Hermas
b. fl. c. mid-2nd century AD
Hermas was a Christian freedman living in Rome, probably in the early to mid-second century AD. His single surviving work, The Shepherd (Pastor Hermae), is one of the most widely read texts in the early church — so widely that some communities treated it as scripture, and it appears in the Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest complete biblical manuscripts.
The Shepherd is an apocalyptic text in three parts: five Visions, twelve Mandates (moral commandments), and ten Similitudes (parables). An angelic figure dressed as a shepherd delivers ethical instruction to Hermas, emphasising repentance, moral purity, and the urgency of the moment — there will be one more chance to repent, and then judgement. The theology is simple and practical rather than sophisticated. The writing is earnest, sometimes tedious, occasionally vivid. It gives us an unmatched window into the moral anxieties and social world of ordinary Roman Christians.
The Shepherd of Hermas is a lengthy apocalyptic text, probably composed in Rome over several decades in the first half of the second century. Divided...