; that as the Head rose from the dead,
so too might all the parts which make up the body,
each member having its proper and fitting* position
therein. For there are many mansions with the Father,
since there are also many members in the body. The
writer was thinking of the building of the body of
Christ (Eph. 4. 16), to which answers in Hermas the
building of the tower. The stones of the tower are
fitted variously into the foundation and the walls ; and
the parallel in the later writer seems to interpret their
difference of position as signifying the multiplicity of
mansions with the Father. With verse 3, that where
I am, there ye may be also, compare in Sim. ix., And
all your seed shall dwell with the Son of God (24. 4).
* Lat. aptam, which (as in Iren. V. 36) must stand for appo^ovtrav.
This epithet may have been suggested to Irenaeus by the Shepherd, in
which, from the nature of the subject, appo^av is used frequently
T. H. 16

122 HERMAS AND
The setting of the stones in the tower represents in a
figure. Ye in me (ver. 20). Their threefold distinction
as inner and outer wall-stones and foundation stones
(p. 41) agrees with the threefold difference of dwelling
in Sim. viii. and Iren. v. 36.
Verse 2 is cited again by Irenaeus, in noteworthy
surroundings, at the end of his fifth and last book,
thus (v. 36) : " As the elders say, That then shall they
that are judged worthy to have their abode in heaven
go thither, and some shall enjoy the delight of paradise,
and others possess the brightness of the city (Rev.
21. 23); for everywhere the Saviour shall be seen,
according as they shall be worthy that see him. And
that this is the difference of dwelling of them that bear
the hundred, and the sixty, and the thirty ; of whom
the first shall be received up into heaven, and the next
abide in paradise, and the last dwell in the city. And
that therefore the Lord hath said. In my Father s
{house) are many mansions. For that all things are of
God, who giveth to all their fitting dwelling ; as His
Word saith, that apportionment hath been made to all
by the Father, according as each is worthy, or shall be ;
and that this is the guestchamber in which they shall
recline that are invited and feast at the marriage.
That this is the ordering (i Cor. 15. 23) and disposi-

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 1 23
tion of them that are saved, say the elders the disciples
of the Apostles ; and that they advance by such steps,
and ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through
the Son to the Father ; the Son at length yielding up
his work to the Father, as saith the Apostle, For he
must reign till he put all enemies under his feet &c.
(i Cor. 15. 25 sq.). Diligently therefore did John fore
see the first resurrection of the just." The difference
of dwelling of the saved is here connected with the
many mansions (verse 2 ) ; and with the three degrees
of success in the parable of the Sower; and with every
man in his own order and other verses of i Cor. 15 ;
and seemingly with Rev. 21. 23; and with Matt.
22. 8, which may have suggested "according as they
shall be worthy." At any rate this phrase is to be
noticed, and likewise "the brightness of the city," for
comparison with the parallels in Hermas. Irenaeus
rests upon a tradition of the elders, which must have
been at least as old as the Shepherd. To this we ac
cordingly turn in the hope of finding traces (or further
traces) of the tradition therein ; and we shall see reason
to think that it was well known to Hermas, and was
the leading thought of his eighth similitude.
The subject of Sim. viii. is a Great Willow, which
overspreads the earth, and shelters all who have been

124 HERMAS AND
called in the name of the Lord. An Angel cuts rods
from it, and gives them to the people. Afterwards he
demands them back ; and they are found to fall into
twelve classes, of which the last three are approved.
Those of the tenth class were green, as they were first
given : those of the eleventh green, and with side-
shoots : those of the twelfth green, and with side-
shoots, which also had a kind of fruit (i. i — 17). The
holders of these last come first, and are crowned and
admitted to the tower : those next before them are not
crowned, but have entrance to the tower : the next
preceding are likewise sent off thither (2. i — 4). This
corresponds to "the first resurrection" spoken of in
Iren. v. 36. Then the Angel says to the Shepherd, /
go my way (Joh. 8. 21). Do thou send these others to
the walls, according as any is worthy to dwell. He
accordingly proposes to plant all the rods not ap
proved in the first scrutiny. The holders come in
their respective orders* and he plants their rods, and
covers them up with water (as it were baptizing them),
purposing to come again in a few days, and see if any
were alive again, For he who created this tree would
* Taypara raypara, the construction from S. Mark 6. 39—40: the word
and the idea "every man in his own order" from i Cor. 15. 23, which is
referred to several times in Sim. viii. 4 — 5.

