Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others: The Apostolic Fathers
The Plainspoken Classics - Scriptorium Press (First Edition, 2026)
An original AI translation made directly from the source language.
https://openscriptorium.com


======== Didache — 1-16 ========

Two roads lie before you: the road of life, and the road of death — and the gap that divides them is vast. Now the road of life is this: first, you shall love God who made you; second, your neighbor as yourself; and everything you would not want done to you, do not do to another. This, then, is the substance of that teaching: speak well of those who call down curses on you, offer prayer on behalf of your enemies, and keep fast for those who persecute you. For what credit is it if you love those who love you? Do not even the nations do the same? But you — love those who hate you, and you will have no enemy. Keep away from the cravings of the flesh and the body. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well, and you will be complete. If someone presses you into service for one mile, go with him two. If someone takes your cloak, give him your tunic too. If someone takes from you what is yours, do not demand it back — you cannot anyway. Give to everyone who asks of you, and do not demand it back; for the Father wills that all be given a share of his own gifts. Blessed is the one who gives according to the commandment, for he is without blame. Woe to the one who takes: if a person takes because he has need, he will be blameless; but the one who takes without need will answer for why he took, and for what. Put under confinement, he will be examined about what he has done, and he will not come out of there until he has paid back the last small coin. But about this too it has been said: let your almsgiving sweat in your hands until you know whom you are giving it to.
The second commandment of the teaching: you shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not corrupt the young; you shall not be sexually immoral; you shall not steal; you shall not practice magic; you shall not mix poisons and potions; you shall not destroy a child before birth, nor kill one that is born; you shall not covet what belongs to your neighbor. You shall not swear falsely, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not speak evil of anyone, you shall not hold grudges. Do not be two-faced in mind or speech, since a forked tongue lays a trap leading to death. Let your word never be hollow or deceptive — let it instead be weighted with action. You shall not be greedy, or grasping, or a hypocrite, or malicious, or arrogant. You shall not take up an evil plan against your neighbor. You shall not hate any human being: some you shall correct, for some you shall pray, and some you shall love beyond your own life.
My child, flee from everything evil and from everything like it. Do not become angry, for anger leads to murder; nor jealous, nor quarrelsome, nor hot-tempered, for from all these things murders are born. My child, do not become a craver, for craving leads to immorality; nor foul-mouthed, nor one who lets his eyes wander high, for from all these things adulteries are born. My child, do not turn to reading omens, for that path ends in the worship of idols; do not become a charmer, a stargazer, or one who performs rites of purification — do not so much as wish to watch such practices, since idol-worship is born out of all of them. My child, do not become a liar, since lying leads to theft; nor a lover of money, nor hungry for empty glory, for from all these things thefts are born. My child, do not become a grumbler, since it leads to blasphemy; nor self-willed, nor evil-minded, for from all these things blasphemies are born. Be gentle instead, since the gentle will inherit the earth. Become patient, and merciful, and guileless, and quiet, and good, trembling always at the words you have heard. You shall not exalt yourself, nor give your soul over to insolence. Your soul shall not cling to the lofty; you shall keep company with the just and the lowly. The things that happen to you, receive as good, knowing that apart from God nothing happens.
My child, the one who speaks the word of God to you — remember him night and day, and honor him as the Lord; for where the Lord's rule is spoken of, there the Lord is. And seek out daily the company of the saints, so that you may find rest in their words. Do not long for division; make peace between those who fight. Judge justly; do not show favoritism when correcting failings. Do not waver about whether a thing shall be or not. Do not be one who stretches out his hands to receive and pulls them back from giving. If you have earned something by your hands, give it as a ransom for your sins. Do not hesitate to give, and do not grumble while giving; for you will come to know who the good paymaster of the reward is. Do not turn away the person in need; share everything with your brother, and do not say that anything is your own. For if you are partners in what is immortal, how much more in the things that die? Do not lift your hand from your son or your daughter; from their youth teach them the fear of God. Do not give orders in your bitterness to your slave or your servant girl — they hope in the same God — or they may stop fearing the God who is over you both; for he does not come to call people according to rank, but comes to those whom the Spirit has made ready. And you who are slaves: submit to your masters as to an image of God, with modesty and fear. Detest every form of pretense, and anything at all that displeases the Lord. Do not abandon the Lord's commandments; guard what you have received, neither adding nor taking away. In the assembly, confess your failings openly, and do not come to your prayer with a bad conscience. This is the road of life.
As for the road of death, it runs like this: above all, this road is wicked, saturated through with cursing — murders, adulteries, cravings, immoralities, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, poisonings, plunderings, false testimonies, hypocrisies, a divided heart, deceit, arrogance, malice, self-will, greed, filthy talk, jealousy, insolence, haughtiness, boastfulness. Persecutors of the good; haters of truth; lovers of the lie; not knowing the reward of righteousness; not holding to the good or to just judgment; wide awake not for the good but for evil; far from gentleness and endurance; loving what is worthless; hunting repayment; showing no mercy to the poor; not laboring for the worn-down; not knowing the one who made them; killers of children; destroyers of what God has shaped; who turn away the needy and grind down the afflicted; advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor — sinners through and through. Children, may you be rescued from all of this.
See that no one leads you astray from this road of the teaching, since such a person teaches you apart from God. For if you can carry the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be complete; but if you cannot, do what you can. And concerning food, carry what you can; but keep strictly away from what has been sacrificed to idols, for that is worship of dead gods.
Concerning baptism, baptize this way: having first said all these things aloud, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, using running water. If you have no running water, baptize in still water instead; and if cold water is not possible, use warm. If neither is available, pour water over the head three times, invoking the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Before the baptism, let the baptizer fast, and the one being baptized, and any others who are able; and instruct the one being baptized to fast one or two days beforehand.
Do not schedule your fasting to match that of the hypocrites, since their fast days are the second and fifth days of the week; instead fast on the fourth day and on preparation day. Nor should your prayers mimic the hypocrites' — pray instead in the manner the Lord laid down in his gospel, as follows: Our Father in heaven, let your name be held holy, let your kingdom come, let your will come to pass, as in heaven so also on earth. Give us today our bread for the day ahead, and forgive us our debt as we too forgive our debtors, and do not bring us into trial, but rescue us from the evil one — for yours is the power and the glory forever. Pray this way three times a day.
Concerning the thanksgiving meal, give thanks this way. First, over the cup: We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of David your servant, which you made known to us through Jesus your servant; to you be the glory forever. And over the broken loaf: We give you thanks, our Father, for the life and the understanding you disclosed to us through Jesus your servant; to you be glory forever. Just as this bread, once scattered as grain across the hillsides, was brought together and made one, so may your church be drawn in from every corner of the earth into your kingdom; for the glory and the dominion are yours through Jesus Christ, unto the ages. And let no one eat or drink from your thanksgiving meal except those baptized into the name of the Lord; for about this too the Lord has spoken: do not give what is holy to the dogs.
And after you are filled, give thanks this way: We give you thanks, holy Father, for your holy name, which you caused to dwell within us, and for the understanding, the faith, and the deathlessness you revealed to us through Jesus your servant; to you be glory forever. You, Master, ruler of all, created all things for the sake of your name; food and drink you gave to human beings for enjoyment, so that they might thank you; yet to us you have granted food and drink of the Spirit, together with life without end, through your servant. Before all things we thank you because you are mighty; to you be the glory forever. Remember, Lord, your assembly: rescue it from everything evil and complete it in your love, and gather it from the four winds — this assembly you have made holy — into your kingdom, which you have prepared for it; for yours is the power and the glory forever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away. Hosanna to the God of David. Whoever is holy, let him approach; whoever is not, let him turn and repent. Our Lord, come! Amen. But allow the prophets to give thanks as much as they wish.
Whoever comes, then, and teaches you all these things said before — receive him. But if the teacher himself turns and teaches another teaching, one that pulls all this down, do not listen to him; but if what he teaches builds up righteousness and deepens one's acquaintance with the Lord, then welcome that person as you would the Lord himself. Concerning the apostles and prophets, act according to the rule of the gospel, thus: let every apostle who comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not stay more than one day — or, if there is need, a second as well; if he stays three, he is a false prophet. And when the apostle leaves, let him take nothing but bread, enough until his next lodging; if he asks for money, he is a false prophet. And you shall not test or pass judgment on any prophet speaking in the spirit; for every sin will be forgiven, but this sin will not be forgiven. Yet not everyone who speaks in the spirit is a prophet — only if he has the ways of the Lord. So from their ways the false prophet and the prophet will be known. No prophet who, in the spirit, orders a table to be set shall eat from it; otherwise he is a false prophet. Every prophet who teaches the truth but does not do what he teaches is a false prophet. But every prophet who has been tested and found true, who acts out the earthly mystery of the assembly yet does not teach others to do all that he himself does, shall not be judged among you — his judgment rests with God; for the ancient prophets acted the same way. And whoever says in the spirit, Give me money, or anything else — do not listen to him; but if he says to give for the sake of others who lack, let no one judge him.
Welcome anyone who arrives invoking the Lord's name; then, having put him to the test, you will come to know him — for you will possess the discernment to tell right from left. If the person is only passing through, assist him however you are able; but he may lodge with you no longer than two or three days, should there be genuine need. If he wants to settle among you and has a craft, let him work and let him eat. If he has no craft, use your judgment and plan how he shall not live idle among you as a Christian. And if he will not act this way, he is making merchandise of Christ. Watch out for such people.
But every true prophet who wants to settle among you deserves his food. Likewise a true teacher: he too, like the worker, deserves his food. So you shall take every firstfruit of the produce of winepress and threshing floor, of cattle and of sheep, and give the firstfruit to the prophets; for they are your high priests. If you have no prophet, give it to the poor. When you bake a batch of bread, set aside its first portion and give it as the commandment directs. In the same way, whenever you broach a container of wine or oil, set aside the first portion and present it to the prophets; and of money and clothing and every possession, take the firstfruit as seems right to you, and give according to the commandment.
On the Lord's own day, gather together, break bread, and give thanks, having first confessed your failings openly, so that your sacrifice may be pure. And let no one who has a quarrel with his companion join you until the two are reconciled, so that your sacrifice is not defiled. For this is the saying spoken by the Lord: In every place and time, offer me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great king, says the Lord, and my name is a wonder among the nations.
Appoint for yourselves, then, overseers and servants worthy of the Lord — men who are gentle, not lovers of money, truthful, and tested; for they too perform for you the service of the prophets and teachers. So do not look down on them, for they are your honored ones, together with the prophets and teachers. When you correct each other, do it without anger, in a spirit of peace, following what the gospel teaches you; and if anyone wrongs another, let no one speak to him, and let him hear nothing from you, until he repents. And your prayers and your alms and all your actions — do them as you have it in the gospel of our Lord.
Keep watch over your life. Do not let your lamps go out, and do not let your belts come loose; be ready, for you do not know the hour in which our Lord is coming. Gather together often, seeking what is fitting for your souls; for the whole time of your faith will be no use to you if you are not made complete in the final season. In the final days, deceptive prophets and those who corrupt others will grow numerous, the sheep will turn into wolves, and love will turn into hate. As lawlessness grows, people will hate one another and persecute and betray; and then the deceiver of the world will appear as a son of God, and will do signs and wonders, and the earth will be handed over into his hands, and he will do outrages such as have never been done since the beginning of the age. Then the whole human creation will come into the fire of testing, and many will stumble and be lost; but those who endure in their faith will be saved out from under that very curse. And then the signs of the truth will appear: first the sign of an opening spread across heaven, then the sign of a trumpet's voice, and third, the resurrection of the dead — though not the resurrection of everyone — rather, as the saying goes: the Lord shall arrive, and every one of his holy ones together with him. And then the world will behold the Lord arriving above the clouds of the sky.

======== 1 Clement — preface-15 ========

The church of God residing as a foreigner in Rome to the church of God residing as a foreigner in Corinth, to those who are called and sanctified through the will of God, in our Lord Jesus Christ: may grace and peace from God Almighty be multiplied to you through Jesus Christ.
Beloved, because of the sudden and repeated disasters and setbacks that have come upon us, we consider that we have been somewhat slow in turning our attention to the matters you have been asking about — that shameful and unholy rebellion, so foreign and alien to God's chosen ones, which a few brazen and headstrong individuals fanned into such a frenzy of madness that your good name, so revered, so celebrated, and so deserving of everyone's affection, was gravely maligned. For who that stayed among you did not put your all-virtuous and steadfast faith to the test? Who did not marvel at your sound and gentle piety in Christ? Who did not proclaim the magnificent character of your hospitality? Who did not call blessed your complete and unshakeable knowledge? For you did everything without favoritism and walked in the ordinances of God, submitting to your leaders and paying the honor due to your elders. You directed the young to think modest and dignified thoughts. You instructed the women to perform all their duties with a blameless, dignified, and unsullied conscience, loving their own husbands just as is proper; and, keeping to the rule of submission, to manage their households with dignity, in complete soundness of mind.
And all of you were humble-minded, boasting of nothing, submitting rather than requiring it, taking greater joy in giving than in receiving. Content with what Christ supplied for the journey, and paying attention to his words, you had taken them to heart with care, and his sufferings were before your eyes. So a deep and rich peace was given to all of you, and an insatiable longing to do good, and a full outpouring of the Holy Spirit came upon everyone. Full of holy purpose, in good eagerness and with reverent confidence you stretched out your hands to Almighty God, begging him to be merciful if you had sinned in anything unwillingly. Your struggle, day and night, was on behalf of the whole brotherhood, that the number of his chosen might be saved with mercy and a clear conscience. You were sincere and innocent and bore no grudges against one another. Every rebellion and every division was detestable to you. You grieved over the missteps of your neighbors; you counted their shortcomings as your own. You never regretted any good deed, but were ready for every good work. Adorned with a wholly virtuous and honorable way of life, you carried out everything in the fear of him; his commands and just decrees were inscribed upon the tablets of your hearts.
Every kind of glory and enlargement was given to you, and what was written came to pass: he ate and drank, and grew wide, and grew fat, and the beloved kicked out. From this arose envy and jealousy, discord and faction, persecution and turmoil, war and exile. Thus the disgraced rose up against those held in honor, the obscure against the renowned, fools set themselves against the wise, and the young defied their elders. Because of this, righteousness and peace stand far off, since each person has abandoned the fear of God and grown dim-sighted in faith toward him, neither walking by the ordinances of his commands nor living as citizens in a manner fitting for Christ, but each going about according to the desires of his own wicked heart, having taken up an unjust and irreverent jealousy, through which death itself entered the world.
For it is written thus: And it happened after some days that Cain brought an offering to God from the fruits of the earth, and Abel also brought an offering from the firstborn of his sheep and from their fat. And God looked with favor on Abel and on his gifts, but on Cain and his sacrifices he paid no attention. And Cain was greatly grieved, and his face fell. And God said to Cain: Why have you become so grieved, and why has your face fallen? If you offer rightly but do not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be still — his desire is turned toward you, and you will rule over him. And Cain said to his brother Abel: Let us go out to the field. And it happened that while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. You see, brothers, jealousy and envy brought about the murder of a brother. Because of jealousy our father Jacob fled from the presence of Esau his brother. Jealousy caused Joseph to be persecuted even to the point of death and to be brought into slavery. Jealousy compelled Moses to flee from Pharaoh the king of Egypt's presence, after he heard this from a fellow countryman: Who made you a judge or a ruler over us? Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? Because of jealousy Aaron and Miriam were made to camp outside the camp. Jealousy brought Dathan and Abiram down alive into Hades, because they rose up in rebellion against Moses, the servant of God. Because of jealousy David suffered envy, not only from foreigners, but was even hunted down by Saul, king of Israel.
But let us leave the examples of ancient times and come to those who contended nearest to our own day. Let us take up the noble examples that belong to our own generation. Out of envy and rivalry the greatest and most upright pillars of the church suffered persecution and struggled even unto death. Let us bring before our eyes the noble apostles: Peter, who because of unjust envy endured not one or two but many hardships, and having thus borne his witness went to the place of glory due him. Because of envy and contention Paul demonstrated how to win the prize for endurance: seven times he was bound in chains, driven out, stoned, and became a herald in both the East and the West, earning the noble renown due to his trust in God, after instructing the entire world in righteousness, and having arrived at the farthest point of the West and testified before the rulers, he thus departed from this world and was received into the holy place, becoming the greatest model of steadfast endurance.
Around these men who lived so devoutly there gathered a great multitude of the chosen, who, having suffered many outrages and torments because of jealousy, became a most excellent example among us. Because of jealousy, women persecuted as Danaids and Dircae, suffering terrible and unholy abuses, reached the sure finish line of the faith and received a noble prize, weak as they were in body. Envy estranged wives from their husbands and corrupted the very words spoken by our father Adam: This at last is bone out of my own bones, and flesh out of my own flesh. Jealousy and strife have overturned great cities and uprooted great nations.
Beloved, in writing these things we are not merely correcting you, but reminding ourselves as well, since we stand in the very same contest and face the very same struggle. Let us therefore set aside empty and worthless anxieties, and turn to the noble and venerable standard handed down to us, and consider what is pleasing, delightful, and acceptable in the sight of our Maker. Let us gaze upon the blood of Christ and recognize how precious it is in the eyes of his Father, seeing that, shed for our salvation, it offered the grace of repentance to the whole world. Let us pass through all the generations and learn that in generation after generation the Master has given a place for repentance to those willing to turn to him. Noah preached repentance, and those who listened were saved. Jonah preached destruction to the Ninevites, but they, repenting of their sins, appeased God through their prayers and received salvation, even though they were strangers to God.
The ministers of the grace of God, speaking through the Holy Spirit, spoke concerning repentance. And the Master of all things himself spoke of repentance, confirming it with an oath: As surely as I live, declares the Lord, it is not the sinner's death I want, but rather his turning back — adding also this gracious word: Turn back, house of Israel, from your lawless ways; I have spoken to the children of my people. Even if your sins extend from the ground up to the sky, and even if they are more crimson than scarlet thread and darker than sackcloth, yet should you return to me with your entire heart and say, 'Father' — I will heed you as a consecrated nation. And in another place he speaks thus: Bathe and make yourselves clean; remove the evils of your souls from before my eyes; stop your wrongdoing; learn how to act rightly; pursue justice; free the one being oppressed; render a fair verdict for the fatherless and secure justice for the widow. Come, then, and let us argue the matter together, says the Lord: even if your sins are crimson-red, I shall bleach them like snow; and if they are deep scarlet, I shall bleach them like wool. And if you are willing and pay heed to me, you shall feast on the good produce of the land; but if you refuse and will not heed me, the sword shall consume you — for the mouth of the Lord has pronounced this. Wishing, then, that all his beloved should share in repentance, he established this by his own almighty resolve.
Therefore let us obey his magnificent and glorious will, and, becoming suppliants of his mercy and kindness, let us fall before him and turn to his compassion, leaving behind the futile toil, the strife, and the jealousy that leads to death. Let us fix our eyes on those who have perfectly served his magnificent glory. Let us take Enoch, who, found righteous through obedience, was carried off, and his death was never found. Noah, found faithful through his ministry, preached new birth to the world, and through him the Master preserved the living creatures that entered the ark in harmony.
Abraham, known as God's friend, was found faithful in becoming obedient to what God said. Through obedience he departed from his own country, his relatives, and his father's household, so that, leaving behind a small territory, a modest set of relations, and an unassuming home, he might come into possession of God's promises. For God tells him: Leave your country, your relatives, and your father's household, and go to the land I will point out to you; I will turn you into a mighty nation, bless you, magnify your name, and you will become a blessing; those who bless you I will bless, and those who curse you I will curse, and through you every family on earth will find blessing. And again, once he had parted ways with Lot, God told him: Raise your eyes and survey the land from where you now stand — north, south, east, and toward the sea — for I am giving to you and to your descendants forever all the land you can see. I will make your descendants as numerous as the sand of the earth; if anyone could count the grains of sand on the earth, then your descendants too could be counted. And again it says: God led Abraham outside and told him: Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to number them — such will your descendants be. And Abraham put his trust in God, and this was reckoned to him as righteousness. Because of his faith and hospitality, he was granted a son in his old age, and through obedience he presented that son as an offering to God upon the mountain that God had pointed out to him.
Because of his hospitality and piety, Lot escaped the destruction of Sodom, at the time when the whole surrounding district was condemned by fire and brimstone — the Master thereby making clear that he does not forsake those who place their hope in him, while he subjects the wavering to chastisement and suffering. For when his wife left with him, holding a different view and not of one mind with him, this was made a sign, in that she turned into a pillar of salt, remaining so to this day, so that everyone might know that the double-minded, those uncertain of God's power, become an example of judgment for every generation.
Because of faith and hospitality Rahab the prostitute was saved. For when the spies sent out by Joshua son of Nun went to Jericho, the king of that land learned that they had come to spy out the country, and he sent men to seize them, so that once seized they might be put to death. So the hospitable Rahab took them in and hid them in the upper room under the flax stalks. And when the king's men stood before her and said: The spies of our land came to you; bring them out, for so the king commands — she answered: The men you seek did indeed come to me, but they left at once and are on their way, showing them a different road. And she said to the men: I know for certain that the Lord your God is delivering this land to you, for fear and dread of you has fallen upon those who live in it. So when it happens that you take it, save me and my father's household. And they said to her: It will be just as you have spoken to us. So when you learn that we are approaching, gather all your people under your own roof, and they will be saved; for whoever is found outside the house will perish. And they agreed to give her a token: she was to hang a scarlet thread out from her house, signifying clearly that redemption comes to all who believe and hope in God through the blood of the Lord. You see, beloved, that in this woman there was not only faith but also prophecy.
Let us therefore be humble-minded, brothers, laying aside all haughtiness, conceit, folly, and anger, and let us act according to what is written; for the Holy Spirit says: The wise person must not glory in wisdom, nor the powerful one glory in power, nor the wealthy one glory in wealth, but whoever glories should glory in the Lord, seeking him out and practicing justice and righteousness — recalling above all the sayings of the Lord Jesus that he uttered while teaching gentleness and forbearance. For he said this: Show mercy, so that you may be shown mercy; forgive, so that it may be forgiven you; as you do, so it will be done to you; as you give, so it will be given to you; as you judge, so you will be judged; as you are kind, so kindness will be shown to you; with the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you. With this command and with these instructions let us strengthen ourselves to walk in obedience to his holy words, being humble-minded; for the holy word says: On whom shall I look, except on the one who is gentle and quiet and trembles at my words.
It is right and holy, then, brothers, that we submit to God instead of falling in with those who, through arrogance and turmoil, have made themselves ringleaders of a loathsome envy. For we would incur no small injury, but rather grave danger, were we recklessly to surrender ourselves to the whims of people who hurl themselves into strife and factions, thereby estranging us from what is good. Let us show one another kindness, in keeping with the tenderness and mercy of our Maker. For it is written: The kind will dwell in the land, and the innocent will be left upon it, but transgressors will be cut off from it. And again it says: I saw a wicked man exalted on high, towering like the cedar trees of Lebanon; then I moved on, and look — he was gone; I sought out his place, and could not find it. Guard blamelessness and look toward what is right, for there is a future reserved for the peaceable man.
So let us cling to those who live peaceably in reverence, and not to those who wish for peace only in pretense. For it says somewhere: This people pays me honor with their lips, yet their heart keeps its distance from me. And again: Their mouths speak blessing, while their hearts hold a curse. And again it says: They professed affection for him with their mouths, and deceived him with their tongues, yet their hearts were not steady toward him, nor did they keep faith with his covenant. Therefore let the treacherous lips that utter lawlessness against the righteous be silenced. And again: May the Lord wipe out every treacherous lip, every tongue that speaks arrogantly, those who declare: We will make our tongue mighty, our lips belong to us alone — who has authority over us? Because of the affliction of the poor and the sighing of the needy, I will rise up now, says the Lord; I will set him in the safety he longs for; I will act with confidence on his behalf.

======== 1 Clement — 16-31 ========

For Christ belongs to the humble-minded, not to those who lift themselves up over his flock. The scepter of God's majesty, our Lord Jesus Christ, did not appear amid arrogant display or pride, though this lay within his power; rather he came in a lowly spirit, exactly as the Holy Spirit had foretold concerning him. For the word runs: 'Lord, who has trusted what we heard, and to whom has the Lord's arm been disclosed? We proclaimed him, before the Lord's face, as an infant, as a root planted in parched soil; no shape was his, no splendor - when we looked upon him he possessed neither beauty nor comeliness, but his appearance was without honor, lesser than that of ordinary men; a man acquainted with suffering, versed in bearing infirmity, for his face was averted; he was despised and held in no regard. Yet this is the one carrying our offenses and enduring grief for our sake, while we reckoned him stricken, afflicted, and brought low. He, though, was pierced on account of our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities; correction bringing us peace rested upon him, and by his wound we were made whole. We had all wandered like sheep, each turning aside to a private path, and the Lord laid upon him the guilt belonging to us all; and because he was oppressed he refuses to open his mouth. Like a lamb brought toward the slaughter, or a sheep dumb before its shearer, so he keeps his mouth shut. His sentence was lifted away amid his degradation - who shall recount his lineage? For his life is carried off from the earth. Because of my people's transgressions he goes to his death; and I will hand over the wicked in return for his burial, and the rich in return for his death, for he had done no wrong, nor was any deceit discovered in his speech. Yet it pleased the Lord to purify him from his affliction; should you present an offering for sin, your soul shall behold offspring living long. And the Lord desired to relieve him of his soul's torment, granting him light and shaping him with insight, and to acquit the just one who serves many well; and their transgressions he himself will carry. Therefore he shall receive many as his inheritance and shall share the plunder of the mighty, since his soul was given over to death and he was numbered among transgressors; and he it was who bore the sin of many and was delivered up on their account.' And elsewhere he himself declares: 'Yet I am a worm, not even a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. Everyone watching me jeered, curling their lips and wagging their heads: He put his hope in the Lord - let him deliver him, let him rescue him, since he takes delight in him.' Observe, beloved, what a model has been set before us. For if the Lord humbled himself to this degree, what ought we to do, we who through him have entered under the yoke of his grace?
Let us also imitate those who went about clothed in goatskins and sheepskins, heralds of Christ's coming - Elijah, I mean, and Elisha, and likewise Ezekiel among the prophets, along with the other well-attested figures of old. Abraham stood in high repute and was named God's friend, and beholding the divine glory he spoke in a humble spirit: 'Yet I am only dust and ashes.' Concerning Job it stands written: 'Job was upright, blameless, honest, reverent toward God, and kept himself apart from every wrong.' Even so he condemns himself, saying: 'No one is free from stain, not though his days on earth number but one.' Of Moses scripture records that he proved trustworthy throughout God's whole household, and by his ministry God brought plagues and afflictions upon Egypt; yet this man, for all his renown, spoke of himself with no arrogance at all - when the oracle addressed him from the bush he answered: 'Who am I, that you would send me? My voice falters and my tongue is slow.' And once more he says: 'I am nothing but a wisp of smoke rising from a pot.'
Now what shall we say of David, a man well attested, of whom God declared: 'I have discovered one after my own heart, David son of Jesse; with everlasting mercy I anointed him'? Yet even he addresses God: 'Show me mercy, O God, according to your abundant compassion, and according to the greatness of your pity wipe away my offense. Wash me again and again from my wrongdoing, and purify me from my sin, for I am aware of my wrongdoing, and my sin stands before me continually. Against you alone have I sinned, doing what is evil in your sight, so that you would be shown just in your sayings and victorious when you judge. Behold, I was shaped in wrongdoing, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desired truth; you revealed to me wisdom's hidden and secret depths. You will purge me clean with hyssop's sprinkling; wash me, and I shall grow whiter than the snow itself. Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have crushed may exult. Turn your face from my sins and wipe away every one of my wrongdoings. Fashion in me a pure heart, God, and set a steadfast spirit new within me. Cast me not away out of your presence, nor take your holy Spirit away from me. Give back to me the joy of your saving help, and uphold me with a willing spirit. I will instruct the lawless in your paths, and sinners shall return to you. Rescue me from bloodguilt, O God, God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will proclaim your praise. Had you wanted sacrifice, I would have offered it; whole burnt offerings bring you no pleasure. God's sacrifice is a spirit broken; a heart crushed and humbled God will never scorn.'
With so many great examples thus set on record, the humility and obedient submissiveness they display made better not only ourselves but also every generation before us that received his sayings in reverence and truth. Having, then, been given a share in deeds so numerous, so glorious, let us hasten back toward the peaceful goal entrusted to us since the beginning, fixing our gaze upon the Father and Maker of the entire universe, and holding fast to his magnificent, surpassing gifts and to the blessings of his peace. Let us behold him with the understanding, and gaze with the soul's eye upon his patient purpose; let us grasp how untouched by anger he remains toward the whole of his creation.
Stirred by his governance, the heavens yield themselves to him in tranquility; day gives way to night and night to day along the path he has laid out, and neither hinders the other's passage. Sun and moon, together with the bands of stars, revolve in concord according to his decree, staying within the limits marked out for them, turning aside from nothing. The earth, bearing life according to his will in its due seasons, yields nourishment abundantly for men, for beasts, and for every creature dwelling upon it, never rebelling against itself nor departing from any of his ordinances. The unfathomable depths and the boundless regions below are ruled by these same decrees. The immense reach of the boundless sea, drawn together into its basins by his design, never crosses the limits set around it, but acts precisely as he has directed; for he said: 'Thus far shall you come, and here your waves shall break.' The ocean, impassable to mankind, and the worlds that lie beyond it, are governed by the identical statutes of the Master. Spring gives way to summer, summer to autumn, and autumn to winter, each season yielding to the next in peace. The stations of the winds carry out their appointed work in season without disorder, and the springs that never cease, fashioned for delight and for health, unfailingly offer their life-sustaining streams to mankind; even the tiniest living things meet together in harmony and peace. All of this the great Maker and Ruler of the universe ordained to exist in peace and concord, doing good to every creature, though he lavishes his goodness beyond all measure upon us, since it is to his compassion that we have run for shelter through our Lord Jesus Christ - to whom be glory and majesty forever and ever. Amen.
See to it, beloved, that his many kindnesses do not turn into a verdict against us, should we fail to conduct ourselves worthily of him and to do together what is good and acceptable in his sight. For somewhere he says: 'The Lord's breath is a light that searches the innermost chambers.' Let us consider how close he stands to us, and that not one of our thoughts, not one calculation we form, escapes his notice. Reason, then, demands that we not run away from his purpose. Better that we provoke foolish, mindless men, who puff themselves up and glory in the pride of their own talk, than provoke God. Let us hold in reverence the Lord Jesus, whose blood was poured out on our behalf; let us honor our leaders, esteem our elders, train the young in the fear of God's discipline, and set our wives on the right course toward goodness. Let them exhibit the winsome character of chastity, display the innocent resolve of gentleness, prove through their silence the restraint of their tongues, and grant their affection - not by favoring one over another, but equally, in holiness, to every one who fears God. Let our children share in the training that Christ gives; let them learn what strength lowliness carries before God, what strength pure love commands before God, and how magnificent a thing his fear truly is - great enough to bring safety to all who conduct themselves within it in holiness and with an honest mind. For he examines both intentions and thoughts; his breath dwells within us, and whenever he chooses, he withdraws it.
All this the faith we hold in Christ affirms; for he himself calls to us in this way through the Holy Spirit: 'Come, children, hear me; I will instruct you in the fear of the Lord. Who is the man that longs for life, that loves to see good days? Guard your tongue from what is evil, and your lips from uttering deceit. Turn aside from evil, and do what is good. Pursue peace, and run after it. Upon the just the Lord's eyes are fixed, and toward their petitions his ears incline; yet against evildoers his face is set, to erase their memory utterly from the earth.' The just man called out, and the Lord listened to him, rescuing him from every one of his troubles. 'Many are the sorrows of the sinner, but mercy shall surround whoever trusts in the Lord.'
The Father, tender-hearted in every way and generous, feels compassion for those who fear him, and bestows his gifts kindly and gently on those who draw near to him with sincerity. Therefore let us not be of two minds, nor let our souls entertain vain imaginings about his surpassing and glorious gifts. Far be this passage from us, where it reads: 'Miserable are those torn between two opinions, who waver in their souls and say: We have heard such things even from our fathers' time, and see - we have grown gray, yet nothing of this has come upon us. You senseless people, look instead to a tree - take a vine, for instance: its leaves fall away first, then a bud forms, next a leaf appears, then a blossom, and after that a sour grape, and finally a cluster hangs ripe and ready.' Notice how the tree's fruit reaches maturity within so brief a span. Truly his purpose shall be fulfilled swiftly and without warning, as the very scripture testifies that he will arrive without delay and that the Lord shall appear abruptly in his temple - the Holy One you are watching for.
Let us reflect, beloved, on how ceaselessly the Master demonstrates to us the resurrection yet to come, of which our Lord Jesus Christ became the firstfruits when he was raised up from among the dead. Let us also observe, beloved, the resurrection that unfolds season by season. Night and day themselves display a kind of resurrection: night lies down to sleep, day gets up; day withdraws, and night takes its place. Consider the harvest crops - by what process, in what manner, does the sowing come about? The sower goes forth and scatters each seed upon the earth; these fall to the ground dry and bare, and decay, yet from that very decay the Master's vast providence raises them again, and from a single seed many spring up and yield their fruit.
Consider, too, the strange portent that occurs in the regions of the East, in the neighborhood of Arabia. A bird exists there named the phoenix. Unique of its kind, it lives for five hundred years, and once it nears the season of its release through death, it constructs for itself a dwelling out of frankincense, myrrh, and other fragrant spices; when the appointed hour arrives, it goes inside and perishes. From the decaying flesh, however, a certain grub is generated, which feeds upon the moisture of the dead bird and in time grows wings; once fully grown, it lifts up that dwelling containing the remains of its predecessor and, bearing this burden, journeys all the way from the land of Arabia to Egypt, to a city named Heliopolis. There, in broad daylight, before the eyes of all, it flies to the altar of the sun, deposits its burden, and departs on its journey home. The priests then consult their chronicles and confirm that its arrival falls exactly at the close of the five-hundredth year.
Should it then strike us as some vast, astonishing wonder that the Maker of the universe will raise up those who served him faithfully in a holy life of confident trust, seeing that even by means of a bird he reveals to us the magnitude of his promise? For somewhere he says: 'You will raise me up, and I will render you thanks,' and again: 'I lay down and slept, and I woke, for you are with me.' And Job likewise declares: 'You will raise up this very flesh of mine that has endured through all these things.'
Let our souls, then, cling fast to this hope - to him who keeps faith with his promises and is just in all his judgments. Since he commanded us not to lie, how much less would he lie himself; indeed nothing lies beyond God's power except falsehood. May trust in him be kindled anew inside us, and may we grasp that everything stands close to him. Through the word of his majesty he brought all things into being, and by a mere word he can likewise unmake them. 'Who shall say to him: What have you done? Who can stand against the strength of his power?' Whatever he wills, whenever he wills it, he accomplishes, and not one of his decrees will fail to be realized. Everything lies open before him, nothing hidden from his counsel - since 'day after day pours forth speech, and night after night imparts knowledge, without words, without any voice that can be heard, while the sky above tells of God's splendor and the vault overhead announces what his hands have made.'
Given, therefore, that all things lie open to sight and hearing, let us stand in awe of him and turn away from the base cravings behind wicked acts, so that his mercy may shelter us from the judgment still to come. For to what place could any one of us escape his powerful hand? And which realm would take in anyone who runs away from him? Somewhere scripture asks: 'Where can I go, where can I hide from your face? Should I climb to heaven, you are already there; should I travel to earth's farthest edge, your right hand awaits me there; should I make my bed among the depths, your spirit is there too.' So where might a person go, or to what place could he flee, from the one who holds all things within his grasp?
Let us draw near to him, then, with souls made holy, raising toward him hands kept clean and unstained, cherishing our Father, gentle and full of compassion, who has given us a place among those he has chosen for himself. For scripture puts it this way: 'When the Most High parceled out the nations, when he dispersed Adam's sons, he fixed each nation's borders to match the number of God's angels. And Jacob, his people, became the Lord's own share, Israel the measured portion of his inheritance.' And elsewhere it says: 'See, the Lord selects a people for himself out of every nation on earth, just as one gathers the firstfruits from his threshing floor; and from that people shall come the holy of holies.'
Since, then, we belong to the Holy One as his own portion, let us practice everything that holiness requires - fleeing from slander, from tainted and unclean embraces, from drunken revelry, from detestable cravings, from foul adultery, and from contemptible arrogance. As scripture says, 'God stands against the arrogant, yet grants favor to the lowly.' Let us therefore attach ourselves to those on whom God has bestowed his favor; let us dress ourselves in unity - humble in mind, disciplined, steering well clear of every kind of gossip and slander, proving ourselves through actions rather than through speech. For it is said: 'The talkative man will have plenty said back to him in turn; or does the glib speaker suppose himself righteous? Happy the one, born of woman, whose life is brief. Do not multiply words.' Let whatever praise comes our way come from God, never from ourselves, since God despises self-praise. Let others bear witness to our conduct, just as was granted to our righteous forebears of old. Insolence, stubborn self-will, and brazenness are the mark of those God curses; gentleness, humility, and meekness mark those God blesses.
Let us hold fast, then, to his blessing, and consider by what paths blessing comes. Let us unfold, one by one, the things that have happened since the earliest times. Why, we may ask, did our forefather Abraham receive blessing? Was it not because he practiced righteousness and truth through his faith? Isaac, assured of what lay ahead, offered himself up willingly as a sacrifice. Jacob, in humility, left his homeland on his brother's account, went to serve Laban, and was in the end given Israel's twelve-tribed scepter.

