THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS (Late 1st-mid-2nd cent.) Question on Disregarding the Woman's Words

[rako]

BACKGROUND:
The Shepherd of Hermas is once-widespread early Christian writing that presents itself as Hermas' account of encounters with Christ in the form of a Shepherd. The text was even included in some early copies of the Bible, but was eventually put outside of it. The Muratorian Canon says that the Shepherd was written "very recently", under the papacy of Pius I (140-155 AD). Yet in the text, the Shepherd tells Hermas to have Clement send the Shepherd's instructions abroad because this is Clement's duty, an apparent reference to the papacy of Clement, who died in the late 1st century. The Catholic Encyclopedia concludes:

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 “Perhaps the most probable view is that the historical data in the book are fictitious; the author was really the brother of Pope Pius, and wrote during his brother’s pontificate… The writer wished to be thought to belong to the preceding generation — hence the name of Clement, the most famous of earlier popes, instead of the name Pius.”

 Some of the Shepherd's instructions have potential problems. In Book I:2:3, he gives someone instructions to deny the faith under persecution saying, "Now you will tell Maximus: 'Lo! tribulation cometh on. If it seemeth good to thee, deny again. The Lord is near to them who return unto Him.'" In Book II, Commandment IV, Chapter I, the Shepherd said that husbands must divorce their wives if the latter persist in adultery, and contrary to Matthew 19:9, the Shepherd says that those same husbands commit adultery if they remarry.

 In Book II, Commandment III, the narrator tells the Shepherd that his pre-repentance sins include habitual lying, admitting "I never spake a true word in my life". The Shepherd in turn tells the narrator that if he repents and acts worthily, then his past lies could become credible and that people will believe them:

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And I said to him, "Never, sir, did I listen to these words [about honesty and morality] with so much attention."
And he said to me, "Now you hear them, and keep them, that even the falsehoods which you formerly told in your transactions may come to be believed through the truthfulness of your present statements. For even they can become worthy of credit.

 It sounds like the document could be justifying what the author recognizes are lies, on the basis of the author's truthfulness in relating the Shepherd's message. However, if the text supports people believing in what it recognizes to be lies, this actually seems to undermine the reliability and veracity of the text that the author wrote.

 While Church fathers used the Shepherd with respect, they also noted contrary views. The New World Encyclopedia notes about the Shepherd of Hermas that, "Though Clement of Alexandria constantly quotes with reverence a work that seems to him to be very useful, and inspired; yet he repeatedly apologizes, when he has occasion to quote it, on the ground that 'many people despise it.'" Although Tertullian used the Shepherd himself as a theological source, he also wrote to Callixtus I, "I would admit your argument, if the writing of the Shepherd... were not judged by every council of the Churches, even of your own Churches, among the apocryphal and false." Eusebius in the fourth century characterized the Shepherd of Hermas among the books that he called "Notha", meaning "spurious", "illegitimate", or "false". One can think that false/spurious means that the books is not what it purports to be. ie. the Shepherd purports to be one Hermas' real vision of Jesus, but it isn't actually by Hermas or else it isn't a real vision.

(Question) Does it sound strange or wrong when in Vision IV, Chapters 1-2 (below), the Church in the form of a woman says that those hear and despise the woman’s words in the passage would be better off not having been born?

First, in Book I, Vision IV, Chpt.1, the narrator gathers his faith when encountering a beast and it doesn't hurt him. The woman explains that the beast was a figure/type of tribulation, and that he escaped harm because he wasn't double-minded / doubting when in the beast's presence:

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I see the dust rising more and more, so that I imagined that it was something sent from God. But the sun now shone out a little, and, lo! I see a mighty beast like a whale, and out of its mouth fiery locusts proceeded. But the size of that beast was about a hundred feet, and it had a head like an urn. I began to weep, and to call on the Lord to rescue me from it. Then I remembered the word which I had heard, "Doubt not, O Hermas." Clothed, therefore, my brethren, with faith in the Lord, and remembering the great things which He had taught me, I boldly faced the beast. Now that beast came on with such noise and force, that it could itself have destroyed a city. I came near it, and the monstrous beast stretched itself out on the ground, and showed nothing but its tongue, and did not stir at all until I had passed by it.
(Roberts' translation)

Then in Vision IV, Chapter 2 , the woman (the Church) tells him: "You have escaped great tribulation through your faith, and because you were not double-minded when you saw so great a beast." (Lake's translation), or: "You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast."(Robert's translation)

 The teaching in this passage resembles that in Revelation 3:10, in which Christ tells the Christians of Philadelphia, "Because thou didst keep the word of my endurance, I also will keep thee from the hour of the trial (πειρασμοῦ: experiment, testing, calamity, temptation) that is about to come upon all the world, to try those dwelling upon the earth." The Russian theologian Lopukhin interprets this as a particular reward given to the Philadelphian Christians for their patient endurance.