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 1 25
have all them to live that received branches from
it (2. 5 — 9) ; the great tree being a figure of the
Gospel preached to the whole creation (3. 2). Her
mas would know about the dwelling of all those who
gave up the rods that had been planted (6. 3) ; and he
is told that only those who repent live, for the re
pentance of sinners hath life and their impenitence
death (6. 6) ; and that the dwelling of the saved varies
with the character of their repentance (8. 3). Thus
in Sim. viii. we find the "difference of dwelling" in
combination with the three degrees of success in the
parable of the Sower, to which Hermas alludes here
and elsewhere : and likewise with every man in his
own order and other verses of i Cor. 15. But
Irenaeus has the same connexion of thought ; and he
has the phrase according as each is worthy, cor
responding to Sim. viii. 2.5; and he mentions the
brightness of the city, which corresponds to the bright
ness of the tower in Sim. ix. 17. 3. It seems to follow
that Hermas and Irenaeus were referring to the same
tradition of the elders, of which the nucleus was the
saying. In my Fathers dwelling are many abodes;
and that Hermas had this saying in mind, although he
does not use the word p,ova.i, abodes (Lat. mansiones).
A later link in the tradition is Tertull. Scorp. 6, which

126 HERMAS AND
connects the many mansions with i Cor. 15. 41, and
with the steps of ascent in Iren. v. 36.
In Sib. Orac. vii. 68 sq. it is said, that the Word,
who had been aforetime maker of earth and starry sky
for the Father, became Incarnate ; and that he quickly
flew to the Father's dwelling {olKovi) ; and that for
him were founded three towers, to be the abodes of
Hope, Piety, Reverence; with allusion (as we must say
with Alexandre) to the Shepherd of Hermas, in which
the oracle somewhere finds the threefold difference of
dwelling of the just. Was there anything In Hermas
that might be taken to hint at a plurality of towers ?
In Vis. iii. he asks. All these stones that are rejected
as not fitting Into the building, have they repentance,
and shall they find room in this tower ? They have
repentance, quoth she, but into this tower they cannot
fit ; but they shall fit into a different place much smaller
(7- 5 — 6), The SIbyllist's "maker" Is the av6€UTrj<;
who is the Lord of the tower in Sim. ix, 5, 6,
6] The actual sayings / am the way, tfie truth, the
life are not used in the Shepherd, but traces of them
may be found there. For way, as Zahn suggests,
Hermas uses way-in (etcroSos, 2 Pet, i, 11) in Sim. Ix,,
With these angels the Lord is walled about, and the
gate is the Son of God. This Is the one way-in to the

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 1 27
Lord. Otherwise shall no one come to Him but
through his Son ( 1 2. 6). On the straightness of the
Lord, the straight way, see p. 30. Christ, who is the
true light, and the true bread, and the true vine, may
be referred to in Vis. Hi. 7. i as the true way (p. 100).
The influence of the saying / am the truth is per
ceptible in Mand. Hi., They who lie reject the Lord
(i. 2), in rejecting the truth. The peculiar phrase
deny their life Is a synonym for deny their Lord in
Vis. ii. 2. 7 — 8. Compare In Vis. HI., When thou
wast rich thou wast of no use, but now thou art of
good use {evxprjcrTo<;) and serviceable to the life: be ye
of good use to God (6. 7). Remembering the corrup
tion of Christus to Chrestus by early heathen writers
and the populace, and the ready acceptance of their
form of the name as meaning useful and gracious
by Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria""', we
may think that Hermas alludes to " Chrestus " as
the life.
16 — 17] On the Comforter see below under chap.
XVI. 7 sq.
* See Justin Apol. I. 4, Whereas we are accused as Christians we are
xpr)aroraroi... that the xt^wrov should be hated is not just. Clem. Strom.
II. 4 (p. 438, ed. Potter), Believers on Christ both are and are called
Xpr)o-Toi : Cohort, (ib. p. 72), Ye will not taste and see, not that the Lord
is xP1<rr6s, as in Psalm 34. 8 (i Pet. 2. 3), but that Christ is God.