======== 1 Clement — 32-46 ========

Whoever looks honestly at each of these things one by one will recognize the greatness of the gifts God has given. From him come priests and Levites, all who serve at the altar of God; from him, according to the flesh, comes the Lord Jesus; from him come kings and rulers and leaders in the line of Judah, while his other tribes stand in no small honor either, since God promised, 'Your offspring will be like the stars of heaven.' All of them, then, were honored and made great not through themselves, or their own deeds, or the righteous acts they had performed, but through his will. So too with us: God called us in Christ Jesus by his own will, and it is not by ourselves that we are justified — not by any wisdom, understanding, or piety of our own, nor by deeds we have accomplished in a pure heart — but by faith, through which the Almighty has declared righteous everyone since the world began. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
What then shall we do, brothers? Shall we slacken in doing good and turn away from love? Never may our Master permit that to happen among us — instead, let us press on eagerly and earnestly to accomplish every good work. For the Maker and Master of the universe himself takes delight in his own works. Through his immeasurable, all-surpassing might he set the heavens firmly in their places, and through a wisdom beyond any grasping he arranged their order; he separated the land from the waters surrounding it, and fixed it upon the secure foundation of his own will; by his own command he summoned into existence the living creatures that roam upon it; and having made ready beforehand the sea and its creatures, he shut them in by his power. Beyond all this, the noblest and grandest of his conceptions, man, he molded with his own sacred, spotless hands, stamping him with the mark of his own likeness. For thus God speaks: 'Let us make humankind according to our image and resembling our likeness'; and so God made humankind, forming them male and female. Once all this stood finished, he spoke a blessing of praise over them: 'Be fruitful and increase in number.' Let us note, then, that every righteous person has been arrayed in good deeds, and that the Lord, arraying himself likewise in good deeds, took joy in it. Holding then this pattern before us, let us hasten without delay toward his will, striving with all our strength at the work of righteousness.
The diligent worker takes the bread he has earned with confidence, while the idle, careless worker dares not meet his employer's gaze. We, then, must be zealous to do good, since all things come from him. For he tells us in advance: 'See, the Lord is coming, bringing his reward with him, to repay each one according to what he has done.' He is urging us, then, us who trust in him with our whole heart, to be neither idle nor careless in any good deed. Let our pride and our assurance rest in him; let us yield to his purpose; let us reflect on that vast host of his angels, and how they wait upon his will and serve it. For scripture says: 'Thousands upon thousands stood attending him, and myriads upon myriads served him, calling out: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of Sabaoth — his glory fills the whole of creation.' So let us too, assembled together with a single purpose and one mind, call out to him fervently with what is virtually one voice, so that we may be granted a share in his magnificent and glorious promises. For he says: 'What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived, is what the Lord has made ready for those who wait for him.'
How blessed and astonishing, beloved, are God's gifts: unending life, glory clothed in justice, truth laid bare, confidence rooted in faith, purity governing the self — and every one of these lies open to our minds. What, then, is being made ready for those who wait for him? Only the Architect and Father of the ages, the one who alone is wholly holy, knows their extent and their splendor. Let us, then, exert ourselves to be counted among those who wait for him, so that we may receive a share of the gifts he has promised. Yet how, beloved, will this come about? If our minds stay anchored faithfully in God; if we search out whatever pleases him and wins his favor; if we perform what agrees with his flawless purpose; and if we walk the road of truth, throwing off every trace of wrongdoing, wickedness, covetousness, strife, malice, fraud, gossip, slander, enmity toward God, pride, arrogance, conceit, and inhospitality. Whoever practices such things earns God's hatred for it — and not only those who commit them, but those who nod along with them too. For scripture says: 'God said to the sinner: Why do you recount my ordinances and take up my covenant with your lips? You despised discipline and threw my words behind you. When you saw a thief, you ran alongside him, and you cast in your lot with adulterers. Your mouth overflowed with evil, and your tongue braided deceit together. Sitting there you slandered your own brother, and laid a trap for your own mother's son. You did these things, and I stayed silent — you imagined, lawless one, that I would resemble you. I will convict you and hold you up before your own eyes. So take note, you who have forgotten God, or he may tear you apart like a lion, with no one to rescue you. A sacrifice of thanksgiving will honor me, and there lies the path along which I will reveal to him God's deliverance.'
Beloved, here is the path along which we came to our salvation, Jesus Christ — the high priest who presents our offerings, the champion and helper of our frailty. By his agency we fix our eyes on the heavens' loftiest heights; by his agency, as though gazing into a mirror, we glimpse his spotless, supreme countenance; by his agency the eyes of our heart have been unsealed; by his agency our dull and clouded minds shoot up again toward the light; by his agency our Master chose that we should taste undying understanding — he, the very brightness of God's majesty, surpasses the angels by as much as the title he has received outranks theirs. For scripture states: 'He makes winds his messengers, and flame of fire his ministers.' Yet of his Son the Master declared: 'You are my son; this day I have become your father. Ask it of me, and I will grant the nations as your inheritance, the farthest reaches of the earth as your holding.' And again he tells him: 'Take your seat at my right side, until I lay your foes beneath your feet as a stool.' Who, then, are these foes? The worthless, those who oppose themselves to his purpose.
Brothers, let us then serve as soldiers, waging this campaign in full earnest under his flawless orders. Consider those enlisted under our own generals — with what discipline, what readiness, what obedience they perform their assignments. Not every man is a prefect, a commander over a thousand, a centurion, or an officer of fifty, and so forth; rather each one, in the rank assigned him, executes the orders given by the king and his officers. Great cannot stand apart from small, nor small apart from great; a certain mixture runs through everything, and that mixture is what makes it work. Take our own body as an example: the head amounts to nothing without the feet, nor the feet without the head; even its tiniest parts are indispensable and serve a purpose for the body as a whole. Instead, every part breathes as one and submits together under a single order, so that the entire body stays whole and sound.
So let our entire body remain whole in Christ Jesus, each one yielding to his neighbor in keeping with the gift bestowed on him. Let the powerful look after the powerless, and let the powerless honor the powerful. Let the wealthy furnish what the needy lack, and let the needy thank God for sending someone through whom their lack is met. Let anyone who is wise show it through his conduct rather than his speech. Let the modest person refrain from vouching for himself, leaving that testimony to someone else instead. Let anyone chaste in body avoid boasting of it, recognizing that his self-mastery was granted him by another. Let us reflect, then, brothers, on the stuff we were formed from, on what sort of beings we were and who we were on entering this life, and out of what grave and gloom our maker and framer led us into his creation, readying his kindnesses for us even before our birth. Since it is from him that we possess all this, we owe him gratitude for everything; his is the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Senseless people, the witless, the ignorant and untutored jeer and scoff at us, eager to puff themselves up in their own reckoning. Yet what can a dying creature accomplish? What power belongs to one sprung from dust? For scripture has it: 'No shape appeared before my eyes — only a whisper of air and a voice came to me: What then? Can any mortal stand pure before the Lord? Can a man be faultless for what he has done, when God places no trust even in his own attendants and finds fault even among his angels? Not even the sky is pure in his sight. How much less, then, those who make their home in houses of clay, since we ourselves are shaped from that same clay. He crushed them as one crushes a moth, and by evening they were gone, vanished since dawn; unable to save themselves, they came to ruin. A breath from him, and they expired, for wisdom had no place in them. Cry out, then, and see whether anyone answers, or whether you catch sight of any holy angel; rage is what destroys the senseless, and envy is the death of one gone astray. I have watched fools take root, only to have their household swallowed up in an instant. May their offspring be kept far from safety; may they be crushed underfoot at the gates of their inferiors, with no rescuer in sight. For what has been laid up for such men, the righteous will feast on, while they themselves will find no escape from ruin.'
Given, then, that these matters lie open before us, and that we have peered into the depths of divine knowledge, we are bound to carry out everything in proper sequence — whatever the Master has directed us to perform at its appointed season. He directed that the offerings and rites be carried out, not haphazardly or without plan, but at set seasons and hours. Where these things should take place, and through whom, is a matter he alone has settled, by the decision of his own utterly supreme will, so that everything carried out reverently and to his pleasure might find acceptance with him. Those, then, who bring their offerings at the set seasons win favor and blessing, for by adhering to the Master's rules they stray from nothing. To the high priest, then, his particular duties have been given; a specific place is set aside for the priests; specific tasks rest upon the Levites; and the ordinary member is held to the rules laid down for ordinary members.
Brothers, let each one of us offer God thanks in the station assigned to him, holding to a clear conscience, staying within the bounds set for his particular duty, and conducting himself with due reverence. It is not everywhere, brothers, that the perpetual sacrifices are offered, nor the votive offerings, nor those for sin and error — only in Jerusalem, and even in Jerusalem not at just any spot, but in front of the temple, at the altar, once the offering has been inspected for flaw by the high priest and the ministers named earlier. Anyone, then, who acts contrary to what fits his purpose incurs the penalty of death. You see, brothers, that the more knowledge we have been entrusted with, the greater the risk we face.
Our own apostles received the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ himself was dispatched by God. So Christ comes from God, and the apostles from Christ; each step, then, unfolded in due order under God's design. Once they had their charge, and were made wholly sure through our Lord's rising from the dead, assured also by God's own word, they set out — filled with the Holy Spirit's certainty — announcing that God's kingdom was soon to arrive. As they preached across every land and city, they installed their earliest converts as overseers and helpers for those about to come to faith, having proved them by the Spirit first. Nor was this any innovation, since overseers and helpers had been foretold long ages before. For scripture somewhere states: 'I will establish their overseers in righteousness and their helpers in faithfulness.'
Is it any wonder, then, that men entrusted by God with a task of this sort, acting in Christ, established the officers already named? Even blessed Moses himself — 'faithful in the whole of his house' — set down in the holy writings every command given him, and the prophets who came after followed his lead, jointly attesting to the ordinances he had laid down. For once envy flared up regarding the priesthood, and the tribes fell to quarreling over which of them would wear that glorious title, he ordered the twelve tribal chieftains to bring him staffs, each marked with a tribe's name; he took these, tied them together, stamped them with the chieftains' signet rings, and stored them inside the tabernacle of witness, on God's own table. Then, having shut the tent, he sealed both the door-latches and the staffs alike, and told them: 'Brothers, whichever tribe's staff sprouts, that is the one God has singled out for the priesthood, to minister before him.' At daybreak he assembled the whole of Israel, six hundred thousand men strong, showed the chieftains the unbroken seals, opened the tabernacle of witness, and drew out the staffs — and Aaron's staff was found to have not merely sprouted, but to be bearing fruit besides. What do you suppose, beloved? Did Moses fail to foresee this outcome? He knew full well — yet he handled it this way precisely so that no disorder would arise in Israel, and so that the name of the one true God would receive glory. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Our own apostles likewise understood, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that conflict was coming over the title of bishop. Because of this foreknowledge, granted to them in full, they installed those already named, and further provided that, should these die, other tested men would take up their service afterward. Men, then, who were installed either by the apostles themselves or, later on, by other men of standing — with the whole assembly's approval — and who have ministered to Christ's flock without fault, in humility, calmly, free of self-seeking ambition, earning the good report of all over a long span — we hold it wrong to strip such men of their office. It would be no minor offense on our part to depose from the episcopate those who have brought its offerings blamelessly and in holiness. Happy are the elders who have gone on before us, whose departure bore fruit and reached completion, since they need not dread being displaced from the post given them. Yet we find that you have displaced certain men, despite their upright conduct, from a ministry entrusted to them with honor.
Compete with zeal, brothers, for whatever leads toward salvation. You have gazed deep into the holy writings — writings that are truthful, given through the Holy Spirit — and you know well that nothing dishonest or twisted stands written in them. Nowhere will you find righteous men expelled by holy ones. The righteous suffered persecution, yes, but at lawless hands; they were locked away, but by the profane; stoned, but by lawbreakers; put to death, but by men gripped by a vile and unjust envy. Through it all they bore their trials with dignity. For what are we to say, brothers? Was it God-fearing men who threw Daniel into the lions' den? Was it worshippers of the Most High's magnificent and glorious cult who shut Ananias, Azarias, and Misael inside the blazing furnace? Never. So who, then, were the ones responsible? Detestable men, steeped in every kind of vice, whipped themselves into such a rage that they tormented men serving God with a holy and blameless intent — never realizing that the Most High stands as defender and shield for all who worship his wholly virtuous name with a clean conscience. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. As for those who held firm in trust, they received glory and honor as their inheritance; they were lifted up and recorded by God among his everlasting memorials forever and ever. Amen.
We too, then, brothers, must hold fast to such models. For it stands written: 'Hold fast to the holy ones, since those who hold fast to them will themselves be made holy.' And elsewhere it says again: 'With the innocent man you will show yourself innocent, with the elect you will show yourself elect, and with the crooked you will turn crooked.' Let us, then, hold fast to the innocent and the just, since these are the ones God has chosen. Why, then, do quarrels and flares of temper and divisions and factions and strife exist among you? Have we not a single God, a single Christ, a single Spirit of grace poured into us, and a single calling in Christ? Why do we rip apart and shred Christ's own limbs, rise in rebellion against our own body, and sink into such delusion that we forget we belong to one another as members? Recall what the Lord Jesus said. For he declared: 'Woe to that man — better for him never to have been born than that he should trip up one of my chosen; better for him to have a millstone tied round him and be plunged into the depths of the sea than to lead one of my chosen astray.' Your division has led many astray, has plunged many into despair, many into uncertainty, and every one of us into sorrow — and your revolt is still going on.

======== 1 Clement — 47-62 ========

Pick up the letter Paul, that blessed apostle, sent you. What was the very first thing he wrote to you, at the outset of his gospel preaching? In truth he addressed you under the Spirit's inspiration concerning himself and Cephas and Apollos, because even in that early time you had begun forming factions. Yet that factionalism brought upon you a lighter fault, since you were siding with apostles already of high standing and with a man they themselves approved. But now examine who has led you astray and diminished the honor of your once-celebrated love for one another as brothers. It brings disgrace — real disgrace, beloved, wholly out of step with a manner of life lived in Christ — for word to spread that the church of Corinth, so firm and so venerable, is rebelling against its elders over one or two individuals. And this report has traveled not only to us but even to those outside our fellowship who think differently, so that the Lord's name is being blasphemed on account of your folly, while you bring peril down on your own heads.
Let us then tear this evil out at once, fall prostrate before the Master, and weep as we implore him, so that in his mercy he may be reconciled to us and bring us back to the honorable and pure practice of loving one another as brothers. Here is an entryway into righteousness leading to life, just as scripture says: Swing open for me the doors that lead to righteousness, so that once inside them I may give thanks to the Lord. This door belongs to the Lord — through it the righteous will pass. Many doors, then, stand open, yet this one — the doorway of righteousness — is the one found in Christ, and everyone who enters through it and keeps a straight, undisturbed course in holiness and righteousness is blessed. Let each one be trustworthy, capable of expressing knowledge, wise in weighing words, and pure in what he does; for the more prominent a person seems, the more humble he is obliged to be, seeking the common good of all rather than his own interest.
Whoever holds love within Christ should carry out Christ's own instructions. Who could possibly explain the bond of God's love? Who is equal to describing the magnificence of its beauty? The height to which it lifts us defies description. Love unites us to God; love hides a great mass of sins; love bears with everything and is patient in everything. Nothing coarse belongs to love, nothing haughty; love knows no split, love does not rebel, love does everything in unity. Through love every one of God's chosen was brought to perfection; without love, nothing pleases God. It was in love that the Master drew us to himself: because of the love he held for us, our Lord Jesus Christ, by God's own will, poured out his blood on our behalf, giving up his own flesh to ransom ours, his own soul to ransom our souls.
See, beloved, how immense and astonishing love is — its perfection defies any full account. Who can be found worthy to possess it, except those God himself judges worthy? Let us, then, plead and request from his mercy that we may be discovered living in love, free of any human favoritism, without blemish. Every generation from Adam down to our present day has passed away, yet those brought to completion in love, through God's own grace, hold a place among the godly, who will be revealed openly when Christ's kingdom is disclosed. For scripture says: Go into your rooms for just a brief moment, until my rage and fury have passed, and I will call to mind a happy day and lift you up out of your tombs. We count ourselves fortunate, beloved, if we carry out God's commands in unity born of love, so that our offenses might be pardoned on love's account. For scripture says: Fortunate are those whose transgressions are pardoned and whose offenses are hidden from view; fortunate too is the man against whom the Lord will not hold his wrongdoing, and in whose mouth no deceit is found. This good fortune came to rest on those God selected through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs glory for all eternity. Amen.
As for whatever we have stumbled into and done because of certain assaults from the adversary, let us request that it be forgiven us. And those individuals who set themselves up as leaders of the uprising and the split ought also to weigh the shared ground of our hope. Those living in reverence and love would sooner endure mistreatment themselves than watch it fall on their neighbors; they would rather accept blame themselves than let it fall on the unity handed down to us so rightly and fairly. It is a good thing for someone to admit his wrongdoing rather than to make his heart unyielding, the way the hearts of those who rebelled against Moses, God's servant, became unyielding — men whose sentence was made obvious to everyone, since they descended into Hades still breathing, and death became their shepherd. Pharaoh too, with his army and every commander of Egypt, along with their war-chariots and riders, sank into the Red Sea and were destroyed for no reason except that their foolish hearts had grown unyielding after the signs and wonders performed in the land of Egypt through Moses, God's servant.
The Master, brothers, is in need of nothing from anyone; he asks nothing of anyone except that we make our confession to him. For David, God's chosen one, declares: I will make confession to the Lord, and this will please him more than a young bull sprouting horns and hoofs; may the poor witness it and be glad. And elsewhere he says: Offer God an offering of praise, and pay to the Most High what you have vowed; call out to me on the day trouble finds you, and I will pull you free, and you will honor me. For a crushed spirit is itself a sacrifice pleasing to God.
You are acquainted, beloved — thoroughly acquainted — with the sacred writings, and you have pored over God's sayings. We set these things down, then, simply as a reminder. When Moses had climbed the mountain and kept a fast of forty days and forty nights, humbling himself, God said to him: Go down from here quickly, because your people, the ones you led out of the land of Egypt, have broken the law; they have quickly strayed from the path I commanded them, making molten images for themselves. And the Lord said to him: Twice now, not merely once, I have told you this: this people, as I observe them, are a stubborn, stiff-necked lot; allow me to destroy them completely, and I will blot out their very name from beneath the heavens, raising up from you instead a nation far greater and more astonishing than this one. But Moses said: Never, Lord! Forgive this people their transgression, or else erase me too from the book of the living. What tremendous love, what unmatched perfection — a servant speaks freely to his own Master, asking pardon for the whole multitude, or else asking to be erased right along with them.
Who then among you is noble, who compassionate, who filled with love? Let him say: If this rivalry and conflict and division exist because of me, I will step aside, I will leave for wherever you wish, and do whatever the assembly instructs — only let Christ's flock live peaceably with the elders set over it. Anyone who does this will earn for himself tremendous honor in Christ, and he will be welcomed everywhere, since the earth and all it holds belong to the Lord. This is exactly what those living out God's unregrettable pattern of life have already done, and will keep doing.
Let us also bring forward examples drawn from the nations. Many kings and rulers, when a plague swept over their realm, acting on an oracle's instruction, gave themselves up to death so that they could save their citizens by their own bloodshed; many others left their own home cities so that unrest would spread no further. We are aware of many among us who have given themselves into chains so as to buy freedom for others; many have sold themselves into slavery and, taking the money paid for themselves, used it to feed still others. Many women too, made strong through God's grace, carried out numerous acts of courage. Blessed Judith, while her city lay under siege, requested that the elders permit her to go out to the enemy camp. She thus exposed herself to danger and went out because of her love for her homeland and for the besieged people, and the Lord handed Holofernes over into a woman's grasp. Esther, likewise made perfect through faith, risked herself no less, so as to save the nation of Israel that stood on the brink of destruction; through her fasting and her self-abasement she pleaded with the Master who watches over every age, and he, seeing the humility in her heart, rescued the people for whose sake she had risked her own life.
Let us also, then, intercede for those caught up in some wrongdoing, that gentleness and humility of mind be granted them, so that they yield not to us but to God's will; for this way their remembrance before God and his holy ones, offered in a spirit of compassion, will bear fruit and be complete. Let us accept correction, beloved — something no one should resent. The rebuke we give each other is good, exceedingly beneficial even, for it binds us fast to God's will. So says the sacred word: The Lord has corrected me firmly, yet has not given me over to death; for the Lord corrects the one he loves, and takes a whip to every son he receives as his own. Let the righteous man discipline me, it says, in kindness, and set me right, but do not let the oil of the wicked anoint my head. And elsewhere it says: Fortunate is the man the Lord has set right; do not reject the Almighty's correction, for it is he who wounds and then heals again; he struck, and his own hands brought healing. Six times he will pull you free from hardship, and in the seventh no harm will reach you. In famine he will save you from dying, and in war he will free you from the sword's edge; he will keep you hidden from a slandering tongue, and you will have no fear of the troubles coming your way. You will laugh at those who are unjust and lawless, and will not fear wild animals, for wild animals will keep peace with you. Then you will know that peace rests on your household, and your tent's dwelling will never fail. You will also know that your descendants will be numerous, your children like the grass across the field. You will go down to the tomb the way ripe wheat is harvested at the proper time, or the way sheaves are gathered onto the threshing floor when their hour comes. See, beloved, how great a refuge exists for those the Master disciplines — since, being a good father, he corrects us so that we might obtain mercy through his sacred discipline.
You, then, the ones responsible for laying this rebellion's foundation, submit yourselves to the elders and accept correction leading to repentance, bending the knees of your hearts. Learn submission, setting aside the boastful, arrogant insolence of your speech; it is far better for you to be counted small yet valued within Christ's flock than to appear outstanding yet be cast out of the hope he offers. For thus speaks Wisdom, perfect in every virtue: Behold, I will pour out to you an utterance drawn from my own breath, and I will instruct you in my word. Since I called out and you refused to listen, and I extended my words and you paid no attention, but instead made my counsel void and disregarded my rebukes — therefore I in turn will laugh at your ruin, and I will take pleasure when destruction comes upon you, when confusion arrives without warning, when catastrophe descends like a storm, or when hardship and siege overtake you. For it will come about that when you call on me, I will refuse to listen to you; the wicked will search for me and come up empty. Because they despised wisdom and refused to choose reverence for the Lord, nor were they willing to attend to my counsel, but instead mocked my rebukes — therefore they will feed on the fruits of the path they chose, and be gorged with their own godlessness. Because they wronged the innocent they will be put to death, and scrutiny will destroy the godless; but whoever pays heed to me will settle down secure, resting on hope, and will live undisturbed, without dread of any harm.
Let us, then, obey his most holy and glorious name, fleeing the threats spoken beforehand through Wisdom against the disobedient, so that we may dwell in confidence, trusting in his most holy and majestic name. Accept our counsel, and you will have nothing to regret. For God lives, and the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit lives, as does the faith and hope of the elect, that whoever carries out, in humility and with earnest gentleness and without regret, the just requirements and commands given by God — that person will be enrolled and honored among the number of those who are being saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is glory to him forever and ever. Amen.
But should any refuse obedience to what he has declared through our mouths, they must recognize the fact: they are binding themselves up in transgression, and in danger that is far from trivial. We, for our part, will remain innocent of this offense, and we will petition, offering fervent supplication and entreaty, that the one who fashioned all things may keep unbroken the full tally of his chosen ones across the entire world, through his beloved child Jesus Christ, through whom he summoned us out of darkness into light, out of ignorance into complete awareness of his name's glory — [that we might] set our hope on your name, first among all creation, having opened the eyes of our hearts to know you, the only one who is Most High among the highest, resting among the holy. You bring low the arrogance of the proud, you scatter the calculations of nations, you raise up the lowly and bring down the exalted, you make rich and make poor, you kill and you give life, sole discoverer of spirits and God over all flesh; you look into the depths, you watch human deeds, helper of those in peril, savior of those without hope, maker and guardian of every spirit; you multiply the nations across the earth and have singled out from among them all those who love you through Jesus Christ, your beloved child, through whom you trained us, made us holy, gave us honor — we ask you, Master, to become our helper and our champion. Rescue those of us who are afflicted, show mercy to the humble, lift up the fallen, appear to those in need, heal the sick, turn back your people's wandering; feed the hungry, buy back our captives, raise up the weak, console the fainthearted; let every nation come to know you, that you alone are God, and that Jesus Christ is your child, and that we are your people and the flock you shepherd.
For you have revealed the everlasting order of the world through the things you have brought about. You, Lord, built the inhabited world, faithful across every generation, righteous in your judgments, astonishing in strength and majesty, wise in fashioning things and understanding in establishing what has come to be, good among things visible and kind to those who put their trust in you, merciful and full of compassion — forgive us our lawless deeds, our injustices, our failures, and our offenses. Do not count against us every sin of your servants, both men and women, but cleanse us with the cleansing that belongs to your truth, and guide our footsteps to walk in purity of heart and to do what is good and pleasing before you and before those who govern us. Yes, Master, let your face shine upon us for our good, in peace, so that we may be sheltered under your powerful hand and freed from every sin by your outstretched arm; and free us from those who hate us without cause. Grant harmony and peace to us and to everyone who inhabits the earth, just as you granted it to our ancestors when they called on you in holiness, with faith and truth, becoming obedient to your almighty and glorious name, and to those who rule and lead over the earth.
You, Master, granted them their royal authority through your magnificent and indescribable might, so that we, recognizing the glory and honor you have bestowed on them, might submit to them, opposing your will in nothing. Grant them, Lord, health, peace, harmony, and stability, so that they may wield without stumbling the leadership you have entrusted to them. For you, heavenly Master, King throughout the ages, give humankind glory, honor, and authority over what exists on the earth; direct their counsel, Lord, toward what is good and pleasing in your sight, so that by wielding in peace and gentleness, with reverence, the authority you have granted them, they may find favor with you. You alone are able to accomplish these things and even greater good for us; to you we offer thanks through Jesus Christ, the high priest who watches over our souls, through whom be glory and majesty to you, both now and from generation to generation, forever and ever. Amen.
Regarding everything that pertains to our worship and everything most helpful for living a virtuous life, for those wishing to conduct themselves in reverence and righteousness, we believe we have written to you sufficiently, brothers. We have touched on every aspect concerning trust, turning back from wrong, authentic love, self-mastery, sound judgment, and steadfast endurance, reminding you that you ought, in righteousness, truth, and patience, to please almighty God in holiness, being of a single mind, bearing no grudge, in love and peace joined with earnest gentleness — just as our forefathers, mentioned earlier, were pleasing to God by being humble-minded toward the Father and Creator, God, and toward everyone. And we have called these things to your remembrance all the more gladly, since we were well aware that we were addressing men of faith, held in high regard, who have pored over the oracles of God's own instruction.

======== 1 Clement — 63-65 ========

It is right, then, that we, having come face to face with examples so many and so great, should bow the neck and take our place in obedience, so that, having set aside the empty rebellion, we may arrive without any blame at the goal truly set before us. For you will give us joy and gladness if you heed what we have set down under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and tear out the unlawful anger bred by your jealousy, in keeping with the plea we have made for peace and harmony in this letter. And we have sent you men who are trustworthy and sensible, who have conducted themselves blamelessly among us from youth to old age; they will also serve as witnesses between you and us. We have done this so that you may know that our whole concern, both now and always, has been that you should be at peace as quickly as possible.
May the God who watches over everything, ruler of every spirit and sovereign over all flesh — the one who selected the Lord Jesus Christ, and selected us as well through him, to become a people set apart as his own — grant to each soul calling on his magnificent and holy name: faith, reverence, peace, endurance and patience, self-mastery, purity, and good sense, so that it may find favor with his name by means of Jesus Christ, our high priest and protector. Through him, glory and greatness, might and honor belong to God, now and for every age to come. Amen.
Please send back to us promptly, joyfully and in peace, the men we dispatched from among our own — Claudius Ephebus, Valerius Bito, and Fortunatus alongside them — so that they can bring us swift word of the harmony and peace we have longed and prayed for, and so that we in turn may take all the sooner joy in the stability restored among you. May the favor of our Lord Jesus Christ remain upon you, and upon everyone everywhere whom God has called through him; through whom belong to him glory, honor, might and greatness, an everlasting throne, from age to age forever. Amen. Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians.

======== 2 Clement — 1-16 ========

Brothers, we must think about Jesus Christ the way we think about God — as judge of the living and the dead. And we must not think small thoughts about our salvation. For if we think small thoughts about him, we also expect to receive only small things, and those who listen as though the matter were small are sinning, and we too sin, not knowing where we were called from, and by whom, and to what place, and how much Jesus Christ endured to suffer for our sake. What repayment, then, shall we give him, or what fruit worthy of what he himself gave us? How many acts of devotion do we owe him? For he graciously gave us the light; he addressed us as sons, the way a father does; when we were on the verge of ruin, he rescued us. What praise then shall we give him, or what wage of repayment for what we received? We were maimed in understanding, worshiping stones and wood and gold and silver and bronze — all works of human hands — and our whole life was nothing other than death. Wrapped, then, in darkness and full of such mist in our sight, we regained our sight, laying aside that cloud we were wrapped in, by his own will. For he had mercy on us, and moved with compassion he saved us, seeing in us great wandering and ruin, and that we had no hope of salvation except the hope that came from him. For he called us when we did not exist, and willed us to come into being out of nothing.
Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear children; break out and shout, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate woman are many, more than the children of her who has a husband. In saying, 'Rejoice, you barren one who does not bear children,' he spoke of us; before children were granted to it, our assembly had no offspring of its own. And in saying, 'Shout, you who are not in labor,' he means this: that we should offer up our prayers to God without pretense, not growing faint like women in labor. And in saying, 'For the children of the desolate woman are many, more than the children of her who has a husband,' he means that our people seemed to be forsaken by God, but now, having come to believe, we have become more numerous than those who were thought to have God. And another scripture says, 'I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners' — meaning that those who are perishing must be saved. For it is a great and wonderful thing not to prop up what is already standing, but to raise up what is falling. This was the will behind Christ's saving of the lost: though we were already ruined, he sought us out, summoned us, and rescued a great multitude.
Since he has shown us such great mercy, in the first place, that we who are alive do not sacrifice to dead gods nor bow down to them, but through him have come to know the Father of truth — what is this knowledge toward him, if not refusing to deny the one through whom we came to know him? He himself says, 'Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge him before my Father.' This, then, is our reward, if we acknowledge the one through whom we were saved. But in what way do we acknowledge him? By doing what he says and not disregarding his commands, and by honoring him not with lips only but with the whole heart and the whole mind. For he also says in Isaiah: 'This people honors me with the mouth, yet their thinking has wandered far away from me.'
Let us not, then, call him Lord only — that alone will not save us. For he says, 'Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will be saved, but the one who does righteousness.' So then, brothers, let us acknowledge him by our deeds: caring for each other, staying faithful in marriage, refraining from slander, avoiding envy, and instead practicing restraint, mercy, and goodness; and we ought to feel with one another and not love money. Let us acknowledge him by these deeds and not by their opposites; and we ought not to fear people more than we fear God. Because of this, if you do these things, the Lord said: 'Suppose you have gathered close to my chest, yet you fail to keep my commandments — I will throw you out and tell you: Get away from me; I have no knowledge of your origin, you doers of lawlessness.'
Therefore, brothers, let us leave behind our stay as strangers here below and carry out what the one who called us wills, without fearing to make our exit from this world. For the Lord says, 'You will be like lambs among wolves.' Peter answered him, 'What then if the wolves tear apart the lambs?' Jesus said to Peter, 'Once the lambs have died, they need fear the wolves no longer; and you likewise, do not fear those who kill you and can do nothing further to you, but fear the one who, after you have died, has power over soul and body to throw them into the fire of Gehenna.' And know, brothers, that our stay in this world in this flesh is small and short-lived, whereas Christ's promise is magnificent and awe-inspiring — rest in the coming kingdom and eternal life. What must we do, then, to obtain these things, but conduct ourselves in holiness and righteousness, and regard these worldly things as foreign to us, and not desire them? Craving to possess such goods is precisely what makes us stumble off the righteous course.
The Lord says, 'No servant can serve two masters.' Trying to be slaves both to God and to money profits us nothing. For what good does it do a man to gain the whole world while paying for it with his own soul? This age and the one to come are two enemies. This one speaks of adultery, corruption, love of money, and deceit; that one renounces these. We cannot, then, be friends of both; we must renounce the one and hold to the other. It is better, we conclude, to hate the things here, since they are small and short-lived and perishable, and to love those things instead — the good things that do not perish. Doing what Christ wills brings us rest; failing that, nothing can shield us from unending punishment once we have disobeyed his commands. And the scripture also says in Ezekiel: that even were Noah, Job, and Daniel to rise again, their own children would not escape captivity. And if such righteous men as these cannot rescue their own children by their righteousness, with what confidence will we enter the kingdom of God if we do not keep our baptism pure and undefiled? Or who will be our advocate, if we are not found having holy and righteous deeds?
So then, my brothers, let us compete, knowing that the contest is at hand, and that many enter the perishable contests, but not all are crowned — only those who have labored hard and competed well. Let us, then, compete so that we all may be crowned. Let us run the straight road, the imperishable contest, and let many of us enter it and compete, so that we too may be crowned; and even should not all of us manage to win the crown, may we at least draw near to it. We must know that whoever competes in the perishable contest, if found cheating, is whipped, disqualified, and thrown out of the stadium. What do you think, then, happens to the one who cheats in the contest of imperishability? For of those who do not keep the seal, it is said, 'their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.'
While we are still on earth, then, let us turn from our wrongs at once. For we are clay in the hand of the craftsman: just as the potter, if he is making a vessel and it gets twisted or broken in his hands, reshapes it again, but if he has already put it into the furnace of fire, he can no longer help it — so we too, while we are still in this world, must turn back with our whole heart from the evil we have done in the flesh, so that the Lord may bring us to salvation while the chance for such turning remains open to us. For once we have departed from this world, we can no longer confess or repent there any further. So then, brothers, by doing the will of the Father, holding the flesh to its purity, and guarding the Lord's commandments, we will receive eternal life. For the Lord says in the gospel: 'If you did not keep the small thing, who will give you the great thing? For I say to you, whoever is faithful in the very least is faithful also in much.' This, then, is what he means: hold the flesh to its purity and its mark of consecration free from blemish, so that we may receive eternal life.
None of you should claim that this body escapes judgment or resurrection. Understand: in what were you saved, in what did you regain your sight, if not while being in this flesh? This body, then, must be protected by us the way one protects a shrine belonging to God; for just as you were called in the flesh, you will also come in the flesh. If Christ the Lord who saved us, though he was first spirit, became flesh, and in this way called us, so too we will receive our reward in this flesh. Let us love one another, then, so that we may all come into the kingdom of God. While we still have time to be healed, let us hand ourselves over to God who heals us, giving him a repayment in return. What repayment? Repentance from a sincere heart. For he knows all things in advance and knows what is in our hearts. Let us, then, give him praise, not from the mouth alone, but from the heart as well, so that he may receive us as sons. For the Lord's own words were: 'Whoever does the will of my Father — these are my brothers.'
So then, my brothers, we should carry out the will of the Father who called us, so that we may live, and let us pursue virtue all the more, and abandon vice as a forerunner of our sins, and flee from irreverence, so that evils may not overtake us. For if we are eager to do good, peace will pursue us. For this reason it is impossible to find a person — among those who spread human fears, who have chosen the enjoyment found here instead of the promise to come — at peace. For they do not know what torment the enjoyment found here brings, and what delight the coming promise holds. And if they alone were doing these things, it would be bearable; but as it is, they persist in teaching their false doctrine to innocent souls, not knowing that they will receive a double judgment, both they themselves and those who listen to them.
Let us, then, serve God with a pure heart, and we will be righteous; but if we do not serve him because we do not believe the promise of God, we will be miserable. For the prophetic word also says: 'Miserable are the double-minded, who doubt in their heart, who say: We heard these things long ago, even in the days of our fathers, but though we have waited day after day, we have seen none of them come to pass.' You foolish people — think of yourselves in terms of a tree, say a grapevine: its leaves drop first, then comes a bud, next the sour unripe grape, and only afterward the finished cluster. So too my people has had turmoil and afflictions; afterward it will receive the good things. So then, my brothers, let us not be double-minded, but let us hope and endure, so that we too may collect our reward. For faithful is the one who promised to repay each according to his works. If, then, we do righteousness before God, we will enter his kingdom and receive the promises which no ear has heard nor eye seen, nor has it entered into the heart of man.
Let us, then, look for the kingdom of God hour by hour, in love and righteousness, since we do not know the day of God's appearing. For when the Lord himself was asked by someone when his kingdom would come, his answer was this: 'When duality becomes unity, the exterior matches the interior, and there is neither male nor female but a single being combining both.' Duality becomes unity in this sense: when we speak the truth to one another, and two bodies hold a single soul between them without pretense. And by 'the exterior matching the interior' he means: the soul is what he terms the interior thing, while the body is what he terms exterior. So then, just as your body is visible, so let your soul also be evident in good works. And by neither male nor female, a being combining both, he means: that a brother, seeing a sister, should think nothing about her as female, nor should he think anything about himself as male. Doing these things, he says, brings on the arrival of my Father's kingdom.
Brothers, then, let us repent at once; let us be sober toward what is good, since foolishness and wrongdoing have filled us to overflowing. Let us wipe away our former sins, and by repenting from the soul let us be saved, and let us not become people-pleasers, nor wish only to please ourselves, but also the people outside, by our righteousness, so that the name may not be blasphemed on our account. For the Lord says, 'My name is continually blasphemed among all the nations,' and again, 'Woe to the one on whose account my name is blasphemed.' In what way is it blasphemed? By your not doing what I wish. For the nations, hearing from our mouth the sayings of God, marvel at them as beautiful and great; but then, when they observe our deeds — that they are not worthy of the words we speak — they turn from there to blasphemy, saying it is some myth and delusion. For when they hear from us that God says, 'There is no credit to you if you love those who love you, but there is credit to you if you love your enemies and those who hate you' — when they hear this, they marvel at the extraordinary goodness; but when they see that we do not love even those who hate us, let alone those who love us, they laugh at us, and the name is blasphemed.
So then, brothers, by doing the will of our Father God we will belong to the first church, the spiritual one, created before the sun and moon. But if we do not do the will of the Lord, we will belong to that which the scripture speaks of: 'My house has become a den of robbers.' Let us, then, choose to belong to the church of life, so that we may be saved. I do not think you are unaware that Christ has a body, and that this living body is his church; for the scripture says that when God formed humanity he made them male and female — Christ corresponds to the male, the church to the female; and further, the books and the apostles declare that the church is not of the present but from above. For it was spiritual, as our Jesus also was, but was made manifest in the last days in order to save us. Its spiritual nature was disclosed to us through Christ's own flesh, showing us that if any of us keeps her in the flesh and does not corrupt her, he will receive her back in the Holy Spirit; the reason being that this flesh stands as an image of the spirit. No one, then, who corrupts the image will share in the original. This, then, is what it means, brothers: keep the flesh, so that you may share in the spirit. And supposing the flesh amounts to the church and the spirit amounts to Christ, whoever mistreats one has mistreated the other. Such a person, then, will not share in the spirit, who is Christ himself. This is the extent of life and imperishability this flesh can partake of, once joined to the Holy Spirit — something no one is capable of expressing or describing fully, the things the Lord has prepared for his chosen ones.
Do not suppose I regard this advice about self-control as trivial: whoever follows it will have no regrets, and will rescue himself along with me, the one who offered the counsel. For it is no small reward to turn back a wandering and perishing soul so that it may be saved. For we hold this repayment to give to God who created us, if the one who speaks and the one who listens both speak and listen in faith and love. Let us, then, remain in what we believed, righteous and holy, so that we may ask God with confidence, the one who says, 'While you are still speaking, I will say: Here I am.' For this saying is a sign of a great promise; the Lord describes his own eagerness to give as exceeding that of the one asking. Sharing then in such great kindness, let us not begrudge ourselves the attaining of such great goods. For as much pleasure as these words hold for those who do them, so much condemnation they hold for those who disregard them.
So then, brothers, having received no small occasion for repentance, while we still have time let us turn back to the God who called us, while we still have one who receives us. For if we renounce these pleasures and conquer our soul by not doing its evil desires, we will share in the mercy of Jesus. And know that the day of judgment is already coming, like a furnace ablaze, and some of the heavens will melt, and the whole earth will melt like lead in fire; and then the hidden and open works of people will be revealed. Almsgiving, then, is good, as is repentance for sin; fasting is better than prayer, but almsgiving is better than both; and love covers a multitude of sins, while prayer arising from a good conscience rescues from death. Blessed is everyone found full of these things; for almsgiving becomes a lightening of sin.

======== 2 Clement — 17-20 ========

Let us, then, turn back to God with our whole heart, so that none of us is lost along the way. For if we are under orders to do even this - to pull people away from idols and instruct them - how much more must we make sure a soul that already knows God is not allowed to perish? Let us work together, then, to lift up those who are weak in the faith toward what is good, so that all of us may be saved, and let us turn one another around and set each other straight. And let us not only seem to believe and pay attention while the elders are correcting us, but also, once we have gone back home, let us keep the Lord's commands in mind and not be dragged the other way by worldly cravings. Instead, let us come together more often and try to make progress in the Lord's commandments, so that, all thinking the same way, we may be gathered together unto life. For the Lord said: I am coming to gather all the nations, tribes, and tongues. And by this he means the day of his appearing, when he comes and ransoms us, each according to what we have done. And the unbelievers will see his glory and his power, and astonishment will grip them as they behold the world's own kingdom now residing in Jesus, and they will say: Woe to us, for you were here, and we did not know it, and we did not believe, and we would not be persuaded by the elders who kept announcing our salvation to us. And their worm will not die, and their fire will not be put out, and they will be a spectacle for all flesh - this is what he calls that day of judgment, when they will see those among us who acted wickedly and twisted the commandments of Jesus Christ. But the righteous, having done well and endured torments, having hated the soul's cravings for pleasure, when they see those who lost their way and denied Jesus by word or by deed being punished with terrible torments in unquenchable fire, will give glory to their God, saying that there is hope for the one who has served God with his whole heart.
So let us also become people who give thanks, people who have served God, and not people who are condemned as godless. For I myself, sinner that I am through and through, not yet having escaped temptation but still standing in the very midst of the devil's tools, am eager to pursue righteousness, so that I may be able to at least come near it, because I fear the judgment that is coming.
So then, in the name of the God of truth, my brothers and sisters, I am reading you an appeal to pay attention to what has been written, so that you may save both yourselves and the one reading among you. For as payment I ask of you that you turn back to God with your whole heart, giving yourselves salvation and life. If we do this, we will set a goal before all the young, for those who wish to work hard at godliness and at God's kindness. And let us not be annoyed and grow angry, foolish as we are, whenever someone corrects us and turns us from wrongdoing to righteousness. For sometimes, while we are doing wicked things, we do not even realize it, because of the double-mindedness and lack of faith lodged in our hearts, and our understanding has been darkened by empty desires. Let us then practice righteousness, so that we may be saved in the end. Blessed are those who obey these commands. Even if they suffer hardship for a little while in this present world, they will harvest the undying fruit of the resurrection. So let the godly person not be grieved if he is afflicted in the present age; a blessed time awaits him. He will come alive again up above, with the fathers, and rejoice in that age which knows no grief.
But do not let this trouble your minds either - that we see the unjust growing rich while God's servants are hemmed in on every side. Let us keep believing, then, brothers and sisters: we are competing in the contest of the living God, and we are being trained in this present life so that we may be crowned in the life to come. None of the righteous received his fruit quickly - he waits for it. For if God paid out the reward of the righteous right away, we would immediately be practicing a business deal and not godliness; we would seem to be righteous while pursuing not piety but profit. And this is why divine judgment has struck a spirit that was not righteous, and weighed it down with chains. To him alone, the unseen God, Father of what is true, who dispatched to us the Savior, the pioneer of incorruption, and through whom he made known to us both truth and life everlasting - glory belongs to him unto the ages of ages. Amen. [The Letter of Clement to the Corinthians, Book Two.]

