Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp & others · a new plain-English translation from the original language
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.
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