128 HERMAS AND
Chap, XV, I / am the true vine, and my Father
is the husbandman. 2 Every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 5
/ a7n the vine, ye are the branches.
The Son of God makes himself the ideal vine,
with implicit allusion to parables of the Old Testament,
such as Psalm 80. 8 — 10, Thou broughtest a vine out
of Egypt. ..it filled the land. The hills were covered
with the shadow of it. Hermas, after his manner,
changes the form of the parable, and speaks in Sim.
viii, of a great Willow covering hills and mountains
(1, i). This luxuriant tree, which covers the whole
earth, is the law of God given to all the world,
which law is the Son of God preached to the ends of
the earth (3. 2). The tree's singular vitality expresses
that its Creator would have all live that have received
branches from It (2. 7, 9). These branches are cut
from it by an Angel and given by him to the people
under its shelter, who had been called In the name of
the Lord (i. 2); and the spiritual status of the re
cipients is represented by their branches or rods as
they give them back, some dry, some flourishing in
various degrees (6. 4 sq.). This is the writer's way of
saying. Ye are the branches. To the husbandman's
care for every branch of the True Vine corresponds

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 1 29
the planting (Matt. 15. 13) and watering of all the
willow rods that were withered or faulty when first
given up, in the hope that they may revive (2. 6).
Thus in Sim. viii. we have all the elements of the
parable of the Vine and its Branches. The fruit of
the true vine is " fruit of truth " {Sim. ix. 19. 2).
Chap. xvi. I These things have I spoken unto you,
that ye should not be offended. 5 And none of you
asketh me, Whither goest thou ? 7 // is expedient
for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the
Comforter will not come unto you ; but if T depart,
I zvill send him unto you. 8 And when he is come,
he will convict the world of sin. 12/ have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he
will guide you into all truth : for he shall not speak of
himself. 16 A little while, and ye shall not see me :
and again, a little while, and ye shall see me. 20 And
ye shall be sorrowful dfc. 26 And I say not unto you,
that I will pray the Father for you. 32 And yet I am
not alone, because the Father is with me.
I, 5, 12] The word be offended (ver. i), which
would have been suggested by the Gospels, is used
in Vis. iv., And give repentance to all the servants
T. H. 17

130 HERMAS AND
of God that have been offended, that His great and
glorious name may be glorified (i. 3); and Mand.
viii. 10, Not to cast away them that have been offended
from the faith. In verse 5 the disciples are reproached
for not asking a question, as elsewhere for asking. So
Hermas (cf p. 40), to whom the Shepherd says at the
end of Sim. Ix., Wherefore didst thou not ask me con
cerning the print of the stones placed in the building,
how that we filled up the prints ? On the principle
that vocabulary is an Indication of an author's literary
sources, and on other grounds, the conjecture may be
hazarded that Hermas knew the phrase print of the
nails In chap. xx. 25. The words ior print... prints in
the passage cited, which is extant only in Latin, are
forma.-.formas; but the previous passage to which
it refers gives the Greek tovs tuttovs rcSi' XWcav (10.
I — 2). With verse 12, but ye cannot bear now what I
have to say, compare In Vis. i. 3. 3, words which a
man cannot bear (^aorrao-ai), and Sim. Ix. i. 2.
7 — 8, 13] The Spirit of truth is spoken of in chap.
xiv. 1 7 as dwelling and being " with you " and " in
you," and so in Mand. HI. 1,4: in chap. xv. 26 as
proceeding from the Father : and in i Joh. 4. 6 In
contrast with the spirit of error. With the phrase
(onvict of sin (ver. 8) compare in Vis. i., I was taken

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 13!
up that I might convict thy sins unto the Lord ( i . 5).
Hermas, who usually presents his leading Ideas under
more than one aspect, makes the Shepherd, the angel
of repentance, as well as the twelve virgins, cor
respond more or less to the Paraclete""', who is to
"abide with you for ever" (Joh, 14. 16). This angel
says in Vis. v. 2, " I am sent by the most reverend
Angel to dwell with thee the remaining days of thy
life." And in Sim. ix. i. 3 he says, "Thou must
from me learn all things more exactly, for to this end
was I given by the glorious Angel to dwell in thine
house;" where learn all things answers to "he shall
teach you all things" (Joh. 14. 26). The thought of
the Spirit dwelling with a man enters into the version
of the Two Ways in Mand. vi., where Hermas asks
how he Is to know whether the two angels, of
Righteousness and Wickedness, are dwelling with
him (2. 2). The twelve virgins, Hkewise, if they
denote the Holy Spirit, should satisfy the condition of
being sent to dwell with the faithful ; who, without
the aid of the divine Spirit cannot keep the com
mandments of God. This condition they fully satisfy,
* But there are two Paracletes. We have a Paraclete with the
Father, Jesus Christ (i Joh. 2. i), who says, / will come to you (Joh.
14. 18), I am with you alway (Matt, 28, 20) ; and the Spirit of truth is
promised as "another Paraclete" (Joh. 14. 16).