======== Ignatius to the Ephesians — praef-21 ========

Ignatius — also called Theophorus — sends this to the Ephesian church in Asia, a congregation richly blessed, singled out before time began for glory that never fades or shifts, made one and set apart through real suffering, according to what the Father and Jesus Christ our God have willed: abundant greetings in Jesus Christ, in joy without stain.
Having welcomed in God your name, so deeply loved, which you have earned by your just nature through faith and love in Christ Jesus our Savior — imitators of God as you are, you kindled anew the inborn work of love and carried it through to completion. For when you heard that I had been sent bound from Syria for the sake of the name and hope we hold in common, hoping through your prayers to obtain the privilege in Rome of fighting the beasts, so that through that privilege I might be able to be a true disciple, you hurried to see me. Since, then, I have received your whole company in the name of God, in the person of Onesimus, a man of indescribable love and your bishop — whom I pray you love after the pattern of Jesus Christ, and that all of you be like him — blessed is the One who granted you, deserving as you are, to possess such a bishop.
Concerning my fellow slave Burrhus, your deacon in the Lord and a blessing in every regard, I ask that he stay at my side a little longer, to your credit and the bishop's. Crocus as well, a man deserving of God and worthy of you, whom I welcomed as a living picture of the love you bear, has given me comfort on every count — may the Father of Jesus Christ grant him comfort in return — alongside Onesimus, Burrhus, Euplus, and Fronto, through whose presence I have seen your love embodied. Whatever joy comes from you, may I keep it always, provided I prove deserving. It is right, then, to honor Jesus Christ on every side, since he is the one who honored you, so that, bound together in a single submission, yielding to bishop and presbytery alike, you may be made holy through and through.
I give you no commands as if I held some rank. Though I am chained for the Name's sake, I have not yet been made complete in Jesus Christ — I am merely at the outset of discipleship, and it is as a fellow student that I address you now. In truth I needed your anointing, in faith, in counsel, in steadfastness, in patience. Yet love will not permit my silence concerning you, so I have gone ahead and urged you to press forward together in step with God's purpose. For Jesus Christ — our life undivided — expresses the Father's purpose, just as the bishops set up across the world express the purpose of Jesus Christ.
It is fitting, then, for you to press forward together in step with your bishop's purpose, which is exactly what you do. Your council of elders, deserving of its honored name and deserving of God, matches the bishop the way lyre-strings match one another. Thus, in the concord and harmony of your love, Jesus Christ is hymned. And let each of you, one by one, form a chorus, so that, in tune together in a single purpose, drawing your key from God, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father — so that he may hear you and, recognizing the good you accomplish, know you as limbs of his Son. It is useful for you, then, to stay within a spotless unity, so that you may forever share in God as well.
Even I, within so brief a span, have grown into such nearness to your bishop — not a nearness of merely human kind, but one belonging to the spirit — so imagine how far more blessed I judge you, fused as you are with him in the same way the assembly is fused with Christ, and Christ with the Father, so that every part might resound as one. Let no one wander astray here: a person standing outside the altar goes without the loaf that belongs to God. If the entreaty of one or two already carries weight, think how much weightier is the entreaty offered by the bishop together with the entire assembly. Anyone, then, who stays apart from the common gathering already displays pride and has cut himself off. Scripture says plainly: the proud find God arrayed against them. Let us be careful, therefore, never to stand opposed to the bishop, so that we might instead stand submitted before God.
The more one observes a bishop remaining silent, the greater the respect that bishop deserves. Whoever the master of a house dispatches to oversee his own affairs must be welcomed by us exactly as we would welcome the master in person. So too the bishop plainly deserves to be looked upon as we would look upon the Lord. Onesimus himself has spoken warmly of your good discipline in God — that every one of you conducts life in truth, and that no sect finds any foothold among you; indeed, you give ear to no one at all, except someone speaking honestly of Jesus Christ.
For some, with wicked cunning, are in the habit of carrying the Name about while doing things unworthy of God; you must shun such men as wild beasts. They are rabid dogs that bite in secret, and you must be on guard against them, for they are hard to cure. There is one physician, of flesh and of spirit, born and unborn, God come in man, true life in the midst of death, sprung both from Mary and from God, first subject to suffering and then beyond it — Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let no one lead you astray, then — and truly you cannot be led astray, belonging to God entirely as you do. When no quarrel has embedded itself among you with power to torment you, you are in that state genuinely living in God's way. I offer myself as your ransom and dedicate myself on behalf of you Ephesians, a congregation famed across the generations. Flesh-bound people are incapable of spiritual action, and spirit-filled people are equally incapable of fleshly action — exactly as belief cannot produce disbelief's works, nor can disbelief produce belief's works. Yet even your fleshly conduct turns out, in truth, to be spiritual, since everything you do is done in Jesus Christ.
I have learned that some people passed through from elsewhere carrying bad teaching, but you did not allow them to sow it among you — you stopped your ears so as not to receive what they were sowing. You are like stones of the Father's temple, made ready for the building of God the Father, hoisted up to the heights by the crane of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, using as your rope the Holy Spirit; your faith is what lifts you up, and love is the road that carries you up to God. So you are all fellow travelers, God-bearers and temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holy things, adorned in every way with the commandments of Jesus Christ. Rejoicing in you, I have been privileged, through this letter, to speak with you and to share your joy, because in your manner of life you love nothing except God alone.
And pray without ceasing for other people too, since a hope of turning back still lives in them, that they might reach God. Allow them, then, to become your disciples at least through what you do. Answer their anger with gentleness; their boasting with humility; their slander with prayer; their error with firmness in the faith; their savagery with mildness — without straining to copy them in return. Let us be found their brothers through fair dealing, and let us strive to imitate the Lord instead — competing over who can be wronged more, who can be cheated more, who can be despised more — so that no weed of the devil may be found among you, but that you may remain in all purity and self-control, in Jesus Christ, both in body and in spirit.
These are the final times. Let us therefore be ashamed from now on; let us fear God's patience, so that it does not turn against us as judgment. We must either dread the anger still coming, or embrace the favor already given — one of the two — with this single aim: to be discovered in Christ Jesus, bound for genuine life. Let nothing else draw your attention besides him, him in whom I bear these chains about, my pearls of the spirit, and through whom, by your prayer, I hope to be raised — a prayer in which may I always share, so that I might be numbered among the Ephesian Christians, a people who have stood in agreement with the apostles all along, through the power belonging to Jesus Christ.
I am aware both of my own standing and of those I address. I stand condemned; mercy has been shown to you. I live under danger; you remain secure. You serve as a corridor for those put to death for God's sake, sharing initiation with Paul — a man made holy, who gave his testimony, whom it is right to call blessed. May I be discovered following in his footsteps when I reach God — Paul, who remembers you in every letter, in Christ Jesus.
Make it your effort, then, to convene more often to give God thanks and honor him. For whenever you come together repeatedly in one location, Satan's forces are dismantled, and the ruin he works is undone by the concord of your faith. Peace has no equal — under it every conflict, whether among heavenly things or earthly ones, is reduced to nothing.
None of this escapes you, provided you hold unbroken faith and love toward Jesus Christ, which stand as life's starting point and its close: faith the start, love the close. Joined together as one, these two constitute God, while every other excellence in living flows out from them. No one professing faith commits sin, nor does anyone possessing love hate. A tree is recognized by its fruit. So those claiming to belong to Christ will be known by their conduct. The issue now is not one of mere claim, but of being found, in the end, within the strength of faith.
Silence paired with substance beats speech without it. Teaching is a good thing, provided the teacher also practices what he says. There is one teacher, then, whose word became reality — and even his unspoken deeds deserve the Father's honor. Whoever genuinely holds the message of Jesus can likewise perceive his stillness, so as to be complete — capable of acting on what he proclaims and of being understood through what he withholds. Nothing escapes the Lord's notice; even our hidden things lie near to him. Let us, then, act in every matter as if he lived inside us, so that we might serve as shrines for him and he might dwell in us as our God — which is in fact true, and will be made plain before our eyes, and this is exactly why our love for him is right.
Do not be misled, brothers of mine: household-corrupters will have no share in God's kingdom. If, then, those who commit such deeds in the flesh met death for it, consider how much graver a fate awaits the man who, through corrupt teaching, ruins the faith that cost Jesus Christ his crucifixion. Such a man, defiled by his own doing, will end up in the fire that never goes out — and the same goes for whoever gives him a hearing.
This is why the Lord had oil poured upon his head — so that he might breathe imperishability into the church. Do not smear yourselves with the rank smell coming from the teaching of this age's ruler, or he will drag you off as a captive, away from the life laid out before you. Why don't every one of us grow wise, now that we have taken hold of the knowledge of God — knowledge that is Jesus Christ himself? Why do we destroy ourselves so senselessly, blind to the gift the Lord has genuinely bestowed?
My own spirit is devoted to the cross — an obstacle to those without faith, yet to us it is rescue and everlasting life. Where now is the sage? Where the disputant? Where is the pride of those called clever? Our God, Jesus the Christ, was carried in Mary's womb under God's design, sprung from David's seed yet also from the Holy Spirit; he was born, he was baptized, so that through his suffering he might cleanse the water.
Hidden too from this age's ruler were Mary's virginity and her act of giving birth, and the Lord's death as well — three mysteries fit to be proclaimed aloud, though carried out in God's silence. How, then, did it come to be revealed to the ages? A star blazed in the sky, outshining every other star, its light beyond description, its strangeness stirring wonder; every other star, alongside sun and moon, gathered into a ring of song about it, while it surpassed them all in brilliance. Bewilderment spread over where this strange new thing, so unlike the rest, had originated. From that instant all sorcery came undone and every chain of wickedness was erased; ignorance was demolished, the ancient order collapsed, as God showed himself in human shape for the sake of unending life made new; and what God had readied began to take hold. From this point everything was stirred into motion together, since the undoing of death was underway.
If Jesus Christ deems me worthy through your prayer, and it is his desire, I will lay out for you, in the second short book I plan to send, the design I have started to describe concerning the new humanity found in Jesus Christ — his faith, his love, his suffering, his rising — above all if the Lord shows me that each of you, separately and as a whole, come together by grace into a single faith and into Jesus Christ — human by descent, tracing back to David's line, while at the same time divine, God's own Son — so that, with a mind undivided, you might submit to bishop and presbytery, sharing a single loaf, the drug of deathlessness, the remedy against dying that lets us live on forever in Jesus Christ.
I offer myself as a ransom for you and for the ones you sent on to Smyrna, for God's honor — I write to you from that very place, giving the Lord thanks, and loving Polycarp just as I love you. Keep me in memory, as Jesus Christ keeps you in his. Offer prayer for the church in Syria, from where I am being marched off in chains to Rome, least among the faithful there, just as I was judged worthy to be found for God's honor. Be strong, resting in God the Father, and in the hope we share together in Jesus Christ.

======== Ignatius to the Magnesians — praef-15 ========

Ignatius, known also as Theophorus, sends greetings to the congregation at Magnesia by the Meander, a people favored with the kindness God the Father shows in Christ Jesus our Deliverer. In him I salute this church, and I ask God the Father, together with Jesus Christ, to grant her joy in full measure.
Aware of how well ordered your love for God is, and delighted by it, I decided to address you on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ. Since I have been judged worthy of a name most befitting God, amid these chains I carry I sing the praises of the churches, praying within them for the joining of flesh and spirit that is Jesus Christ — he who is, through and through, our very life — and for the joining of faith and love, than which nothing ranks higher, and, above both, for union with Jesus and the Father. If we endure in him, withstanding every assault of the ruler of this age, and come through it, we shall attain to God.
Since I was counted worthy to see you, represented by Damas, your God-worthy bishop, and by your elders Bassus and Apollonius, men equally worthy, and by my fellow servant the deacon Zotion — may I take joy in him — for his submission mirrors what he owes God's grace in the bishop and what he owes the law of Jesus Christ in the council of elders.
It is fitting for you as well not to exploit your bishop's youthfulness, but, in keeping with the power of God the Father, to show him full respect — just as I have learned that your holy elders too refused to seize on his apparently youthful standing, but instead, as men prudent in God, defer to him — not truly to him, in fact, but to him whose Son is Jesus Christ, the overseer of us all. In honor, then, of the one who willed us into existence, obedience ought to be rendered without any pretense whatsoever; for the one being deceived when someone acts otherwise is not this visible bishop, but rather the invisible one being outwitted. Such a matter is not a question between him and mere flesh, but concerns God, who knows what is hidden.
It is fitting, then, not merely to be called Christians, but to be Christians — just as there are some who call a man bishop, yet do everything apart from him. Such people do not seem to me to have a clear conscience, since they do not gather together securely, in accordance with the commandment.
Since, then, everything is nearing its end, and the two lie before us together — death and life — and each person is heading toward his own destination — since there exist two kinds of currency, one belonging to God, the other to the world, each bearing its own imprint stamped upon it — the disbelieving carry this world's mark, while those faithful in love carry the mark that comes from God the Father by way of Jesus Christ — unless we choose freely to die into his suffering, his life does not dwell within us.
Since, then, I have seen in the people named above your whole assembly, gathered in faith, and have come to love you, I urge you: be zealous to do everything in harmony with God, with the bishop presiding as a figure of God, the elders standing in the place of the apostolic council, and the deacons, who mean the most to me, charged with serving Jesus Christ — he who existed alongside the Father from eternity past and was made manifest at history's close. Having all taken up this one disposition that comes from God, therefore, show one another honor; let no one size up a neighbor by the flesh, but keep loving one another without pause, bound together in Christ Jesus. Allow nothing capable of causing a split to take root among you — hold fast instead to your bishop and those set over you, a living pattern and lesson in incorruption.
Just as the Lord undertook nothing apart from the Father, remaining one with him, whether by himself or working through his apostles, you likewise should undertake nothing apart from your bishop and elders. Do not try to make anything seem reasonable to yourselves on your own; rather, let there be one shared prayer, one plea, one mind, one hope, grounded in love, in that flawless joy which is Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is better. All of you, run as one toward a single sanctuary belonging to God, toward a single altar, toward the single Jesus Christ, who proceeded from the one Father, abides in the one, and has returned to him.
Do not let yourselves be misled by foreign teachings or by old myths that serve no purpose. If we go on living by Jewish practice even now, we admit that grace has passed us by. For the most divinely inspired prophets lived their lives oriented toward Christ Jesus; that is precisely why they suffered persecution, being moved by his grace, so that those refusing to believe might be utterly persuaded that there is a single God, made known through the one whom he sent, his own Son — the Word who emerged out of silence and who pleased the one who dispatched him in every respect.
If, then, people once bound to old customs arrived at a new hope, no longer observing the sabbath but ordering their lives around the Lord's own day — the day on which, through him and through his dying, our life sprang up as well (a fact some refuse to accept, though it is exactly this mystery that gave us the capacity to believe, and it is for this reason that we hold fast, so that we might turn out to be pupils of Jesus Christ, the one teacher we have) — then how could we possibly go on existing apart from him, whom even the prophets, as his pupils in spirit, looked forward to as their instructor? And this explains why the one they rightly anticipated, once he had come, raised them up from among the dead.
Let us, then, not be numb to his goodness. If he treated us the way we treat him, we would be lost. That is why, now that we belong to him as pupils, we must learn to shape our lives after Christ. Anyone known by some other title beyond this one does not belong to God. So set aside the corrupt yeast — stale and gone sour — and take on instead the fresh yeast, Jesus Christ himself. Be seasoned by him, so that no one among you goes bad, since the smell would betray you. To talk of Jesus Christ while living like a Jew makes no sense at all. Christianity, after all, did not come to put its faith in Judaism — Judaism came to believe in Christianity, into which every tongue that trusted in God has been drawn together.
I mention this, dear friends, not out of any knowledge that some of you stand in this condition, but rather because, small as I am next to you, I want to shield you ahead of time, so you do not get caught on the hooks of hollow vanity. Instead, be entirely persuaded about the birth, the suffering, and the resurrection — events that unfolded during Pontius Pilate's term as governor, and that were accomplished truly and certainly by Jesus Christ, in whom our hope rests; may none of you ever be pulled away from it.
May I have joy of you in every way, if indeed I prove worthy of it. For even though I am in chains, I am not equal to even one of you who are free. I know that you are not puffed up; for you have Jesus Christ within yourselves. And even more, when I praise you, I know that you are embarrassed, as it is written, that the righteous man is his own accuser.
Be zealous, then, to grow firm in the teaching handed down by the Lord and the apostles, so that whatever you undertake may succeed — bodily and spiritually, through faith and through love, bound to the Son, bound to the Father, bound to the Spirit, from first moment to last — alongside your most honorable bishop, the elders forming a crown of the Spirit fittingly woven for him, and your deacons who serve God. Yield to the bishop, and to each other, just as Jesus Christ yielded to the Father, and as the apostles yielded to Christ and the Father, so that a joining together, both bodily and spiritual, might exist.
Since I know you overflow with God, my counsel to you has been short. Keep me in mind when you pray, so that I may reach God, and reach also the congregation in Syria, a people whose name I am unworthy to bear; I depend on the combined prayer and love you all hold in God, so that the Syrian church might be granted the honor of being refreshed like dew, through your own community.
The Ephesians greet you from Smyrna, from where I am also writing to you, being present here for the glory of God, just as you also were with me and gave me rest, together with Polycarp, bishop of the Smyrneans. And the rest of the churches, too, greet you in honor of Jesus Christ. Farewell in the harmony of God, possessing an undivided spirit, which is Jesus Christ.

======== Ignatius to the Trallians — praef-13 ========

Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the holy church at Tralles in Asia — she whom God the Father of Jesus Christ holds dear, chosen and worthy of God, at peace in flesh and spirit through the suffering of Jesus Christ, our hope through his resurrection: I greet her in the fullness, in the apostolic manner, and wish her abundant joy.
I have learned that you hold a blameless and steady mind, patient not out of habit but by nature, as your bishop Polybius made plain to me. Moved by God's will and that of Jesus Christ, he traveled to Smyrna, and there, sharing in my imprisonment for Christ, he rejoiced with me so fully that through him I beheld your whole congregation. Welcoming, then, your godly goodwill conveyed through him, I gave glory when I found you to be, as I had heard, imitators of God.
For when you submit to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, you show yourselves to me as people whose life follows not man, but Jesus Christ himself, who gave his life for us, so that through faith in his death you might escape death. It is necessary, then—as indeed you already do—that you do nothing without the bishop, but submit also to the council of elders, honoring them just as you would the apostles of Christ Jesus in whom rests our hope—abiding in him, we shall be found. And the deacons, being servants of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, must in every way please everyone. For they are not servants of food and drink, but attendants of God's church; they must therefore guard against reproach as against fire.
Likewise let everyone show the deacons respect as they would Jesus Christ, and the bishop as a model of the Father, and the elders as the council of God and the bond of the apostles. Without these there is no church to be called by that name. I am persuaded that this is how things stand among you, for I received the very pattern of your love, and I see it embodied in your bishop, whose bearing alone is a great lesson, and whose gentleness is power—one whom I judge even the godless must respect. Loving you, I hold back, though I am able to write more sharply on this matter. I did not think it right, condemned man that I am, to give you orders as though I were an apostle.
I have great confidence in God, yet I measure myself, lest I be destroyed through boasting. For now I must be more fearful, and pay no attention to those who puff me up. Those who flatter me in fact scourge me. I do love to suffer, but I do not know whether I am worthy. This zeal is invisible to many, but it wages its fiercest war against me. What I need, then, is gentleness, by which the ruler of this age is brought down.
Am I unable to write to you of heavenly things? Yes—but I am afraid I might do harm to you who are still infants, offering you food you cannot yet handle. Forgive me, then, lest, unable to take it in, you be strangled by it. For even I, though I am in bonds and able to understand heavenly things, the positions of the angels, the arrays of the rulers, things visible and invisible—even so I am not for that reason already a disciple. We lack much, that we may not lack God.
I urge you—though it is not my own urging, but that of Christ's love—feed on Christian nourishment alone, and keep away from any foreign plant, which is heresy. Those who practice it mix in Jesus Christ to win credit for themselves, giving, as it were, a deadly poison mixed with honeyed wine, which the unsuspecting drink gladly, taking death in wicked pleasure.
Guard yourselves, then, against such people. That will happen only when pride does not swell you, and you stay bound fast to God, to Jesus Christ, to the bishop, and to what the apostles ordained. Whoever is within the sanctuary is pure; whoever is outside the sanctuary is not pure. That is to say, whoever does anything apart from the bishop, the council of elders, and the deacons, that person is not pure in conscience.
It is not that I have heard of such a thing happening among you—rather, I am acting to protect you ahead of time, out of love for you, seeing already the traps the devil lays. So take up a gentle spirit and restore yourselves: in faith, that is, in the Lord's own flesh, and in love, that is, in the very blood of Christ Jesus. Let no one among you bear a grudge against a neighbor. Do not hand the pagans an excuse, so that the whole body belonging to God should not, on account of a handful of fools, be spoken against. Woe indeed to the man because of whom my name is defamed among any, through foolishness.
Turn a deaf ear, then, whenever someone speaks to you of anything apart from Jesus Christ—descended from David's line, born of Mary, genuinely born, one who really ate and drank, who genuinely suffered persecution under Pontius Pilate, who was genuinely nailed to the cross and died as witnesses in heaven, on earth, and below the earth looked on. And he was genuinely brought back to life from among the dead, his Father having raised him up—even as that same Father will, in the same way, raise us too, we who put our trust in him, in Christ Jesus, apart from whom we possess no genuine life.
But if, as some godless people—unbelievers, that is—claim, he only seemed to suffer, being themselves nothing but seeming, what, then, is the purpose of my imprisonment? Why would I even long to fight the wild beasts? In that case my death accomplishes nothing! In that case I am a liar about the Lord!
Flee, then, the evil offshoots that bear death-bringing fruit—if anyone tastes of it, he dies at once. These plants were never set by the Father's hand; had they been, they would appear as shoots growing from the cross, bearing fruit that cannot decay—the cross through which, in his suffering, he summons you, his own members. A head cannot come into being apart from its members, since God has promised union, and that union is himself.
Writing from Smyrna, I send my greeting, joined by the congregations of God gathered here with me, who have given me rest in every way, body and spirit alike. My chains, worn for the sake of Jesus Christ, plead with you as I seek to reach God. Hold fast to your oneness, and pray together as one body. It is right that each of you, the elders most of all, should refresh the bishop, honoring the Father together with Christ Jesus and the apostles. I hope you will listen to me in love, so that what I have written does not stand as evidence against you. Pray for me too, for I need the love you can give, held as I am in God's mercy, so that I may be judged worthy of the portion set before me, and attain it, and not be found lacking,
The Smyrnaeans and Ephesians send their love and greet you. In your prayers, keep in mind the church in Syria—I am not fit even to be named among them, being the last of all. Farewell in Jesus Christ: obey your bishop as you would the commandment itself, and likewise obey the council of elders. Love each other individually, with a heart undivided. My spirit is set apart on your behalf, both at present and whenever I come to stand before God. I remain in peril even now; yet the Father, faithful through Jesus Christ, will grant my request and yours—may you be found without blame in him.

======== Ignatius to the Romans — praef-10 ========

Ignatius — Theophorus also — to that congregation which has found mercy through the majesty of the Father above all and of Jesus Christ, his one and only Son: the assembly loved and given light by the purpose of him who willed everything that exists, in accordance with the love Jesus Christ our God bears; the same assembly presiding in the district belonging to the Romans, deserving of God, deserving of dignity, deserving to be called blessed, deserving of praise, deserving to have its petitions granted, deserving of purity, and holding first rank in love, named after Christ, named after the Father — this congregation I greet in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the Father: to those joined in body and in spirit by every commandment he gives, filled without distinction with God's favor, and strained free of every alien tinge — abundant and blameless gladness to you in Jesus Christ our God.
Having prayed to God, I have been granted the sight of your faces so deserving of God — more, in fact, than I had asked to receive. Bound as I am in Christ Jesus, I hope to embrace you, provided it be his will that I be judged worthy to reach the finish. The start, at least, has been arranged well, if only I attain the favor to take up my portion unhindered. I fear your love, that it might do me harm. For you it is a simple matter to do as you wish; but for me it is hard to attain God, unless you refrain from sparing me.
For I do not want you to please men, but to please God, as indeed you already do please him. For neither will I ever have such an opportunity to obtain God, nor will you, if you remain silent, be inscribed to a nobler work. For if you remain silent concerning me, I become a word of God; but if you set your love upon my flesh, I shall be a mere voice again. Grant me nothing more than to be poured out as an offering to God, while the altar is still ready, so that in love, becoming a choir, you may sing to the Father in Christ Jesus, because God has deemed the bishop of Syria worthy to be found at the setting of the sun, having summoned him from the rising. Setting out from the world toward God is a good thing, so that I may rise into him.
You have never envied anyone; you have taught others. What I want is that even those things you enjoin as teachers may stand firm. Only pray on my behalf for power, inwardly and outwardly, so that I might not merely talk of it but truly desire it — so that the name Christian might not merely be spoken over me but proven true in me. For once it is proven true, the name follows naturally, and I will keep faith at the point when I am no longer visible to the world. Whatever is on display is not yet good; our God, Jesus Christ, becomes most plainly seen precisely now that he is within the Father. Christianity is not a work of persuasion but of greatness, when it is hated by the world.
I am writing to every church, instructing them all that I willingly give my life for God — so long as you yourselves put nothing in my way. I beg of you, do not show me an untimely, misplaced affection. Let the wild beasts be my food; through them I am able to reach God. Wheat of God is what I am, and those animals' teeth are milling me down, so that Christ may find in me a loaf of unmixed bread. Better still, coax the creatures on, so they become my grave and leave no trace of my body afterward, that once I have gone to my rest I may burden no one. Only then will I be a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ, once the world can no longer catch sight of even my corpse. Plead with Christ for me, so that by means of these very tools I might turn out to be an offering. I am not giving you orders the way Peter and Paul did — they were apostles, whereas I am a man under sentence; they were free men, while I am, up to this hour, a slave. Yet should I suffer, I will come out of it Christ's freedman, and rise again in him a free man. Already, bound as I am, I am learning to want nothing.
From Syria to Rome I fight with beasts, by land and sea, night and day, bound to ten leopards — that is, a company of soldiers — who become worse the more kindly they are treated. But by their wrongs I am becoming all the more a disciple; yet not by this am I justified. May those animals prepared on my account bring me delight, and I hope they will be quick to meet me. I will even coax them to devour me swiftly, not as has happened to some whom they were too timid to touch. And if they should be unwilling of themselves, I will force the issue. Bear with me: I know what is good for me. Now I am beginning to be a disciple. Let nothing, whether seen or unseen, make me envious of anything, so that I may attain Jesus Christ. Let fire and cross, packs of wild beasts, cutting apart, mangling, dislocation of bones, severing of limbs, grinding of the whole body, savage torments of the devil descend on me — only let Jesus Christ be mine.
Nothing visible holds any profit for me, nor do the kingdoms of this present age. Dying on behalf of Christ Jesus suits me better than ruling every corner of the earth. It is he I look for, the one who perished for our sake; it is he I long for, the one raised up again for us. The hour of my birth draws near. Bear with me, brothers: put nothing in the way of my living, and wish nothing that would keep me from dying. Do not hand over to the world someone who longs to belong to God, and do not lead me astray with matter. Let me take hold of the pure light; once I have arrived there I will at last be a true human being. Allow me to imitate the suffering of my God. Anyone who carries him within should grasp what I am asking, and should feel as I feel, aware of what holds me fast.
The ruler of this age wants to seize me and to corrupt my resolve toward God. Let none of you who are present help him; rather, stand with me — meaning, stand with God. Do not speak of Jesus Christ while desiring the world. Let no envy dwell among you. Even if I myself, when present, should beg you, do not obey me; rather, obey these things that I write to you now. For I write to you while still alive, yet longing to die. My own desire has been nailed to the cross, and no flame of longing for material things burns in me any longer; but there is living water speaking within me, saying to me from within: Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of decay, nor in this life's pleasures. What I want is God's bread, which is Jesus Christ's flesh, sprung from the seed of David; and for drink I want his blood, love that cannot perish.
I no longer wish to live according to men. And this will be so, if you yourselves wish it. Wish it, so that you yourselves may also be wished for. I ask you through these few written words: believe me. Jesus Christ will make this clear to you, that I speak the truth — the mouth that does not lie, in which the Father truly spoke. Ask on my behalf, that I may obtain my end. I have set nothing down for you in a fleshly manner, but rather as the mind of God directs. If I suffer, you will have willed it well for me; if I am rejected, you will have hated me.
Keep in your prayers the congregation in Syria, which in my absence now has God himself as shepherd. May Jesus Christ alone oversee it as bishop, together with your love for it. But I am ashamed to be numbered among its people, for I am unworthy, the very last among them, one brought forth too soon and out of season; yet mercy has been shown to me, that I might count for something, if I attain God. My spirit greets you, together with the affection of those congregations that welcomed me for the sake of Jesus Christ — and not merely as someone passing through. For even assemblies lying off my physical route escorted me on from town to town.
I set these words down for you from Smyrna, sent by the Ephesians, so deserving of blessing. Along with me, and with many others besides, is Crocus, a name I hold dear. As for those who traveled ahead of me from Syria toward Rome to God's glory, I trust word of them has already reached you; let them know I am close by. Every one of them deserves both God and you, and it is only right that you grant them complete rest in every respect. I have set these words down for you on the ninth day before the Kalends of September. Farewell, until the end, in the patient endurance of Jesus Christ.

======== Ignatius to the Philadelphians — praef-11 ========

Ignatius, known also as Theophorus, sends greetings to the assembly belonging to God the Father and to the Lord Jesus Christ, gathered in Philadelphia of Asia. Mercy has been shown to it, and it stands firm in the harmony that comes from God, rejoicing without any hesitation in the suffering of our Lord and made fully confident, through his resurrection, in every act of mercy. I greet this assembly in the blood of Jesus Christ, a joy that never ends and never fails, most of all whenever its people are gathered as one alongside the bishop, and alongside the elders and deacons standing with him — men set in their places in keeping with the purpose of Jesus Christ, whom he, by his own will and through his Holy Spirit, made steadfast and secure.
As for this bishop, I have learned that his charge over the community's common service was granted him neither by his own doing nor through any human channel, nor out of vain ambition, but by the love borne toward him from the Father and from Christ Jesus as Lord. I stand amazed at how gentle he is; his very silence carries more weight than the words of men who chatter without purpose. Like a harp fitted to its strings, so is he fitted to the commandments. Hence my soul calls blessed his devotion toward God, now that I recognize it as both upright and whole, his calm and even temper shining out amid every mark of gentleness that the living God bestows.
Children of the light of truth, then, flee division and false teachings. Where the shepherd is, there follow as sheep. For many wolves who seem trustworthy try, by wicked pleasure, to take captive those who run in God's race; but if you remain in unity they will find no place among you.
Keep away from the evil weeds, which Jesus Christ does not cultivate, because they are not a planting of the Father. Not that I found division among you — rather, a filtering out. For all who belong to God and to Jesus Christ stand with the bishop; and all who, having repented, come back into the unity of the church — they too will belong to God, so that they may be living according to Jesus Christ. Do not be deceived, my brothers. Whoever follows one who causes a schism will not inherit the kingdom of God. Whoever walks in a mind foreign to the truth does not agree with the Passion.
Make it your aim, then, to celebrate a single Eucharist. Our Lord Jesus Christ has only a single body, and his blood provides only a single cup that draws us into unity; there is likewise only a single altar, just as there is a single bishop, together with the presbytery and the deacons who serve alongside me — so that whatever you do, you do it in accordance with God.
My brothers, I am poured out in love for you, and in my overflowing joy I watch over your safety — not I myself, but Jesus Christ; bound as I am in him, I feel my fear all the more, since I am still incomplete. Yet your prayer to God will bring me to completion, so that I may obtain the share of mercy allotted to me, having taken refuge in the gospel as one takes refuge in Jesus' own body, and in the apostles as in a council of elders belonging to the church. And we love the prophets as well, since they too proclaimed beforehand what belongs to the gospel, set their hope on him, and waited for him; believing in him, they were saved, found within the unity of Jesus Christ — holy men deserving both love and wonder, to whom Jesus Christ himself bore witness, and who are reckoned along with us in the good news of the hope we share.
But if anyone should interpret Judaism to you, do not listen to him. A circumcised man preaching Christianity is far more worth hearing than an uncircumcised one preaching Judaism. And if neither of them speaks of Jesus Christ, then to me such men are nothing but gravestones and tombs of the dead, on which nothing is inscribed but human names, and nothing more. Flee, therefore, from the wicked schemes and traps set by the ruler of this present age, so that his design does not wear you down and leave you weakened in love. Rather, gather together, all of you, as one, with an undivided heart. My God is the one I thank for keeping my conscience clear among you, so that no one can claim, whether in secret or openly, that I burdened anyone at all, whether in something small or something great. And for everyone to whom I have spoken, I pray that my words never turn into evidence brought against them.
For even supposing some wanted to lead me astray in a fleshly way, my spirit refuses to be led astray, since it belongs to God; it knows its origin and its destination, and it brings hidden things to light. While standing among you, I cried aloud in a great voice — God's own voice: Pay attention to the bishop, and to the council of elders, and to the deacons. Some suspected that I spoke this way because I already knew in advance about a coming split among some of you. Yet my witness is the one in whom I am bound: I had no knowledge of this through any merely human source; rather, it was the Spirit itself proclaiming, and what it proclaimed was this: Act on nothing apart from the bishop; guard your body as though it were God's own sanctuary; cherish unity; run from every split; model yourselves on Jesus Christ, just as he modeled himself on his Father.
For my own part, then, I acted as a man made ready for unity acts. Yet wherever division and anger reign, God has no home. Now the Lord grants forgiveness to everyone who repents, provided they turn back, in genuine repentance, toward God's unity and the bishop's council. I place my trust in the grace of Jesus Christ, who will strike every chain from you. And I beg you to act out of nothing selfish, but rather in keeping with what Christ teaches. For I overheard certain people say, 'Unless I find it set down in the old archives, I refuse to believe it stands in the gospel.' When I told them that it is indeed written, they replied that this was precisely the point at issue. But for me, Jesus Christ himself is the archive — the untouchable record is his cross, his death, his rising, and the faith that comes by way of him; through these, and through your prayer, I hope to be found righteous.
Priests, too, are admirable, yet more admirable still is the high priest entrusted with the holy of holies, the one alone entrusted with what is hidden in God. He is the doorway belonging to the Father, and it is by this doorway that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob make their entrance, along with the prophets, the apostles, and the church itself. Every one of these belongs to God's unity. Yet the gospel holds something distinct beyond them all — the arrival of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, his Passion, and his rising. For it was this that the beloved prophets announced in advance, whereas the gospel is the fulfillment, the very achievement of imperishability. Taken all together, these things are good, provided you hold them in belief through love.
Since, as your prayer and the deep affection you carry in Christ Jesus have led me to learn, peace has now come to the church in Antioch of Syria, it would be fitting for you, being a congregation devoted to God, to select a deacon to travel there as an envoy on God's behalf, to share in their joy now that they have been gathered together as one, and to give glory to the Name. Whoever proves worthy of such a service will be blessed in Jesus Christ, and you yourselves will share in that glory. Nothing prevents you, should you be willing, from doing this for the sake of God's Name, just as the congregations nearest you have already sent bishops, while others have sent elders and deacons.
Now, as to Philo, the deacon who comes from Cilicia — a man well attested — he continues even now to assist me in the ministry of God's word, together with Rheus Agathopous, a man of choice character who gave up ordinary life to travel with me from Syria. Both of them can speak to your credit too, and for my part I give God thanks on your account, because you received them as the Lord himself received you. As for whoever treated them with dishonor, may that person find release through the grace of Christ Jesus. Greetings reach you from the loving brothers who are in Troas, whence I write this to you by the hand of Burrhus, sent along with me by the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna as a mark of honor. May the Lord Jesus Christ himself repay these men, on whom their hope rests in body, in soul, in spirit, in faith, in love, and in one accord. Farewell in Christ Jesus, the hope we hold in common.

======== Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans — praef-13 ========

Ignatius, who bears also the name Theophorus, sends greetings to God's own assembly — the church belonging to the Father and to his beloved Son Jesus Christ. Mercy has been poured out on her in every gift; faith and love fill her completely; she lacks nothing that grace supplies; she is utterly fitting to God and carries what is sacred — this is the congregation gathered in Smyrna of Asia. With an unstained spirit and through God's own utterance, I send abundant greeting.
Jesus Christ, the God who granted you such wisdom, receives my glory and praise, for I recognized that your faith stands immovable, fastened as though by nails to the very cross where the Lord Jesus Christ hung in both flesh and spirit, held firm in love through Christ's own blood. You are wholly convinced about our Lord: that he genuinely descended from David's line in the flesh, that he is God's Son by the Father's will and power, that a virgin truly bore him, that John baptized him so every requirement of righteousness would be satisfied through him — and that he was genuinely fastened to a cross on our behalf, in the flesh, under the governorship of Pontius Pilate and the tetrarch Herod (his suffering, blessed by God, is the very source from which we ourselves grew), that he might, through his rising, lift a standard for all the ages over his holy and faithful people, Jew and Gentile alike, gathered into the single body that is his church.
For all these things he suffered for our sake, so that we might be saved; and he truly suffered, just as he truly raised himself, and not, as some unbelievers say, that his suffering was only in appearance — it is they themselves who exist only in appearance! And just as they think, so it will happen to them, since they are bodiless and demonic.
As for me, my knowledge and conviction are this: even once raised, he remained a being of flesh. When he approached Peter's company, he told them, "Reach out, touch me, and satisfy yourselves that I am no phantom without a body." At once they laid hands on him and were convinced, having come into contact with both his flesh and his spirit. That is why they no longer feared dying, and proved themselves stronger than death itself. Following his resurrection he shared food and drink with them like any man of flesh, even though, in spirit, he remained one with the Father.
I press this counsel on you, dear friends, aware that you already hold to it. Yet let me caution you in advance concerning those men-shaped beasts: do not merely decline their company; whenever possible avoid even crossing their path. Instead simply pray on their behalf, hoping — however unlikely — that they might yet turn back. Jesus Christ, who is our genuine life, holds power over even this. Suppose, though, that our Lord's ordeal was mere illusion — then my own imprisonment would likewise be illusory. Why else would I have surrendered myself to die, exposed to flame, blade, or beast? Yet whoever stands close to the blade stands close to God; whoever stands among beasts stands among God. It is solely for the name of Jesus Christ, sharing his suffering, that I bear everything — because he, being perfect man, supplies my strength.
There are some, ignorant of this, who reject him — or better said, it is he who has rejected them, since they champion death instead of championing truth. Neither the prophecies swayed them, nor Moses' law, nor even the gospel down to this very hour, nor the personal sufferings any of us has undergone; they hold the identical opinion about our case too. What benefit is it to me if a man speaks well of me while cursing my Lord, refusing to acknowledge him as one who carried real flesh? Whoever says such a thing has thoroughly rejected him and carries death within himself. I judged it unfitting to record their names, since they belong to unbelief. May it never even fall to me to keep them in memory — not until they turn in repentance toward that suffering which constitutes our own resurrection.
No one should be misled: not the heavenly powers, not the splendor belonging to angels, not the rulers seen or unseen — if any of these fail to trust in Christ's blood, condemnation stands ready for them too. Whoever can take in this teaching should take it in. Let no rank swell anyone's pride, for everything comes down to faith and love; nothing outranks that pair. Study closely those whose teaching about the grace of Jesus Christ granted to us differs from ours, and notice how contrary they stand to God's own purpose. Love means nothing to them — not toward the widow, not the orphan, not the one who suffers, not the prisoner or the freedman, not the one who hungers or thirsts.
They keep away from the eucharist and from communal prayer alike, since they refuse to acknowledge that the eucharist is the very flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh that suffered for our sins and that the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. Those, then, who argue against this gift of God die in the midst of their disputing; it would have been far better for them to love, so that they might rise as well. It is fitting to keep away from such people and to say nothing about them, whether privately or in a gathering, but instead to give heed to the prophetic writings, and most of all to the gospel narrative, in which the suffering has been disclosed to us openly and the resurrection brought to completion. Flee from divisions, then, as the source from which every evil grows.
All of you should follow the bishop, just as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and follow the council of elders as you would the apostles; show the deacons the same respect you would God's own command. No one should carry out any task belonging to the congregation without the bishop's knowledge. Only that thanksgiving service counts as sound which takes place under the bishop's oversight, or under someone he himself has authorized to act in his place. Let the people gather wherever the bishop shows himself, in the same way that the universal church exists wherever Christ Jesus is present. Baptizing on one's own, or celebrating a fellowship meal without the bishop present, is not permitted; rather, whatever gains his approval counts as acceptable to God too, so that all your actions may rest on a secure and firm footing.
It is reasonable, then, that we should at last come to our senses, while we still have time to turn back to God. It is a good thing to acknowledge God and the bishop. The one who honors the bishop has been honored by God; the one who does something in secret apart from the bishop is serving the devil. Let everything, then, abound among you in grace; for you are worthy of it. You have refreshed me in every way, and may Jesus Christ refresh you. Whether I was absent or present, you loved me. God will repay you, for whose sake you endure all things — you will obtain him.
You did well in receiving Philo and Rheus Agathopous, who followed me for the sake of the word of God, as servants of God; they too give thanks to the Lord on your behalf, because you refreshed them in every way. Nothing you have done will be lost. My spirit be given in exchange for yours, and so too my chains, which you did not scorn nor were ashamed of. Nor will the perfect hope, Jesus Christ, be ashamed of you.
News of your prayer has arrived at the church of Antioch in Syria, from which place — bound now in chains befitting God himself — I send greeting to all, unworthy though I am to claim that city as mine, being the very last among its members. Yet by God's own will I was judged worthy of this honor, not through any merit of my own conscience but purely through God's grace; I ask that this grace be granted to me in its fullness, so your prayers might carry me through to God. So that your labor may reach its completion in heaven as well as on earth, it suits God's honor for your congregation to send forth a delegate on his behalf, to travel into Syria and share in the joy of that church, since peace has returned to them, their former greatness has come back, and their own proper assembly has been restored. It struck me, then, as something worthy of God to dispatch one of your own people bearing a letter, so he could join in celebrating the tranquility God has granted them, and the fact that, through your prayer, they have already come safely into harbor. Since you are complete already, keep your thoughts complete as well — God stands ready to give you good things, for that is his wish.
Greetings come to you from the brotherly love found among the believers in Troas, the same place from which I write, through Burrhus — the man you sent with me alongside the Ephesians, your own brothers, who has been a comfort to me in every respect. If only everyone would take him as their model, since he exemplifies service to God so well. May grace repay him fully in every way. I send greeting to your God-worthy bishop, to the elders' council so fitting to God, to the deacons who serve alongside me, and to each of you as well as all of you together — in the name of Jesus Christ, in his flesh and his blood, in his suffering and his rising, both in body and in spirit, joined in the unity shared by God and by you. Grace, mercy, peace, and steadfast endurance be yours always.
Greetings to the homes of my brothers — to their wives, their children, and the virgins known as widows. May you fare well through the Father's strength. Philo sends his greeting too, being here with me. Greetings also to Tavia's household; I pray it stands solidly rooted in faith and love, in body as much as in spirit. Greetings to Alce, whose name means much to me, to the peerless Daphnus, to Eutecnus, and to every one of them by name. Fare well in God's grace.

======== Ignatius to Polycarp — praef-8 ========

Ignatius — who bears also the name Theophorus — writes to Polycarp: overseer of the Smyrnaean congregation, or rather, a man watched over himself by God our Father and by our Lord Jesus Christ. Warmest greetings.
Welcoming your godly disposition, grounded as it is like an immovable rock, I give surpassing praise, counted worthy as I am of your blameless face, in which may I find joy in God. I beg you, by the grace you are clothed in, to press further along your course and to urge everyone on, so that they may be saved. Vindicate the place you hold with every kind of care, both of the flesh and of the spirit. Give thought to unity, than which nothing is better. Carry everyone, as the Lord carries you. Bear with everyone in love, just as you already do. Devote yourself to unceasing prayers. Ask for greater understanding than you have. Stay wide awake, keeping a spirit that never sleeps. Speak to each person individually after the manner of God. Carry the sicknesses of all, like a perfect athlete. Where the labor is greater, the gain is great.
If you love only the good pupils, there is no credit to you in that; rather bring the more troublesome ones into line through gentleness. Not every wound is healed by the same plaster. Calm sudden attacks with soothing applications. Show the shrewdness of the serpent in all things, yet remain, like the dove, harmless without end. This is why you are both flesh and spirit: so that you may deal gently, face to face, with what appears, while asking that what is unseen be revealed to you, so that you may lack nothing and abound in every gift. The season calls upon you, as sailors call upon favorable winds and one caught in a storm calls upon a harbor, so that you may reach God. Keep clear-headed like a champion competing for God: incorruption and life everlasting are the prize awaiting you, a truth of which you are already persuaded. In everything I am a ransom for your soul, and so are my chains, which you have loved.
Do not let those who seem trustworthy but who teach otherwise strike you with fear. Stand firm like an anvil under the hammer. It belongs to a great athlete to be struck and still win. But above all, for God's sake we must endure everything, so that he too may endure us. Become more earnest than you are. Read the seasons closely. Look for him who is above every season, the timeless one, the invisible one who became visible for our sake, the untouchable, the one incapable of suffering — yet he suffered on our account, enduring every hardship for our benefit.
Let widows not be neglected. After the Lord, be their guardian yourself. Let nothing happen without your consent, and do not act yourself apart from God — which indeed you do not. Stand firm. Let gatherings be held more often. Seek out everyone by name. Do not look down on male or female slaves; but let them not become puffed up either — rather let them serve all the more for the glory of God, so that a superior freedom, granted by God, may come to them. They should not crave release at the congregation's cost, lest they turn out to be enslaved to their own cravings instead.
Flee wicked schemes — or rather, preach against them. Tell my sisters this: cherish the Lord, and let your own husbands be enough for you, in flesh together with spirit. Likewise instruct my brothers, invoking Jesus Christ's name, that each should love his wife as the church is loved by the Lord. If someone can hold to purity out of reverence for the Lord's own flesh, let him hold to it without boasting of the fact. Boasting destroys it, and if it comes to be known by more than the bishop, it is already spoiled. Those entering marriage, whether men or women, ought to form their union with the bishop's approval, so that the marriage follows the Lord's will rather than mere appetite. Let everything be done to honor God.
Pay attention to the bishop, so that God may also pay attention to you. I offer myself as ransom for those obedient to the bishop, the elders, and the deacons; may I be given a share alongside them within God. Toil alongside one another, wrestle alongside one another, race alongside one another, suffer alongside one another, rest alongside one another. Stand up together as God's stewards, his assessors, his attendants. Satisfy the one you serve as soldiers, the one who pays your wages; not a single one among you should turn deserter. Treat your baptism as armor that stays with you, faith as your helmet, love as your spear, patient endurance as your full panoply. Make your deeds your deposits, so you may draw out savings that belong to you. Show patience toward each other, then, with gentleness, the way God shows patience toward you. May you always be my joy.
Since the church in Antioch of Syria is at peace, as I have been told, because of your prayers, I too have become more cheerful, free of care in God — provided that through my suffering I attain to God, so as to be found a disciple through your resurrection. It is fitting, Polycarp, most blessed in God, to convene a council most worthy of God and to appoint someone whom you hold especially dear and who is tireless, one who will be able to be called a runner for God — to deem this person worthy to go to Syria and glorify your tireless love, to the glory of God. A Christian has no authority over himself, but devotes his time to God. This is a work of God, and yours too, once you have completed it. For I trust in grace, that you are ready for a good work belonging to God. Aware of your zeal for the truth, I have urged this on you in these few written lines.
Since it was not possible for me to send letters to every church, my departure from Troas to Neapolis coming suddenly, as God's will directs, you yourself should write on to the churches beyond you, since you hold the mind of God, so that they too may act likewise — those able to do so dispatching runners on foot, the others sending letters carried by envoys of your own choosing — so that you may earn the honor of a work lasting forever, an honor you deserve. I send greetings to each person by name, and to the Procurator's wife along with her entire house and children. Greetings to Attalus, whom I love. Greetings also to the man soon to be judged fit for the journey to Syria. May grace remain with him without end, and with Polycarp who sends him on his way. I ask that things go well for you continually, in our God Jesus Christ, in whom may you abide, kept within the unity and care of God. Greetings to Alce, a name precious to me. Farewell in the Lord.

