cheenc03a.pdf

SHEPHERD OF HERMAS
The fom, in which the whole is clothed, far from
being . sinlple . or natural, is artificial in the highest
form degree.
It retr out, apparently, with
the ,"tention of relating what has pajzed
between two known pcrsonr, Rhoda md
Hermas. The iiamer are reminiscent of a Christian
woman Rhoda. mentioned in Acrr 121~. and of a
Christian slave at Rome, Hermas, mentioned in Ram.
161,. Here they become reprerenfariuer, the one
(Rhoda) of the church in various successive forms, the
other as one devoted to her service, and one of her
followers and memben. ' Hermas' soon goes on to
speak with poetic freedom like a Paul, a. James, a John,
a Barnsbar, a Clement, an Ignaths, a Polycarp, in the
epistler handed down tour under their names, as if he
were the recognised elder and faithful witness addressing
hinlself with words of warnine and admonition to his
'house,' his cchildren.'
The original unity of the work in its present form.
although frequenrlycalied in questior~ since Hare (1834).
6, nLity Blld cannot be denied. Even less, however,
composition, can the existence of inconsietencies and
contradictiolls and other marks of interpolation,
adaptation, and redaction be disputed. These
point to it having been n composite work made up
from earlier documentr. Not in the sense (so Hilgenfeld,
1881 ; Hausleiter, 1884; Baumgartner, 1889 ;
Hwnack, 1897) of its being a conrhination, effected in
one wny or another, of two separate works, entitled rrspecrively
'Virions' and 'Commandments' and ' Similitudes'
by one author, or by more than one ; nor yet (so
Johnson. 1887 ; Spiita, 1896 ; van Soden, 1897 ;
Volter, 1900; van Bakel. 1900) iil the sense of its
being the outcome of repeated redactions of an originally
Jewish writing. Rather in the xnse of being n second
edition of the original Shcfhrrd, a bundle of' Commandmmts
and Similitudes' from the pen of but one writer
sho laboured on the whole independently. yet at the
Same time frequently borrowed fro", the books which
he had before him. It is not possible to distinguish
throughout between what he brrowed from orhers and
what we ouht to regard ac his own.
The writer, who comes forward 'a5 if he were an older
Hermas, the contemporary of Clement j 1'i~.2+ ,). must
6. Author, not be identified with him of Rom. 16x4
nor yet with a younger one, brother of
Pius I.. bishop of Rome I~O-IS~, who is referred to in
the Muratorian fmgmenl. The real nameof the author
remained unknown. From his work it can he inferred
that he was an important menlber, perhaps even n ruler.
of the Christian church, probably in Rome. A practical
man. Xo Paulinirt, nor yet a Judaism in the
Tiibingen sense, but rather a proferssor, little interested
4457
SHEPHUPHAM
in the dogma of the Christianity that war already in
process of becoming Catholic, in the days when it was
pppling with the idear and movements that had
originated xirll blontanus. One who attached much
value to revelations and yet >+as very paniculaily in
earnest about the need for quickening, far thr spiritual
renewing of the Church, for whichreason heiaid peculiar
strrss upon the possibility of a second conversion. This
possibility would ere long come to an end at the close of
the present period; even now many were denying it as
regarded thore rho once had received baptism, rhough
others hoped to be able continually afresh to obtain
the forgivenerr of their sins. There ir nothing that
indicats the merchant supposed by Harnsck-Hilgenfeld.
In date the author is earlier than Eurebius, Athanarius,
Orieen. Tertullian. Clement of Alexandria.
. Irenaus, but later than the aportler and
,. "muv.
their first followerr, the martyrs and leaders
of the church, such individuals as 'Hermas' and
'Clement' (Vii. 24 3). Later than the firrt great and
flourishing time of the church (the history of which can
already be divided into different periods, and the
spiritual renovation of which, in conjunction with the
revived expectation of Christ's second otning is regarded
as imperatively needful) ; in the days when the ~ pi~il~~l
life of Christians was being stirred by Monranistic
movementr. Therefom, certainly earlier than 180 Lo.;
yet not much earlirr, nor yet much later, than about the
middle of the second century. Perhaps sonre chronological
truth may underlie the tradition that ' Hermas'
war a 'brother' of Pius I. (rqo-155 A,".).
The work wus from the first intended for reading
aioud at the assemblies of the church whether in larger
8, urps or in ~nldler circles (Vir. 24 3). Its
and value, value, at firrt placed very high from the
point of view of the interests of edification,
but afterwards almort wholly Lost sight of in
Christian circles, has in recent "ears in sorte of the
~~~
diffuseness of its contents comeanew to be recognised.
SHEPHO ihji, , . , b. Sh.hob,,I, b. SEIR: Gen. 36r2
(cw@ 1.41. .cw@aw [DL]. CUP [El)= I Ch. 140
Shephi ('??; cwB [R]. cw@ap [A]. can@€! [Ll).
@DL'S ~ ~ in ~ Gen. d suggests ~ comparison ~ g with
SHEPHUPHAM (-AN). Cp also SIIUPPIM. SHAPHAN.