132 HERMAS AND
for In Sim. Ix., before the vigil by the tower, they say
to Hermas, Thou art our brother, and henceforth we
shall dwell with thee (11. 3) ; and it is said that their
spirits remained with and never departed from the
foundation stones (15. 6). And In Sim.~x.. the superior
Angel counsels Hermas to keep the commandments
of the Shepherd, and sends him the virgins for his
spiritual direction, saying, " I have sent thee these
virgins to dwell with thee ; for I have seen that they
are courteous unto thee. Thou hast them therefore
as helpers, that thou mayest the better keep his com
mandments ; for without these virgins it is not possible
that they should be kept. I see that they like to be
with thee ; but I will command them that they depart
not at all from thy house. Only do thou cleanse thy
house, for In a cleanly house they like to dwell..,.
When he had thus said, he gave me again in charge
to the Shepherd, and called the virgins, and said unto
them. Seeing that ye like to dwell in this man's house,
I commend him and his house to you, that ye depart
not at all from his house" (2—3). The slmHItude
(and with It the whole work) ends somewhat strangely
as follows. When the Angel had done speaking with
me, he arose from the bed, and took the Shepherd and
the virgins and departed; sayitig however to me that he

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. I 33
would send back the Shepherd and the virgins to my
house. The departure and the promise are explained
by the promise (Luke 24. 49) of the Comforter, But
if I depart, I will send him unto you (Joh. 16. 7).
The Spirit of truth shall not speak of himself (^er. 13) :
the true prophet in Mand. xi. 5 speaks all things of
himself, in the sense that "whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak," unlike the deceiver who waits to
be enquired of by men, that he may prophesy accord
ing to their desires.
16 — 19, 32] The saying A little while &c. is em
phasised by repetition and pressed upon the attention
of the reader, the word fiiKpov, a little while, occurring
seven times in ver. 16 — 19. Accordingly in Sim. ix.,
when the visitation of the Lord of the tower is being
prepared for, the Shepherd in reply to the demand of
Hermas for explanation of what had been shewn him,
takes the word up and says, A little while I am pre
occupied, after which I will explain all things : wait
for me here till I come. I say to him. Sir, alone here
what should I do ? Thou art not (saith he) alone,
because these virgins are with thee (10. 5 — 6). Not
alone (ver. 32), because of the invisible presence of
these virgins, who are (as we have seen) the Holy
Spirit. Of a piece with this is the objective rendering

134 HERMAS AND
of Men loved darkness rather than light (Joh. 3. 19) In
Sim. ix. 13. 8, They loved {lneBvp,-t]<Tav) the women
in black [9. 5], and put on their power, and put off
the raiment or power of the virgins.
20 — 22] And ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow
shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is m
travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as
soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth
no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the
world. And ye now therefore have sorrow : but I will
see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your
joy no man taketh from you. Hermas in Vis. iii. 13
(p. 8), " For as when to one sorrowing come good
tidings he straightway forgetteth the former sorrows...
so ye too have received renewal of your spirits &c.",
seems to be adapting these verses to the case of the
Church personified, whereof "ye" the persons ad
dressed are members. For the figure of birth in
verse 21 he has new birth of the spirit. His word
dyyekta, tidings, is from I Joh. i. 5 and 3. 11, the only
occurrences of the word In the New Testament. He
further disguises the reference to the Gospel by writing
straightway forgetteth (Jas. i. 24) for "remembereth
no more." On the other hand, when in Vis. I. 3. 3 the
Church says to Hermas, yevov a/c/joaTT/s, be a hearer,