======== Polycarp to the Philippians — praef-14 ========

From Polycarp and the elders serving with him, greetings to God's assembly living as strangers in Philippi: may you be granted an abundance of mercy and peace from Almighty God and Jesus Christ our Savior.
Great was my joy over you, shared together in our Lord Jesus Christ, when I saw how warmly you received true love's living examples and sent them onward, exactly as befit you, men bound in chains that suit the holy — fetters that stand, in reality, as crowns worn by those whom God and our Lord have truly chosen. I am glad too that the sturdy root of your faith, announced from ancient days, has held firm to the present and produces fruit for our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered death on account of our sins, and God raised him, breaking apart the agonies of Hades; in him, unseen by your eyes, you place your trust, rejoicing with a gladness beyond words and already touched by glory — a joy many long to reach. You know that grace has brought you salvation, not any achievement of your own, but rather God's own will working through Jesus Christ.
So then, gird up your loins, and serve God with reverence and sincerity, putting away idle talk and the error common to the crowd. Trust in him who brought our Lord Jesus back to life out of death, granting him glory together with a seat of honor at his right side; to him every creature in heaven and on earth has been subjected, every living breath does him service, and he is coming to judge both the living and the dead — and his blood God will demand from all who refuse to obey him. The same one who brought him back from among the dead will likewise restore us to life, provided we carry out his will, follow his teachings faithfully, and cherish everything he cherished, holding ourselves apart from wrongdoing of every kind — greed, avarice, slander, false testimony. Do not answer evil with evil, insult with insult, blow with blow, curse with curse. Remember instead his own teaching: judge not, lest you be judged; forgive, and forgiveness will be yours; show mercy, and mercy will be shown to you; the measure you use will be used back on you. And happy are the poor, happy too are those made to suffer on account of what is right, since the kingdom of God belongs to them.
Brothers, I did not decide on my own to write to you about righteousness — you yourselves asked me to do so first. Paul, that blessed and glorious man, possessed a wisdom that neither I nor anyone of my stature could ever match; while he lived among you, in the presence of the people of his generation, he taught the message of truth with precision and firmness, and afterward, once he had departed, he sent you letters. Study these carefully, and you will be able to grow strong in the faith handed down to you — faith that is mother to us all, with hope trailing behind it and love for God, for Christ, and for one's neighbor leading the way ahead of it. Whoever abides within these has kept the whole demand of righteousness, for love, wherever it is found, keeps a person distant from every sin.
Love of money is where every kind of trouble begins. Since we know we carried nothing into this world, and that nothing can be carried out of it when we leave, let us take up righteousness as our weaponry; let us first learn, ourselves, to walk by the Lord's own command, and only then instruct our wives — that they should hold to the trust placed in them, living out purity and devotion, honoring their husbands with total loyalty, showing equal affection toward everyone else with full self-restraint, and raising their children within the discipline that fear of God supplies. The widows, for their part, ought to keep a sound mind concerning what the Lord requires, praying for all people without ceasing, kept well away from slander, idle talk, false accusation, greed, and any wrongdoing whatsoever, since they serve as an altar belonging to God, where everything is inspected for blemish and nothing — no reasoning, no notion, nothing concealed within the heart — escapes his notice.
Since we understand that no one mocks God and escapes it, our conduct must match the honor and the command he has given. In the same way, deacons must stand blameless before what righteousness demands, serving God and Christ rather than men — no slander, no double-dealing, no love of silver, restrained in everything, tender-hearted, hard-working, and living out the Lord's own truth, since he himself became a servant to all. Should we succeed in pleasing him during our present life, the coming age will be ours as well, for he pledged that our resurrection from death would follow his own, and that a life lived worthily of him earns us a shared reign with him — provided our faith holds. Younger men, likewise, must be blameless in every respect, giving purity their first concern and steering clear of every wrong. Cutting away worldly cravings serves us well, since every craving makes war on the spirit within, and none of the following will inherit God's kingdom: the sexually immoral, the effeminate, men who lie with men, or anyone practicing indecency. All such things, therefore, must be avoided, submitting instead to elders and deacons as one submits to God and Christ. The virgins must conduct themselves with a conscience unblemished and pure.
The elders, too, must show tenderness and mercy toward everyone, bringing back those who have gone astray, tending to the weak, and never overlooking any widow, orphan, or person in need — always intent instead on what is honorable in the sight of both God and mankind. They must hold themselves apart from anger, from partiality, from unjust verdicts, and keep well clear of any fondness for silver; they must not be hasty to believe accusations against another, nor severe in judgment, remembering that every one of us owes a debt because of sin. If we ask the Lord to pardon us, then we in turn are obligated to pardon others, since we live under the gaze of the Lord and of God, and each of us will one day stand at Christ's tribunal and answer for what we have done. Let us therefore serve him in fear and complete reverence, exactly as he commanded, following the pattern set by those sent to proclaim good news to us and by the prophets who announced beforehand our Lord's arrival — eager for what is good, avoiding anything that causes stumbling, avoiding false brothers, and avoiding people who wear the Lord's name as a mask while leading the simple-minded astray.
Anyone unwilling to acknowledge Jesus Christ as one who came in human flesh stands as an antichrist; anyone who refuses to acknowledge what the cross bore witness to belongs to the devil; and whoever bends the Lord's own words to fit his private appetites, claiming there will be no resurrection and no judgment, is nothing less than Satan's own firstborn. Let us, then, abandon the crowd's empty pursuits along with their false doctrines, and return instead to the teaching handed down to us from the start — remaining watchful in prayer, persisting in fasting, and begging the God who oversees everything not to lead us into trial, exactly as the Lord himself said: the spirit is indeed eager, though the flesh is frail.
Let us cling without letup, then, to our hope and to the pledge of our righteousness — Christ Jesus, who carried the weight of our sins up onto the wood, in his own flesh, having committed no sin himself, with no dishonesty ever discovered on his lips; yet for our benefit, so that we could live through him, he bore every hardship. Let us then take up the pattern of his patient endurance, and if suffering comes to us because of his name, let us give him glory for it. This, after all, is the model he laid down in his own person, and this is the very thing we have come to believe.
I appeal to every one of you, then, to submit to what righteousness teaches and to exercise patient endurance in every form — the very quality you witnessed firsthand, not merely in Ignatius, Zosimus, and Rufus, those blessed men, but also among others in your own community, and in Paul as well, together with the remaining apostles. Be assured that none of them ran their race for nothing: they ran it in faith and uprightness, and they now occupy the place set aside for them at the Lord's side, having shared also in his sufferings. For their love was not fixed on the present age, but on him who died on our behalf and whom God raised for our sake.
[LATIN] Remain steady, then, in all this, taking the Lord as your model — unmoving and secure in faith, devoted to your brothers and sisters, treasuring one another, bound together by truth, bearing with one another in the gentleness the Lord shows, and regarding no one with contempt. [LATIN] Whenever you are able to act well, do not put it off, since generosity toward others rescues from death. Submit yourselves, all of you, to one another, keeping how you live blameless among the nations, so that through your good deeds you yourselves gain commendation and no reproach falls on the Lord's name because of you. [LATIN] But sorrow awaits whoever causes the Lord's name to be reproached. Teach everyone, then, to practice self-control, following the pattern of your own lives.
[LATIN] I was deeply grieved on account of Valens, who was once made a presbyter among you, that he should so misunderstand the place given to him. I urge you, therefore, to keep yourselves from love of money and to be chaste and truthful. Keep yourselves from every evil. [LATIN] But how can someone who cannot govern himself in these matters instruct another to do so? If anyone does not keep himself from love of money, he will be defiled by idolatry and will be judged as though among the nations, who do not know the judgment of the Lord. Or do we not know that the saints will judge the world, as Paul teaches? [LATIN] But I have neither perceived nor heard anything of this sort among you, in whom the blessed Paul labored, and who are named at the beginning of his letter. For he boasts of you in all the churches which had at that time come to know the Lord alone; we ourselves had not yet come to know him. [LATIN] I am deeply grieved, then, brothers, for him and for his wife; may the Lord grant them true repentance. Be sober-minded, therefore, yourselves as well in this matter, and do not regard such people as enemies, but call them back as suffering and erring members, so that you may save the whole body of you all. For in doing this you build up yourselves.
[LATIN] I trust that you have deep familiarity with the sacred writings, with nothing hidden from you — a gift not given to me in the same measure. Only remember what these scriptures tell us: be angry, yet do not sin, and do not let the sun set upon your wrath. Happy is the person who keeps this in mind, and I believe that person is you. [LATIN] May God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with Jesus Christ himself, God's Son and our eternal high priest, establish you firmly in faith and truth and every form of gentleness, free from anger, patient, long-suffering, enduring, and pure; may he grant you a share and an inheritance among his holy ones — and to us alongside you, and to everyone beneath heaven destined to place their trust in our Lord and God Jesus Christ, and in the Father who raised him from among the dead. [LATIN] Offer prayer on behalf of all the holy ones. Pray as well for kings, for those holding power, for rulers, for whoever persecutes or despises you, and for enemies of the cross, so that the fruit you bear may be plain for all to see and you yourselves may reach completeness in him.
You yourselves wrote to me, as did Ignatius, that if anyone were traveling to Syria, he should also carry along letters from you. I will do this if I find a suitable opportunity — either going myself, or sending someone who will act as an envoy on your behalf as well. As for the letters of Ignatius that were sent to us by him, and any others we had in our possession, we have sent them to you, just as you asked; they are appended to this letter, and from them you will be able to gain great benefit. In them you will find steadfast trust, patient perseverance, and instruction of every sort fitting for life in our Lord. [LATIN] And whatever you learn more definitely about Ignatius himself and those who are with him, let us know.
[LATIN] These things I have set down for you and sent by the hand of Crescens — a man I recommended to you a while ago, and recommend to you again now, since he has lived without fault among us, and I trust he will do likewise among you. Receive his sister too with confidence when she arrives among you. May you fare well in Christ Jesus our Lord, living in grace, together with all those who belong to you. Amen.

======== Martyrdom of Polycarp — praef-22 ========

The congregation of God residing as strangers in Smyrna sends its greeting to the congregation of God residing as strangers in Philomelium, together with all the communities of the holy, universal church in every locality: may mercy be yours in ever fuller measure, with peace and with love, from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are writing to you, brothers, about what happened to those who bore witness, and especially to blessed Polycarp, who, as if setting a seal on it all through his own martyrdom, brought the persecution to a halt. For nearly everything that came before happened so that the Lord might show us once again from above a martyrdom in keeping with the gospel. He waited to be handed over, just as the Lord did, so that we too might become imitators of him — not looking only to our own interest, but to that of our neighbors as well. For it belongs to true and steadfast love to wish salvation not only for oneself, but for all the brothers too.
Blessed and noble indeed are all the martyrdoms accomplished in keeping with God's will. For we ought, out of reverence, to leave to God the authority over all things. Who would not marvel at their nobility, their endurance, their devotion to their Master? Some were shredded by whips until the very structure of their flesh lay open down to the inner veins and arteries, and yet they held firm, so that even the onlookers wept and grieved. Others reached such a pitch of nobility that not a single one among them so much as murmured or groaned, showing us all that in that hour of torment the noblest martyrs of Christ had already left the flesh behind — or rather, that the Lord himself stood at their side and spoke with them. With eyes fixed on Christ's grace, they made light of this world's torments, purchasing eternal life for themselves in the space of a single hour. The fire of their merciless tormentors felt cold to them, for they kept before their eyes their escape from the fire that is everlasting and never goes out, and with the eyes of the heart they gazed upward at the good things reserved for those who endure — things no ear has heard, no eye has seen, and no human heart has conceived, but which the Lord revealed to them, since they were no longer mere men but already like angels. In the same manner, those condemned to face the beasts bore terrible torments, forced to lie on sharp shells and afflicted with other varied forms of punishment, so that the tyrant, if he could manage it, might drive them through relentless punishment into denial. For the devil schemed against them in many ways.
But thanks be to God — he did not win out over all of them. Germanicus, most noble among them, gave strength to the fainthearted through his own steadfast endurance, and he fought the beasts in a manner that drew every eye. When the proconsul tried to win him over, urging him to have pity on his own youth, he instead pulled the beast toward himself by force, wanting to be freed all the sooner from their unjust and lawless existence. At this the whole crowd, marveling at the courage of this God-devoted and God-fearing Christian race, raised a shout: "Down with the atheists! Track down Polycarp!"
But one man, named Quintus, a Phrygian who had recently arrived from Phrygia, lost his nerve when he saw the beasts. He was the one who had forced himself and some others forward to come voluntarily. This man the proconsul, after much pleading, persuaded to swear the oath and offer sacrifice. For this reason, then, brothers, we do not praise those who hand themselves over, since this is not what the gospel teaches.
Polycarp, most admirable of all, showed no alarm upon first hearing the news, and wanted to stay in the city. Most of those around him, however, urged him to withdraw, and he did withdraw to a small farm not far outside the city, staying there with a few companions, occupied night and day with nothing but prayer for everyone and for the churches throughout the whole world — as was always his habit. And while at prayer, three days before his arrest, he had a vision: he saw his pillow being consumed by fire, and turning to those with him he said, "I am destined to be burned alive."
And when those hunting for him kept at it, he moved on to another small farm, and his pursuers arrived there almost at once. Not finding him, they seized two young slaves, and one of them, under torture, gave him away. It was in truth impossible for him to stay hidden, since even those who betrayed him belonged to his own household, and the police-captain — whose lot had given him that same name, Herod — was in a hurry to march him into the arena, so that this Herod could complete his own appointed portion by becoming Christ's partner, while those who had betrayed Polycarp would suffer the very penalty of Judas.
So, bringing the boy along, the officers and horsemen set out on the Preparation Day around suppertime, armed as usual, running as though after a bandit. Arriving late that evening, they found him lying down in an upper room; even then he could have moved to another spot, but he refused, saying, "Let God's will be done." So when he learned they had arrived, he came down and talked with them, and those present were struck by his age and his calm bearing, wondering why there should be such urgency to seize so old a man. He at once ordered that food and drink be set before them, as much as they wanted, at that very hour, asking only that they allow him time to pray undisturbed. When they agreed, he stood and prayed, filled with such divine grace that he could not bring himself to stop for two whole hours, leaving his hearers astonished, and many regretted having come after so godly an old man.
When at last he brought his prayer to a close, having called to mind everyone he had ever met, small and great, famous and unknown, along with the whole universal church throughout the world, the hour had come for him to depart, so they placed him on a donkey and led him toward the city, since it was the day of the great Sabbath. The police-captain Herod and his father Nicetes came out to meet him, and, drawing him up into their wagon, sat beside him and worked to win him over, urging, "Why not simply pronounce, 'Caesar is Lord,' burn the incense, and finish what goes with it, so you can stay safe?" At first he gave them no reply; but as they kept pressing, he answered, "Your counsel is something I will not follow." Having failed to persuade him, they flung abusive words his way and thrust him out with force, and as he climbed down from the wagon his shin was scraped raw. But without so much as turning around, as though nothing had happened to him, he pressed on eagerly and in haste, led toward the stadium, where the roar was so loud that no one could even be heard.
As Polycarp entered the stadium, a voice came from heaven: "Be strong, Polycarp, and act like a man." No one saw who spoke, though our people standing nearby caught the sound of it. And when he was finally brought forward, a great commotion arose among those who heard that Polycarp had been arrested. When he was brought before him, the proconsul asked whether he was indeed Polycarp. When he admitted it, the proconsul tried to talk him into denying it, saying, "Have regard for your age," and other such things they were accustomed to say, such as: "Swear by the fortune of Caesar, repent, say, 'Down with the atheists.'" But Polycarp, fixing a stern gaze on the whole crowd of lawless pagans gathered in the stadium, gestured toward them with his hand, then, sighing as he raised his eyes toward the sky, declared, "Down with the atheists." But when the proconsul pressed him further, saying, "Swear the oath, and I will release you — curse Christ," Polycarp said, "For eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How could I curse my King who saved me?"
But when the proconsul kept insisting, saying, "Swear by the fortune of Caesar," he answered, "If you are under the vain impression that I would swear by the fortune of Caesar, as you say, and pretend not to know who I am, then hear this without disguise: I am a follower of Christ. Should you want to be instructed in what Christianity teaches, set a day and I will explain." The proconsul said, "Persuade the people." Polycarp replied, "You I would have thought worthy of an explanation, for we have been taught to render honor, as is fitting, to rulers and authorities appointed by God, so long as it does no harm to us; but as for that crowd, I do not consider them worthy that I should make my defense to them."
The proconsul said, "I have wild beasts; I will throw you to them, unless you change your mind." He answered, "Call for them. For it is unthinkable for us to change from the better to the worse; but it is a good thing to change from cruelty to justice." The proconsul said to him again, "I will have you consumed by fire, since you make light of the beasts, unless you change your mind." Polycarp said, "You threaten with a fire that burns for an hour and is soon put out; but you know nothing of the fire reserved for the judgment to come and the everlasting punishment awaiting the godless. Why do you delay? Bring on whatever you wish."
As he said this and much more besides, he was filled with courage and joy, and his face was filled with grace, so that he not only did not collapse in distress at what was said to him, but on the contrary it was the proconsul who was astonished, and he dispatched his herald to announce three separate times, there in the center of the arena, that Polycarp himself admitted to being a Christian. When the herald had said this, the whole crowd of pagans and Jews living in Smyrna raised an uncontainable roar together: "Here stands Asia's instructor, father to the Christian people, the man who tears down our gods, the one who teaches so many not to sacrifice and not to worship!" Saying this, they shouted and asked the Asiarch Philip to release a lion against Polycarp. He said it was not permitted to him, since he had already closed the beast-hunts. Then it seemed good to them to shout out together that Polycarp should be burned alive. For the vision that had been shown to him concerning his pillow had to be fulfilled, when, seeing it burning while he prayed, he had turned and said prophetically to the believers with him, "I am destined to be burned alive."
All this happened with such speed — faster than it can be told — the crowds at once gathering wood and kindling from the workshops and the baths, the Jews especially, as is their custom, eagerly assisting in this. When the pyre was ready, he took off all his own clothing and undid his belt, and tried also to remove his own sandals, though he was not accustomed to doing this himself, since each of the believers was always eager to be the first to touch his skin; for even before his martyrdom he had been adorned with every honor because of his good manner of life. At once the instruments prepared for the fire were placed around him. When they were about to nail him as well, he told them, "There is no need to fasten me down further — the one who gives me strength to withstand the flames will likewise keep me steady within them, with no nails required for my security."
So they did not nail him, but only bound him. And he, with his hands behind him, bound like a distinguished ram taken from a great flock for sacrifice, a burnt offering made ready and acceptable to God, looked up to heaven and said, "Lord God Almighty, Father of your beloved and blessed servant Jesus Christ, through whom we have come to know you, God over the angels, the powers, the whole created order, and every generation of the righteous who dwell before your face: I praise you for judging me deserving of this hour and this day, to be numbered among your martyrs and share in your Christ's cup, rising to unending life in both soul and body, kept incorruptible through the Holy Spirit. Among them may I be welcomed before you today, as a rich and acceptable sacrifice, just as you prepared and revealed and fulfilled beforehand, O God who is faithful and true. For this, and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you, through that everlasting priest of heaven, Jesus Christ, your beloved servant, through whom be glory to you, together with him and the Holy Spirit, both now and for the ages to come. Amen."
When he had sent up his Amen and finished his prayer, the men in charge of the fire lit it. And as a great flame blazed up, we who were given the privilege to see it witnessed a wonder — and we have been kept alive to report to the rest what happened. For the fire took the shape of a vault, like a ship's sail filled by the wind, and enclosed the martyr's body like a wall on every side; at its center it looked not like burning flesh but like bread baking, or like gold and silver being refined in a furnace. And indeed we caught so sweet a fragrance, as of frankincense breathing out, or some other precious spice.
Finally, once the lawless crowd realized the fire was failing to burn through his body, they had a confector approach and stab him with a blade. At that, out came a dove, along with so much blood that the flames were extinguished, leaving the entire crowd astonished at how vast a gulf separated the unbelieving from God's chosen — among whom was this man, the most admirable martyr Polycarp, who in our own times proved to be an apostolic and prophetic teacher, bishop of the universal church in Smyrna. For every word that left his mouth came to be fulfilled, and will yet be fulfilled.
But the jealous, envious, and evil one, who opposes the race of the righteous, observing how magnificent his martyrdom had been and how spotless his conduct from the start, and that he had been crowned with the crown of incorruptibility and had carried off a prize beyond dispute, schemed so that even his remains would not fall into our hands, even though many desired to do this and to have a share in his holy flesh. So he prompted Nicetes — Herod's father and Alce's brother — to petition the magistrate against releasing the body, warning, "Otherwise they will desert the crucified one and take up worship of this man instead." They said this at the urging and instigation of the Jews, who also kept watch when we were about to take him from the fire, not knowing that we could never forsake Christ, who bore suffering so that the entire world of the redeemed might be saved, faultless one standing in for sinners, nor could we ever worship anyone else. Since he is God's own Son, it is him we worship; the martyrs, however, we cherish as disciples and imitators of the Lord, and rightly so, on account of their unsurpassed devotion shown toward their King and Teacher. May we too be granted a place as their companions and fellow disciples.
So the centurion, seeing the contentiousness stirred up by the Jews, set the body in the middle, as was their custom, and burned it. And so we later gathered up his bones, more valuable to us than precious stones and finer than gold, and laid them to rest in a fitting place. There, as far as we are able, the Lord will grant us to gather together in joy and gladness to mark the anniversary of his witness — recalling those who already ran the race, and readying and training those yet to run it.
Such is the story concerning blessed Polycarp, who, though he was the twelfth to be martyred in Smyrna along with those from Philadelphia, is remembered by everyone above all others, so that even the pagans speak of him in every place — not only because he was a distinguished teacher, but also an outstanding martyr, whose martyrdom all desire to imitate, since it came about in accordance with the gospel of Christ. Through his endurance he overcame the unjust ruler and so received the crown of incorruptibility, and now, rejoicing together with the apostles and all the righteous, he glorifies God the Father Almighty, and gives blessing to Jesus Christ, our Lord — savior of every soul, helmsman guiding our bodies, shepherd over the universal church across the world.
You asked to be informed at greater length about what happened, but for now we have reported it in summary through our brother Marcion. When you have learned these things, send this letter on also to the brothers further away, so that they too may glorify the Lord, who makes his choices from among his own servants. Now may glory, honor, might, and greatness forever belong to the One who can lead every one of us, by grace and gift, into his kingdom in heaven, through Jesus Christ his only Son. Greet all the saints. Those who are with us greet you, and so does Evarestus, who wrote this letter, together with his whole household.
Blessed Polycarp gave his witness at the eighth hour, during a great Sabbath, seven days before the Kalends of March — that is, the second of Xanthicus. He was arrested by Herod, in the time of the high priest Philip of Tralles, while Statius Quadratus was proconsul, but with Jesus Christ reigning forever, to whom be glory, honor, majesty, and an eternal throne, from generation to generation. Amen.
We wish you good health, brothers, as you walk in step with the word of Jesus Christ that is in accordance with the gospel, through whom glory belongs to God, both Father and Holy Spirit, for the salvation granted to the holy chosen ones, just as blessed Polycarp bore witness — may it be granted to us also to be found in his footsteps in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This account was copied out by Gaius from the writings of Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp, who also lived alongside Irenaeus. And I, Socrates, wrote it out in Corinth from the copies of Gaius. Grace be with all. And I again, Pionius, wrote it out from the copy mentioned above, having sought it out, according to a revelation made known to me by blessed Polycarp himself, as I will explain in what follows, gathering it together now when it was already nearly worn away by time, so that Christ the Lord will gather me as well, alongside those he has chosen, into his kingdom above, glory being his together with the Father and Spirit, for age after age. Amen.

======== Martyrdom of Polycarp — epilogus_alius ========

This account was copied out by Gaius from the writings of Irenaeus, who had lived and worked alongside Irenaeus, a disciple of the holy Polycarp. This same Irenaeus, at the time of the martyrdom of Bishop Polycarp, was in Rome, where he taught many people. A number of his writings survive, most excellent and thoroughly sound, in which he makes mention of Polycarp — that he had learned from him — and in them he refutes every heresy with great competence, and hands down the rule of the church, the catholic rule, just as he received it from the holy man. He also tells this story: that Marcion, from whom come those called Marcionites, once met the holy Polycarp and said to him, "Recognize us, Polycarp," and Polycarp answered him, "I recognize you — I recognize the firstborn of Satan." Irenaeus’s own writings preserve another detail as well: at the precise day and hour Polycarp was martyred at Smyrna, Irenaeus himself, then residing in the city of Rome, heard what sounded like a trumpet-blast declaring, "Polycarp has suffered martyrdom." From these writings of Irenaeus, then, as has already been said, Gaius made his copy, and from the copies of Gaius, Isocrates in Corinth made his. And I, Pionius, in turn wrote out from the copies of Isocrates, seeking these things out in accordance with a revelation of the holy Polycarp, and gathering them together when they were already nearly worn away by time, so that the Lord Jesus Christ might gather me as well among his chosen, bringing me into his kingdom above the heavens; glory belongs to him, together with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, unto ages of ages. Amen.

======== Epistle of Barnabas — 1-6 ========

Greetings to you, my brothers and sisters, in the name of the Lord who has loved us, in peace. Since the just decrees of God toward you are great and abundant, I am overjoyed - beyond all measure - at your blessed and glorious dispositions: so deeply rooted is the grace of the spiritual gift given to you. For this I congratulate myself even more, in the hope of being kept safe, since I truly perceive a spirit poured out upon you from the Lord's abundant fountain. I was so struck with wonder at seeing you, a sight I had longed for intensely. Trusting in this, and aware within myself that I understand a great deal in speaking among you - because the Lord has walked with me on the path of righteousness - I am entirely driven to love you more than my own life, since a great faith and love dwell within you, founded on the hope of the life he gives. Considering this, then: that if I take pains to share with you a portion of what has been granted to me, it will count toward my recompense for serving spirits of such a kind, I have hurried to dispatch these writings to you piece by piece, so that alongside your faith you might likewise attain complete knowledge. The Lord's decrees, then, number three: hope for life - which stands as the starting point and the goal of our faith; righteousness - the starting point and the goal of judgment; and love - the witness borne through joyful and glad deeds of righteousness. For the Master has revealed to us, by means of the prophets, both what has already happened and what is happening now, and has granted us an early taste of what is yet to come; and observing these things unfold one after another, exactly as he foretold, we are obligated to draw nearer to fearing him, ever more richly and profoundly. But I - not acting as a teacher, but as one among you - will point out a handful of matters that should bring you joy given your present state.
Since, then, our days are wicked, and the one who exercises power is himself at work, we are obligated to be watchful of ourselves and search out the Lord's just decrees. The helpers of our faith, then, are fear and patient endurance, while what fights on our side are long-suffering and self-mastery. As long as these remain undefiled in their relation toward the Lord, wisdom, understanding, insight, and knowledge join together in rejoicing with them. For through all the prophets he has disclosed to us that he desires neither sacrifices nor whole-burnt offerings nor other oblations, saying at one point: "What good are all these countless sacrifices of yours to me? declares the Lord. I have had my fill of burnt offerings, and I take no delight in the fat of lambs, nor in the blood of bulls and he-goats - not even when you come into my sight. For who has demanded such things from your hands? Stop trampling through my courtyard. Should you bring me fine flour, it is worthless; incense is detestable to me; I cannot endure your new-moon feasts and your sabbaths." These, then, he did away with, so that the fresh law given through our Lord Jesus Christ, free from any yoke of constraint, would not carry an offering fashioned by human hands. And once more he says to them: "Was it a command I gave your ancestors, when they were leaving the land of Egypt, to bring me burnt offerings and sacrifices? No - what I commanded them was this: let no one among you hold malice against his neighbor in his heart, and do not cherish a false oath." We ought, then, being people of some understanding, to grasp our Father's good intention in these words, since he wants us not to wander astray as they did in seeking how to come near him. So he tells us instead: "A sacrifice pleasing to the Lord is a crushed heart; a fragrant offering to the Lord is a heart that praises the one who shaped it." We are obligated, then, brothers, to be careful about our salvation, so that the evil one does not smuggle deceit in among us and hurl us away from our life.
So again, concerning these very things, he says to them: "Why do you fast for my sake, says the Lord, when your voice today is heard only in shouting? This is not the fast I selected, says the Lord - not a person merely bowing his head, nor curling your neck like a ring and dressing in sackcloth while strewing ashes beneath yourselves; not even by such means will you call it a fast that pleases me." But to us he says instead: "Here is the fast I have chosen, says the Lord: release every unjust bond, undo the cords of oppressive agreements, let the broken go free, and tear apart every wrongful contract. Divide your bread among the starving, and clothe anyone you see without garments; welcome the homeless under your own roof, and if you notice someone brought low, do not turn away from him, not even one from your own household. Then your light will burst forth like the morning, your healing will spring up quickly, righteousness will walk ahead of you, and the splendor of God will surround you on every side. Then you will call out, and God will answer you; while the words are still on your lips he will say: Here I am - if you set aside from yourself the yoke and the accusing finger and every word of complaint, and give your bread to the hungry from your very soul, and show compassion to a soul brought low." It was for this reason, brothers, that the patient one - having foreseen the sincerity with which the people he had made ready within his beloved would come to believe - made all this known to us ahead of time, so that we would not go crashing, like raw newcomers, against their law.
We are obligated, then, to investigate thoroughly the matters now before us, and to search out what is capable of saving us. Let us run far away from every deed of lawlessness, so that lawless deeds do not seize hold of us; and let us despise the deception of this present age, so that we may be embraced by love in the age to come. Let us not grant our own soul such freedom that it has license to keep company with sinners and wicked people, or we may end up resembling them. The consummate trap is close upon us, as Enoch has written concerning it. For this very reason the Master has shortened the seasons and the days, so that his beloved could hurry and reach his inheritance quickly. The prophet, too, speaks along the same lines: "Ten kingdoms will reign over the earth, and after them a little king will rise up, who will humble three of the kings at a single stroke." Daniel says something similar about this same matter: "I watched the fourth beast, cruel and powerful, more savage than any of the sea's other beasts, and I saw how ten horns grew out from it, and from among them a small horn sprouted, and how it humbled three of the great horns at once." You ought, then, to grasp this. I ask one more thing of you, as someone from among you, though I love every one of you more than my own life: watch over yourselves from this point on, and do not resemble those who pile sin upon sin by claiming that the covenant belongs equally to them and to us. It belongs to us; but they threw it away completely, and this happened even though Moses had already taken possession of it. For scripture tells us: "Moses remained on the mountain, going without food for forty days and forty nights," and there he obtained the covenant from the Lord - stone tablets inscribed by the very finger of the Lord's hand. But when they turned back toward idols, they threw it away. For the Lord speaks thus: "Moses, Moses, descend at once, since your people, the ones you led out of Egypt, have acted lawlessly." And Moses understood what had taken place, and flung the two tablets down from his grip, so that their covenant lay shattered on the ground - all so that the covenant belonging to the beloved Jesus could instead be stamped upon our hearts, resting on the hope his faith brings. Although I wished to write at greater length, I have been careful to write only as suits one who loves you and does not wish to withhold what we possess, not acting as a teacher but as a devoted servant of yours. Let us, then, be attentive during these final days, since the entire span of our faith will do us no good unless, in this present age of lawlessness and amid the coming pitfalls, we now hold our ground as sons of God ought to, so that the dark one finds no opening. Let us run from every worthless thing, let us despise entirely the deeds that belong to the evil path. Do not shut yourselves away and live in isolation as if you were already justified, but gather in one place and consult one another about the shared good. For scripture says: "Doom awaits those who consider themselves wise and think themselves clever by their own judgment." Let us become spiritual, let us grow into a complete temple fit for God. To whatever degree lies within us, let us cultivate the fear of God and make every effort to guard his commandments, so that his just decrees may bring us joy. The Lord will judge the world showing no favoritism: each person will be repaid according to what he has done. If his deeds are good, his righteousness goes ahead of him; if they are wicked, the payment for wickedness goes ahead of him - so that, even though we feel secure as though already summoned, we might not doze off over our sins, allowing the wicked ruler to seize power over us and cast us out of the Lord's kingdom. Consider this further too, my brothers: when you observe that even after such tremendous signs and wonders took place in Israel, the people were still forsaken - let us be on guard, in case we should be found to be what scripture warns of: many summoned, but few chosen.
It was for this reason that the Lord submitted to giving his flesh over to ruin, so that through the forgiveness of sins we might be purified - a purification that comes by the sprinkling of his blood. For scripture contains sayings about him, some directed toward Israel, some toward us, worded this way: "He was pierced on account of our transgressions, and weakened because of our offenses; by his wound we ourselves were healed. He was brought like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb, silent before the one shearing it." We are therefore obligated to give overflowing thanks to the Lord, since he has disclosed to us both what has already occurred and given us understanding of what is happening now - and regarding what is yet to come, we are not left ignorant either. And scripture says: "Nets are not spread out against birds without cause." What this means is that a man is justly ruined when, having knowledge of the path of righteousness, he nonetheless drags himself off onto the path of darkness. There is this further point too, my brothers: if the Lord submitted to suffering on behalf of our souls, even though he is Lord over the entire universe, the one to whom God said before the world's foundation, "Let us fashion humankind according to our own image and likeness" - how, then, did he submit to suffering at human hands? Understand this: the prophets, having received grace from him, spoke prophetically about him; while he himself, wanting to bring death to nothing and demonstrate the resurrection from among the dead, submitted to it - since it was necessary for him to be revealed in the flesh - so that he might repay to the fathers what had been promised them, and so that, by getting ready a new people for himself, so that, while still present on earth, he could show that it is he himself, the very one who accomplished the resurrection, who will act as judge. Beyond that, while teaching Israel and performing such extraordinary wonders and signs, he proclaimed his message and loved that people intensely. Yet when he selected his own apostles, the very ones who would proclaim his good news - men who were more lawless than every other kind of sinner - he did this to show that he came to summon not the righteous but sinners; it was then that he revealed himself as God's Son. For had he not come in the flesh, there would have been no way for people to be saved by looking upon him, given that even when they look at the sun - a mere object destined for destruction, a product of his own hands - they cannot stare directly into its rays. So then, it was for this very purpose that God's Son entered into flesh: to bring the full tally of sins to completion against those who had hounded his prophets to death. It was, then, for this that he submitted. For God speaks of the wound to his flesh as coming from his own people: "When they strike down their shepherd, then the flock's sheep will be scattered and lost." Yet he himself chose to suffer in just this manner, since it was necessary that his suffering happen upon a tree. For the one who prophesies concerning him declares: "Rescue my soul away from the blade," and again: "Drive nails into my flesh, since bands of evildoers have risen up to oppose me." And again he says: "See, I have offered my back to be struck, and my cheeks to be beaten; and I have made my face like solid stone."
When, then, he had fulfilled the commandment, what does he say? "Who is it that brings judgment against me? Let him take his stand opposing me. Or who seeks to be justified against me? Let him draw near to the Lord's servant. Woe to all of you, for every one of you will wear out like a garment, and moths will devour you." And the prophet speaks again, since he had been set in place like a mighty stone meant for crushing: "Look, I am placing in the foundations of Zion a costly stone, chosen, a cornerstone held in honor." Then what does he add? "And whoever puts his hope in it will live forever." Is our hope, then, resting on a mere rock? Certainly not! Rather, it is because the Lord has anchored his flesh in strength. For he says: "And he set me like solid rock." And again the prophet declares: "The stone the builders threw aside has become the very head of the corner." And yet again he says: "This is the day, magnificent and astonishing, which the Lord brought about." I am writing to you in plainer terms, so you may grasp it: I am wholly devoted to your love. What, then, does the prophet say once more? "A gathering of wicked men surrounded me, they circled around me like bees around a honeycomb," and: "They threw dice for my garment." Since, then, he was going to be revealed in the flesh and to undergo suffering, that suffering was announced beforehand. For the prophet speaks concerning Israel: "Doom upon their soul, since they have plotted a wicked scheme against themselves, saying: Let us tie up the righteous one, since he is a nuisance to us." What does the other prophet, Moses, tell them? "Look, thus speaks the Lord God: Go into the good land that the Lord pledged to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and take possession of it as your inheritance - a land streaming with milk and honey." But what does knowledge itself say? Learn it: Set your hope, it tells us, upon the one who is about to appear to you in flesh - Jesus. For a human being is earth that undergoes suffering, since Adam's formation came from the surface of the earth. What, then, does "into the good land, a land streaming with milk and honey" actually signify? Blessed is our Lord, brothers, who has placed within us wisdom and insight regarding his hidden things. For the prophet speaks a riddle belonging to the Lord: who will grasp it, except someone wise and discerning who loves his Lord? Since, then, having made us new through the forgiveness of sins, he shaped us into a different kind, so that we would possess the soul of little children, as though he were molding us all over again. For scripture speaks about us the way it speaks to the Son: "Let us fashion humankind according to our image and likeness, and let them govern the wild animals of the earth, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea." And the Lord, seeing how well he had shaped us, said: "Be fruitful, increase in number, and fill the whole earth." That command was directed to the Son. I will show you once more how he addresses us. He carried out a second shaping in the last days. And the Lord says: "Behold, I am making the final things resemble the first." It was to this end that the prophet proclaimed: "Go into a land streaming with milk and honey, and take command over it." See, then, we have been reshaped, just as he states again through a different prophet: "See, declares the Lord, I will remove from these people" - meaning those whom the Lord's spirit had already foreseen - "their hearts of stone, and place hearts of flesh within them instead"; because he himself was going to appear in the flesh and take up residence within us. For our heart's dwelling place, my brothers, is a holy temple belonging to the Lord. For the Lord says again: "And by what means shall I be seen by the Lord my God, and be glorified?" He answers: "I will confess you within the gathering of my brothers, and I will sing to you amid the gathering of the holy ones." We, then, are the ones he led into the good land. What, then, are the milk and the honey? Because an infant is kept alive first by honey, then by milk: so likewise we too, sustained by faith in the promise and by his word, shall go on living, taking command over the earth. And we said earlier, above: "And let them grow and multiply and govern the fish." Who, then, has the ability right now to govern beasts or fish or birds of the sky? We ought to recognize that governing implies authority, so that the one giving commands truly rules. Since, then, this is not happening now, he has certainly told us when it will: whenever we ourselves are brought to completion, becoming heirs of the Lord's covenant.