Here is the full quote of her words:

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Roberts' & Donaldson's Translation
...You have escaped from great tribulation on account of your faith, and because you did not doubt in the presence of such a beast. Go, therefore, and tell the elect of the Lord His mighty deeds, and say to them that this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly. Cast your cares upon the Lord, and He will direct them. Trust the Lord, ye who doubt, for He is all-powerful, and can turn His anger away from you, and send scourges on the doubters. Woe to those who hear these words, and despise ( παρακούσασιν) them: better were it for them not to have been born.

Lake's Translation:
4. "You did well to escape it," she said, "because you cast your care upon God, and opened your heart to the Lord, believing that salvation can be found through nothing save through the great and glorious name. Therefore the Lord sent his angel, whose name is Thegri, [FOOTNOTE 1] who is over the beast, 'and shut his mouth that he should not hurt you.' You have escaped great tribulation through your faith, and because you were not double-minded when you saw so great a beast.
5. Go then and tell the Lord's elect ones of his great deeds, and tell them that this beast is a type of the great persecution which is to come. If then you are prepared beforehand, and repent with all your hearts towards the Lord, you will be able to escape it, if your heart be made pure and blameless, and you serve the Lord blamelessly for the rest of the days of your life. 'Cast your cares upon the Lord' and he will put them straight.
6. Believe on the Lord, you who are double-minded, that he can do all things, and turns his wrath away from you, and sends scourges on you who are double-minded. Woe to those who hear these words and disobey (παρακούσασιν); it were better for them not to have been born."

FOOTNOTE 1:
No other mention of this Angel is found in Jewish or Christian literature, and no suitable meaning has been suggested for Thegri. Dr. Rendel Harris suggests Segri as an emendation, connecting it with the Hebrew word meaning ' to shut ' (sagar), found in Dan. 6, 22.

 

The Greek word here is παρακούσασιν, or "parakouó". According to Strong's Concordance, it means to overhear, to hear amiss, or to take no heed; it used in the sense of (A) hear carelessly or incidentally, or pretend not to hear; or (B) refuse to hear; disobey, disregard.

Before even getting into the substance of the woman's words in the passage above, it's hard to agree that people who disregard the words would be better off not born because: 1) The document has theological problems, the narrator's admissions of past habitual dishonesty, and justifications for lies, which could all reasonably lead someone to consider the document unreliable. 2) We know that a lot early Christians, including the councils that Tertullian referred to, did disregard the text as "notha" (spurious/false).

The woman's message includes:

1. The name of the Lord's angel who is over the beast (the tribulation) and whom the Lord sent to shut its mouth is "Thegri".
2. If you are prepared beforehand, repent with all your hearts towards the Lord, if your heart be made pure and blameless, and you serve the Lord blamelessly for the rest of the days of your life, then you will be able to escape the coming great persecution of which Hermas' beast was a prefigurement.
3. God sends scourges on you who are double-minded.

I am reluctant to agree that those who disregard any of these statements by the woman would be better off not being born. Regarding the name "Thegri", Lake notes: "No other mention of this Angel is found in Jewish or Christian literature", so it seems hard to so severely require belief in Statement #1. There were plenty of famous martyrs from the 1st-2nd century, from Peter in the first to Justin Martyr in the second, and their martyrdom is not considered a result of a failure to repent, have a pure heart, etc. So it seems questionable that such impeccability will allow Christians to escape the persecution. It seems that despite Statement #2, the faithful did suffer persecution, that their confidence when facing persecution actually served as a witness to the strength of their faith, and that their impeccability did not keep them from the persecution, even though their steadfastness did help the Church to survive and grow during the persecution. Finally, no Biblical authority comes to mind that says that God scourges the double-minded in particular. In the Book of Job, God sent scourges on Job regardless of his faithfulness and piety. It seems that contrary to the sense of Statement #3, God sends scourges both on the fully pious and on the double-minded.

 

[rako]

I suppose that # 2 and # 3 above are the only parts that she means when she says "these words", because they are her direct message to the Christians.

[rako]

I feel that I solved this question just in the course of thinking through it so closely. Sometimes actually writing out a problem like this can lead someone to the answer. Basically Yes, the woman's claim does sound weird or wrong when she says that those who don't heed her message quoted would have been better off not born.

[Guest]

On 7/1/2019 at 3:35 PM, rako said:

Sometimes actually writing out a problem like this can lead someone to the answer.

For me also.

[rako]

Nice.