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 135
and when he proves a "forgetful hearer" (Jas. i, 25),
this is expressed as a not remembering, so as to
disguise the allusion to S, James. Notice the play
upon the "law of liberty" (Jas. i. 25) in Sim. v. 2. 2,
Keep this my commandment, and thou shalt be free.
The personification of the Church In the Shepherd
is of a very real and dramatic kind. On occasion
indeed she betrays her corporate character, but in
general her individuality is well marked and lifelike :
she converses with Hermas, addresses him by name,
gives him a book to read and copy : he calls her Lady,
would have her seated before him {Vis. iii, i, 8), prays
her by the Lord to shew him the promised vision (2, 3),
mistakes her identity at first (ii. 4. i ), perhaps on the
suggestion of chap. xx. 14. Is she the Elect Lady of
the Second Epistle of S. John ? This Lady has
children; and the Church addresses her children in
Vis. iii. 9. I. The "elect" of God are spoken of by
Hermas in Vis. I. ii. iii. Iv. only (Hilgf). S. John
prays the Lady "that we may love one another"
(ver. 5); where and In verse 13 she is addressed as
thee, but "In the Intermediate verses the plural is
used." Granted of her that, as Bp Westcott decides,
" No interpretation can be accepted as satisfactory,"
the allegorist (who was free to choose the sense which

136 HERMAS AND
best served his purpose) has made his Lady the Church
correspond in outline to the Elect Lady of S. John.
26] On pray the Father for you Bp Westcott
writes, " This use of ask {ipayrav) in connexion with
prayer addressed to God is peculiar to St John."
Notice its use in i Joh. 5. 16, "There is a sin unto
death : I do not say that he shall pray for it ; " com
paring In Vis. Hi., Hermas, cease praying always for
thy sins: pray for righteousness also (i. 6). All
prayer, says the Church, requires humility : fast there
fore and thou shalt receive what thou askest from the
Lord (10. 6). Pray the Lord that thou mayest receive
understanding &c. {Sim. ix. 2. 6).
Chap. xvii. i Father... glorify thy Son. 2 As thou
hast given him power over all fiesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. 4 I
have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
5 Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. 8 / have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me.
1 2 While I was with them in the world, I kept them
in thy name : those that thou gavest me I have kept.
2 1 That they all may be one &c. 24 Thou lovedst me
before the foundation of the world.

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 1 37
I — 12, 24] Returning to the parable of the Vine
yard we read in Sim. v. 6. 2 — 5, God planted the
vineyard, that is created the people, and gave them
In charge {trapi^oiK^v) to His Son (ver. 12); and the
Son set the angels over them to keep'^ them, and...
having Himself cleansed their sins, shewed them the
paths of life [Ps. 16. 11], having given them the law
which He received from His Father (ver. 8). Thou
seest, saith he, that He is Lord of the people, having
received all power from His Father. Now, that the
Lord took counsel with His Son and the glorious
angels, hearken. The preexistent Holy Spirit &c.
(p. 73). The bestowal of all power [Matt. 28. 18]
by the Father points to ver. i — 2 ; where moreover
the purpose of the gift is said to be that the Son
should give eternal Hfe to those given to Him. His
so doing is expressed above in terms of the Old
Testament, except that iBet^ev, shewed, may be from
chap. xiv. 6 — 8f, I am the way... shew us the Father.
The promise to the slave that he should be free irap'
* ^vvrrjpfiv, a word of the Synoptists, for rrjpelv (ver. 12).
+ With IVe know not whither thou goest (xiv. 5) compare the ending
of Vis. iv., and in Vis. i. 4. 3 irvayovaa. The word inar^nv is used about
80 times in the Synoptic and Johannine writings and but once besides
(Jas. 2. 16) in the New Testament. It is used in Joh. 3. 8 of the going of
the 'nvivpa, and in Vis. iii. S- 3 and Sim. ix. 3. 3 of the going of the
unhewn stones (p. 30), which are they that are " born of the Spirit."
T. H. 18