======== Epistle of Barnabas — 7-12 ========

So understand, children of gladness, that the good Lord made everything plain to us beforehand, so that we might know the one to whom, giving thanks for everything, we owe our praise. If, then, the Son of God — Lord, and destined to judge both the living and the dead — truly suffered so that his wound might make us alive, let us hold this conviction: only for our sake was it possible for God's Son to suffer at all. But moreover, when crucified, he was given vinegar and gall to drink. Listen how the priests of the temple made this plain beforehand. There is a commandment written: Whoever does not keep this fast shall be utterly destroyed by death. The Lord gave this order because he himself was about to offer up the vessel of his spirit as a sacrifice for our sins, so that the type given in the case of Isaac, who was offered upon the altar, might be fulfilled. What does the prophet say on this point? Only that goat offered during the fast may be eaten, as payment covering every sin. Give this close attention: only the priests may eat its entrails, left unwashed, soaked in vinegar. Why? Because I, about to give up this body on behalf of the sins belonging to my newly gathered people, will have vinegar mixed with gall poured out for me to drink — for that reason you priests eat alone, while everyone else fasts and strikes their chests, clothed in sackcloth and ashes — a picture showing that he was destined to suffer at their own hands. Notice the command given here: bring two goats, matched and unblemished, present them both, and have the priest select one of the pair to be wholly burned as an offering for sin. But what shall they do with the other one? Let it be accursed, he says. See how the figure of Jesus is revealed at this point: all of you are to spit on it, stab it, wrap scarlet wool about its head, and afterward chase it out into the desert. And when this is done, the one who carries the goat leads it into the wilderness and removes the wool and lays it on a thorn-bush called rachel, whose shoots we are accustomed to eat when we find them in the countryside — of all bushes only the rachel bears sweet fruit. What then does this mean? Pay attention: one goat is for the altar, but the other is accursed — and note that the accursed one is crowned! Because they will see him on that day wearing the long robe down to his feet, with the scarlet cloth about his body, and they will say: Is this not the one we once crucified, despising him, piercing him, and spitting on him? Truly this was the one who then said he was the Son of God. For how is he like that other goat? For this reason the goats were alike, fine, equal, so that when they see him coming then, they will be struck with astonishment at his likeness to the goat. There, then, is the figure pointing toward the Jesus destined to suffer. Why, though, is the wool placed among the thorn branches? Because this pictures Jesus placed before his church: anyone hoping to seize that scarlet wool must endure much hardship first, since the bramble is a fearsome thing, and mastering it demands pushing through affliction. So too, he says, those who wish to see me and take hold of my kingdom must lay hold of me through affliction and suffering.
But what type do you think it is, that Israel was commanded to offer a heifer through men in whom sins are complete, and after slaughtering it to burn it, and then children take up the ashes and put them into vessels and tie scarlet wool to a stick of wood (there, once more, is the figure of the cross together with scarlet wool) along with hyssop, and with this sprinkle every one of the people in turn, so their sins might be washed away? Understand how plainly he speaks to you. The heifer represents Jesus; those men, guilty of sin, presenting it for sacrifice are the very ones who led him away to be killed. Then they are men no longer, the glory of sinners no longer. The children who do the sprinkling are those who brought us the good news of the forgiveness of sins and the cleansing of the heart, to whom he gave the authority of the gospel — there are twelve of them, as a witness to the tribes, since there are twelve tribes of Israel — to proclaim it. But why are there three children doing the sprinkling? As a witness to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because these were great before God. And why the wool on the wood? Because the kingdom of Jesus is upon wood, and because those who hope in him will live forever. And why the wool and the hyssop together? Because in his kingdom there will be evil and filthy days, in which we shall be saved — because one who suffers in the flesh is healed by the uncleanness of the hyssop. And for this reason, though these things happened as I have said, to us they are plain, but to those people they are dark, because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord.
For he speaks again about the ears, how he circumcised our heart. The Lord says through the prophet: They obeyed me with the hearing of the ear. And again he says: Those far off will hear with the ear, and will know what I have done. And: Circumcise your hearts, says the Lord. And again he says: Listen, Israel, for thus the Lord your God declares. And again the spirit of the Lord prophesies: Who is it that wishes to live forever? Let him hear with the ear the voice of my servant. And again he says: Listen, heaven, and take heed, earth, since the Lord has uttered these things to serve as testimony. And again he says: Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of this people. And again he says: Children, listen for the voice of one shouting out in the desert. So then he circumcised our hearing, that we, having heard the word, might believe. But even circumcision, in which they trusted, has been abolished, for he said that circumcision was not to be of the flesh — but they went astray, because a wicked angel was misleading them. He says to them: Thus says the Lord your God — here I find a command — Do not sow among thorns; be circumcised to your Lord. And what does he say? Circumcise your hardness of heart, and do not stiffen your neck. Take another instance: Behold, says the Lord, all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but this people is uncircumcised in heart. But you will say: Yet surely the people have been circumcised as a seal. Yet so too is every Syrian, every Arab, and each priest devoted to the idols. Are they, then, also of their covenant? Even the Egyptians practice circumcision. Learn then, children of love, richly about all this: Abraham, the first to give circumcision, circumcised looking forward in the spirit to Jesus, having received the teachings of three letters. For it says: And Abraham circumcised from his household eighteen and three hundred men. What then is the knowledge given to him? Notice that he mentions the eighteen first, and then, after a pause, the three hundred. The eighteen is I — ten, and H — eight: there you have Jesus. And because the cross was destined to hold grace in the letter T, he also mentions the three hundred. So he indicates Jesus in the two letters, and the cross in the one. He who placed within us the implanted gift of his teaching knows this. No one has ever learned a more trustworthy word from me — but I know that you are worthy of it.
As for Moses saying: You shall not eat pig, nor eagle, nor hawk, nor crow, nor any fish that has no scale on itself — he grasped three teachings in his understanding by this. For at the end he tells them in Deuteronomy: And I will establish for this people a covenant made up of my statutes. It follows that God never actually commanded abstaining from these foods — Moses was speaking spiritually. He mentioned the pig for this reason: he is telling you not to join yourself to people of this kind, men resembling pigs — namely, when living amid abundance they forget the Lord, yet once they fall into need they suddenly remember him, exactly as a pig, while feeding, pays its owner no notice, but squeals the moment it is hungry, and once fed again goes quiet. Nor shall you eat the eagle, the hawk, the kite, or the crow: you shall not, he means, attach yourself to or resemble men of this sort, who do not know how to provide their own food by labor and sweat, but seize what belongs to others in their lawlessness, and lie in wait as if walking in innocence, and look about them, whom they may strip through their greed — in the same way these particular birds never gather their own food, but instead perch idly, watching for a chance to feast on flesh belonging to others — a blight owing to their own wickedness. And you shall not eat, he says, the moray eel, nor the octopus, nor the cuttlefish: you shall not, he means, come to resemble by attaching yourself to men of this sort, who are utterly ungodly and already condemned to death — just as these little fish alone, being accursed, swim in the depths, not swimming like the rest, but dwelling in the earth beneath the deep. But you shall not eat the hare either. Why? You shall not become, he means, a corrupter of boys, nor resemble such men, because the hare grows an extra opening each year — for as many years as it lives, it has that many openings. Nor shall you eat the hyena: you shall not, he means, become an adulterer or a seducer, nor resemble such people. Why? Because this animal changes its nature every year, and becomes at one time male, at another female. And he rightly hated the weasel too. You shall not, he means, become like those we hear of, who commit lawlessness with the mouth through uncleanness, nor attach yourself to unclean women who commit lawlessness with the mouth. For this animal conceives through the mouth. So Moses, having grasped three teachings concerning foods, spoke of them thus in the spirit; but those others accepted them, out of the desire of the flesh, as though they concerned actual eating. David likewise grasps the knowledge held in these same three teachings, saying: Blessed is the man who has taken no part in the counsel that ungodly men keep — just as the fish travel through darkness into the depths — and has not stood in the way of sinners, just as those who seem to fear the Lord sin like the pig, and has not sat in the seat of pestilence, just as the birds sit in wait for prey. You now have this teaching fully, even concerning food. Again Moses says: You shall eat everything that parts the hoof and chews the cud. What does he mean? That the one who receives food knows the one who nourishes him, and resting upon him seems to rejoice. He spoke well, having the commandment in view. What then does he mean? Stay close to those who fear the Lord, to those pondering within their own hearts the fine distinctions of the word given to them, to those who speak and keep the Lord's ordinances, to those aware that such pondering is itself a joyful labor, and who chew the Lord's word over again and again. But what is the parting of the hoof? That the righteous man both walks in this world and awaits the holy age to come. See how well Moses legislated. But how could those people have understood or grasped these things? We, however, having rightly understood the commandments, speak of them as the Lord willed. That is why he cut away the covering from both our ears and our hearts, so understanding of these matters would be ours.
Let us also inquire whether the Lord took care to make plain beforehand anything about the water and about the cross. Concerning the water, it is written regarding Israel, how they would not accept the baptism that brings forgiveness of sins, but would build one for themselves instead. For the prophet says: Stand amazed, heaven, and let the earth tremble even further over this, because this people has committed two evil deeds: they have forsaken me, the fountain of life, and dug for themselves a pit of death. Is my holy mountain Sinai a barren rock? For you shall be like fledglings of a bird, flying up, taken from the nest. And again the prophet says: I will go before you and level mountains and shatter gates of bronze and break in pieces bars of iron, and I will give you treasures dark, hidden, unseen, so they will come to recognize me as the Lord God. And: You shall dwell in a lofty cave of strong rock. And: its water can be trusted — you will see a king amid glory, and your spirit will dwell on reverence for the Lord. And again in another prophet he says: And the one who does these things shall be like the tree planted beside the channels of waters, which will give its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither, and everything he does shall prosper. Not so the godless, not so — instead they are like chaff that wind scatters off the surface of the ground. Because of this, the godless will not stand when judgment comes, nor will sinners take their place in the assembly of the just — for the Lord recognizes the path the righteous walk, while the path the godless take comes to nothing. Perceive how he has appointed the water and the cross together. For this is what he means: blessed are those who, having set their hope on the cross, went down into the water, for he speaks of the reward in its own time — then, he says, I will repay it. But as for what he now says — that the leaves shall not wither — this is what he means: that whatever word issues from you, spoken by your own mouth in faith and love, will turn many people toward hope. And again another prophet says: The land belonging to Jacob was celebrated beyond every other land. This means: he glorifies the vessel of his spirit. What then does he say next? And a river appeared, flowing off to the right, out of which lovely trees grew, and anyone eating their fruit would live without end. This means that we go down into the water full of sins and filth, and we rise again carrying fruit within our hearts, holding both reverence and hope toward Jesus by the spirit. And whoever eats of these shall live forever — this means: whoever, he says, hears these things spoken and believes, shall live forever.
In like manner again he speaks of the cross in another prophet who says: And when shall these things be accomplished? The Lord says: when a tree is bent down and rises up again, and when blood drips from a tree. Here again you have a reference to the cross and to the one who was destined to be crucified. And again he speaks to Moses, when Israel was being warred against by foreigners, and in order to remind them, while under attack, that they had been handed over to death because of their sins — the spirit whispers within Moses' heart to fashion a figure representing both the cross and the one destined to suffer, since — it says — war will pursue them without end unless their hope rests on him. So Moses sets one weapon upon another in the midst of the battle, and, positioned above everyone else, spread his arms wide, and by this Israel gained the upper hand once more. Then, whenever he lowered them, men began to die. Why? So that they might know that they cannot be saved unless they set their hope on him. And again in another prophet he says: All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people, to my righteous way. Once more Moses fashions a figure of Jesus — that suffering awaits him, and that he will restore life to the very one people will believe they have destroyed — through a sign delivered at the moment Israel was collapsing — for the Lord caused every serpent to bite them, and they were dying, since the transgression had come about through the serpent in Eve — in order to convict them, that because of their transgression they will be handed over to the affliction of death. At any rate Moses himself, having commanded: There shall be for you neither a molten nor a graven image as a god — he himself does this, in order to show a type of Jesus. So Moses makes a bronze serpent and sets it up in glory, and by proclamation calls the people together. So they came together and begged Moses to offer up a petition on their behalf for their healing. Moses told them: should any of you suffer a bite, he says, approach the serpent mounted on the wooden post, and trust, believing that even in death it holds power to restore life, and healing will follow at once. This they did. Here again you have, in these things too, the glory of Jesus, that in him are all things and unto him. What, again, does Moses tell Jesus son of Nun as he confers this name upon him, given that he was a prophet, so that all the people might listen to him alone? That the Father makes everything plain concerning his son Jesus. So it is that Moses, conferring this name on Jesus son of Nun at the moment he sent him to scout the land, says: Take a scroll in your hands and write what the Lord says, that the Son of God will cut off from the roots the whole house of Amalek in the last days. See here again Jesus, not as son of man but as Son of God, made manifest, however, in a type in the flesh. Given that they were about to claim the Christ as David's son, David himself — in awe, grasping the delusion under which sinners labor — foretells the following: The Lord declared to my lord, Take your seat at my right side, until I place your foes beneath your feet as a footstool. And again Isaiah speaks in this way: The Lord declared to my lord, the Christ, whose right hand I have taken hold of, that nations would submit before him, and I will shatter the might held by kings. See how David calls him Lord — and does not call him son.

======== Epistle of Barnabas — 13-21 ========

Let us examine, then, whether it is this people who receives the inheritance, or the earlier one, and to which of the two — us or them — the covenant truly belongs. Hear, then, what scripture teaches concerning this people. Isaac made supplication concerning Rebecca his wife, since she could bear no child, and she became pregnant. Rebecca then went out to seek an answer from the Lord, and the Lord spoke to her: Two nations are within your womb, and two peoples within your belly; one people will overcome the other, and the elder will serve the younger. Consider carefully who Isaac represents and who Rebecca represents, and notice in which case it was revealed that this people outranks that one. In yet another prophecy Jacob speaks even more openly to his son Joseph, saying: See, the Lord has not withheld your presence from me; bring your sons close, so that I may give them my blessing. So Joseph brought Ephraim and Manasseh near, wishing Manasseh to receive the blessing because he was the older brother — for Joseph positioned him at his father Jacob's right hand. Yet Jacob, in the spirit, perceived a foreshadowing of the people still to come; and what does the text say? Jacob crossed his arms and set his right hand instead upon the head of Ephraim, though he was the younger, the second-born, and blessed him that way. Joseph then said to Jacob: Shift your right hand over to Manasseh's head instead, since he is my firstborn. Jacob answered Joseph: I know it, my child, I know it well — yet the elder will serve the younger, though this one too will receive a blessing. Observe, then, in whose favor he determined that this people would hold the primary place and inherit the covenant. And if the matter was likewise recalled through Abraham, then our understanding is complete. What, then, does scripture say was told to Abraham, at the moment when his solitary act of faith was counted to him as righteousness? See, I have appointed you, Abraham, to be father of the nations who put their trust in God while yet uncircumcised.
Yes — but let us also see whether he truly delivered the covenant he swore to give the fathers for the people to receive. He did deliver it; yet on account of their sins they proved unworthy to accept it. For the prophet records: Moses kept a fast on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights, so as to receive on the people's behalf the covenant of the Lord. And Moses took from the Lord's own hand the two tablets, inscribed by the Lord's finger, given to him in the spirit; and having taken them Moses brought them down toward the people, meaning to deliver them. But the Lord spoke to Moses: Moses, Moses, go down without delay, for your people — those you led out of the land of Egypt — have broken the law. Moses realized they had cast new idols for themselves, and he hurled the tablets from his hands, so that the tablets bearing the Lord's covenant were broken in pieces. Moses did receive them, yet the people were found unworthy. Learn, then, how it came to us instead. Moses, only a servant, was the one who received it; but the Lord himself, enduring for our sake, gave it to us directly, to become a people set apart as his inheritance. He was revealed for this very purpose: that those earlier ones might be brought to the full weight of their transgressions, while we, through him who inherits the Lord's covenant — Jesus — might receive it ourselves, since he had been made ready for exactly this: that by his own appearing he might ransom our hearts from darkness, hearts already worn down toward death and surrendered to the lawlessness of error, and might seal a covenant among us by his word. For it stands written how the Father instructs him, once he has ransomed us from darkness, to make ready for himself a holy people. So the prophet declares: I, the Lord your God, summoned you in righteousness; I will grasp your hand and give you strength, and I have made you a covenant for your race, a light for the nations, so that you may open blind eyes, lead out those bound in fetters, and free those seated in darkness within a prison house. From this we understand the source of our ransom. Again the prophet says: See, I have made you a light for the nations, so that you might bring salvation to earth's farthest edge; thus speaks the Lord God who ransomed you. And once more the prophet says: The Spirit of the Lord rests upon me; for this cause he anointed me to announce good tidings of grace to the humble; he sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to declare release to those held captive and renewed sight to those who cannot see, to proclaim a season acceptable to the Lord together with a day of recompense, and to bring comfort to all who grieve.
Further, concerning the sabbath too, it is written among the ten words which he uttered face to face with Moses on Mount Sinai: Observe the Lord's sabbath as a holy thing, keeping your hands clean and your heart free of stain. And elsewhere he says: If my children observe the sabbath, then I will grant them my mercy. He speaks of the sabbath already at creation's outset: God completed in six days the labor of his hands, and on the seventh day he brought it to an end and hallowed it, having ceased from his work. Notice closely, children, what is meant by completing it in six days. It means that within six thousand years the Lord will bring the whole of it to its conclusion, for in his reckoning one day stands for a thousand years. He himself confirms this, saying: See, a day belonging to the Lord will equal a thousand years. So then, children, within those six days — that is, within the six thousand years — everything will reach its conclusion. And he ceased on the seventh day. This signifies that once his Son arrives, brings the age of the lawless one to an end, passes judgment on the wicked, and transforms sun, moon, and stars, only then will he genuinely cease on the seventh day. Further he says: Keep it as a holy day, your hands clean and your heart without stain. Suppose, then, that someone today thinks he can hallow — merely by being pure in heart — the day God has already made holy: he has badly missed the mark. Notice instead that we will properly hallow it only once we are at rest ourselves — once we have been made righteous and have obtained what was promised, once lawlessness exists no more and everything has been renewed through the Lord; only then will we be capable of hallowing it, having first been made holy ourselves. He further tells them: Your new-moon feasts and sabbath days are more than I can bear. Notice his meaning here: it is not the sabbaths you now keep that please me, but the one I myself have instituted, in which, once I have brought everything to rest, I will inaugurate an eighth day — the start of a different world entirely. That is why we too observe the eighth day with rejoicing, the day on which Jesus also rose from among the dead, and, once he had appeared, ascended into the heavens.
And further I will speak to you about the temple — how these unfortunate people, wandering astray, placed their hope in the building itself instead of in the God who made them, as if it truly were God's house. For they all but consecrated it the way pagan nations do with theirs. Yet learn how the Lord speaks in setting it aside: Who has taken heaven's measure with a hand-span, or the earth's with the width of a palm? Is it not I? says the Lord. Heaven serves as my throne, the earth as a stool beneath my feet; what kind of dwelling, then, could you construct for me, or what location could serve as my resting place? So you can see that their hope amounted to nothing. He says further, once again: Look — those very people who tore this temple down will be the ones to raise it up again. And that is exactly what is happening: it was demolished by their enemies on account of the wars they waged, and now the servants of those same enemies are rebuilding it. It was also disclosed beforehand that the city, the sanctuary, and the people of Israel would eventually be given over, for scripture states: And it shall happen in the final days that the Lord will hand over to ruin the sheep of the flock, the enclosure, and their watchtower. And it turned out exactly as the Lord had foretold. But let us ask whether God actually possesses a temple. He does — in the very place where he himself announces he is raising and finishing it, since scripture reads thus: When the week comes to its close, God's temple will rise gloriously, bearing the Lord's name. From this, then, I take it as established that a temple truly exists. Learn now the manner of its rising in the Lord's name. Before we came to trust in God, the place where our heart dwelt was corruptible and feeble, genuinely like a hand-built shrine, for it was crowded with idol-worship and had become a house for demons through practicing all that opposed God. Yet it will rise in the name of the Lord. Pay close attention, then, so that the Lord's temple may rise in splendor. Learn how: having obtained forgiveness for our sins and set our hope on his name, we were made new, formed again as if from the very start; and so within our own dwelling-place God genuinely lives among us. In what way? Through his word of faith, his summons of promise, the wisdom found in his statutes, the precepts of his teaching — he himself speaking prophecy within us, he himself residing within us, and for us, once enslaved to death, throwing open the temple's door, which is the mouth, granting us repentance, and ushering us into the imperishable temple. For whoever longs to be saved fixes his gaze not on the man but on the one who lives and speaks inside him, astonished at him, because he had never before heard such words spoken from that mouth, nor had he himself ever wished to hear them. This, then, is a spiritual temple under construction for the Lord.
As far as it was possible, in simplicity, to make things clear to you, my soul hopes, out of my longing, that I have left out nothing pertaining to salvation. For if I write to you about things present or things to come, you would not understand, since they are set down in parables. So much for this.
Let us move on now to a different sphere of knowledge and instruction. Two paths exist under this teaching and authority — one belonging to light, the other to darkness — and the gap separating these two paths is vast. Assigned over the first stand angels of God who carry light; assigned over the second stand angels belonging to Satan. The one is Lord across every age, without end; the other merely governs this present season of lawlessness.
The way of light, then, is this: whoever wishes to travel toward the place appointed for him must press forward eagerly in his deeds. The knowledge granted us for walking this path is as follows. Love the one who made you; stand in fear of the one who fashioned you; give glory to the one who ransomed you from death. Keep your heart uncomplicated and your spirit abundant. Do not attach yourself to those traveling the road toward death; despise everything unwelcome to God, and despise every form of hypocrisy. Never abandon the Lord's commandments. Do not lift yourself up, but remain humble-minded in every circumstance; do not claim glory for yourself. Do not scheme wickedly against your neighbor, and do not grant your soul reckless boldness. Do not fornicate, do not commit adultery, do not defile boys. Let God's word never leave your lips amid anyone's impurity. Do not show favoritism when correcting someone for wrongdoing. Be gentle, be calm, and tremble before the words you have received. Bear no grudge against your brother. Do not waver between yes and no concerning what will occur. Never invoke the Lord's name for an empty purpose. Love your neighbor more than your own life. Do not destroy an unborn child through abortion, nor put to death one already born. Do not withhold your hand from teaching your son or daughter — instead, instruct them from childhood in reverence toward God. Do not become someone who covets what belongs to your neighbor, and do not grow greedy. Do not join your soul to the arrogant, but keep company instead with the humble and the just. Receive whatever happens to you as good, knowing nothing occurs apart from God. Do not be double-minded or given to much talk. Submit to your masters as a reflection of God, with reverence and fear; never command your slave or servant girl harshly, since they place their hope in the same God as you — otherwise they might stop fearing the God who watches over you both, for he did not come calling according to outward status, but calling those whom the Spirit had made ready. Share everything with your neighbor, and never claim anything as solely your own; for if you hold what is imperishable in common, how much more should this apply to what perishes. Do not be quick with your tongue, for an unguarded mouth becomes a trap leading to death. Guard your purity for your soul's sake as far as you are able. Do not be someone who reaches out a hand to take but pulls it back when it is time to give. Love, as you would the pupil of your own eye, everyone who brings you the Lord's word. Keep the day of judgment constantly before you, both night and day, and pursue daily the fellowship of the saints — whether laboring through speech, going about to console others, striving to rescue a soul through your words, or laboring with your hands toward paying off your sins. Do not delay in giving, nor complain while you give; know who repays generosity well. Preserve what you have been handed down, neither adding to it nor subtracting from it. To the very end, despise wickedness. Judge with fairness. Do not stir up division, but make peace by bringing quarreling parties together. Confess your wrongdoings openly. Do not approach prayer carrying a guilty conscience. Such is the way of light.
The way of the dark one, by contrast, is twisted and packed with curses. It is a road leading to death everlasting accompanied by torment, containing everything that destroys the soul: idol-worship, recklessness, arrogance born of power, pretense, a divided heart, adultery, killing, theft, conceit, transgression, deceit, malice, self-will, sorcery, witchcraft, greed, and utter disregard for God. Persecutors of what is good, haters of truth, lovers of falsehood, ignorant of righteousness' reward, refusing to cling to good, indifferent to just judgment, giving no heed to widow or orphan, watchful not out of fear of God but toward evil ends, people from whom gentleness and patience stand far removed, lovers of empty things, chasers after repayment, showing no pity to the poor, doing nothing on behalf of the afflicted, quick to speak evil, ignorant of their own maker, killers of children, corrupters of what God has fashioned, turning their backs on the needy, crushing the oppressed, defenders of the wealthy, lawless judges of the poor — sinners through and through.
It is good, then, once one has learned the Lord's statutes — all that stands written — to walk according to them. For whoever practices these things will be glorified within God's kingdom; whoever selects the other path will perish alongside his own deeds. This is precisely why there is resurrection; this is precisely why there is repayment. I appeal to those in positions above others, if you will accept any advice offered from good will on my part: keep close at hand people toward whom you can do good; do not fall short — the day draws near when everything will be destroyed together with the wicked one; the Lord draws near, bringing his reward with him. Again and yet again I appeal to you: act as good lawgivers toward each other, remain trustworthy advisors to one another, strip away every trace of hypocrisy from yourselves. And may God, sovereign over the entire universe, grant you wisdom, discernment, understanding, knowledge of his statutes, and steadfast endurance. Become people taught directly by God, searching out what the Lord asks of you, and act on it, so you may be found prepared on judgment day. And should any recollection of good remain, remember me while pondering these matters, so that both my longing and my watchful care may lead toward something good. I ask this of you as a personal favor. While the good vessel still remains among you, do not neglect any of these things among yourselves, but continually seek them out and carry out every commandment fully, for they deserve nothing less. This is why I was all the more determined to write to you from what resources I had, so as to bring you gladness. May you be kept safe, children of affection and harmony. May the glorious Lord, source of every grace, remain with your spirit. The Epistle of Barnabas.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Visions — Vision 1 1-Vision 3 2 ========

The one who raised me sold me to a certain Rhoda in Rome. Years afterward I recognized her once more, and I came to cherish her like a sister. After a while I noticed her washing herself in the waters of the Tiber, so I reached out my hand and drew her up onto the bank. Seeing her beauty, I thought to myself: How fortunate I would be to have a wife of such beauty and character. That was the whole of my thought — nothing else at all. Some time later, as I was traveling to Cumae and glorifying God's creation for how great and splendid and powerful it is, I fell asleep while walking. And a spirit took hold of me and carried me off through a trackless region that no man could pass through, for the place was a ravine, torn open by the waters. When I had crossed that river I came to level ground, where I bent my knees, praying to the Lord and acknowledging my wrongs. As I was praying, the heavens opened, and I saw that woman I had desired, greeting me from heaven and saying, 'Hermas, greetings.' Looking at her I said, 'Lady, what are you doing here?' She answered me, 'I was taken up so that I might accuse you of your sins before the Lord.' I said to her, 'Are you now my accuser?' 'No,' she said, 'but listen to the words I am about to speak to you. The God who dwells in the heavens, who made out of nothing the things that are, and who has multiplied and increased them for the sake of his holy church, is angry with you, because you sinned against me.' I answered her, 'Did I sin against you? Where or when did I ever speak an indecent word to you? Have I not always regarded you as a goddess? Have I not always shown you the respect due a sister? Why, woman, do you falsely charge me with such wicked and unclean things?' Laughing, she said to me, 'The desire for wickedness rose up in your heart. Or do you not think it a wicked thing for a righteous man, if a wicked desire should rise up in his heart? That is truly a fault, and no small one,' she said. 'For the righteous man plans righteous things. And by planning righteous things he secures his standing in the heavens and finds the Lord gracious to him in every matter of his life. But those who plan wicked things in their hearts draw down upon themselves death and captivity — especially those who lay claim to this present age and boast in their wealth and do not hold fast to the good things to come. Their souls will repent, those who have no hope but have given up on themselves and on their own life. But you — pray to God, and he will heal your sins, and the sins of your whole household, and of all the saints.'
After she had spoken these words the heavens closed, and I was left utterly shaken and grieving. I thought to myself, wondering: with this failing now set down against me, what hope remains for my rescue? Or by what means shall I placate God over sins so complete? Or in what terms shall I entreat the Lord for mercy? While I was pondering these things and weighing them in my heart, I saw before me a white bench, made of snow-white wool, large; and an elderly woman approached, dressed in shining garments, clutching a scroll, and she took her seat by herself, apart from anyone, and greeted me: 'Hermas, greetings.' Grieving and weeping, I said, 'Lady, greetings.' Then she asked, 'Hermas, why do you look so downcast? You who are patient and even-tempered, always laughing — why so gloomy now, with no cheer in you?' I said to her, 'Because of a most excellent woman who says that I sinned against her.' She said, 'By no means does this apply to a servant of God. Rather, it merely rose up in your heart concerning her. For servants of God, such a thought does carry sin with it. It is a wicked and shocking plan for a spirit so revered and already proven, if it should desire a wicked deed — especially Hermas the self-controlled, who holds back from every evil craving and is filled with plain honesty and deep innocence.'
'But it is not for this reason that God is angry with you, but so that you might turn back your household, which offended the Lord as well as you, its own parents. But being fond of your children, you did not admonish your household, but let it fall into corruption. This is why the Lord is angry with you. But he will heal all the past wrongs in your household, for because of their sins and transgressions you yourself were corrupted by worldly affairs. But the Lord's great compassion has had mercy on you and your household, and he will strengthen you and establish you in his glory. Only do not grow careless, but take courage and strengthen your household. For just as the smith, hammering at his work, masters the object he wants to shape, so also the daily upright word masters all wickedness. Do not stop, then, admonishing your children. For I know that if they repent with their whole heart, they will be written into the books of life together with the saints.' After she had finished saying these words she said to me, 'Do you want to hear me read?' I said, 'I do, lady.' She said to me, 'Become a listener, and hear the glories of God.' I heard things great and wondrous which I was not able to remember, for all the words were terrifying, such as a man cannot bear. But I did remember the last words, for they were suitable and gentle for us: 'Behold, the God of powers, whom I love, who by his mighty power and his great understanding created the world, and by his glorious plan clothed his creation in beauty, and by the might of his word set the sky firmly in place and grounded the earth over the waters, and through his own understanding and forethought brought his holy church into being, a church he also blessed — behold, he is shifting the sky itself, along with every peak, ridge, and sea, leveling all things for the sake of those he has chosen, so that he may render them the promise given with such glory and joy, provided they hold to God's statutes, which they took up in great faith.'
When she had finished reading and rose up from the bench, four young men came and took up the bench and went away toward the east. She then called me to her, touched my chest, and said, 'Did my reading please you?' I said to her, 'Lady, these last things please me, but the first were harsh and hard.' She said to me in reply, 'These last things are for the righteous, but the first are for the nations and the apostates.' While she was still talking with me, a pair of men suddenly appeared, took hold of her arms at the elbow, and went off toward the east, to where the bench had gone. She departed cheerfully, and as she was going she said to me, 'Be a man, Hermas.'
As I was traveling to Cumae at the same time as the year before, and walking along, I remembered the vision of the previous year, and again a spirit took me and carried me off to the same place as before. Once there, I bent my knees and gave myself to prayer, praising the Lord's name, because he had considered me worthy and made known to me my former sins. After I rose from prayer I found the same aged woman I had seen the previous year standing before me, pacing as she read from a small scroll; she spoke to me, 'Can you announce these things to God's chosen ones?' I said to her, 'Lady, I cannot remember so much; give me the little book, so that I may copy it.' 'Take it,' she said, 'and you shall return it to me.' I took it, and withdrawing to a certain place in the field, I transcribed it stroke by stroke, since I was unable to distinguish the syllables. When I had finished copying the letters of the little book, all at once it was torn from my grip, though I never saw who took it.
After fifteen days of fasting and much prayer to the Lord, the meaning of the writing was revealed to me. What was written was this: 'Your seed, Hermas, has rejected God and blasphemed against the Lord, and betrayed their parents in great wickedness, and were called betrayers of their parents; and though betrayers, they gained no benefit, but even added to their sins acts of debauchery and confused mixtures of wickedness, and so their lawless deeds were filled up. But make these words known to all your children, and to your wife, who is to become your sister; for she does not restrain her tongue, with which she does wrong, but on hearing these words she will restrain it and find mercy. After you have made known these words to them, which the Master commanded me to reveal to you, then all the sins they committed before are forgiven them, and to all the saints who have sinned up to this day, if they turn back with an undivided heart and cast off the doubt lodged within them. For the Master has sworn by his own glory concerning his chosen ones: if, once this day has been fixed, sin should still occur, they shall have no salvation; for repentance for the righteous has an end. The days of repentance are fulfilled for all the saints; but for the nations there is repentance until the last day. You shall say, then, to the leaders of the church, that they should straighten their ways in righteousness, so that they may receive the promises in full, with much glory. Stand firm, then, you who work righteousness, and do not be double-minded, so that your passage may be with the holy angels. Blessed are you, as many as endure the great tribulation that is coming, and as many as will not deny their own life. For the Lord has sworn by his Son that those who deny their Christ will be disowned from their life — those who in the days ahead will turn away from him; but for those who denied him earlier, because of his great compassion, mercy has been shown to them.'
'But you, Hermas, no longer hold a grudge against your children, nor abandon your sister, so that they may be cleansed of their former sins. For they will be disciplined with righteous discipline, if you do not hold a grudge against them. Holding a grudge produces death. But you, Hermas, have had great troubles of your own because of the transgressions of your household, since you gave no thought to them; instead you grew careless and were mixed up in your own wicked business affairs. But what saves you is that you did not fall away from the living God, and your simplicity, and your great self-control. These have saved you, if you continue in them, and they bring safety to everyone acting likewise and living in guilelessness and plainness. These will overcome all wickedness and remain unto eternal life. Blessed are all who work righteousness — they will not be destroyed forever. And you shall say to Maximus: Behold, tribulation is coming; if it seems good to you, deny again. The Lord is near to those who turn back to him, as recorded in the book of Eldad and Modat, the two who spoke as prophets to the people out in the wilderness.'
It was revealed to me, brothers, while I slept, by a most handsome young man who said to me, 'The elderly woman from whom you received the little book — who do you think she is?' I said, 'The Sibyl.' 'You are mistaken,' he said, 'it is not so.' 'Then who is she?' I asked. 'The Church,' he said. I said to him, 'Then why elderly?' 'Because,' he said, 'she was created first of all things; that is why she is elderly, and it was on her account that the world came into existence.' Later on, inside my own house, another vision came to me. The elderly woman came and asked whether I had yet handed over the book to the presiding elders. I said I had not given it. 'That was well done,' she replied, 'since I still have more to say. When I have completed all the words, they will be made known to all the chosen ones through you. So you must write out two small books, delivering the first to Clement and the second to Grapte. Clement shall then send it to the cities abroad, for that has been entrusted to him; Grapte shall instruct the widows and orphans. But you yourself shall read it in this city, together with the elders who preside over the church.'
This is what I saw, brothers. After fasting many times and begging the Lord to reveal to me the vision which he had promised to show me through that elderly woman, that same night the elderly woman appeared to me and said, 'Since you are so eager and earnest to know everything, come to the field where you tend the crops, and around the fifth hour I will appear to you and show you what you must see.' I asked her, 'Lady, to what part of the field?' 'Wherever you wish,' she said. I chose a fine, secluded spot. But before I had spoken to her and named the place, she said to me, 'I will come there, wherever you wish.' So I went, brothers, to the field, and I counted the hours, and I came to the place where I had arranged for her to come, and I saw an ivory bench set there, and on the bench lay a linen cushion, and spread over it a linen covering of fine cotton cloth. Seeing these things laid out and no one present, I was struck with awe, and a tremor seized me, and every hair on my body rose; a strange shiver swept over me at being alone. Once I had gathered my wits, recalling God's glory, and mustered my nerve, I knelt down and again confessed my sins to the Lord as before. She then came with six young men, whom I had seen before, and stood near and listened while I addressed the Lord in prayer, confessing my wrongs. Touching me she said, 'Hermas, stop asking only about your sins; ask also about righteousness, so that you may receive some share of it for your household.' And she raised me by the hand and led me to the bench and said to the young men, 'Go and build.' After the young men had withdrawn and we were alone, she said to me, 'Sit here.' I said to her, 'Lady, let the elders sit first.' 'What I tell you,' she said, 'sit.' When I tried to take the seat on the right, she refused to permit it, motioning instead with her hand for me to sit on the left side. As I was pondering and grieving that she had not let me sit on the right side, she said to me, 'Are you grieved, Hermas? The place on the right belongs to others, to those who have already pleased God and suffered for the sake of the name. You still lack much before you can sit with them. But remain as you are in your simplicity, and you will sit with them, and so will all who do the works those did and endure what they endured.'
'What did they endure?' I asked. 'Listen,' she said: 'floggings, prison, harsh afflictions, the cross, savage beasts — all for the sake of the name. This is why the right side of the sanctuary belongs to them, and to whoever suffers for the name; the left side belongs to the rest. But for both — those seated on the right and those on the left — the gifts and the promises are the same; only those on the right sit with a certain glory. You long deeply to take a seat among them on the right, yet you still fall short in many ways. Yet you will be cleansed of your shortcomings; and all who are not double-minded will be cleansed of all their sins by this day.' Having said this she wanted to leave; but falling at her feet I begged her, by the Lord, to show me the vision she had promised. Once more she took my hand, lifted me up, and placed me on the bench's left side, while taking the right side for herself. Then, raising a bright rod, she asked me, 'Do you see a great thing?' I said to her, 'Lady, I see nothing.' She said to me, 'Look — do you not see before you a great tower being built upon the waters, of shining square stones?' The tower was being built square by the six young men who had come with her; but countless myriads of men were carrying stones, some from the deep, some from the land, and handing them to the six young men, who took them and built. The stones drawn up from the deep they placed into the building just as they were, for they were well-fitted and matched in their joints with the other stones, and so they clung to one another that the joint between them could not be seen. So the tower's structure looked as though it had been carved from one solid stone. Of the other stones brought from dry land, some they rejected, some they set into the building, and others they cut down and threw far away from the tower. Plenty of other stones were scattered around the tower without being used in its construction, since some of them were flaking and rough, others had cracks, others were broken off short, and others were white and round, not fitting for the building. And I saw other stones thrown far from the tower, coming onto the road and not staying on the road, but rolling from the road into the trackless waste; others falling into fire and being burned; others falling near the waters but unable to roll into the water, though they wanted to roll and come into the water.'

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Visions — Vision 3 3-Vision 3 12 ========

After she pointed these things out to me, she meant to rush away. But I asked her: Lady, what use is my having witnessed this if I still don't grasp its meaning? Her reply: You're a cunning man, eager to learn what concerns the tower. Yes, lady, I answered, so that I can bring word to the brothers, and their spirits may lift, and by hearing of it may recognize the Lord amid great splendor. She then told me: Many will hear; some among those hearers will be glad, others will weep — yet even the weeping ones, provided they listen and turn back, will in the end rejoice too. Give your attention, then, to the tower's parables, since I intend to disclose the whole of it to you. And do not keep pressing me further for disclosures, because this set of revelations has run its course and stands finished. Still, you won't quit begging for more — such is your shamelessness. As for the tower under construction before your eyes, I myself am it: the Church, made visible to you now just as before. Whatever, then, you desire to know, put your question about the tower, and I shall disclose it so you may share the saints' joy. Lady, I said, seeing that you have judged me worthy on this one occasion of a full disclosure, disclose it. She answered: Whatever it is proper for you to learn will indeed be made known. Only keep your heart fixed on God and harbor no doubts over anything you witness. I then asked her, lady, why the tower was raised over water. She replied: I already told you this once, yet you keep digging carefully — and in your digging you uncover the truth. Listen, then, to why it stands over water: because your life was rescued by means of water, and will go on being rescued by it. The foundation of the tower rests upon the utterance of the mighty and glorious name, while it is held aloft by the Master's power, invisible to sight.
In response I told her: Lady, what a great and astonishing matter this is. Yet who might the six young builders be, lady? Her answer: These are God's holy angels, the very first to be brought into being, to whom the Lord entrusted his whole creation, that they might cause it to grow, construct it, and govern the entirety of it; it is through them, accordingly, that the tower's construction will reach completion. And the rest, the ones hauling the stones — who are those? They too are holy angels of God, though these six outrank them; so once the tower's building is brought to its finish, everyone together will celebrate around it and give God glory, since its construction stands complete. I put a further question to her: Lady, I'd like to understand the stones — their origin and what they signify. She replied: It isn't that you outrank everyone else in worth, such that this should be shown to you. Others came before you and surpass you, and it was to them that these sights were owed; but it was revealed to you, and will go on being revealed, so that God's name might receive glory — for the benefit of the double-minded, those debating within themselves whether or not these matters hold true. Tell them that every one of these things is genuine, that truth lies nowhere apart from them, and that all of it stands solid, certain, and unshakably grounded.
Listen now to the account of the stones going into the structure. The square white ones whose edges match perfectly — those represent the apostles, overseers, teachers, and ministers who lived out God's own sanctity, and who shepherded, instructed, and served the chosen of God with purity and dignity, some now at rest, others still among the living; and among themselves they were always in accord, kept peace with one another, and gave ear to each other. This harmony is precisely why their edges match so well within the tower's structure. Now what of those hauled up out of the depths and set into the structure, matching at their edges with the stones already in place — who might they be? Those represent people who suffered on account of the Lord's name. And I want an account of the remaining stones, the ones carried in from dry ground — who do they represent, lady? She answered: Those going into the structure without needing to be shaped — the Lord has already approved these, for they proceeded along a straight course under the Lord and kept his commands undeviating. And what of the ones being carried and set into the structure — who are they? Those are recent converts to the faith and are faithful, yet the angels must correct them toward doing good, since some evil turned up in them. What of the ones cast off to the side and discarded — who do these represent? Those are the ones who sinned but wish to turn back; and that is precisely why they weren't flung a great distance from the tower — they'll still serve a purpose in the structure if they turn back. So for those on the verge of turning back: should they do so promptly, before the tower's building is finished, they will grow firm in the faith. Once construction is finished, however, no place remains for them — they'll be discarded outright. The only thing left to them is to lie there beside the tower.
As for the stones smashed apart and hurled a great distance away from the tower, would you like their meaning? Those stand for the children of lawlessness; their belief was mere pretense, and wickedness of every sort clung to them still. This is precisely why salvation eludes them — their wickedness disqualifies them from usefulness in the structure. This is likewise why they were shattered and cast off at a distance, on account of the Lord's wrath, since it was they who roused his anger. As for the others you noticed strewn about in large numbers, taking no part in the structure — those represent people whose skin, so to speak, has gone scaly: they once knew truth but did not abide in it. What of the ones bearing fissures — what do they represent? Those stand for people carrying resentment against each other deep down, lacking real peace among themselves though wearing peace on their faces; and once they go their separate ways, the malice lodged in their hearts persists. Such, then, is the nature of the fissures found in these stones. As for the ones with pieces broken off — these represent believers who mostly hold fast to righteousness yet still carry some measure of lawlessness in them; hence they come out chipped rather than whole. And the smooth round white ones unable to join the structure — what of them, lady? Her answer: How long will your foolish incomprehension continue, quizzing me about everything yet grasping nothing? These stand for people possessing faith, yet also possessing the riches of this present age; when hardship strikes, their wealth and their business dealings lead them to disown their Lord. I then asked her: Lady, when, then, might they become fit for the structure? Her reply: Once the riches that seduce them have been sliced away, then they become fit for God's purposes. Just as a round stone must be trimmed and reduced before it can take a square shape, so those wealthy in the present age cannot serve the Lord's purposes unless their riches are trimmed away. Apply this lesson to yourself first: while rich, you were good for nothing, but now, useful and beneficial to life. Make yourselves fit for God's purposes — for you yourself are cut from these very same stones.
Now the further stones you saw cast at a distance from the tower, tumbling onto the road and then rolling off it into pathless country — those stand for believers who, owing to their divided minds, desert their genuine road; imagining a superior road exists to be found, they wander off course and end up miserable, roaming the pathless country. The ones falling into fire and consumed there stand for people who have turned decisively away from the living God, and no urge to repent ever again surfaces in their hearts, on account of their lustful cravings and the wrongs they have committed. And would you like to know about the remaining ones, those falling near the water yet lacking the momentum to roll into it — who are those? These stand for people who heard the message and meant to be baptized in the Lord's name; yet later, once the memory of truth's purity comes back to them, they reverse course and return to their base cravings once more. With that, her account of the tower drew to a close. Emboldened once more, I put it to her whether any of these discarded stones, unfit for the tower's structure, might still have repentance open to them, and whether a place remained for them in this tower. Her answer: Repentance is open to them, yet a place in this tower is not; a far humbler place elsewhere awaits them, and only once they have undergone torment and served out the full term of their sins. This is the reason they will be transferred — because they had some share in the message of righteousness; and it is then, after their torments, that their transfer will take place, on account of the wrongs they committed. Yet if it fails to surface in their hearts, they are not saved, given how hardened their hearts have become.
Once, then, I had exhausted my questions on all this, she asked me: Would you care to view something further? Craving the sight, I found myself thrilled at the prospect. She glanced at me, gave a small smile, and asked: Do you notice seven women stationed around the tower? Yes, lady, I told her, I notice them. This tower rests upon these women's shoulders, at the Lord's own command. Now attend to what each one does. The foremost of them, gripping the tower with her hands, bears the name Faith; through her, God's chosen ones find salvation. The next, girded and displaying manly vigor, is named Self-Control, Faith's own daughter. Whoever falls in step behind her attains blessedness in life, for he will refrain from every wicked deed, trusting that abstaining from all wicked desire secures him eternal life. And the rest, lady, who might they be? Her reply: Each is daughter to the one before — named respectively Simplicity, Knowledge, Innocence, Reverence, and Love. Once you carry out every work belonging to their mother, life becomes possible for you. Lady, I said, I wished to learn what capability belongs to each of them. Listen, then, she said, to their respective capabilities. Each one's capability is restrained by the next and trails after it, in the very order of their birth. Self-Control is born from Faith; from Self-Control comes Simplicity; from Simplicity, Innocence; from Innocence, Reverence; from Reverence, Knowledge; and from Knowledge, Love. The deeds belonging to these, then, are undefiled, dignified, and godly. Whoever, then, gives himself to their service and manages to hold firm to their labors will make his home inside the tower alongside God's holy ones. I then questioned her about the appointed times, whether the consummation drew near already. At this she shouted out at full volume: Senseless man, can't you see the tower still under construction? Once its construction is brought to completion, it reaches its end. Yet the building will proceed swiftly. Question me no further; this much of a reminder suffices, both for you and for the saints, along with the refreshing of your spirits. Yet this was disclosed not to you alone, but so that you could make it known to all, three days from now — since you yourself must first take it in. And I charge you above all, Hermas, to speak every one of these words I am now telling you directly into the saints' ears, so that upon hearing and acting on them they might be purified of their wickedness — you included among them.
Give me your attention, children: I brought you up amid great simplicity, innocence, and reverence, on account of the Lord's mercy, since he poured out his righteousness upon you so you might become righteous and purified from every wickedness and every crookedness — yet you refuse to be rid of your own wickedness. So now, give me your attention: keep peace among yourselves, watch over one another, hold each other up, and stop consuming God's creatures to excess, keeping them for yourselves alone — share instead with the needy; for some ruin their own flesh through excess of food, while those lacking food have their flesh ruined for want of adequate nourishment, and their bodies waste away. This disparity, then, does harm to you who possess plenty and share nothing with those lacking. Keep watch for the judgment now approaching. So you who possess abundance, go seek out the hungry while the tower still stands unfinished, for once its building is done you will wish to act generously and find no opportunity left. Take care, then, you who take pride in your riches, that the needy do not groan, with their groaning rising up to the Lord, leaving you shut out together with your possessions beyond the tower's gate. So now I address you, the church's foremost men and those occupying the seats of honor: do not resemble the sorcerers. Sorcerers stash their potions inside small containers, whereas you keep your potion and venom lodged within your own heart. You have grown callous, unwilling to purify your hearts and blend your understanding as one within a clean heart, so that mercy from the great King might be yours. Watch, then, children, that these quarrels do not strip you of your life. How can you expect to teach the Lord's chosen ones self-discipline when you lack it yourselves? Discipline each other, then, and keep peace among yourselves, so that I too, standing joyful before the Father, can render account to the Lord on all your behalf.
Once her conversation with me had ended, the six builder-youths arrived and bore her away toward the tower, while four more picked up the bench and carried that too in the same direction. Their faces I never glimpsed, since they kept turned away from me. While she was departing I begged her to explain the three distinct appearances she had taken with me. Her reply: For an explanation of these, you'll need to ask someone else. Now brothers, in that first vision, the one from a year earlier, she showed herself to me quite aged and sitting upon a chair. In the vision after that her face had grown younger, though her flesh and hair remained aged, and she addressed me while standing; and her cheer surpassed what it had been. By the third vision, she was youthful all over and exceptionally lovely, with only her hair still aged; she stayed cheerful right through, seated upon a bench. Over all this I felt considerable anguish, longing to grasp the meaning of this disclosure, and then, in a night vision, I catch sight of the aged woman telling me: Every petition calls for humility. Fast, therefore, and what you ask of the Lord will be granted you. So I kept a one-day fast, and that very night a young man appeared before me, asking: Why do you keep pressing your case for disclosures in your prayer? Take care that excessive asking does not injure your own flesh. What has already been disclosed to you is sufficient. Could you even bear to view disclosures more powerful than what you've already witnessed? My answer to him: Lord, my one request is this — a full disclosure regarding the aged woman's three appearances. His reply: How long will your people remain senseless? Your divided minds are the very cause of your senselessness, along with your failure to keep your heart directed toward the Lord. Once more I answered him: Yet it is from you, lord, that we shall come to understand these matters with greater precision.
Hear, he said, about the forms you are asking about. In the first vision, why did she appear to you as elderly and seated in a chair? Because your spirit is old, and already withered, and without strength, from your weaknesses and double-mindedness. For just as the elderly, having no more hope of being renewed, expect nothing else but their falling asleep, so also you, weakened by the affairs of daily life, have given yourselves over to listlessness and have not cast your cares upon the Lord; instead your understanding has been shattered and you have grown old in your sorrows. Why then was she seated in a chair, I wanted to know, lord? Because every weak person takes a chair on account of his weakness, so that his bodily frailty finds something to lean on. You now have the meaning of the first vision.
In the second vision you saw her standing, with a younger face and more cheerful than before, though her flesh and hair were older. Hear, he said, this parable too: when someone elderly, having already given up hope for himself because of his weakness and poverty, expects nothing else but the last day of his life — then suddenly an inheritance is left to him; hearing of it, he is roused, and becoming overjoyed he puts on strength; and he no longer lies down, but stands, and his spirit, already worn away by his former deeds, is renewed, and he no longer sits but acts with manly strength. So it is also with you: having heard the revelation which the Lord revealed to you, since he felt pity toward you and gave your spirits fresh life, and you set aside your weaknesses, strength came to you and you were made strong in the faith; and the Lord, seeing your strengthening, rejoiced. And for this reason he made known to you the building of the tower, and he will make known other things too, if you are at peace among yourselves with your whole heart.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Visions — Vision 3 13-Vision 5 1 ========

