Library/New Testament apocrypha
Shepherd of Hermas
Visions, mandates, similitudes. A shepherd-angel, a tower of the church built of living stones, a chance at a second repentance. Some churches read it as scripture (Codex Sinaiticus includes it). It is what a working congregation’s apocalypse looks like.
- Status
- Apostolic father
- Date
- early–mid 2nd century CE, Rome
- Languages
- Greek · Latin
- Setting
- Roman house-church, the Tiber, and a bed of visions
What it contains
- Five visions
- Twelve mandates
- Ten similitudes
Why it sits outside most canons
Too late to be apostolic for the final lists; too useful to throw away, so it became a father.
Themes
- Repentance
- Church as tower
- Angels
- Discipline
Passages
Hermas, Vis. 3
The tower which you see being built is myself, the Church. The stones that are square and white and fit their joints are the apostles and bishops and teachers and deacons.