138 HERMAS AND
e/Aot, with me (2. 2), after finishing his task (2. 4), is a
promise of the fellowship with the Father after finished
work prayed for In verse 5, with thyself ...with thee.
The thought that the Son was temporarily in the
world and had charge in it of men gathered from It
(ver. 6 — 13) is obliquely but definitely expressed by
the placing of the slave in and in charge of the vine
yard, which was planted In a portion of the field (2. 2),
which is this world (5. 2), and by his eventual trans
ference to a higher sphere. The passages of the
Shepherd on the preexistence of Christ may be as
sumed to comprise a reference to His sayings, before
the world was... before the foundation of the world &c.
(ver. 5, 24). Notice the / am &c. of the Church
( Vis. HI. 3. 3), the beginning of the creation of God
(ii. 4. i), who as represented by the tower contains the
generations (p. 11) before Abraham (Joh. 8. 58).
2 1 ] The unification of believers Is a distinct feature
of the allegory of Hermas. In Vis. Hi. he says. The
stones did so cleave to one another that no join could
be seen ; but the building of the tower was as if it
were built of one stone (2, 6). Sim. ix. further
expresses their oneness with the rock, Christ, For
the tower was so built as if of one stone not having a
single join in it. The stone looked as if hewn out of

THE FOURTH GOSPEL, 1 39
the rock ; for it seemed a monolith unto me (9. 7).
And again. Therefore thou seest the tower as become
monolith with the rock. Thus also they that have
believed upon the Lord through His Son, and that
put on these spirits, shall become one spirit, one body,
and their garments of one colour (13. 5).
Chap, xviii. 27 Peter denied again.
Three of the Gospels record that Peter denied
again, and none uses the phrase in any other con
nexion. It is found In the remarkable passage of
Vis. ii.. Thou shalt say to Maximus, Behold affliction
cometh. If it seem good to thee, deny again. The
Lord is nigh unto them that turn to Him ; as It is
written in Eldad and Modat, who prophesied in the
wilderness to the people (3. 4). The name of Maximus,
whether a real personage or not, would serve to mask
an allusion to the chlefest of the Apostles. The
writer says satirically, Deny again, if It seem good to
thee, and repent when the trial is over ; trusting to
the assurance of those prophets of the people that
the Lord is always nigh unto them that turn to
Him. Mand. iv. 3. 6 allows but one repentance, and
condemns those who go on sinning and repenting.
The doubleminded or doubtful repent frequently

140 HERMAS AND
{Mand. xi. 4). "O thou of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt } "
Chap. xix. I Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and
scourged him. 1 1 Thou couldest have no power. . .except
it were given thee from above. 13 Pilate... brought
Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat. 23
Now the coat was without seam, woven from, the top
throughout. 24 They said therefore among themselves,
Let us not rend it.
I, 11] This scourging is implied, on the same prin
ciple as the Crucifixion, by the Church's claim to sit
upon the right hand (p. 51). Scourge may mean
plague also, as in Mark 3. 10; and the Church in
Vis. iv. says that the Almighty Is able to send plagues
upon the doubleminded (2. 6). The scourge of the
angel of retribution {Sim. vi. 2. 5) reminds of the
flagellum [Matt. 27. 26] of chap. Ii. 15 ; and for the
term "house" (Ii. 16) we may quote from Sim. ix.,
they remained in the house of God {12,. (j)... they shall
not enter into the house of God (14. i), comparing
Matt. 12. 4 for the words of the latter saying, and
Joh. 8. 35 for the idea of the former. That authority
and power 2xefrom above (ver. 1 1) is illustrated by the
force of dropping water and haH in Mand. xi, (p. 82).

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. I4I
13] Pilate sat down: or he caused Jesus to sit
down, "completing in this way the scene of the ' Ecce
Homo' by shewing the King on His throne." The
action may not seem to fall in with the position of
a Roman governor (Westcott), and New Testament
analogy may favour the intransitive rendering ; but
the other sense, though it be not the true one, is
grammatically possible, as in Vis. iii. 2. 4, where the
Church seats (Ka^i^et) Hermas upon the bench. At
tention has been called recently"" to the apparent ac
ceptance of the transitive rendering by Justin Martyr,
who relates In Apol. i. 35, as a fulfilment of prophecy,
that the Jews in derision set Jesus Christ upon a judg
ment seat {iKd0Lcrav iirl /Sifjaaros), and said. Judge for
us [Luke 12. 14]. It may have been his policy not to
implicate Pilate, but he refers to the Acts of Pilate.
In the case of the woman taken In adultery (p. 100),
we read in Apost. Const. 11. 24 that the elders devolved
the judgment upon Jesus,
23 — 24] Hermas, who lays stress upon the tower
being without apparent join, would have noticed the
sayings, The coat was without seam. ..Let us not rend
it; and he has himself a parable of a garment in
Sim. ix. 32, Amend therefore whHe yet the tower
* By Dr Drummond, cited by Salmon, Introd. to N. T. Led. 6.