In the third vision you saw her younger, and beautiful, and cheerful, and her form was lovely. For just as when good news comes to someone who is grieving, at once he forgets his former griefs and welcomes nothing else but the message he has heard, and afterward becomes firm toward the good, his very spirit made new again through the joy he received — in just that way, seeing these good things has left your own spirits refreshed and made new. And as for the fact that you saw her sitting on a bench, that is a sturdy seat, because the bench has four legs and stands firmly; for the world too is held together by four elements. Those, then, who repent completely will be young again and firmly founded, those who repent with their whole heart. You have received the whole of the revelation. Ask nothing further about revelation; if anything more is needed, it will be revealed to you.
This is what I saw, brothers, twenty days after the previous vision had occurred, as a picture of the affliction that is coming. I was going out to the estate by the Campanian road. It is about ten stadia from the public road, and the place is easy walking. So, walking alone, I asked the Lord to bring to completion the revelations and visions he had shown me through his holy Church, to make me strong, and to grant repentance to his servants who had stumbled, so that his great and glorious name might be glorified, because he had thought me worthy to show me his wonders. And while I was glorifying him and giving thanks, a voice like a sound answered me: 'Do not be double-minded, Hermas.' I began arguing with myself and saying, 'How could I be double-minded, so firmly founded as I am by the Lord, and having seen glorious things?' I went on a little way, brothers, and behold, I see dust rising as if to the sky, and I began saying to myself, 'Could cattle be coming and stirring up dust?' It was about a stadium away from me. As the dust grew greater and greater I suspected it was something divine. A thin ray of sunlight broke through, and there before me was a monstrous creature, something like a great sea-beast, with fiery locusts pouring out of its mouth. In length it measured close to a hundred feet, while its head was shaped like an earthenware jar. I fell to weeping and pleaded with the Lord that I might be delivered from the thing, and the saying I had heard came back to me: 'Do not be double-minded, Hermas.' So, brothers, clothed now in the Lord's faith and calling to mind the great lessons he had taught me, I found my nerve and pressed forward toward the beast. It was coming on with such a rushing noise that it could have wrecked a city. I come near it, and this huge sea-monster stretches itself out on the ground and did nothing but put out its tongue, and did not move at all, until I had passed it by. The beast had four colors on its head: black, then fiery and blood-red, then golden, then white.
After I had passed the beast and gone on about thirty feet, behold, a virgin meets me, dressed as though stepping out from the wedding-chamber — white garments, white shoes, a headband concealing her down to the forehead, and hair the color of snow. From the earlier visions I knew her at once for the Church, and my spirits lifted. She greets me, saying, 'Greetings to you, man.' And I greeted her back: 'Greetings, Lady.' She answered and said to me, 'Did nothing meet you?' I say to her, 'Lady, a beast so enormous it could wipe out whole nations — yet through the Lord's strength and his abundant mercy I got clear of it.' 'You escaped well,' she says, 'because you cast your care upon God and opened your heart to the Lord, believing that you can be saved by nothing except through the great and glorious name. For this reason the Lord sent his angel who is over the beasts, whose name is Thegri, and shut its mouth, so that it would not harm you. You have escaped a great affliction because of your faith, and because, though you saw so huge a beast, you did not become double-minded. Go, then, and lay out for the Lord's chosen ones his mighty deeds, telling them that this beast stands for the great affliction now approaching; so, provided you make ready ahead of time and turn back to the Lord from the depths of your heart, escaping it lies within your reach — so long as your heart is made clean and without fault, and you spend what remains of your life serving the Lord without blame. Hand your worries over to the Lord, and he will straighten them out. Trust the Lord, you who are double-minded, for he can do all things, and he turns his anger away from you and sends scourges upon you who are double-minded. Woe to those who hear these words and disregard them; it would have been better for them not to have been born.'
I asked her about the four colors which the beast had on its head. She answered and said to me, 'Again you are too curious about such things.' 'Yes, Lady,' I said, 'make known to me what these are.' 'Listen,' she says: 'the black is this world, in which you live; the fiery and blood-red means that this world must be destroyed by blood and fire; the golden part is you, who have escaped this world. For just as gold is tested by fire and becomes useful, so also you who live among them are being tested. Those, then, who remain and are tried by fire will be purified. Just as gold sheds its dross, so also you will shed all grief and distress, and you will be purified and become useful for the building of the tower. The white part is the age that is coming, in which the chosen of God will dwell, because those chosen by God for eternal life will be spotless and pure. So do not stop speaking into the ears of the saints. You also have the picture of the great affliction that is coming. But if you are willing, it will come to nothing. Remember what has been written above.' Having said this she departed, and I did not see to what place she departed, for it became a cloud; and I turned back, afraid, thinking that the beast was coming.
While I was praying in the house and sitting on the bed, a man came in, glorious in appearance, in the dress of a shepherd, wrapped in a white goatskin, a pouch slung over his shoulder and a rod gripped in his hand. He greeted me, and I greeted him back. And at once he sat down beside me and said to me, 'I was sent by the most venerable angel to live with you for the rest of the days of your life.' I thought that he had come to test me, and I say to him, 'Who then are you? For I,' I said, 'know the one to whom I was entrusted.' He says to me, 'Do you not recognize me?' 'No,' I said. 'I,' he says, 'am the shepherd to whom you were entrusted.' While he was still speaking his appearance changed, and I recognized him, that he was the one to whom I had been entrusted, and at once I was thrown into confusion and fear seized me, and I was utterly broken down with grief, because I had answered him so badly and foolishly. But he answered and said to me, 'Do not be confounded, but be strengthened by the commandments I am about to give you. For I was sent,' he says, 'to show you again all the things you saw before, those very main points that are beneficial to you. First of all, write my commandments and parables; and the rest, as I show you, so you shall write. For this reason,' he says, 'I command you to write the commandments and parables first, so that you may read them at hand and be able to keep them.' So I wrote the commandments and parables, just as he commanded me. If, then, when you hear them, you keep them and walk in them and carry them out with a pure heart, you will receive from the Lord all that he promised you; but if, having heard them, you fail to repent and instead pile up further sins, what you get back from the Lord will be the reverse of that. This whole account is what he ordered me to set down in writing — the shepherd, that is, the messenger charged with repentance.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates — Mandate 1 1-Mandate 6 1 ========

Above all else, hold this as true: God is a single being, the one who fashioned and arranged the whole universe, calling every existing thing forth out of nothingness, and who holds all things within himself though nothing holds him. Trust in him, therefore, and stand in awe of him, and once you stand in awe, discipline yourself. Hold fast to these things, and you will strip away every trace of wickedness and be arrayed in the full virtue of righteousness, and you will live for God, provided you keep this commandment.
He says to me: Possess simplicity and be free of malice, and you will resemble young children, who have no acquaintance with the wickedness that ruins human life. Before anything else, never speak ill of anyone, and take no delight in hearing another do so; if you do, you who listen share the guilt of the slanderer's sin whenever you give credence to what you hear said against someone — for in crediting it you too store up a grievance against your brother, making yourself guilty along with the one who spoke against him. Slander is an evil thing, an unsettled demon that finds no rest and makes its home continually in strife. Stay clear of it, then, and you will enjoy peace with all people at all times. Clothe yourself instead with seriousness of character, in which nothing evil trips a person up, but all is level ground and gladness. Work at what is good, and out of the earnings God grants you through your labor, give without complication to everyone in want, weighing neither who deserves it nor who does not. Give to all, since God desires that his own gifts reach everyone. Those who receive them will render an account to God of why and to what end they received — genuine need will spare the recipient from judgment, while receiving on false pretenses invites punishment. The giver, then, bears no guilt: having taken on from the Lord this task to complete, he discharged it without complication, drawing no lines about recipients. Rendered in this uncomplicated way, such service becomes something splendid in God's sight. And so whoever ministers to God with such simplicity will have life. Hold to this commandment, therefore, exactly as I have set it out for you, so that both your own turning back and your household's may be discovered genuine, your innocence unspoiled and clean.
He tells me once more: Cherish truthfulness, and let nothing but truth pass your lips, so that the spirit God has lodged within this flesh of yours may prove honest in the sight of everyone, and thereby the Lord dwelling in you will receive glory, since he never speaks a false word and holds no deceit whatsoever within himself. Those, then, who tell lies reject the Lord and turn into thieves who cheat him, failing to hand back the deposit entrusted to them. What they received from him was a spirit incapable of falsehood; if they return it corrupted by lies, they have fouled the Lord's commandment and turned into thieves. Hearing this, I broke into heavy weeping. Seeing my tears, he asks: Why are you weeping? Because, I answered, Lord, I do not know if I can be saved. Why not? he says. Because, I said, Lord, I have never in my whole life uttered one honest word — everything I said to people was said with cunning, and whatever lie I told, I made it look like the truth to everyone listening; no one ever spoke against me, and my word was simply believed. How then, I asked, Lord, can I go on living, given what I have done? Your thinking is correct and sound, he says; a servant of God ought to conduct himself in truth, and no wicked conscience should lodge beside the spirit of truth, nor should you cause grief to that holy and truthful spirit. I told him: Lord, I have never before heard such things laid out with such precision. Well, he says, now you have heard them; hold onto them, so that even the falsehoods you spoke earlier in your affairs may, once these present words prove true, come to be counted trustworthy too — for that, too, is possible. If you hold to this and from here on speak nothing but the truth, you will be able to win life for yourself; and everyone who hears this commandment and turns away from the vilest lying will live for God.
He charges me: Keep purity, and let no thought about someone else's wife climb into your heart, nor any thought of fornication of any kind, nor of similarly wicked fancies; doing so is committing a grave sin. But if you keep your own wife constantly in mind, you will never go astray. Should such a thought arise in your heart, you go astray; and if other equally wicked thoughts arise, you commit sin — for a servant of God, this thought is a serious sin, and whoever carries out this wicked act brings death on himself. Watch yourself, then, and stay clear of this thought. For wherever seriousness of character resides, lawlessness has no business climbing into the heart of an upright man. I say to him: Lord, permit me a few questions. Speak, he says. Lord, I ask, if a man's wife is faithful to the Lord, and he catches her in some act of adultery, does the husband sin by remaining married to her? So long as he does not know of it, he says, he does not sin; but once the husband learns of his wife's sin, and she fails to repent but continues her fornication, and the husband stays with her, he becomes an accomplice in her sin and shares in her adultery. What, then, I ask, Lord, should the husband do if the wife keeps on in this passion? Let him send her away, he says, and remain alone; but should he marry someone else after sending his wife away, he too commits adultery. If, then, I ask, Lord, after being sent away she repents and wishes to come back to her own husband, should she not be received again? Certainly, he says — if the husband refuses to receive her, he sins and draws upon himself a serious sin; one who has sinned and repents must be received back, though not endlessly, since God's servants are granted only a single repentance. It is for the sake of this possibility of repenting that the husband ought not to remarry. The same principle governs wife as much as husband. And it is not adultery alone, he says, when a man defiles his own flesh; anyone who imitates pagan customs likewise commits adultery. So if a person persists in such conduct and will not repent, keep your distance and do not share a household with him, or you too become implicated in his sin. This is why it has been laid down that you remain apart from one another, husband and wife alike, since in situations like these repenting is still open. I do not offer this rule, he says, as license for the deed to be carried out in the first place, but so that whoever has sinned may sin no further. As for what he did before, someone exists who can supply healing — the one who holds authority over everything.
I questioned him again, saying: Since the Lord judged me worthy to have you stay with me at all times, put up with me a while longer as I speak — I am at a loss and my heart has grown callous from my past conduct; grant me insight, for I am utterly foolish and take in nothing whatsoever. He answered: I, he says, am set over the matter of turning back to God, and I supply insight to everyone who turns back. Or do you not think, he says, that this very act of turning back is itself a form of insight? To turn back, he says, is a profound insight; for a person who has sinned recognizes that he has acted wrongly in the Lord's sight, and the deed he committed surfaces in his heart, and he turns back and no longer acts wrongly, but instead does what is good in abundance, humbling and afflicting his own soul on account of his sin. You see, then, that turning back is a profound insight. This is exactly why, I said, Lord, I question you so exhaustively about everything — first, because I am a sinner, and I want to know what I must do in order to live, since my sins are numerous and of many kinds. You will live, he says, provided you hold to my commandments and conduct yourself by them; and everyone who hears these commandments and holds to them will live for God.
Still, I said, Lord, allow me one further question. Speak, he says. I have been told, I said, Lord, by certain teachers, that there is no turning back except the single one granted when we went down into the water and obtained release from our earlier sins. He replies: What you heard is correct, for that is indeed the case. Whoever has obtained release from sins ought never to sin again, but should live thereafter in purity. Yet since you probe every detail so thoroughly, I will spell this out for you as well, without giving those who are yet to believe, or who have only now come to believe in the Lord, any excuse. For those who have only now believed, or are still to believe, are granted no further turning-back for sins, since they already hold release from their earlier ones. But for those called before this present time, the Lord instituted a turning-back; for the Lord, who reads every heart and knows all things in advance, recognized human frailty and the devil's tangled schemes, knowing he would inflict some evil on God's servants and work mischief against them. Being deeply compassionate, the Lord took pity on what he had made and instituted this turning-back, and the charge of overseeing it was placed in my hands. But I tell you, he says, after that momentous and solemn summons, should anyone be tested by the devil and sin, he has one turning-back available to him; yet if he sins over and over and turns back each time, it does him no good at all, for he will scarcely live. I told him: Hearing this from you laid out with such care has brought me back to life; for I know that if I add nothing further to my sins, I will be saved. You will be saved, he says, and so will everyone who does likewise.
I asked him once more: Lord, since you have already been patient with me, clarify this matter for me too. Speak, he says. Suppose, I said, Lord, a wife — or equally a husband — dies, and the surviving spouse marries again: does the one who marries commit sin? No sin is committed, he says; yet a person who stays unmarried gains for himself a higher standing and a more excellent honor in the Lord's eyes; still, marrying again is not a sin. So hold on to purity and seriousness of character, and you will live for God. Everything I am telling you, and am about to tell you, guard from this moment forward, from the day I was entrusted to you, and I will make my home in your house. Your earlier failings will be forgiven, provided you hold to my commandments; and forgiveness will extend to everyone, provided they hold to these commandments of mine and conduct themselves within this purity.
Become someone patient and sensible, he says, and you will gain mastery over every wicked deed and accomplish every kind of righteousness. If you are patient, the Holy Spirit residing within you will remain clean, unclouded by any competing evil spirit, and instead, having room to breathe, it will exult and take delight together with the vessel it inhabits, serving God with abundant cheerfulness, its own contentment intact. But should any flash of temper approach, the Holy Spirit — being a tender thing — is instantly squeezed for lack of clean space and looks to leave that place altogether; it is choked by the evil spirit, left with no room to minister to the Lord as it desires, tainted by that temper. The Lord makes his home in patience, while the devil makes his in bad temper. When these two spirits occupy one and the same place, it spells trouble and harm for whoever houses them. Consider: drop a mere sliver of wormwood into a whole jar of honey — isn't the entire jar spoiled, all that honey wrecked by that one tiny scrap, its sweetness gone, its value to its owner destroyed, now that bitterness has ruined its usefulness? But leave the wormwood out, and the honey stays sweet, remaining valuable to its owner. So you can see that patience outdoes honey in sweetness and remains valuable to the Lord, who makes his dwelling there. Bad temper, by contrast, is bitter and worthless. And if bad temper gets folded into patience, the patience is tainted and its pleading before God loses all value. I wanted to learn, I said, Lord, how bad temper operates, so I could shield myself from it. Indeed, he says, unless you and your household shield yourselves from it, you will have wrecked every hope you had. So guard against it, for I stand beside you. And everyone who turns back with a whole heart will steer clear of it, since I will stand beside them too and keep them safe, for all have been declared righteous by the most holy angel.
Listen now, he says, to how bad temper operates, how wicked it is, and how, by its own operation, it topples my servants and leads them off the path of righteousness. It does not lead astray those who are complete in their faith, nor can it exert any power over them, because my strength stands with them; but it leads astray the hollow and double-minded. Whenever it spots such people standing steady, it hurls itself into that person's heart, and for absolutely no reason the man or woman turns bitter over ordinary matters — food, some petty detail, a companion, giving something or getting something, or other such foolish concerns; all of these things are silly, empty, senseless, and unprofitable for God's servants. Patience, though, is grand and mighty, possessed of real power, sturdy, and it flourishes in wide-open room, cheerful, exultant, untroubled, glorifying the Lord constantly, holding nothing bitter within itself, staying gentle and calm through everything; this patience, then, makes its home among those whose faith is complete. Bad temper, however, is first of all foolish, flighty, and senseless. Out of that foolishness comes bitterness, and out of bitterness, rage, and out of rage, anger, and out of anger, resentment; and this resentment, built up from so many evils, becomes a grave and incurable sin. For when these spirits share one vessel, the same vessel the Holy Spirit also inhabits, that vessel cannot contain it and spills over. So the tender spirit, unaccustomed to living alongside an evil spirit or alongside harshness, withdraws from such a person and seeks instead to dwell with gentleness and calm. Once it has left the person it had inhabited, that person becomes emptied of the righteous spirit and, now filled instead with wicked spirits, grows unstable in every part of his conduct, tossed here and there by those wicked spirits, and loses sight entirely of sound judgment. This, then, is what befalls everyone given to bad temper. Steer clear, then, of bad temper, the most wicked of spirits; clothe yourself instead with patience, and take your stand against bad temper and bitterness, and you will be found alongside the seriousness of character the Lord holds dear. Take care, then, never to disregard this commandment; for if you master it, you will also be equipped to keep the rest of the commandments I am about to give you. Be strong in them and grow stronger still, and let everyone who wishes to walk in them grow strong as well.
I charged you, he says, in the first commandment, to hold on to faith, fear, and self-control. Yes, Lord, I answered. But now, he says, I want to explain to you their powers as well, so that you may grasp what capability and effect each one carries; for their effects run in two directions. They stand, then, over what is right and what is wrong: trust what is right, and place no trust in what is wrong. What is right follows a direct road, while what is wrong follows a twisted one. Travel, then, along the direct, even road, and leave the twisted one behind. The twisted road has no real footing at all — it is pathless, full of countless hazards, and rugged with thorns. It brings harm, then, to anyone traveling it. Those who travel the direct road, however, walk on level ground without tripping, since it is neither rugged nor thorny. You can see, then, that it is far more beneficial to travel this road. It pleases me, I said, Lord, to travel this road. You will travel it, he says — and so will anyone who turns to the Lord wholeheartedly and walks upon it.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates — Mandate 6 2-Mandate 10 3 ========

"Now hear me," he said, "on the subject of faith. Every person has two angels at his side, one belonging to uprightness, the other to wrongdoing." "But sir," I said, "how am I to tell their doings apart, seeing that both dwell with me together?" "Pay attention," he said, "and you will grasp it. The guide who belongs to uprightness is delicate and modest, gentle and quiet in manner; the moment he climbs up into your heart, he begins at once to speak of righteous conduct, of purity, of reverence, of contentment, and of every noble deed and splendid virtue there is. Once such things start rising in your heart, you may be sure he has taken up residence there. Such, in short, is how this spirit operates, and on that basis put your confidence in him and in what he brings about. Turn now, though, to the doings of the other, the one who serves wrongdoing. Before anything else he is quick-tempered, sour, and thoughtless, and everything he does is corrupt and brings ruin on God's servants; so whenever he climbs into your heart, you will identify him by his conduct." "But sir," I said, "how would I ever notice him? I have no idea." "Pay attention," he said. "The instant a burst of anger or bitterness strikes you, be sure it is he inside you. Next comes a hunger for endless activity, lavish spending on food, drunkenness, riotous parties, strange dishes one has no business eating, lust for women, greed, no small measure of conceit and bragging, and everything else akin to and resembling all this. Once such urges rise in your heart, you may be certain the corrupting spirit has taken hold of you. Having identified his conduct in this manner, stay clear of him and give him no confidence whatsoever, since everything he produces is corrupt and intolerable for those who serve God. So there you have how both spirits operate: grasp the difference, place your confidence in the angel of righteousness, and steer away from the angel of wickedness, since his instruction is rotten through every deed it touches. Now even a faithful man, should this spirit's suggestion climb into his heart, is bound to slip into some wrongdoing; and conversely, should the promptings of the upright spirit climb into the heart of a thoroughly wicked man or woman, that person is bound to do some good deed. So you can see," he said, "why it is right to walk alongside uprightness and turn one's back on wrongdoing. This is what the present precept teaches concerning faith: put your confidence in what uprightness produces, and by carrying it out you will have life before God; and be convinced that wrongdoing's produce is bitter, so that by refusing to carry it out you will likewise have life before God."
"Fear," he said, "the Lord, and keep his commandments. By keeping the commandments of God you will be powerful in every undertaking, and your undertaking will be beyond compare. For by fearing the Lord you will do everything well. This is the fear that you must have, in order to be saved. But do not fear the devil, for by fearing the Lord you will master the devil, since there is no power in him. And where there is no power, there is no fear either; but where the power is glorious, there is fear in it too. For everyone who has power has fear, while whoever lacks power is despised by everyone. Fear, then, the works of the devil, because they are wicked. So by fearing the Lord you will not do them, but will hold back from them. There are, then, two kinds of fear: if you want to do what is wicked, fear the Lord, and you will not do it; but if you want, on the other hand, to do what is good, fear the Lord, and you will do it. So the fear of the Lord is strong and great and glorious. Fear, then, the Lord, and you will live for him; and as many as fear him and keep his commandments will live for God." "Why, sir," I said, "did you say concerning those who keep his commandments, 'They will live for God'?" "Because," he said, "all creation fears the Lord, but does not keep his commandments. So life with God belongs to those who fear him and keep his commandments, while for those who do not keep his commandments there is no life in him."
"I already told you," he said, "that whatever God has made comes in a pair, and self-mastery is no exception — it too comes in a pair. Over some matters a person must exercise it, and over others he must not." "Then explain to me, sir," I said, "which matters call for self-mastery and which do not." "Pay attention," he said. "Hold yourself back from what is wicked and never do it; but where something good is concerned, do not hold back — carry it out instead. Holding yourself back from doing good is itself a grave sin, whereas holding yourself back from doing wickedness is a great act of righteousness. So exercise mastery over yourself against every form of wickedness while pursuing what is good." "What kinds of wickedness, sir," I said, "call for such self-mastery?" "Pay attention," he said: "adultery and fornication, drunken lawlessness, corrupt indulgence, gluttony and extravagant riches, boasting, arrogance, and haughty pride, lying, slander, and hypocrisy, holding grudges, and blasphemy of every kind. Of all the deeds found in human life, these rank among the very worst. It is from such conduct that a servant of God must hold himself back, since whoever fails to do so has no life before God. Now hear what comes after these." "Are there still more such wicked deeds, sir?" I asked. "Plenty more," he replied, "from which God's servant must hold back: stealing, deceit, cheating, perjury, avarice, evil craving, fraud, empty pride, boasting, and whatever else falls into this same category. Doesn't all of this strike you as wicked?" "Extremely so," I said, "especially for God's servants." "So it is from every one of these that anyone who serves God must hold himself back — hold back from the whole list, so that you may have life before God and be counted among those who do so. That, then, covers what you must hold yourself back from. Now hear what you must not hold back from, but rather must actively do," he said. "Never withhold yourself from what is good — carry it out." "And regarding the good things, sir," I said, "explain their force to me, so that I might set myself to practicing and pursuing them, and by carrying them out find the way to salvation." "Pay attention," he said, "to the good deeds that call for action rather than restraint. Above everything else: faith, reverence toward the Lord, love, unity, honest speech, truthfulness, patient endurance — human life holds nothing more valuable than these. Whoever keeps them without holding back finds blessing throughout his life. Then hear what follows: caring for widows, looking after orphans and the destitute, buying back God's servants from their hardships, showing hospitality — since acts of kindness are sometimes discovered precisely through welcoming strangers — resisting no one, staying calm, ranking yourself beneath everyone else, honoring the aged, practicing justice, preserving brotherly bonds, bearing insult, staying patient, holding no grudge, cheering those who are sick at heart, never abandoning those who have stumbled away from faith but instead winning them back and lifting their spirits, correcting sinners, and never crushing debtors or the needy — along with anything else in this same vein. Does this strike you as good?" he said. "What, sir," I answered, "could possibly surpass it?" "Walk in it, then," he said, "never holding back, and you will have life before God. Keep, then, this precept: doing good without holding back brings life before God to everyone who lives this way; and likewise, refusing wickedness while holding yourself back from it brings life before God to all who keep these precepts and walk according to them."
He tells me: "Strip yourself of two-mindedness, and never hesitate at all in asking anything of God, telling yourself, 'How could I possibly ask the Lord for something and get it, given how much I have sinned against him?' Put that reasoning out of your head — instead turn to the Lord with your whole heart and make your request without hesitating, and you will discover just how deep his compassion runs: he will not desert you but will bring your soul's request to completion. God is nothing like men who nurse grudges; rather, he bears none himself and feels compassion toward what he has made. So scrub your heart clean of every vanity belonging to this present age, along with everything already mentioned to you, and make your request of the Lord — you will get everything, lacking nothing you ask for, provided you ask the Lord without hesitating. But hesitate in your heart, and you will get nothing at all of what you request. Those who hesitate toward God are exactly the two-minded, and such people never obtain a single one of their requests. Those, however, who are wholehearted in faith ask for everything trusting the Lord, and they do receive, precisely because they ask without hesitation, harboring no split mind at all. Every two-minded man, unless he changes course, will only barely reach salvation. So scrub two-mindedness out of your heart; put on faith instead, since it is powerful, and trust God to grant everything you request. And should your request from the Lord arrive somewhat late, do not turn two-minded just because your soul's plea wasn't answered right away — some trial or hidden fault of your own, unknown even to you, is surely the reason it comes more slowly. Do not, then, give up making your soul's request, and you will obtain it. But should you tire and turn two-minded partway through asking, blame yourself, never the one who grants the gift. Be wary of this two-mindedness — it is corrupt and foolish, and it tears even strong and thoroughly faithful people away from their faith by the score. This two-mindedness is nothing less than a child of the devil, and it does tremendous harm to God's servants. So hold two-mindedness in contempt and dominate it in every circumstance, putting on faith, which is strong and mighty. Faith, after all, promises everything and brings everything to completion, while two-mindedness, trusting nothing in itself, comes up empty in every task it attempts. You can see, then," he said, "that faith descends from above, from the Lord, and carries enormous power, whereas two-mindedness is an earthbound spirit from the devil, carrying no power whatsoever. So devote yourself to faith, which carries power, and keep away from two-mindedness, which carries none, and you will have life before God, along with everyone else who holds to this outlook."
"Strip away from yourself," he said, "gloom, since it is kin to two-mindedness and to a hot temper." "But sir," I said, "how is it kin to those? Hot temper strikes me as one thing, two-mindedness another, and gloom something else again." "You lack understanding," he said, "and fail to see that gloom outdoes every other spirit in wickedness, proving most dreadful of all for those who serve God — worse than any other spirit, it destroys a man, wearing down the Holy Spirit within him, and yet, on the other hand, it can also save." "Sir," I said, "I lack understanding and cannot follow these comparisons at all. How the same thing wears down and yet saves is beyond me." "Pay attention," he said: "take those who never bothered to search out the truth or inquire into divine matters, who merely believed, tangled up instead in commerce, riches, friendships with unbelievers, and the countless other concerns of this present age — everyone absorbed in such things fails to grasp the comparisons concerning the divine, since these pursuits cast a shadow over them, ruining them until they turn barren, like untended ground. Just as good vineyards, once neglected, get choked over with brambles and every sort of weed, so people who believed but then fell into these many distractions just described wander away in their thinking and grasp nothing whatsoever about righteousness; even hearing about divine matters and the truth, their attention stays fixed on their own affairs, and they take in nothing at all. But those who hold reverence for God, who search into divine matters and the truth, keeping their heart set toward the Lord, take in and grasp whatever is told them far more readily, because they carry reverence for the Lord within — for wherever the Lord makes his home, there abundant understanding follows too. Stay close, then, to the Lord, and you will grasp and take in everything."
"Listen, then," he said, "foolish man, how grief wears down the Holy Spirit, and yet again saves. Whenever the double-minded man undertakes some action and fails at it on account of his double-mindedness, this grief enters into the person and grieves the Holy Spirit and wears it down. Then again, whenever quick temper clings to a person over some matter, and he becomes quite embittered, grief again enters into the heart of the man who lost his temper, and he grieves over the deed he did and repents, because he did something wicked. This grief, then, seems to bring salvation, because having done what was wicked he repented. So both actions grieve the Spirit: double-mindedness, because it did not succeed in its undertaking, and quick temper grieves the Spirit because it did what was wicked. Both, then, are grievous to the Holy Spirit — double-mindedness and quick temper. Take away, then, grief from yourself, and do not oppress the Holy Spirit that dwells in you, lest it plead with God and depart from you. For the spirit of God that has been given into this flesh endures neither grief nor distress.
Clothe yourself, then, with cheerfulness, which always has favor with God and is acceptable to him, and delight in it. For every cheerful man does good deeds and thinks good thoughts and despises grief. But the grieving man is always acting wickedly. First, he acts wickedly because he grieves the Holy Spirit which was given to man cheerful; and second, by grieving the Holy Spirit he commits lawlessness, in that he does not plead with the Lord nor make confession to him. For the pleading of a man who is always grieving has no power to rise up to the altar of God." "Why, sir," I said, "does the pleading of one who grieves not rise up to the altar?" "Because," he said, "grief is seated in his heart. So grief, mingled with his pleading, does not allow the pleading to rise up pure to the altar. For just as vinegar and wine mixed together in the same vessel do not have the same pleasant taste, so too grief mixed with the Holy Spirit does not produce the same effective pleading. Cleanse yourself, then, from this wicked grief, and you will live for God; and all will live for God who cast grief away from themselves and clothe themselves instead with all cheerfulness."

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Mandates — Mandate 11 1-Mandate 12 6 ========

He showed me people sitting on a bench, and another man sitting on a chair, and he said to me: "Do you see the ones sitting on the bench?" "I see them, sir," I said. "These," he said, "are faithful, and the man seated on the chair is a spurious prophet — he ruins the understanding of God's servants — he destroys the double-minded, not the faithful. So these double-minded people come to him as to a fortune-teller and ask him what is going to happen to them; and that false prophet, having no power of the divine Spirit in himself, speaks with them according to their questions and according to the desires of their wickedness, and fills their souls just as they wish. For being empty himself, he gives empty answers to empty people — whatever he is asked, he answers according to the emptiness of the person. But he also speaks some true words, for the devil fills him with his own spirit, in case he can break down any of the righteous. Now those who are strong in faith in the Lord, clothed with the truth, do not attach themselves to such spirits, but keep away from them; but those who are double-minded and repent frequently tell fortunes just like the pagans, and bring greater sin on themselves by practicing idolatry — for whoever asks a false prophet about some matter is an idolater, empty of the truth, and foolish. For every spirit given by God is not questioned, but having the power of the Godhead, speaks all things of itself, because it comes from above, from the power of the divine Spirit. But the spirit that is questioned and speaks according to human desires is earthly and light, having no power; and it does not speak at all unless it is asked." "How then, sir," I said, "will a person know which of them is a prophet and which a false prophet?" "Listen," he said, "about both kinds of prophets, and as I am about to tell you, so you will test the prophet and the false prophet. Test the person who has the divine Spirit by his life. First, the one who has the Spirit from above is gentle and quiet and humble-minded, and keeps away from every wickedness and vain desire of this age, and makes himself poorer than all other people, and answers no one anything when questioned, nor does he speak in private, nor does the Holy Spirit speak whenever a person wants him to speak, but he speaks only when God wants him to speak. So when the person who has the divine Spirit joins an assembly of righteous men who trust in that same Spirit, and those men together bring their petition before God, the angel of the prophetic spirit stationed near him floods that man with fullness, and once filled by the Holy Spirit he addresses the crowd exactly as the Lord intends. That, then, is how the Spirit of the Godhead makes itself evident. This, then, is how great is the power belonging to the Spirit of the Godhead of the Lord. Now hear," he said, "about the earthly spirit, empty and powerless, but foolish. First of all, that man who seems to have a spirit exalts himself and wants to have the first seat, and is at once impudent and shameless and talkative, and lives amid many luxuries and many other deceptions, and takes payment for his prophesying; and if he does not receive payment, he does not prophesy. Now could a spirit sent from God ever accept a fee and then prophesy? No genuine prophet of God could act this way — the spirit driving such men is earthbound, not heavenly. Then too, he does not come near a gathering of righteous men at all, but avoids them; instead he clings to the double-minded and the empty, and prophesies to them in a corner, and deceives them, speaking everything emptily according to their desires — for he gives answers to empty people. For an empty vessel put together with empty vessels does not break, but they chime together with one another. But when he comes into a gathering full of righteous men who have the Spirit of the Godhead, and a petition is made by them, that man collapses into emptiness: dread drives the earthbound spirit out of him, his voice fails him entirely, and he ends up shattered, incapable of uttering a word. For if you pack a storeroom with wine or oil, and among them place an empty jar, and later want to unpack the storeroom, you will find that jar, which you placed there empty, still empty. So too the empty prophets, when they come among the spirits of the righteous, are found to be just as they came. You have the life of both kinds of prophets. Test, then, by his works and his life the man who claims to be a bearer of the Spirit. But you, believe the spirit that comes from God and has power; and put no trust at all in the earthly and empty spirit, because there is no power in it, for it comes from the devil. Now hear the illustration I am about to give you: pick up a rock and hurl it toward the heavens — see whether you can reach it; or again, take a tube of water and squirt it skyward — see whether you can pierce the heavens." "How, sir," I said, "could such things ever happen? Both of the things you named are impossible." "Just as these things are impossible," he said, "so too the earthly spirits are powerless and feeble. Now consider the power that comes from above: hail is a very tiny pellet, and yet when it lands on someone's skull, how sharp the pain is! Or again take a drop that falls from the roof-tile to the ground, and it wears through the stone. You see, then, that the smallest things falling from above onto the earth have great power. In the same way, the Spirit that descends from above carries real strength. Put your trust, then, in this Spirit, and stay clear of the other one."
He says to me: "Take away from yourself every wicked desire, and put on the desire that is good and reverent; for clothed with this desire you will hate the wicked desire and will rein it in as you wish. For the wicked desire is savage and is tamed only with difficulty. It is fearsome, and in its savagery it wears people down utterly; and especially if a servant of God falls into it and is not sensible, he is dreadfully worn down by it. It wears down those who have no clothing of the good desire but are entangled in this present age; these it hands over to death." "What kinds of works, sir," I said, "belong to the wicked desire that hand people over to death? Make them known to me, so that I may keep away from them." "Listen," he said, "to the kinds of works by which the wicked desire puts God's servants to death.
"Foremost of all is desire for another man's wife or husband, and for extravagant wealth, and for many pointless delicacies, and for drunkenness, and for many other foolish luxuries; for every luxury is foolish and empty for God's servants. These desires, then, are wicked, putting God's servants to death; for this wicked desire is a daughter of the devil. One must therefore keep away from the wicked desires, so that by keeping away from them you may live to God. But those who are mastered by them and do not resist them will die utterly, for these desires are deadly. But you, put on the desire for righteousness, and arm yourself with the fear of the Lord and resist them; for the fear of God dwells in the good desire. The wicked desire, if it sees you armed with the fear of God and standing against it, will flee far from you and will no longer appear to you, fearing your armor. So when you have won and been crowned for your victory over it, go to the desire for righteousness, and having handed over to her the victory you won, serve her as she wishes. If you serve the good desire and submit to her, you will be able to master the wicked desire and subject it, just as you wish."
"I wanted, sir," I said, "to know in what ways I must serve the good desire." "Listen," he said: "practice righteousness and virtue, honesty, reverence for the Lord, faith, and a mild temper — and any other good quality akin to these. By doing these things you will become a servant well-pleasing to God, and you will go on living for him; indeed everyone who serves the good desire will live for God." With that he brought the twelve commandments to a close and told me: "You now hold these commandments; go forward in them, and press those who hear them to purify their repentance for whatever days remain to them. Carry out with care this task I am entrusting to you, and your labor will bear much fruit; those on the verge of repenting will look on you with favor and be won over by what you say, since I myself will stand beside you and see to it that they yield to your words." I replied: "Sir, these commandments are magnificent, good, and glorious, capable of gladdening the heart of anyone able to observe them. Yet I am uncertain a human being can actually hold to them, they are so extremely severe." He answered me: "Decide within yourself that they are able to be observed, and you will observe them without difficulty — they will not seem harsh at all; but once the thought takes root in your heart that a human being cannot hold to them, you will fail to keep them. Understand this now: neglect them instead of observing them, and neither you, your children, nor your household will obtain salvation — precisely because you will have already convinced yourself a human being is unable to hold to them."
And he said this to me so angrily that I was thrown into confusion and became greatly afraid of him; for his form was so changed that a person could not bear his anger. But seeing me utterly troubled and confounded, he began to speak to me more gently and cheerfully, and said: "Foolish, senseless, double-minded man — can you not grasp God's glory, its vastness, its might, its wonder? He built the world for man's sake, put the whole of creation under man's dominion, and handed him full authority over everything beneath the sky. If, then," he said, "man rules as lord over all God's creatures and holds sway over every one of them, why should he be unable to master these commandments as well? Whoever keeps the Lord within his own heart," he said, "is able to master every single one of them. But those who merely have the Lord's name on their lips, their hearts calloused and distant from him, find these same commandments harsh and impassable. So you, empty and unsteady in faith, place your Lord within your heart, and you will discover there is nothing gentler, sweeter, or simpler than these commandments. Come back, you who tread the devil's commandments — harsh, bitter, savage, brazen ones — and stop fearing the devil, since he holds no power over you at all; I myself, the angel of repentance who overpowers him, will stand at your side. Fear is the devil's only weapon, and that fear has no real strength behind it; refuse to fear him, and he will run from you."
I told him: "Sir, hear me out on a small matter." "Speak," he said, "whatever you like." "People," I said, "sir, are eager enough to hold to God's commandments, and everyone asks the Lord to give them strength for his commandments and to yield to them; yet the devil is relentless and gets the upper hand over them." "He cannot," he replied, "get the upper hand over God's servants who place their whole hope in him. The devil can grapple with them, but he cannot pin them down. Resist him, then, and, beaten, he will run from you in shame. It is only the partly empty who dread the devil as if he had real strength. Picture someone filling a whole row of jars with good wine, leaving just a handful only partly filled; he goes to inspect them and gives no thought to the full ones, since he already knows they're fine, but he checks the half-filled ones anxiously, worried they may have soured, for half-empty jars quickly turn sour, and the pleasure of the wine is lost. So too the devil comes to all God's servants, testing them. Those, then, who are full in faith resist him strongly, and he withdraws from them, having no place to enter. So then he comes to the half-empty ones, and having a place, he enters into them, and does in them whatever he wishes, and they become enslaved to him.
"But I say to you, the angel of repentance: do not fear the devil. For I have been sent," he said, "to be with those who repent with their whole heart, and to strengthen them in the faith. Put your trust in God, then, you who have given up on your own life over your sins, piling one wrong upon another and burdening yourself further — trust that by returning to the Lord wholeheartedly, doing what is right for whatever time is left to you, and giving him faithful service in line with his purpose, he will cure the sins of your past and grant you strength enough to overcome everything the devil does. Do not be frightened in the least by the devil's threats, for he is as feeble as the tendons of a corpse. Listen to me instead, and stand in awe of the one who has power over everything, to save or to destroy, and hold to these commandments, and you will go on living for God." I answered him: "Sir, I now feel fortified in every one of the Lord's just demands, since you stand with me; and I am confident you will break the devil's strength completely, so that we will get the better of him and triumph over everything he does. And I trust, sir, that with the Lord's help strengthening me, I will manage to hold to these commandments you have laid upon me." "You will hold to them," he said, "provided your heart stays clean before the Lord; and everyone will hold to them who scours from their heart the empty cravings of this present age, and such people will go on living for God."

