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