142 HERMAS AND
Is being built. The Lord dwelleth in men that
love peace  Give back to Him therefore a spirit
whole as ye received it. For if thou shouldest have
given a new sound garment to a fuller, and he return
it rent, wilt thou not be at once angry, and reproach
him ?...And what thinkest thou the Lord will do to
thee, who gave thee a spirit unimpaired, which thou
hast altogether spoiled ? Some Latin Fathers make
the unrent " coat " of Christ emblematic of the Church
in its unity (Wordsworth). S. Cyprian in De Unit.
Feci. 7 (contrasting i Kings 11. 30 sq.) says that it
represents the close concord of such as have put on
Christ, which those who rend the Church cannot do ;
and it may be that Hermas was his forerunner In this
comparison. He makes a mystery of the "coats" of
the virgins, which they spread (Matt. 21. 8) on the
ground under him In Sim. ix. 11. 7, It would have
been nothing strange in such a writer to teach that, as
the chiton of Christ was not to be rent, so His disciples
should endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace (13, 5. vHI, 2. 3); but what could
possibly have led him to think In this connexion of a
garment given to a fuller to be scoured ? In one
place only of the New Testament the word fuller
Is found, and there it is said that no "fuller" on

THE FOURTH GOSPEL, 1 43
earth could whiten the glistering garments of Jesus
(P- Z1)- Chap, XX. 5 And he stooping down, and looking in,
saw the linen clothes lying ; yet went he not in. 6 Then
cometh Simon Peter following him, and wetit into the
sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7 And the
napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the
linen clothes. 9 As yet they knew not the scripture.
5 — 7] Hermas, awaiting the apparition of the
Church, says, " I see an ivory bench lying, and upon
the bench lay a linen bolster, and over it a linen towel
(Joh. 13. 4) of fine flax spread out. Seeing these
lying, and no one in the place, I became affrighted
(eK:^aju,/8os) &c." {Vis. HI. I. 4 — 5). The description
of these things lying, and no one in the place, points
to the Evangelist's impressive description of the linen
clothes lying in the vacant sepulchre. The occasions
also correspond, for the previous visions had pictured
the death and resurrection of the Church.
9] WhHe to Hermas In his visions there is no
Scripture but what he writes down on the authority
of the Church ( Vis. ii. 4. 3) or of the Shepherd
(v. 6), he gives us side-glances at the Scriptures
properly so called, and uses his own record of the

144 PIERMAS AND
revelation to himself as a symbol of them. The
Shepherd does not say to him. Search the scriptures
(p. 95), but instructs him to read his draft of the
mandates and similitudes without intermission (v. 5).
The Church lends him a booklet, written antiquely
without division into words, so that he can only copy
it letter for letter without understanding it (ii. 1,4);
but fifteen days later, after much fasting and prayer,
he has the knowledge of the writing revealed to him,
and he tells us what were the things-written (2, i).
This gnosis of the Scripture, which is a gift that
cometh from above, is what the disciples lacked when
as yet they knew not the scriptuj'c (ver. 9), which their
mind was afterwards opened to understand (Luke
24. 45). In like manner, when we read in Sim. v.
3, 7 that Hermas must quite-accomplish [Mark 13, 4]
the things written, this Is a reminder of the saying in
Luke 18, 31, All the things written by the prophets
concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
Chap. xxi. 18 Thou shalt stretch forth thy hands,
and another shall gird thee. 19 This spake he, sio-nify-
ing by what death he should glorify God. 25 And
there are also many otJur things which Jesus did, the
which, if they should be written every one, T suppose