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 1 1-Similitude 5 3 ========

He says to me: "You know," he says, "that you slaves of God are dwelling among strangers, since your true city lies at a distance from this one. If, then, you know your city," he says, "in which you are going to dwell, why do you here prepare fields and expensive furnishings and buildings and useless dwellings? Whoever prepares such things for this city cannot return to his own city. Foolish, double-minded, wretched man, do you not understand that all these things belong to another and are under someone else's authority? For the lord of this city will say: 'I do not want you living in my city; get out of this city, because you do not live by my laws.' You, then, who have fields and houses and many other possessions—when you are thrown out by him, what will you do with your field and your house and everything else you prepared for yourself? For the lord of this territory rightly says to you: 'Either live by my laws or leave my territory.' What, then, are you going to do, since you have a law in your own city? Will you, for the sake of your fields and the rest of your property, altogether deny your law and follow the law of this city instead? Watch out—it is not to your advantage to deny your own law; for if you should wish to return to your city, you will certainly not be received, because you denied the law of your city, and you will be shut out of it. Watch yourselves, then: since you dwell here as strangers, prepare nothing more for yourself than the sufficiency that is enough for you, and be ready, so that whenever the master of this city wishes to throw you out for opposing his law, you may go out of his city and depart to your own city and live by your own law without insult, rejoicing. Watch yourselves, then, you who serve the Lord and hold him in your heart: do the works of God, keeping in mind his commandments and everything he promised, and trust that he will bring them to pass, provided his commandments are obeyed. Instead of fields, then, purchase souls in distress, each according to his means, and go looking after widows and orphans instead of neglecting them, and spend your wealth and all your resources on such fields and houses as these, which you received from God. For it was for this that the Master enriched you, so that you might carry out these services for him. It is far better to buy such fields and possessions and houses—the ones you will find in your city when you come home to live in it. This kind of extravagance is good and holy, bringing no grief or fear, but joy. Do not, then, practice the extravagance of the pagans, for it is of no benefit to you who are slaves of God. Practice your own kind of extravagance, in which you can rejoice, and do not counterfeit it, nor lay hold of what belongs to another, nor desire it; for it is wicked to desire what belongs to others. Do your own work instead, and you will be saved."
While I was walking through the field, considering an elm tree and a grapevine, and puzzling over them and their fruit, the shepherd appeared to me and asked: "What are you pondering about the elm and the vine?" "I am wondering, sir," I replied, "why they suit one another so perfectly." "These two trees," he said, "stand as an image for the servants of God." "I would like," I said, "to learn what these trees you mention represent." "Look," he said, "at the elm and the vine." "I am looking at them, sir," I said. "This vine," he said, "yields fruit, whereas the elm is a barren tree; yet unless the vine climbs up the elm, it cannot produce much fruit while lying on the ground, and whatever fruit it does produce rots, since it is not raised up on the elm. So once the vine is trained onto the elm, it produces fruit both from its own resources and from the elm's. You can see, then, that the elm too yields abundant fruit, not less than the vine but actually more." "How is that, sir, more?" I asked. "Because," he said, "the vine, when it hangs on the elm, gives fruit that is plentiful and fine, but sprawling on the ground it produces only a little, and rotten at that. This same comparison, then, applies to the servants of God: to the poor man and the wealthy one." "How so, sir? Make it clear to me." "Listen," he said. "The wealthy man has money, yet toward the Lord he counts as destitute, absorbed as he is in caring for his own riches, and his prayer and his confession before the Lord amount to very little, and whatever he does offer is weak and thin and carries no further strength. But once this wealthy man leans upon the poor man and provides him with what he lacks, he trusts that by laboring on the poor man's behalf he may obtain a reward from God, since the poor man is rich in prayer and confession, and his prayer carries great weight with God. So the wealthy man supplies the poor man with everything, holding nothing back. And the poor man, supported in this way by the rich, prays to God, thanking him on behalf of his benefactor; and the rich man, in turn, grows still more earnest for the poor man's sake, that nothing be lacking in his life; for he knows the poor man's prayer finds favor and carries riches before the Lord. Thus both complete the same work: the poor man labors through the prayer in which he is rich, a gift he received from the Lord, and this he returns to the Lord who sustains him; and the rich man likewise gives freely, without hesitation, the wealth he received from the Lord to the poor man. This is a great work, pleasing to God, because he grasped the purpose of his riches and labored for the poor man out of the Lord's own gifts, carrying out this service correctly. Among men, the elm seems not to bear fruit at all, and they neither know nor understand that in time of drought the elm, having moisture, nourishes the vine, and the vine, kept continually supplied with water this way, yields twice the fruit, both for itself and on the elm's behalf. In just this way the poor, by praying to the Lord for the rich, fill up their wealth to the full; and again the rich, by furnishing the poor with their needs, fill up their own prayers to the full. So both become partners together in this righteous work. Whoever acts in this manner will not be forsaken by God, but will be enrolled in the books of the living. Blessed are those who possess and understand that they are enriched by the Lord, for the one who grasps this will be able to render some further good service as well."
He showed me many trees that had no leaves at all, so that they seemed to me withered, since they all looked exactly alike. He said to me: "Do you see these trees?" "I am looking at them, sir," I said, "alike, and withered." In response he said to me: "These trees you are looking at are the people who dwell in this present age." "Why, then, sir," I asked, "do they appear withered and identical?" "Because," he said, "in this present age neither the righteous nor the sinners can be told apart, but they all look the same; for this age is like winter for the righteous, so that they are not visibly distinct from those who sin, though they live among them. Just as in winter, trees stripped of their leaves look alike, and one cannot tell which are dead and which alive, so too in this age neither the righteous nor the sinners can be distinguished, but all appear the same."
He showed me again many trees, some sprouting, others withered, and he said to me: "Do you see these trees?" "I am looking at them, sir," I said, "some sprouting, others withered." "These sprouting trees," he said, "are the righteous, who are destined to dwell in the age that is coming; for that coming age is summer for the righteous, but winter for sinners. So when the Lord's mercy shines out, then those who serve God will become visible, and everyone will become visible. Just as in summer the fruit of every tree becomes visible and one can recognize what kind it is, so too the fruit of the righteous will be plainly seen, and all will be known to be flourishing in that age. But the nations and the sinners—the withered trees you saw—will turn out to be exactly that: withered and fruitless in that age, and they will be burned like firewood, and it will become plain that their conduct throughout their lives was wicked. The sinners will burn because they sinned and never repented; the nations will burn because they never came to know their own creator. You, then, produce fruit, so that your fruit may be recognized in that summer season; and hold back from taking on too many affairs, and you will not go astray at all. For those who busy themselves with many affairs also commit many sins, being too absorbed in their own business to serve their Lord properly. How, then," he said, "could such a person request something from the Lord and obtain it, if he is not serving the Lord? Those who serve him are the ones who will obtain what they request. Those who do not serve the Lord will obtain nothing at all. But if someone occupies himself with a single undertaking, he is also able to serve the Lord, for his mind will not be dragged away from the Lord, but he will serve him with his mind kept pure. If you do these things, then, you will be able to produce fruit for the age to come; and whoever does these things will produce fruit."
While fasting, and seated upon a mountain, giving thanks to the Lord for everything he had done on my behalf, I saw the shepherd sitting down beside me, and he said: "Why have you come here so early?" "Because, sir," I said, "I am keeping a station." "What," he said, "is a station?" "I am fasting, sir," I said. "This fast you are keeping—what is it, exactly?" "As I have always done, sir," I said, "that is how I fast." "You do not understand," he said, "how to fast for the Lord, and this fast of yours does him no good at all." "Why do you say this, sir?" I asked. "I am telling you," he said, "that what you consider fasting is not real fasting at all. But I will teach you what kind of fast is acceptable and complete in the Lord's eyes. Listen," he said. "God has no desire for such an empty fast as this; fasting to God in this manner accomplishes nothing toward righteousness. Instead, keep this sort of fast for God: commit no wrong at all in your life, but serve the Lord with a clean heart, keep his commandments, walk according to his precepts, and let no wicked desire rise up in your heart. Trust God that if you do this, and stand in awe of him, and hold yourself back from every wicked deed, you will live for God. And by doing this, you will be keeping a genuine fast, one that pleases God greatly."
"Listen to the parable I am about to relate to you, one that concerns fasting. There was a man who owned a field and many slaves, and on part of that field he planted a vineyard. He selected one particular slave, a man faithful, well-regarded, and held in honor, called him over, and said to him: 'Here is the vineyard I planted—put a fence around it before I return, and do nothing further to it; keep this instruction of mine, and you shall have your freedom from me.' Then the master set out on a journey abroad. Once he had left, the slave went and fenced in the vineyard. Having finished the fence, he noticed the vineyard was overrun with weeds. So he thought to himself: 'I have carried out my master's instruction; now let me also dig over this vineyard, and once it is dug it will look better, and being free of weeds it will yield more fruit, no longer choked by them.' He set to work, dug the vineyard, and pulled out every weed growing in it. That vineyard became exceedingly attractive and thriving, no longer troubled by choking weeds. Some time later the owner of both the slave and the field arrived and went into the vineyard. Seeing it neatly fenced, and moreover dug over, with every weed removed and the vines flourishing, he was overjoyed at his slave's labor. So he summoned his beloved son, whom he had made his heir, along with his friends, whom he kept as counselors, and told them everything he had ordered the slave to do and everything he had found accomplished. And they shared in the slave's joy over the good report the master gave of him. Then he said to them: 'I promised this slave his freedom if he kept the instruction I gave him, and he not only kept it but added excellent work to the vineyard besides, which pleased me greatly. Because of this extra labor, I wish to make him joint heir together with my son, since, having conceived a good plan, he did not neglect it but carried it through.' The master's son agreed entirely with this plan, that the slave should become his fellow heir. A few days afterward the master gave a banquet and sent the slave a large portion of dishes from it. The slave, upon receiving what had been sent to him, kept only what he himself needed and distributed the remainder among his fellow slaves. When his fellow slaves received these dishes, they were delighted, and they began praying on his behalf, asking that he might gain even deeper favor with the master, seeing how generously he had dealt with them. The master learned of all that had taken place and was overjoyed once more at his slave's behavior. Calling his friends together again, along with his son, he told them of the slave's conduct regarding the dishes he had been given; and they agreed all the more readily that the slave should become joint heir with the son."
I said: "Sir, I do not understand these parables, nor can I grasp them, unless you explain them to me." "I will explain everything to you," he said, "and whatever I discuss with you. I will show you his commandments; and if you do some good beyond what God's commandment requires, you will win greater glory for yourself, and you will stand more honored before God than you would otherwise have been. So then, if while keeping God's commandments you add these services on top of them, you will rejoice, provided you keep them as I have instructed." I said to him: "Sir, whatever you instruct me to do, I will carry it out faithfully, since I know that you are with me." "I will remain with you," he said, "because you show such eagerness to do good, and I will remain," he said, "with all who share this same eagerness. This fast," he said, "when the Lord's commandments are observed, is excellent indeed. This, then, is how you are to keep the fast you are about to undertake: first of all, guard yourself against every wicked word and every wicked desire, and purify your heart of all the vanities that belong to this present age. If you keep to this, the fast will be complete for you. And you shall carry it out this way: once you have fulfilled what has been written, on the day that you fast, taste nothing except bread and water, and after reckoning up what the food you would normally have eaten that day would have cost, give that sum to a widow, or an orphan, or someone in need. In this way humble yourself, so that the one who receives it may satisfy his own soul through your humility and pray on your behalf to the Lord. If, then, you complete the fast in this manner, exactly as I have instructed you, your offering will be acceptable before God, this fast will be recorded, and this service, carried out in this way, is good, joyful, and pleasing to the Lord. You are to observe these things in this way, together with your children and your entire household; and having kept them, you will be blessed, and all who hear of these things and keep them will likewise be blessed, and whatever they ask of the Lord, they will receive."

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 5 4-Similitude 6 5 ========

I begged him earnestly to explain the parable to me: the field, the master, the vineyard, the servant who staked the vineyard, the stakes, the weeds pulled up out of the vineyard, the son, and the friends who were his counselors. For I understood that all of these were some kind of parable. He answered me: You are far too stubborn in your questioning. You ought not to be asking anything at all, he said, for if you need something explained, it will be explained. I said to him: Lord, whatever you show me and do not explain, I will have seen it for nothing, not understanding what it means. In the same way, if you tell me parables and do not unravel them for me, I will have heard something from you for nothing. He answered me again: Whoever is a servant of God and holds his Lord in his heart asks him for understanding and receives it; he unlocks every parable, and comes to know the sayings the Lord spoke in figures. But those who are sluggish and slow to pray hesitate to ask anything of the Lord; yet the Lord is very compassionate and gives without ceasing to all who ask of him. But you, strengthened by the holy angel, having received such power of prayer from him, and not being sluggish, why do you not ask the Lord for understanding and receive it from him? I said to him: Lord, since I have you with me, I am bound to ask you and to question you, for you show me everything and speak with me. But if I saw or heard these things apart from you, I would ask the Lord myself, that it might be explained to me.
I told you just now, he said, that you are cunning and stubborn, in asking for the explanations of the parables. But since you are so persistent, I will unravel for you the parable of the field and all the rest that follows, so that you may make it known to everyone. Listen now, he said, and understand. The field is this world; the lord of the field is the one who created all things and completed them and gave them their strength; the servant is the Son of God; this people, planted by his own hand, are the vines; the stakes are those angels of the Lord, holy ones, who bind his people fast together; the weeds torn out of the vineyard stand for the lawless acts committed by God's servants; those dishes sent to him from the supper stand for the precepts handed down to his people by way of the Son; and the friends and counselors are angels, holy and first-created; and the master's absence abroad is the time still remaining until his coming. I said to him: Lord, all of this is great and wonderful, and it is all glorious. Could I, then, I said, have understood these things myself? No, nor could any other person, however intelligent he might be, understand them. Yet, Lord, I said, explain to me one more thing I am about to ask you. Speak, he said, whatever you wish. Why, I asked, Lord, is the Son of God set in the parable in the position of a servant?
Listen, he said: the Son of God is not set in the position of a servant, but is set in a position of great authority and lordship. How is that, Lord? I said, I do not understand. Because, he said, it was God who planted the vineyard — that is, he brought the people into being and gave them over into his Son's charge; the Son in turn set angels above them to guard them; and he himself washed away their sins, at the cost of great labor and much hard toil, since no vineyard can be broken up without effort or strain. Once he had thus washed away the people's sins, he opened before them the roads of life, handing down to them the law he had taken from his Father. Now hear also how the Lord chose his Son, together with the glorious angels, as an adviser regarding the servant's inheritance. God caused the Holy Spirit — the one existing before everything, who had made the whole of creation — to take up residence in the flesh he selected. That flesh, then, the one the Holy Spirit inhabited, gave the Spirit good service, going about in modesty and purity and never once staining the Spirit. Because it had lived so well and cleanly, laboring alongside the Spirit and working with it in every task, and had shown itself strong and brave in its conduct, he chose it to share in the Holy Spirit's own portion; for the way this flesh had conducted itself pleased him, since it stayed unstained on earth even while carrying the Holy Spirit within it. That is why he brought in his Son, together with the glorious angels, as advisers, so that this flesh, having also served the Spirit without fault, might be granted a dwelling place of its own, and not appear to have thrown away the reward for its service; for every flesh discovered pure and spotless, the kind in which the Holy Spirit made its home, will be given a reward. There you have the meaning of this parable too.
I was delighted, I said, Lord, to hear this explanation. Listen now, he said: keep this flesh of yours pure and undefiled, so that the Spirit residing within may testify on its behalf, and your flesh be shown righteous. Watch, that it never rise up in your heart that this flesh of yours is perishable, and that you misuse it in any defilement. If you defile your flesh, you will also defile the Holy Spirit; and if you defile your flesh, you will not live. But Lord, I said, if a person sinned in ignorance before these words were heard, how can that man be saved who has defiled his flesh? Concerning former sins committed in ignorance, he said, God alone has the power to grant healing, for all authority belongs to him, provided that from now on you do not defile your flesh or your spirit; for the two are shared together, and neither can be defiled without the other. So keep both of them pure, and you will live to God.
As I sat in my house glorifying the Lord for everything I had seen, and thinking over the commandments, how good and powerful and cheerful and glorious they are, and able to save a person's soul, I said to myself: I will be blessed if I walk in these commandments, and whoever walks in them will be blessed. While I was saying these things to myself, I suddenly saw him sitting beside me, saying this: Why are you of two minds about the commandments I gave you? They are good; do not be of two minds at all, but clothe yourself with faith in the Lord, and you will walk in them, for I will strengthen you in them. These commandments are beneficial for those who intend to repent, for if they do not walk in them, their repentance is in vain. So then, all of you who are repenting, cast off the wickedness of this age that wears you down; and clothing yourselves with every virtue of righteousness, you will be able to keep these commandments and no longer add to your sins. Walk, then, in these commandments of mine, and you will live to God. All this has been spoken to you by me. After saying this to me, he speaks again: Come out with me into the countryside, and I will point out to you the men who tend the sheep. Let us go, Lord, I answered. So we arrived at a broad field, and there he pointed out to me a young shepherd, dressed in a garment of saffron color. He was pasturing a great many sheep, and these sheep seemed to be living in luxury and were quite wanton, and they were cheerful, skipping about here and there; and the shepherd himself was very cheerful over his flock; and the very look of the shepherd was quite cheerful, and he ran about among the sheep.
And he says to me: Do you see this shepherd? I see him, Lord, I said. This one, he said, is the angel of self-indulgence and deceit. He wears down the very souls of God's servants and drags them away from the truth, deceiving them with evil desires, by which they perish. For they lose sight of the living God's commandments and go about in deceptions and hollow pleasures, and are destroyed by this angel, some to death, others to corruption. I said to him: Lord, I do not know what it means to be destroyed to death and what to be destroyed to corruption. Listen, he said: the sheep you saw that were cheerful and skipping about are those who have been torn away from God completely and have given themselves over to the desires of this age. For these there is no repentance leading to life, because they have added to their sins and have blasphemed the name of God. For such people, then, death is the outcome. But the sheep you saw that were not skipping about, but grazing in one place, these are the ones who have given themselves over to indulgence and deceit, but have brought no blasphemy against the Lord; such people, rather, have been led astray from the truth. For these there is hope of repentance, in which they can live. Corruption, then, holds out hope of some renewal, but death holds only eternal destruction. I went forward a little further, and he shows me a great shepherd, wild-looking in appearance, wearing a white goatskin around him, and he had a kind of pouch on his shoulders, a rod that was hard and knotted, and a heavy scourge; his expression was fiercely bitter, so that I was afraid of him; such was his look. This shepherd, then, was taking over the sheep from the young shepherd, those wanton and self-indulgent ones that had not been skipping about, and he threw them into a certain steep and thorny and bramble-filled place, so that freeing themselves from the thorn-bushes was impossible, and instead they became caught fast in the thorns and briers. So then, entangled in this way, they grazed among the thorns and brambles and suffered greatly, being beaten by him; and he drove them about here and there and gave them no rest at all, and those sheep had no ease whatsoever.
Seeing them being whipped and made to suffer like this, I was grieved for them, because they were tormented so and had no relief at all. I said to the one guiding me through this vision: Lord, who is this shepherd, so merciless and harsh, showing no pity at all toward these sheep? This one, he told me, is the angel appointed over punishment; he belongs among the righteous angels, though his post is punishment. He takes into his charge those who have strayed from God and gone after the desires and deceptions of this age, and he inflicts on them, as they merit, punishments both dreadful and varied. I wished, Lord, I said, to learn what sort these varied punishments were. Listen, he said, to the range of torments and punishments. These torments belong to this present life; some are chastised through financial loss, others through want, others through assorted illnesses, others through constant upheaval, others endure mistreatment at the hands of the unworthy, and many other trials besides. Many, unstable in their planning, throw themselves into one venture after another, yet nothing at all works out for them; and they claim their own undertakings simply refuse to prosper, never realizing in their hearts that they have done wrong, and instead put the blame on the Lord. So when misfortune of every sort has worn them down, they are then delivered over to me for proper correction, and grow firm in loyalty to the Lord, spending whatever days remain to them serving him with a clean heart. But should they repent, their wrongdoing then comes back to mind, and they praise God as a just judge, acknowledging that each suffered fairly according to his own deeds; from that point on they serve the Lord with a clean heart, and prosper in everything they undertake, obtaining from the Lord all that they ask; and they praise the Lord because they were entrusted to my care, and no longer suffer any such evils.
I said to him: Lord, explain this one more thing to me. What is it, he said, that you are seeking? Whether, Lord, I said, those who indulge themselves and are deceived are tormented for the same length of time that they indulged and were deceived. He says to me: They are tormented for the same length of time. Then they are tormented far too little, Lord, I said; for those who indulge themselves like this and forget God ought to be tormented sevenfold. He says to me: You are foolish and do not understand the power of the torment. If I understood it, Lord, I said, I would not be asking you to explain it to me. Listen, he said, to the power of both. The time of indulgence and deceit is a single hour, but the hour of torment has the power of thirty days. So then, if a person indulges himself for one day and is deceived, but is tormented for one day, the day of torment is equal in force to a whole year. So then, for however many days a person indulges himself, for that many years he is tormented. You see, then, he said, that the time of indulgence and deceit is very short, but that of punishment and torment is long.
Still, Lord, I said, I have not fully understood about the time of deceit and indulgence and torment; explain it to me more clearly. He answered me and said: Your foolishness is persistent, and you are unwilling to purify your heart and serve God. Watch, he said, lest the time be fulfilled and you be found a fool. Listen, then, he said, as you wish, so that you may understand these things. The one who indulges himself and is deceived for a single day, doing what he pleases, is clothed with great foolishness and does not understand the deed he is doing; for by the next day he has forgotten what he did the day before. For indulgence and deceit have no memory, on account of the foolishness with which they are clothed; but punishment and torment, once they cling to a person for one day, torment and punish him for a whole year; for punishment and torment have great memory. So then, being punished and tormented for a whole year, he remembers then his indulgence and deceit, and knows that it is on account of them that he suffers these evils. So then, every person who indulges himself in this fashion and is led into deceit suffers torment accordingly, because, though possessing life, they gave themselves over to death instead. What kinds of indulgences, Lord, I said, are harmful? Every deed, he said, is indulgence to a person, whatever he does with pleasure; for even the quick-tempered person, satisfying his own passion, indulges himself; and the adulterer, the drunkard, the slanderer, the liar, the greedy man, the swindler, and whoever does similar things, indulges his own peculiar sickness to the full; he indulges himself, then, in his deed. All these indulgences are harmful to the servants of God. It is on account of these deceits, then, that those who are punished and tormented suffer. But there are also indulgences that save people; for many, doing good, indulge themselves, carried along by their own pleasure. This indulgence, then, is beneficial to the servants of God, and it secures life for a person of this sort; but the harmful indulgences spoken of before secure for them torments and punishments; and if they persist and do not repent, they secure death for themselves.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 7 1-Similitude 8 7 ========

A few days later I saw him again in the same field where I had also seen the shepherds, and he said to me, "What are you looking for?" "I am here, sir, to ask you to command the punishing shepherd to leave my house, because he is crushing me terribly." "You must," he said, "be crushed. For this is what the glorious angel ordered concerning you, since he wants you to be tested." "But sir," I said, "what evil have I done, that I should be handed over to this angel?" "Listen," he said. "Your sins are many, but not so many that you should be handed over to this angel. But your household has committed great lawless deeds and sins, and the glorious angel has been provoked to bitterness by their conduct, and for this reason he ordered that you be crushed for a time, so that they too might repent and cleanse themselves from every desire of this present age. When they repent and are cleansed, then the angel of punishment will withdraw from you." I said to him, "Sir, if they did such things that the glorious angel was provoked, what have I done?" "They cannot be crushed in any other way," he said, "unless you, the head of the household, are crushed. For when you are crushed, they of necessity will be crushed as well, but while you stand firm, they can suffer no crushing." "But look, sir," I said, "their whole heart has turned back to repentance." "Yes," he said, "I too know that their whole heart has turned back to repentance. But do you suppose that repentant sinners receive pardon instantly? Not entirely. Rather, the one who repents must torment his own soul and be deeply humbled in every act of his, and be crushed by afflictions of every kind. And if he endures the afflictions that come upon him, then surely the one who made all things and gave them strength will have compassion, and will grant him some healing—and this surely, if he sees the heart of the one repenting made clean from every wicked deed. It is to your advantage, and to your household's, to be crushed now. Why should I say much to you? You must be crushed, just as that angel of the Lord commanded, the one who handed you over to me. And give thanks to the Lord for this, that he considered you worthy to have the affliction foretold to you, so that knowing it beforehand you might endure it with strength." I said to him, "Sir, be with me, and I will be able to endure every affliction." "I will be with you," he said. "And I will ask the punishing angel to crush you more lightly. You will be afflicted for a short time only, and then you will be restored again to your household. Only remain, being humble-minded and serving the Lord with a wholly pure heart—you, and your children, and your household—and walk in the commandments that I give you, and your repentance will be able to be strong and pure. And if you keep these commandments along with your household, all affliction will withdraw from you." "And affliction will withdraw," he said, "from all who walk in these commandments of mine."
He showed me a great willow tree, sheltering plains and mountains, and gathered beneath the willow's shade were all those who bear the Lord's own name. Standing beside the willow was a tall and glorious angel of the Lord, holding a great sickle, and he cut branches from the willow and gave them out to the people sheltered beneath it—small rods he handed them, each about a cubit long. After everyone had received the rods, the angel put away the sickle, and that tree was whole, just as I had seen it before. I was amazed within myself, saying, "How is it that though so many branches have been cut, the tree is whole?" The shepherd said to me, "Do not be amazed that this tree remained whole though so many branches were cut off. You will be shown what it means when you see everything." The angel who had distributed the rods to the people now called for their return, and each one, in the order he had received his, was summoned forward and handed his rod back. This angel of the Lord received them and looked them over closely. From some he received rods that were dry and eaten through as if by moth; these he ordered to stand apart. Others handed in rods that were dry but not eaten by moth; these too he ordered to stand apart. Others handed in rods half-dry; these stood apart. Others handed in rods half-dry with cracks in them; these too stood apart. Others handed in rods green but with cracks; these too stood apart. Others handed in rods half dry and half green; these too stood apart. Others brought rods two-thirds green and one-third dry; these too stood apart. Others handed in rods two-thirds dry and one-third green; these too stood apart. Others handed in rods almost entirely green, with only the very tip dry, but having cracks in them; these too stood apart. Others had only the smallest part green, the rest of their rods dry; these too stood apart. Others came bringing their rods green, just as they had received them from the angel—and this was true of the greater part of the crowd, who handed in such rods. The angel rejoiced greatly over these, and they too stood apart. Others handed in rods that were green and had shoots on them; these too stood apart, and over these the angel rejoiced greatly. Others handed in rods that were green and had shoots, and the shoots bore what looked like fruit—and those men whose rods were found like this were exceedingly joyful. And the angel exulted over them, and the shepherd too was very glad about them.
The angel of the Lord commanded that crowns be fetched. They arrived, woven it appeared from palm fronds, and with them he crowned the men who had handed in rods bearing shoots with fruit, and sent them off into the tower. The others too he sent to the tower, those who had handed in green rods bearing shoots but without fruit on the shoots, giving them seals. All who went to the tower wore the same clothing, white as snow. And those who had handed in the green rods just as they had received them, he sent away, giving them clothing and seals. After the angel had finished this, he said to the shepherd, "I am going now. You will send the rest off to the walls, each according to what he deserves to inhabit. But examine their rods carefully, and only then send them away—examine them carefully. Watch that no one gets past you," he said. "And if anyone does get past you, I will test them at the altar." Having said this to the shepherd, he departed. And after the angel had gone, the shepherd said to me, "Let us take everyone's rods and plant them, to see if any of them can live." I said to him, "Sir, how can these dry ones possibly live?" He answered me, "This tree is a willow, and its kind loves life. So once these rods are set in the ground and gain even a trace of dampness, most of them will survive. Then let us also try pouring water on them. If any of them can live, I will rejoice with them; but if it does not live, I will not be found negligent." The shepherd told me to call the men forward, each one as he had stood. They came, group by group, and handed their rods to the shepherd. Group by group the shepherd gathered up the rods and set them into the soil; once they were planted he drenched them with so much water that they vanished from sight beneath it. When the watering was finished he turned to me and said, "Let us go, and after a few days let us come back and inspect all the rods. For the one who made this tree wants all who received branches from it to live. I too hope that once these rods have received moisture and been watered, the greater part of them will live."
I said to him, "Sir, make known to me what this tree is—I cannot account for it, since the tree stands whole, with nothing showing as cut away, despite the great number of branches that were removed from it. This is my puzzlement." "Listen," he said. "This vast tree, casting its shade over plain and hill and every land there is, stands for the law of God, given out across the whole world; and that law is none other than the Son of God, made known to earth's farthest reaches. Those sheltered beneath it are the people who heard that message proclaimed and put their trust in him. As for the great and glorious angel, he is Michael, holding authority over this people and steering their course. It is he who plants the law within the hearts of the faithful, and afterward he checks on those he entrusted it to, to learn whether they have kept faith with it. You are looking at each person's rod—the rods themselves stand for the law. Many of the rods, you will notice, have gone to waste; by these you will know everyone who failed to keep the law, and you will see the dwelling assigned to each." I said to him, "Sir, why did he dispatch some to the tower while leaving others in your charge?" "Everyone who broke the law received from him," he said, "he left under my charge, for repentance; but those who had already satisfied the law and kept it, he retains under his own charge." "Then who, sir," I said, "are the crowned ones bound for the tower?" "Those who wrestled the devil down and beat him wear the crowns," he said. "These suffered on the law's behalf. The rest—who likewise handed in green rods bearing shoots yet no fruit—endured hardship for the law without dying for it, and without denying it either. Those who handed back green rods exactly as given are grave and upright people, who lived always with a clean heart and safeguarded the Lord's commands. You will learn the remainder once I have gone over the rods now set in the earth and drenched with water."
Some days afterward we arrived at that spot, where the shepherd took the seat the angel had occupied, and I remained standing at his side. He said to me, "Gird yourself with raw linen and assist me." I girded myself with raw linen made from clean sackcloth. Seeing me girded and ready to assist him, he said, "Call the men whose rods have been planted, group by group, in the order in which each handed in his rod." I went out to the field and called them all, and they all stood, group by group. He told them, "Each of you, pull out your own rod and carry it here to me." First to hand theirs in were those who had had the dry, broken rods, and since these were found dry and broken just as before, he ordered them to stand apart. Then those who had had dry but unbroken rods handed theirs in. Some of these handed in rods now green, but some dry and eaten through as if by moth. Those who had handed in green rods he ordered to stand apart; those who handed in dry and eaten rods he ordered to stand with the first group. Then those who had had half-dry rods with cracks handed theirs in; and many of these handed in green rods without cracks, but some green ones with shoots, and on the shoots fruit like that which those crowned men going to the tower had had. Some handed in dry and eaten rods, some dry but not eaten, some still half-dry with cracks as before. He ordered each of them to stand apart—some with their own groups, some separately.
Then those who had rods green but with cracks handed theirs in—all of these handed in green rods and stood in their own group. The shepherd rejoiced over these, that all of them had been transformed and had put away their cracks. Then those who had had rods half green and half dry handed theirs in; some of these were found to have rods entirely green, some half-dry, some dry and eaten through, some green with shoots—all of these were sent off, each to his own group. Then those who had had rods two-thirds green and one-third dry handed theirs in. Many of them handed in green rods, many half-dry, others dry and eaten through—all of these stood in their own group. Then those who had had rods two-thirds dry and one-third green handed theirs in. Many of them handed in half-dry rods, some dry and eaten through, others half-dry with cracks, a few green—all of these stood in their own group. Then those whose rods had been green with only the smallest part dry, and with cracks, handed theirs in; of these some handed in green rods, some green with shoots—these too went to their own group. Then those who had had only the smallest part green, the rest of the rod dry, handed theirs in; most of these turned out to be green and putting out shoots that carried fruit, while still others were green all over. Over these rods the shepherd rejoiced very greatly, that they were found this way. These too went, each to his own group.
After the shepherd had examined everyone's rods, he said to me, "I told you this tree loves life. Look at the number who turned back and found salvation." "Yes, sir, I am looking," I said. "So that you may see the great compassion of the Lord," he said, "how great and glorious it is—he gave the spirit to those who were worthy of repentance." "Why then, sir," I said, "did not everyone repent?" "Those whose hearts he saw were going to become clean, and to serve him with their whole heart, to these he gave repentance. But those whose deceit and wickedness he saw, who were going to repent only in pretense, to those he did not give repentance, lest they should again profane his name." I said to him, "Sir, now then explain to me about those who handed in their rods, what sort of person each one is, and their dwelling place, so that when believers who received the seal and broke it and did not keep it whole hear of it, recognizing their own deeds, they may repent, having received the seal from you, and glorify the Lord, because he had compassion on them and sent you to renew their spirits." "Listen," he said. "Those whose rods were found dry and eaten through by moth—these are the apostates and betrayers of the church, who blasphemed the Lord through their sins, and worse, felt shame at bearing the very name of the Lord that had been pronounced over them. These, then, have perished utterly to God. You see that not one of them repented, even though they heard the words that you spoke to them, which I commanded you to speak. Life has departed from such people. Those who handed in rods dry but not decayed—these too are close to the former. For they were hypocrites, bringing in strange teachings and perverting the servants of God, especially those who had sinned, not allowing them to repent, but persuading them instead with their foolish teachings. These, then, still have hope of repenting. You see that many of them have in fact repented since I spoke my commandments to them, and more will yet repent. But those who will not repent have lost their life. And those of them who have repented have become good, and their dwelling has been assigned to the first walls; some have even gone up into the tower. You see, then," he said, "that repentance from sins brings life, but failure to repent brings death."
Now hear also about those who handed in half-dry rods with cracks in them. Everyone whose rod came out half-dry is a person of divided mind, being neither fully alive nor fully dead. But those whose half-dry rods also bore cracks are divided in mind and given to slander besides, never settling into peace with one another but forever quarreling. Yet even for these," he said, "repentance still lies open. You see that some of them have already repented, and there is still hope of repentance among them. And those of them who have repented will have their dwelling in the tower; those of them who repented more slowly will dwell in the walls; but those who do not repent, but persist in their conduct, will die the death. Those who handed in their rods green but with cracks were always faithful and good, but they had a certain rivalry among themselves about first place and about some kind of honor—yet all of these are foolish, having this rivalry among themselves over first place. But even these, hearing my commandments, being good at heart, purified themselves and repented quickly. So their dwelling came to be in the tower. But if any of them turns back again to strife, he will be cast out of the tower and will lose his life. Life belongs to all who keep the Lord's commandments; the commandments say nothing at all concerning rank or any such honor, but speak instead of steadfast patience and a man's humility of spirit. In such people, then, is the life of the Lord; but among the quarrelsome and lawless is death.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 8 8-Similitude 9 6 ========