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 145
that even the world itself could not contain the books
that should be written.
1 8] Tradition says that S. Peter was crucified with
his head downwards, and verse 1 8 is commonly thought
to point to the extension of his hands upon the Cross.
Some demur to this : but it matters little for our
purpose what sti^etch forth orlglnaHy meant, if only by
the time of Hermas it had come to be applied to the
Apostle's crucifixion. If Hermas, as we may assume,
took it In that sense, it would help to account for his
making his dragon of tribulation stretch itself forth
upon the ground, with allusion to the sign of the
Cross. The transition from man to beast might be
thought to be a difficulty. But Justin Martyr writes
that the mystery of the Paschal Lamb was a type of
Christ {Dial. 40), for other reasons and because it
was, as It were, crucified, one spit traversing the
length of its body, and the other going through it
crosswise, to which the hands of the lamb were attached.
Thus he sees the Crucifixion in the stretching out of
what he calls the " hands of the lamb."
25] Sim. Ix. 2. I shews the reverse side of this last
word of the Fourth Gospel by making the rock, the
Son of God, able to contain the whole world.
T. H. 19

146 HERMAS AND
The evidence adduced seems to justify the conclu
sion that the Gospel known to Hermas was (so to
say) a Diatessaron, having for its elements the Four
Gospels of to-day. The reader who would carry the
investigation further will find a revised text and a
translation of the Shepherd by Mr J. R. Harmer in
the late Bishop of Durham's posthumous second work
upon The Apostolic Fathers (1891).

The foregoing argument Is not opposed but sup
plementary to the reasoning which has led some writers
on Hermas and the Gospels to an opposite conclusion.
It has scarcely been denied that there are on the one
hand appearances of a use of the Gospels, and on the
other hand nulla certa vestigia, no indubitable traces
of them, in the Shepherd; and this has left Its readers
the option of inferring with more or less hesitation
that the writer knew the Gospels, or afiirming with
greater or less assurance that there is or may be some
better explanation of his apparent allusions to them.
In all this no account had been taken of the saying.
For the world also is compacted of four elements, which
sets the seal to the revelation to Hermas in Vis. HI.
But It was natural in one who wrote as Hermas wrote

THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 147
to hint at the Evangelium as Good Tidings; and when
this thin disguise was seen through, Irenaeus com
pleted the interpretation of the oracle, as is shewn
above in the Preface and in the chapter on Hermas
and the Four Gospels. The interpretation is simple
and adequate, and when rightly approached obvious,
and there is not, so far as I have observed, any other.
The detaHs of the "witness" of Hermas in the
subsequent chapters are not meant to stand alone as
proofs of his literary use of the Gospels, but to be
taken with and as verifications of the antecedent gene
ral proof that he accepted them; for which we are
entitled to claim validity until reason has been shewn
to the contrary. Of such verifications perhaps the
most convincing are some which are neither verbal
nor upon the surface, as those which postulate the
representation of the Holy Ghost by a catena of per
sonified fruits of the Spirit from Faith to Love. That
this was intended, Hermas tells us with comparative
plainness of speech ; and the identification of "these
spirits " and the Spirit was gradually found to lighten
one dark place after another "*'. I would add now that
* This identification was accepted in the first instance on the sugges
tion of words of Hermas, and was found to bear the test of application
to a number of passages which were obscure without it. Some of these

148 HERMAS AND THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
Hermas may have known the saying of Ignatius that
Faith and Love in one are God {Eph. 14).
The Shepherd has lately engaged the attention of
the learned author of the Agrapha (p. 105), who has
compiled a long list of references thereto in part
preparation for a general collection of extra-canonical
parallels to the Gospels. Of these references, the
majority of which are to the Synoptic Gospels, it is
Interesting to notice that some are to the last twelve
verses of S, Mark, In corroboration of the proof
from his own writings that Justin Martyr knew them
(p. 67), it is to be remarked that his disciple Tatian,
according to Professor Hemphill's account of his work
(1888), used a part or the whole of every one of the
twelve as material for his composite Gospel the
Diatessaron.
applications may or may not be new ; but the identification of the many
spirits with the One is to be found in the scanty but choice notes on the
Shepherd in the anonymous Oxford Barnabas and Hennas of 1685
[Bp Fell], and in quotations of them by Le Clerc and later writers. Fell
quotes Cotelier's reference on "sabano" in the Latin of Sim. viii. 4. i
(p. 120) to Clem. Alex. Paed. 11. 3, where it is said that Jesus girded
Himself a-apdva [for Xevrim].
The End.

CAMBRIDGK: PRINTED BV C. J. CLAY, M.A. & SONS, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

YALE UNIVERSITY UBRARY

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