"Those who handed in their rods half green and half withered are the ones entangled in worldly affairs and not holding fast to the saints; that is why half of them is alive and half is dead. Many, then, on hearing my commandments, repented. All who repented, then, have their dwelling in the tower. But some of them fell away for good; these have no repentance left, for their business dealings led them to curse the Lord's name and turn their backs on him entirely. And so they forfeited their lives through the evil they had done. Many of them, though, became double-minded. These still have repentance open to them, if they repent quickly; and their dwelling will be in the tower. But if they repent more slowly, they will dwell within the walls; and if they do not repent at all, they too have lost their life. As for those who handed in rods two-thirds green and one-third withered, these are the ones who denied the faith with various denials. Many of them repented and went to dwell in the tower; but many fell away from God for good — these have lost their life for good. Some of them, though, became double-minded and split into factions. For these, then, repentance remains, if they repent quickly and do not persist in their pleasures; but if they persist in their deeds, they too are working out death for themselves."
"Those who turned in rods that were withered through two of the three parts, with only the remaining third still green, are people who became believers, but then grew rich and became honored among the pagans; they clothed themselves in great arrogance and grew haughty in mind, and they abandoned the truth and did not hold fast to the righteous, but lived alongside the pagans instead, and this way of life became more pleasant to them. Yet they did not fall away from God; they remained in the faith, only they were not doing the works that faith requires. Many of them, then, repented, and their dwelling came to be in the tower. Others, though, went on living with the pagans to the end, corrupted by the pagans' empty pursuits, and fell away from God and did the deeds the pagans do. These were counted among the pagans. Others of them became double-minded, having no hope of being saved because of the deeds they had done; and others became double-minded and caused divisions among themselves. For these, then, who became double-minded because of their deeds, repentance still remains; but their repentance must come quickly, so that their dwelling may be in the tower. For those who do not repent, but persist in their pleasures, death is near."
"Those who handed in their rods green, but with the very tips withered and split, these were always good and faithful and honored before God, but sinned in the smallest way, through petty desires and small grievances against one another. Yet once my words reached their ears, most of them repented without delay, and their dwelling came to be in the tower. Some of them, though, became double-minded, and some who became double-minded caused a greater division. In these, then, there is hope of repentance, because they were always good; hardly one of them will perish. As for those who handed in their rods withered but with the smallest bit of green, these are the ones who believed only, but performed the works of lawlessness. Yet they never fell away from God, and they bore his name gladly, and welcomed the servants of God gladly into their homes. When they heard, then, of this repentance, they repented without hesitation, and now they practice every virtue and righteousness. Some of them are also afraid, knowing the deeds they had done. For all of these, then, the dwelling will be in the tower."
And when he had finished explaining all the rods, he says to me: "Go and tell everyone to repent, and they will live to God; for the Lord sent me, moved with compassion, to give repentance to all, even though some are not worthy of it because of their deeds; but the Lord, being patient, wants the calling that came about through his Son to be saved." I say to him: "Lord, my hope is that everyone who hears this will turn back to you, since I am convinced that once each person recognizes his own conduct and comes to fear God, he will change his ways." In answer he says to me: "As many as," he says, "repent with their whole heart and cleanse themselves of the wickednesses already named, and add nothing further to their sins, will obtain from the Lord a cure for the sins they committed before, provided they do not waver in doubt about these commandments, and they will live to God. But as many as," he says, "pile more onto their sins and follow the cravings of this present age will pass sentence of death upon themselves. But you, walk in my commandments, and you will live to God; and as many as walk in them and work rightly will live to God." Having shown me and told me all this, he says to me: "The rest I will show you after a few days."
"Once I had set down in writing the commandments and parables that the Shepherd — the angel of repentance — had given me, he came back and said to me: 'I wish to reveal to you everything that the holy Spirit, who spoke with you in the guise of the Church, already showed you — for that very Spirit is in fact the Son of God. Because you were then still weak in body, an angel was not the means by which it was made known to you. But now that you have gained strength through the Spirit and grown powerful in your own vigor, to where you are even able to see an angel, the tower's construction — which was earlier revealed to you through the Church, and which you viewed reverently and well, as a virgin would show it — you now behold instead through an angel, by that same Spirit. Yet you still need to learn every detail from me with greater precision. This is exactly why the glorious angel sent me here, to make my home in your house, so that you might view it all with full courage, and no longer flinch the way you did before.' He then led me off into Arcadia, up onto a mountain shaped like a woman's breast, sat me down upon its summit, and pointed out to me a broad plain, ringed round by twelve mountains, each shaped differently from the rest. The first was black like soot; the second was bare, bearing no plants whatsoever; the third bristled with thorns and briers; the fourth carried plants that were half withered — green at the tips but dry down near the roots, and some of the plants dried up completely whenever the sun scorched them; the fifth mountain was rugged, its plants green. The sixth was riddled with fissures, some small and some enormous; plants grew within those cracks, though scarcely thriving — they looked withered instead. On the seventh mountain the plants flourished, and the whole mountain prospered, with cattle and birds of every kind grazing across it; and the more they fed there, the more luxuriant that mountain's growth became. The eighth overflowed with springs, and creatures belonging to the Lord, of every kind, drank from the waters flowing out of that mountain. The ninth had no water whatsoever and lay entirely barren, home to wild beasts and venomous creatures that destroy people. The tenth bore enormous trees and was shaded through and through, and beneath their cover sheep lay resting as they chewed their cud. The eleventh was thick with trees weighed down with fruit of one kind after another, so tempting that anyone who saw them would long to taste what they bore. The twelfth mountain was entirely white and cheerful to look upon — the loveliest of all the mountains there."
"In the middle of the plain he pointed out to me an immense white rock rising up out of the ground. That rock stood taller than the surrounding mountains, four-sided, so vast that it could hold the whole world within it. The rock was ancient, cut through with a gateway; yet the carving of that gateway looked to me remarkably fresh. The gateway gleamed so far beyond the brightness of the sun that its radiance left me amazed. Twelve virgins stood ringed around the gateway. The four positioned at its corners struck me as more splendid still; yet the rest were splendid too. They took their places at the four sides of the gateway, two virgins standing between each corner pair. They wore linen tunics, gracefully girded, their right shoulders left bare as though poised to carry some burden. So they stood ready, for they were full of cheer and eagerness. Once I had taken all this in, I marveled to myself at the grandeur and splendor of what lay before me. And again I grew puzzled over the virgins — for despite their delicate appearance, they held their ground so bravely, as if ready to bear up the whole sky. And the Shepherd says to me: 'Why do you turn this over in your mind, grow puzzled, and bring grief upon yourself? Whatever lies beyond your grasp, do not attempt to seize it through your own cleverness — ask the Lord instead, and once granted understanding, you will know it. What lies behind you, you cannot see; what stands before you, you do see. So set aside what you cannot see, and stop tormenting yourself over it; take firm hold instead of what you do see, and do not busy yourself with the rest. Everything I show you, I will explain to you in full. So fix your gaze on what remains.'"
"I saw six men arrive, tall, glorious, and identical in appearance; and they summoned a great crowd of men. Those who arrived were likewise tall, handsome, and powerful men; and the six men gave the command for a tower to be raised atop the rock. There arose a great commotion among the men who had gathered to build the tower, dashing this way and that around the gateway. The virgins stationed around the gateway kept urging the men to hasten the building of the tower; and the virgins held their hands stretched out, as though ready to take something from the men. The six men then commanded stones to rise up out of a certain deep place and pass into the tower's construction. Ten square stones came up, gleaming, unshaped by any tool. The six men called the virgins over and ordered them to carry every stone destined for the tower's construction, pass through the gateway bearing them, and deliver them into the hands of those who would build the tower. The virgins set the first ten stones — those that had risen from the deep — one atop another, each stone borne together by the group."
"As they stood together in a ring around the gateway, those who appeared strongest carried in this manner, having positioned themselves beneath the corners of the stone; the rest positioned themselves beneath its sides, and in this way all of them together carried the stones. They brought them through the gateway, exactly as instructed, and handed them over to the men working on the tower; and those men took the stones and kept building. The tower's construction rose upon the great rock and directly above the gateway. So those ten stones were joined together and covered the entire surface of the rock, becoming the foundation of the tower's structure; and it was the rock together with the gateway that upheld the whole tower. After those ten stones, twenty more rose up out of the deep, and these too were fitted into the tower's construction, carried by the virgins just as the earlier ones had been. After these, another thirty-five came up, and these likewise were joined into the tower. After these, forty more stones rose up, and all of them were set into the tower's construction; so the foundation of the tower came to have four courses. Then the stones stopped rising from the deep, and the builders too paused briefly. Once more the six men directed the great crowd to bring stones down from the mountains for the tower's construction. So stones of varied colors were brought from every mountain, cut by the men, and handed over to the virgins; who bore them through the gateway and delivered them for the tower's construction. And whenever the varied-colored stones were placed into the structure, they turned alike and white, losing their varied colors. But some stones, handed over by the men for the construction, never turned bright; rather, just as they were set down, so they remained — for they had not passed through the virgins' hands, nor been carried through the gateway. These stones, then, proved unsuitable for the tower's construction. When the six men noticed the unsuitable stones within the structure, they ordered them removed and carried back down to the very spot they had come from. And they say to the men bringing the stones: 'None of you are to hand over stones yourselves for the construction at all; set them down instead beside the tower, so the virgins can bear them past the gateway and deliver them for the construction. For,' they say, 'unless they pass through the gateway by the hands of these virgins, their colors cannot be altered. So do not,' they say, 'labor for nothing.'"
"The building was finished for that day, though the tower itself was not completed, since it was meant to be raised still higher, and a pause came in the construction. The six men ordered all the builders to step back a short distance and rest; but they instructed the virgins not to leave the tower's side. It seemed to me that the virgins had been stationed there to guard the tower. Once everyone had withdrawn and rested, I say to the Shepherd: 'Why, sir,' I say, 'has the tower's construction not been finished?' 'The tower,' he says, 'cannot be finished yet until its Lord arrives and examines this structure, so that he may replace any stones that turn out to be rotten; for it is according to his will that the tower is being raised.' 'I would like, sir,' I say, 'to understand about this tower — what this structure signifies — and about the rock, the gateway, the mountains, the virgins, and the stones that rose from the deep unhewn and yet went straight into the construction just as they were. And why ten stones went first into the foundations, followed by twenty-five, then by thirty-five, and then by forty of them; and about the stones that had entered the structure and were afterward removed again and set aside in a place of their own — put my mind at rest, sir, about all of this, and make it known to me.' 'If,' he says, 'you turn out not to be idly curious, you will learn everything; for we will come back here after a few days, and you will watch what happens next to this tower, and come to know every parable with precision.' And after a few days we returned to the place where we had been sitting, and he says to me: 'Let us go to the tower, for the tower's master is coming to inspect it.' So we arrived at the tower, and found absolutely nobody standing beside it except the virgins alone. And the Shepherd asks the virgins whether the tower's master had yet arrived. And they answered that he was about to come and inspect the structure."
And behold, before long I catch sight of a great company of men approaching, and among them one man of such towering stature that he rose above the tower itself. And the six men who had been overseeing the construction walked beside him, on his right and his left, and all who had worked on the structure were with him, together with many others of splendid bearing all around him. The virgins guarding the tower ran up and embraced him with a kiss, then began walking close at his side, circling the tower. That man inspected the structure with such care that he ran his hand over each individual stone. Grasping a rod in his hand, he struck one by one every stone set into the building. And with each blow, some of the stones turned out black as soot, some looked scabby, some showed cracks, some were stunted, some were neither white nor black, some were rough and clashed with the stones beside them, some bore many blemishes — such were the varied flaws found among the rotten stones in the structure. He then ordered every one of these carried off from the tower and set down beside it, and other stones brought and put in their place. The builders asked him from which mountain he wanted the replacement stones brought. But he ordered none brought from the mountains at all — instead he directed that they come from a nearby plain. So the plain was dug up, and bright square stones turned up, along with some round ones as well. Every stone that had ever lain in that plain was gathered up and carried through the gateway by the virgins. The square stones were then cut and set into the places of the ones taken away; the round stones, however, were left out of the structure altogether, because cutting them proved so difficult that finishing the work would have dragged on and on. So they were left lying beside the tower, meant to be shaped later and set into the structure, for they were remarkably bright.

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 9 7-Similitude 9 14 ========

When the glorious man, the lord of the whole tower, had finished all this, he called the shepherd and handed over to him all the stones that lay beside the tower, the ones that had been thrown out of the building, and said to him, "Clean these stones carefully and set them into the building of the tower, the ones that can fit together with the rest; but the ones that don't fit, throw far away from the tower." After instructing the shepherd this way, he departed the tower along with everyone who had accompanied him. But the maidens stood around the tower keeping watch over it. I asked the shepherd, "How is it possible for these rejected stones to enter the tower's structure?" He answered me, "Do you see these stones?" "I see them, sir," I said. "Most of these stones," he said, "I will cut down and throw into the building, and they will fit together with the rest of the stones." "How, sir," I said, "can they fill the same space once they've been cut smaller?" He answered, "Whichever ones turn out small will be thrown into the middle of the building, and whichever are larger will be placed on the outside and will hold the others together." After telling me this he said, "Let's go, and in two days let's come back and clean these stones and throw them into the building; for everything around the tower must be cleaned, in case the master comes suddenly and finds the area around the tower dirty and is displeased, and these stones don't go into the building of the tower, and I appear careless in the master's eyes." Two days later we arrived back at the tower, and he said to me, "Let us look over every stone and determine which can be used in the building." I said to him, "Sir, let's examine them."
And starting first we examined the black stones. And they turned out to be exactly as they had been when set in the building. And the shepherd ordered them carried away from the tower and set apart. Next he examined the ones covered with scabs, and taking many of them he cut them down and ordered the maidens to lift them and throw them into the building. And the maidens lifted them and set them into the middle of the building's structure. The rest he ordered set with the black stones, for these too turned out to be black. Next he examined the ones that had cracks, and of these he cut down many and ordered them carried through the maidens into the building; they were placed on the outside, because they were found sounder. But the rest, because of the number of their cracks, could not be cut down; for this reason they were rejected from the building of the tower. Next he examined the stunted ones, and among them many turned out black, and some had made great cracks; he ordered these too set with the rejected ones. But those left over among them he cleaned and cut down and ordered set into the building. The maidens carried these off and set them at the center of the structure, since they lacked strength. Then he looked at the stones that were part white and part black, and a good number of these proved to be black; he had these removed along with the discarded ones as well. All the remaining stones, however, were carried by the maidens; since they were white, the maidens fitted them into the structure themselves, positioning them on the exterior — being whole, they were able to keep the interior stones in place, for not a single one among them had been stunted. Next he examined the rough and hard ones, and few of them were rejected because they could not be cut down, for they turned out too hard. But the rest of them were cut down; these were lifted by the maidens and placed toward the middle of the tower's structure, being the weaker stones. Next he examined the ones that had stains, and of these very few turned black and were rejected with the others. But the rest turned out bright and sound, and these too were fitted by the maidens into the building; they were set on the outside because of their strength.
Then he came to examine the white round stones and said to me, "What should we do about these stones?" "What do I know, sir?" I said. "Do you have no idea about them at all?" "I," I said, "sir, don't have this skill, nor am I a stonecutter, nor can I understand it." "Don't you see," he said, "that they're very round? And if I want to make them square, a great deal must be cut away from them; but some of them must necessarily be set into the building." "If, then, sir," I said, "it's necessary, why torment yourself, instead of choosing the ones you want for the building and fitting them into it?" He chose the larger and brighter ones among them and cut them down; and the maidens lifted them and fitted them into the outer sections of the building. But the rest that were left over were lifted and set aside on the plain from which they had been brought. They were not rejected, though; "For," he said, "the tower still lacks a little of being finished. The master of the tower wants all these stones fitted into the building, because they are very bright." And twelve women were called, most beautiful in appearance, dressed in black, girded, with their shoulders bare and their hair loose; these women seemed to me to be wild. The shepherd ordered them to lift the stones that had been rejected from the building and carry them away to the mountains from which they had originally been brought. And the cheerful ones lifted them and carried away all the stones and set them down where they had been taken from. And after all the stones had been removed and no stone lay any longer around the tower, the shepherd said to me, "Let's go around the tower and see whether there is any flaw in it." And I went around with him. When the shepherd saw the tower looking well-formed in its structure, he was very cheerful; for the tower was built in such a way that when I saw it I longed for its construction, for it was built as if from a single stone, having no seam anywhere in it. And the stone appeared as if it had been carved out of the rock; it seemed to me to be made of a single block.
And I too, walking about with him, was cheerful, seeing such good things. The shepherd said to me, "Go and bring lime and crushed shell, so that I may fill in the marks left by the stones that were removed and thrown into the building; for everything around the tower must be made smooth." And I did as he ordered, and brought it to him. "Help me," he said, "and the work will soon be finished." So he filled in the marks of the stones that had gone into the building and gave orders for the ground surrounding the tower to be swept clean; the maidens then took up brooms, swept, cleared away every scrap of debris from around the tower, sprinkled water over it, and the place around the tower turned cheerful and altogether pleasant to look at. The shepherd said to me, "Everything," he said, "has been cleaned; if the lord comes to inspect the tower, he will have nothing to find fault with in us." Having said this, he wanted to leave. But I took hold of his bag and began to entreat him by the Lord to explain to me what he had shown me. He said to me, "I have a little business to attend to, and I will explain everything to you; wait for me here until I come." I said to him, "Sir, being alone here, what will I do?" "You are not alone," he said, "for these maidens are with you." "Then hand me over to them," I said. The shepherd called them and said to them, "I am entrusting him to you until I come"; and he went away. And I was alone with the maidens; and they were quite cheerful and were kind to me, especially the four most distinguished of them.
The maidens said to me, "The shepherd is not coming here today." "What then," I said, "should I do?" "Wait for him until evening," they said; "and if he comes, he will speak with you; but if he doesn't come, you will stay here with us until he does come." I said to them, "I will wait for him until evening; but if he doesn't come, I will go home and return at daybreak." Yet they replied to me, saying, "You were placed in our charge; you cannot go away from us." "Where then," I said, "will I stay?" "You will lie down among us," they told me, "like a brother rather than a spouse, since you truly are our brother, and from here on we mean to dwell together with you, because we hold you dear." But I was ashamed to stay with them. And the one who seemed to be first among them began to kiss me and embrace me. And the others, seeing her embracing me, also began to kiss me and lead me around the tower and play with me. And I too became as if younger and began to play with them myself; for some of them were dancing, some were leaping, and some were singing; but I walked around the tower with them in silence and was cheerful along with them. When evening came I wanted to go home; but they would not let me, and held me back. So I stayed with them that night and slept beside the tower. For the maidens spread their linen garments on the ground and laid me down in their midst, and they occupied themselves with nothing except prayer; I too kept praying alongside them continually, not lagging behind them in the least. And the maidens were glad that I was praying like this. And I stayed there until the next day, until the second hour, with the maidens. Then the shepherd came and said to the maidens, "Have you done him any wrong?" "Ask him," they said. I said to him, "Sir, I was glad to stay with them." "What did you have for supper?" he said. "I supped, sir," I said, "on the words of the Lord all night long." "Did they receive you well?" he said. "Yes, sir," I said. "Now," he said, "what do you want to hear first?" "Just as you showed it to me from the beginning, sir," I said; "I ask you, sir, that as I question you, so you would also explain it to me." "As you wish," he said, "so I will explain it to you, and I will hide nothing at all from you."
"First of all, sir," I said, "explain this to me: who are the rock and the gate?" "This rock," he said, "and this gate are the Son of God." "How, sir," I said, "is the rock old, but the gate new?" "Listen," he said, "and understand, you dull one. God's Son precedes the whole of his creation, existing before it to such a degree that he served as adviser to the Father when that creation was made; that is why the rock, too, is ancient." "But why is the gate new, sir?" I said. "It is," he replied, "because he appeared openly only in these final days as the age draws to its close; that is why the gate is new — so that those destined for salvation could pass through it and reach God's kingdom. Did you see," he said, "the stones that came in through the gate and were placed into the building of the tower, and the ones that did not come in and were thrown back into their own place?" "I saw them, sir," I said. "So," he said, "no one will enter into the kingdom of God unless he receives his holy name. For if you wanted to enter a certain city, and that city is walled all around and has one gate, could you enter that city except through the gate it has?" "How, sir," I said, "could it happen otherwise?" "If, then, you cannot enter the city except through the gate it has, so too," he said, "a man cannot enter the kingdom of God in any other way except through the name of his Son whom he loves. "Did you notice," he asked, "the six men, along with the great and splendid figure among them, going about the tower and turning away stones from the structure?" "I saw them, sir," I said. "That splendid figure," he answered, "is the Son of God, while the six glorious beings are angels supporting him, three at either side. None of these glorious angels," he said, "will enter to God apart from him; whoever does not receive his name will not enter into the kingdom of God."
"Who, then, is the tower?" I said. "This tower," he said, "is the church." "And who are these maidens?" "These," he said, "are holy spirits, and a man cannot be found fit for the kingdom of God in any other way, unless these clothe him with their garment. For if you receive only the name but do not receive the garment from them, it will do you no good; for these maidens are the powers of the Son of God. If you wear the name but do not wear his power, you will be wearing his name in vain. As for the stones," he said, "which you saw rejected, these wore the name but did not put on the clothing of the maidens." "What is their clothing, sir?" I said. "The very names," he said, "are their clothing. Anyone bearing the Son of God's name must likewise bear their names, since the Son himself bears the names belonging to these maidens. Regarding every stone you observed going into the tower's structure — passed along by the maidens with their own hands and staying fixed in the building — such stones are dressed in the maidens' power. That is why you see the tower become a single block together with the rock; in the same way, everyone who has put faith in the Lord by way of his Son, once wrapped in these spirits, becomes a single spirit and a single body, sharing one color of clothing. And the dwelling place in the tower belongs to such people, those who wear the names of the maidens." "Then, sir," I said, "why were the rejected stones thrown out? For they had passed through the gate, and had been set into the tower's structure through the maidens' hands." "Since you care about everything and inquire carefully," he said, "listen concerning the rejected stones. "Every one of them," he said, "took on the Son of God's name, and along with it took on the power belonging to the maidens. Once they had taken in these spirits, they grew strong and stood among God's servants, sharing a single spirit, a single body, and a single garment, since they thought alike and practiced righteousness. But in time they were won over by the women you saw wearing black garments, their shoulders uncovered, their hair hanging loose, striking in appearance. Seeing these, they desired them and put on their power, and stripped off the garment and the power of the maidens. So they were thrown out of the house of God and handed over to those women. Yet whoever refused to be misled by these women's attractiveness stayed on in God's house. Now you have the explanation of the rejected stones."
"Suppose, sir," I said, "that men of this sort change their minds, giving up their craving for these women, turn back to the maidens, and conduct themselves by their power and their deeds — would such men be barred from God's house?" "They will be admitted," he replied, "provided they abandon those women's deeds, embrace the maidens' power, and live according to their deeds; the building's completion has been held off precisely so that repentant men could still be incorporated into the tower's structure. Should they fail to change their minds, however, others will take their place, and they themselves will ultimately be thrown out." Over all this I offered the Lord thanks, since he showed mercy toward everyone invoking his name, and sent out the angel of repentance to us who had sinned against him, and renewed our spirit, and when we were already worn away and had no hope of living, he renewed our life. "Now, sir," I said, "explain to me why the tower was not built on the ground, but on the rock and on the gate." "Are you still foolish," he said, "and without understanding?" "I am compelled, sir," I said, "to ask you about everything, because I am utterly unable to understand any of it; for all these things are great and glorious and hard for people to grasp." "Listen," he said. "The Son of God's name is vast, beyond containing, and it sustains the entire world. Since, then, the whole of creation is upheld by the Son of God, consider those summoned by him, bearing his name, and living by his instructions. So notice whom he sustains: those carrying his name with their entire heart. He became the base beneath them, supporting them willingly, since they feel no shame in bearing his name."

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 9 15-Similitude 9 27 ========

"Tell me, sir," I said, "what names the virgins bear, and the women dressed in black." "Listen," he replied, "to the titles of the mightier virgins, the ones stationed at the corners: first comes Faith, next Self-Control, third Power, fourth Patience. The others, ranged between these, carry these titles: Simplicity, Innocence, Purity, Cheerfulness, Truth, Understanding, Harmony, Love. Anyone clothed in these titles, together with the name of God's Son, will be able to pass into God's kingdom. Now hear also the titles borne by the women in black garments. Four of them are the mightiest: first Unbelief, next Self-Indulgence, third Disobedience, fourth Deceit. Behind them come Grief, Wickedness, Licentiousness, Quick Temper, Falsehood, Foolishness, Slander, and Hatred. Whoever bears these titles may still be God's servant, yet he will only glimpse God's kingdom from outside — he will not pass into it." "And the stones, sir," I said, "the ones fitted and drawn up from the deep for the building — who are they?" "The earliest ten," he answered, "laid down in the foundations, belong to the first age; the next twenty-five, righteous men of a later age; then thirty-five more, God's own prophets and ministers; and finally forty, apostles together with those who taught what the Son of God proclaimed." "Then why, sir," I said, "did the virgins also carry these particular stones to the tower, bringing them in through the gate?" "Because," he said, "these were the very first to put on these spirits, and the bond was never once broken on either side — the spirits stayed true to the men, and the men stayed true to the spirits — remaining together right up to the hour these men fell asleep. Had the spirits not stayed with them the whole while, they could never have served any purpose in building this tower."
"Explain still more to me, sir," I said. "What are you asking after?" he said. "Why, sir," I said, "did the stones rise up out of the deep and take their place in the tower's building, when they already wore these spirits?" "They had no choice," he said, "but to rise through the water, so that life might be given to them; there was no other way into God's kingdom unless they first shed the deadness of their earlier life. So these too, who had already fallen asleep, took on the seal of God's Son and passed into God's kingdom. Before a man carries the name of God's Son," he went on, "he remains dead; once he receives the seal, though, he sheds that deadness and takes hold of life instead. This seal, then, is nothing other than the water itself: a man goes down into it dead, and rises from it alive. That same seal was proclaimed to those men too, and they made it their own, so as to gain entry into God's kingdom." "Why, sir," I said, "did the forty stones rise up together with the rest out of the deep, since they had the seal already?" "Because," he said, "these are the apostles and instructors who made known the Son of God's name; once dead, resting in the strength and trust that come from God's Son, they proclaimed it further to those who had gone to their rest ahead of them, giving the seal of that proclamation to them in turn. So they descended alongside those men into the water and rose again — only this group descended and rose again alive throughout, while the earlier sleepers descended dead and rose alive. Through these instructors, then, the earlier ones were brought to life and learned the Son of God's name; that is why they rose up jointly, were joined into the tower's fabric, and were built in unhewn, since they had gone to their rest in an upright and deeply pure life — the one thing lacking was this seal. So now you have the meaning of these stones as well." "I understand, sir," I said.
"Now, sir," I said, "tell me about the mountains — why do they look so unlike each other?" "Listen," he said. "Those twelve mountains stand for the twelve tribes settled across the whole earth; it was to them that the apostles carried the preaching of God's Son." "But why does each mountain differ in shape from the next? Explain this to me, sir." "Listen," he said. "Those same twelve tribes settled across the whole earth are twelve peoples, unlike one another in outlook and mind. The variety you noticed among the mountains mirrors the variety among these peoples' minds and outlooks. I will go on to explain to you the way each one behaves." "First, sir," I said, "tell me this: given how unlike the mountains are, why did their stones turn one uniform bright color once set into the building, matching the stones drawn up earlier out of the depths?" "Because," he said, "every nation living beneath the sky, on hearing and believing, was given the name of God's Son to bear. Having taken the seal, they came to share a single outlook and a single mind; their trust became one, their love became one, and they took on the virgins' spirits along with that name. That is why the tower's structure turned one bright color, like the sun. Yet once they had come in together and formed a single body, a portion of them stained themselves and were thrown out from among the righteous, reverting to their former state — worse, in fact, than before."
"How, sir," I said, "could they turn worse after coming to know God?" "Someone ignorant of God," he said, "who does wrong, pays some penalty for that wrong; but a person who has come to know God is bound, from then on, to do good rather than evil. So when someone bound to do good does evil instead, is that not a greater wrong than what the one ignorant of God commits? For this reason those ignorant of God who do wrong stand condemned to death, while those who have known God — who have seen his majesty — and still do wrong will suffer a double penalty and perish forever. This is how God's church will be made clean. Recall the stones you saw removed from the tower, handed over to the wicked spirits, and thrown out from that place: it will happen this way, and the purified will form a single body — much as the tower itself, once purified, ended up looking as though cut from one single stone. God's church, likewise, once cleansed and rid of the wicked, the pretenders, the blasphemers, the divided-minded, and every other shade of wrongdoer, will, once these are removed, stand as a single body — one outlook, one mind, one trust, one love. Then God's Son will take joy and delight in them, his people restored to him clean." "Sir," I said, "how magnificent and glorious this whole thing is." "Still, sir," I said, "lay out for me the strength and behavior belonging to each of the mountains, so that every soul relying on the Lord may listen and give glory to his name — great, wonderful, and glorious." "Listen," he said, "then, to how the mountains differ, and the twelve peoples with them."
"Those who came to believe out of the first mountain, the black one, are people like these: renegades, men who curse the Lord, men who hand over God's servants to their enemies. No turning back is left open to them, only death — and blackness marks them for this reason, since their whole kind stands outside the law. Out of the second mountain, the barren one, believers of this sort turn out to be pretenders and instructors in wrongdoing. These match the first group in one respect: neither produces righteousness as fruit. Just as their mountain yields nothing, such people carry the name yet stand hollow where trust should be, with no trace whatsoever of truth's fruit in them. For this group, though, turning back remains possible, provided they act without delay; if they put it off, death will overtake them exactly as it does the first group." "Why, sir," I asked, "can these turn back, when the first group cannot? Their conduct hardly differs." "The reason," he replied, "turning back stays open to this group is that they never cursed their Lord, nor handed God's servants over to ruin; instead, driven by greed, they put on a false face, each teaching to suit what sinners wanted to hear. They will still answer for it with some penalty; but turning back remains theirs, since blasphemy and betrayal were never among their crimes."
"And out of the third mountain, the one having thorns and briars, those who believed are such as these. Among them, some are rich, others entangled in many affairs. The briars are the rich; the thorns are those entangled in various affairs. These, then, entangled in many and various affairs, do not cling to the servants of God, but wander astray, choked by their own dealings; and the rich cling to the servants of God only with difficulty, fearing that something might be asked of them by them — such people, then, will enter the kingdom of God only with difficulty. For just as it is hard to walk barefoot among briars, so also it is hard for such people to enter the kingdom of God. But for all these there is repentance, and it must come quickly, so that whatever went undone in earlier times they might still now, in the time remaining, accomplish something worthwhile. Should they turn back and accomplish something worthwhile, they will live for God; but if they persist in their conduct, they will be handed over to those women, who will bring about their death."
"And out of the fourth mountain, the one full of many plants, some of them green on top but dry near the roots, and some also withered by the sun, those who believed are such as these: some double-minded, others who have the Lord on their lips but not in their heart. This is why their foundations are dry and without strength, and their words alone are alive, while their deeds are dead. Such people neither live nor are dead. They are like the double-minded; for the double-minded, too, are neither green nor dry — they neither live nor are dead. For just as these plants, once they saw the sun, withered, so too the double-minded, at the mere mention of hardship, slide into idol-worship out of sheer cowardice, and shrink back from owning their Lord's name. Such people, then, neither live nor are dead. But if even these repent quickly, they will be able to live; and if they do not repent, they have already been handed over to the women who carry off their life."
"And out of the fifth mountain, the one having green plants but rugged terrain, those who believed are such as these: faithful, yet slow to learn, and stubborn, and pleased with themselves, wanting to know everything, though they know nothing at all. Because of this stubbornness of theirs, understanding has departed from them, and foolish senselessness has entered into them. They praise themselves as though they had understanding, and want to be self-appointed teachers, though they are without sense. Because of this arrogance, then, many have been emptied out, exalting themselves; for stubbornness and empty self-confidence are a great demon. Many, then, were rejected from this group, though a number changed course, came to trust, and placed themselves under those who possessed understanding, owning up to their own foolishness. For the remainder of this kind, too, a way back remains open, since wickedness was never their fault — only folly and lack of sense. Should they change course, they will live for God; failing that, they will end up among the women whose work brings ruin upon them."
"And those who believed out of the sixth mountain, the one having great and small cracks, with withered plants in the cracks, are such as these. Those who have the small cracks are those who hold something against one another, and are withered in their faith because of their own slanders against each other; but many of these have repented. And the rest, too, will repent, once they hear my commandments; for their slanders are small, and they will repent quickly. But those who have the great cracks — these persist in their slanders and become resentful, nursing grudges against one another; such people, then, have been ejected from the tower and refused a place in its structure. Life will come hard for people like these. Consider: if God — our Lord, ruler over everything, holding power over the whole of what he made — holds no grudge against those confessing their wrongs, choosing mercy instead, should a mere man, himself corruptible and steeped in wrongdoing, hold a grudge against his fellow man, as if he could destroy him or rescue him at will? I say to you, I, the angel of repentance: as many of you as hold to this way of thinking, put it away and repent, and the Lord will heal your former sins, if you cleanse yourselves from this demon; but if not, you will be handed over to it, unto death."
"And out of the seventh mountain, on which the plants were green and cheerful, and the whole mountain was flourishing, and every kind of cattle and the birds of the sky grazed on the plants from that mountain, and the plants they grazed on grew even more luxuriant, those who believed are such as these. They were always simple and innocent and blessed, holding nothing against one another, but always rejoicing over the servants of God and clothed with the holy spirit of these virgins, and always having compassion for every person, and from their labors they supplied every person, without reproach and without hesitation. The Lord, then, seeing their simplicity and all their childlike innocence, multiplied them in the labors of their hands and showed them favor in all their undertakings. I say to you who are such as these — I, the angel of repentance — remain as you are, and your seed will not be blotted out forever; for the Lord has tested you and has enrolled you in our number, and your whole seed will dwell with the Son of God, for you have received of his spirit."
"And out of the eighth mountain, where there were many springs, and all of the Lord's creation was watered from these springs, those who believed are such as these: apostles and teachers whose preaching reached every corner of the world, instructing people in the Lord's message with reverence and purity, holding nothing back for base desire, but journeying always in righteousness and truth, exactly as they had received the holy spirit. Such people, then, take their passage in the company of angels."
"And out of the ninth mountain, the barren one holding within it snakes and beasts that destroy people, those who came to believe are such as these. Those marked with stains are deacons who carried out their duty badly, stripping widows and orphans of their means of living and lining their own pockets from the ministry entrusted to them; should they keep clinging to that same craving, they are as good as dead already, with no prospect of life left to them; but if they change direction and carry out their ministry cleanly, life remains within their reach. Those covered in scabs are the ones who renounced their faith and never turned back to their own Lord; instead they turned barren and empty, refusing to hold fast to God's servants, and by living apart they bring ruin on their own souls. A vine left to itself inside some hedge, uncared for, gets choked with weeds and over time runs wild, no longer worth anything to its owner — in just this way, such people have abandoned themselves and, gone wild, become worthless to their own Lord. For this group, a path back exists, provided the denial did not come from the heart; but should someone be found to have denied from deep within, I cannot say whether life is still possible for him. And I do not mean, by this, that anyone denying the Lord in these present days could still receive a path back — no one who is about to deny his own Lord now can be saved — rather, it is those who denied long ago for whom a path back still appears open. So whoever intends to turn back had better move quickly, before the tower reaches completion; otherwise those women will bring him down to his death. The stunted figures are people given to lying and gossip; the beasts you saw on that mountain stand for these same people. Just as beasts poison and destroy a man, the speech of such people poisons and destroys a man too. These, then, are stunted in their faith by the very conduct they carry within — yet some among them have turned back and been saved. As for the rest of this kind, saving them remains possible if they turn back; but without turning back, they will perish under the power of those same women."
"And out of the tenth mountain, where there were trees sheltering certain sheep, those who believed are such as these: bishops and hospitable people, who gladly and without hypocrisy always welcomed the servants of God into their own homes; and the bishops always sheltered, without fail, those in need and the widows through their ministry, and always conducted themselves purely. All these, then, will be sheltered by the Lord forever. Those, then, who have done these things are glorious before God, and their place is already with the angels, if they persevere to the end in serving the Lord."

======== Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes — Similitude 9 28-Similitude 10 4 ========

And from the eleventh mountain, on which stood trees full of fruit, adorned with one kind of fruit after another, are those of this sort: those who believed and, because of God's Son and the name he bears, suffered — eagerly, with whole heart, surrendering their very lives. "Why then, lord," I said, "do all the trees bear fruit, yet some of the fruits from them are more beautiful than others?" "Listen," he said. "All who at any time suffered on account of the name are glorious before God, and the sins of all of them have been taken away, since their suffering came because of God's Son and the name he bears. But why their fruits differ, and some surpass the rest, listen. Those who were brought before the authorities and put to the test and did not deny, but suffered eagerly — these are the more glorious before the Lord; theirs is the fruit that surpasses the rest. But those who were cowardly and fell into hesitation, and reasoned in their hearts whether they would deny or confess, and yet suffered — theirs are the lesser fruits, because that deliberation rose up in their heart; for it is a wicked deliberation, that a slave should deny his own master. Watch yourselves, then, you who entertain such thoughts, lest this deliberation remain fixed in your hearts and you die to God. But you who suffer for the sake of the name ought to glorify God, because God has judged you worthy to bear this name, and all your sins are healed. So do not count yourselves blessed for this — rather you think you have done some great deed, if any of you suffers for God's sake. The Lord is granting you life as a gift, and you do not perceive it; for your sins weighed you down, and had you not suffered for the sake of the name of the Lord, you would have died to God on account of your sins. I say these things to you who hesitate over denial or confession: confess that you have a Lord, lest by denying him you be handed over to prison. If the nations punish their own slaves, should any of them deny his own master, what do you suppose the Lord will do to you — he who holds authority over all things? Cast these deliberations out of your hearts, that you may live forever to God."
And from the twelfth mountain, the white one, those who believed are of this kind: they are like infant children, into whose hearts no malice rises, nor have they known what wickedness is, but they have remained always in that childlike innocence. Such as these, then, will dwell without hesitation in the kingdom of God, because in no matter have they defiled the commandments of God, but have remained in that childlike simplicity all the days of their life, holding to the same understanding. "Whoever, then, remains," he said, "and becomes like these infants, having no malice, will be more glorious than all those spoken of before; for all infants are glorious before God, and are first in his sight. Blessed, then, are you, whoever lifts wickedness away from yourselves and clothes yourselves instead with innocence: you will be first of all to live to God." When he had brought the mountain-parables to an end, I said to him: "Lord, now explain to me about the stones that were taken up from the plain and set into the building in place of the stones taken from the tower, and about the round stones that were placed into the building, and those that still remain round."
"Listen," he said, "about all these too. The stones from the plain that were taken up and set into the building of the tower in place of those cast out are the roots of the white mountain. Since those who believed from the white mountain were all found blameless, the lord of the tower ordered them taken up from that mountain's roots and set into the tower's fabric; he knew that were these stones to join the structure, they would remain luminous, with none of them darkening. [LATIN] But if he had added stones from the other mountains, he would again have had to inspect and cleanse that tower. All of these, however, were found white — those who have believed and those who are yet to believe; for they are of the same stock. Blessed is this stock, for it is innocent. [LATIN] Listen now also about the round and shining stones. These too are all from the white mountain. But listen to why they were found round. Their riches obscured them a little from the truth and darkened them, yet even so they never withdrew from God, nor did any evil word come from their mouth, but only every fairness and the virtue of truth. [LATIN] When, therefore, the lord saw their mind, that they could still hold to the truth and remain good, he ordered their wealth to be trimmed back — not removed from them entirely — so they could still accomplish something worthwhile with what remained to them, and might live to God, since they are of good stock. So they were trimmed back a little and set into the structure of this tower.
[LATIN] But the rest, who still remained round and were not fitted into that structure, because they had not yet received the seal, were put back in their own place; for they were found to be very round indeed. [LATIN] This age must be trimmed away from them, and the vanities of their riches, and then they shall be gathered into God's kingdom; entering God's kingdom is required of them, for the Lord has blessed this innocent stock. Of this stock, then, not one will perish. For even if one of them, tempted by the wicked devil, should commit some fault, he will quickly run back to his own Lord. [LATIN] I count all of you blessed — I, the messenger of repentance — all of you who are innocent as infants, for your portion is good and honored before God. [LATIN] But to every one of you who bear this seal, I say: keep to simplicity, hold no memory of grievances, do not persist in your malice or in the bitter memory of offenses, but become of one spirit each of you, and mend and remove from among you these evil rifts, so that the Lord of the flock may rejoice over them. And he will rejoice if all are found sound and none of them has fallen away. But if some of them are found to have fallen away, woe to the shepherds. And if the shepherds themselves are found to have fallen away, what will they say to the master of the flock? That they fell away because of the sheep? They will not be believed; for it is an unbelievable thing that a shepherd should suffer harm at the hands of his sheep — rather, they will be punished all the more for their lie. [LATIN] And I am the shepherd, and I must render account of you with the utmost strictness.
[LATIN] Set yourselves right, then, while the tower is still being built. [LATIN] The Lord dwells among men who love peace; for peace is truly dear to him. But from the quarrelsome, and from those ruined by malice, he keeps far away. Give back to him, then, a whole spirit, just as you received it. [LATIN] For if you gave a fuller a new, whole garment, and wanted to get that same whole garment back again, but the fuller returned it to you torn, would you accept it? Would you not at once flare up and pursue him with reproaches, saying: 'I gave you a whole garment — why have you torn it and rendered it useless? Because of the tear you made in it, it can no longer be used.' Would you not say all these things to the fuller, about the tear he made in your garment? [LATIN] If, then, you would grieve so over your garment, and complain that you did not get it back whole, what do you suppose the Lord will do to you, who gave you a whole spirit, and you rendered it entirely useless, so that it can be of no use at all to its own Lord? For its usefulness has begun to fail, since it has been ruined by you. Will not the Lord of that spirit, then, put you to death on account of this deed of yours? [LATIN] "Certainly," I said, "he will do this to all whom he finds persisting in the memory of grievances." "Do not trample his gentleness underfoot," he said, "but rather honor him — that he is so patient toward your offenses, and is not as you are. Do, then, a repentance that is of use to you."
[LATIN] All these things, written above, I, the shepherd, the messenger of repentance, have set forth and declared to God's servants. Now if you put faith in this and give heed to my words, walking by them, and straighten your paths, you will be able to live. But if you remain in malice and in the memory of grievances, none of such people will live to God. All these things that were to be said by me have now been said to you. [LATIN] The shepherd himself said to me: "Have you asked me everything?" And I said, "Yes, lord." "Why then did you not ask me about the shape of the stones set back into the structure, that we filled up their spaces?" And I said, "I forgot, lord." [LATIN] "Listen now," he said, "about them. These are those who have now heard my commandments and have repented with their whole heart. And seeing that their turning was genuine and unmixed with pretense, and that they could hold fast to it, he commanded their past sins to be wiped away. For these shapes were their sins, and they were leveled smooth, so that they would no longer appear.
[LATIN] After I had finished writing this book, that messenger who had handed me over to this shepherd came into the house where I was, and sat down upon the couch, and this shepherd stood at his right. Then he called me and said this to me: [LATIN] "I handed you over," he said, "you and your household, to this shepherd, so that you might be protected by him." "Yes, lord," I said. "If, then, you wish to be protected from all harassment and from all cruelty, and to prosper in every good deed and word, and in every excellence of uprightness, walk in the commandments he has given you, and you will be able to master all wickedness. [LATIN] For if you keep his commandments, every desire and sweetness of this present age will be subject to you, and success in every good undertaking will follow you. Receive his maturity and his modesty into yourself, and tell everyone that before the Lord he is greatly honored and esteemed, and that he is a ruler of great power, and mighty in his office. To him alone, throughout the whole world, has authority over repentance been given. Does he not seem powerful to you? Yet you despise his maturity and the reverence he shows toward you."
[LATIN] I said to him: "Ask him yourself, lord, whether from the time he has been in my house I have done anything out of order, by which I might have offended him." [LATIN] "I too know," he said, "that you have done nothing out of order, nor will you. And I say these things to you for this reason, that you may persevere. For he has thought well of you before me. But you are to speak these same words to the rest, so that those who have repented, or are about to repent, may hold the same conviction as you do, and that he may continue to report well of them to me, and I to the Lord." [LATIN] "And I, lord," I said, "declare to every man the great works of the Lord; and I hope that all who have sinned before, should they hear of this, will turn back with gladness and reclaim their life." [LATIN] "Continue, then," he said, "in this ministry and bring it to completion. Whoever carries out his commandments will have life, and great honor before the Lord. But whoever does not keep his commandments flees from his own life and turns against him; such do not follow his commandments, but hand themselves over to death, and each of them becomes guilty of his own blood. But I say to you: serve these commandments, and you will have a remedy for sins.
[LATIN] I have sent you these virgins to dwell with you; for I have seen that they are gracious toward you. You have them, then, as helpers, so that you may the more readily keep his commandments; for it is not possible for these commandments to be kept without these virgins. I see that they are glad to be with you; but I will instruct them not to leave your house at all. [LATIN] Only keep your house clean; for they will gladly dwell in a clean house. They are clean and chaste and diligent, and all of them have favor before the Lord. If, then, they find your house pure, they will remain with you. But if even a small measure of defilement should occur, they will withdraw from your house at once; for these virgins love no defilement whatsoever." [LATIN] I said to him: "I hope, lord, that I will please them, so that they will always gladly dwell in my house." "And just as this one, to whom you were handed over, has no complaint against me, neither will these have any complaint against me." He said to the shepherd: "I know that this servant of God wishes to live, and will keep these commandments, and will establish the virgins in purity." Having said this to the shepherd, he handed me back to him again, and calling the virgins... he said to them: [LATIN] "Since I see that you gladly dwell in this man's house, I entrust him and his household to you, that you may not leave his house at all." And they gladly heard these words.
[LATIN] Then he said to me: "Bear yourself bravely in carrying out this ministry; make known to everyone the mighty deeds of the Lord, and you will find favor in this ministry. Whoever, then, walks in these commandments will live and will be happy in his life; but whoever neglects them will not live and will be unhappy in his life. [LATIN] Tell everyone who is able to do right not to stop doing it; it is profitable for them to practice good works. And I say that anyone burdened by hardship deserves to be pulled free of it. For the one who lacks and struggles through hardship day after day suffers deep anguish and distress. [LATIN] Whoever, then, rescues such a soul from distress wins for himself no small joy. For he who is afflicted by such hardship is tormented with a suffering equal to that of one who is bound in chains; and many, on account of such calamities, being unable to bear them, bring death upon themselves. Whoever, then, knows of such a person's calamity and does not rescue him commits a great sin, and becomes guilty of his blood. [LATIN] Do good works, then, all of you who have received from the Lord, lest, while you delay in doing them, the tower's construction reaches completion. Because of you its building has stood unfinished. Unless, then, you hurry to do what is right, the tower will be completed, and you will be shut out." [LATIN] Once he had finished speaking with me, he got up from the couch, and taking the shepherd and the virgins, went away, telling me that he would send back that shepherd and the virgins to my house.