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The Shepherd of Hermas
by bro. Muhammad Ata ur-Rahim
The Shepherd of Hermas was a book written by Hermas between 88 and 97 A. D. at Patmos, near Ephesus. Like the Gospel of Barnabas , it affirmed the Divine Unity, and it was for this reason that concerted efforts were made to destroy it, once the doctrine of Trinity had become firmly rooted in the established Pauline Church. It was one of the books which was banned as a result of the decision made by the Council of Nicea in 325 A. D .
It appears that Hermas wrote The Shepherd at about the same time that John was writing his Gospel , although some people think that The shepherd was written before this. However , there is no difference of opinion as regards the fact that Hermas had not read or seen any of the four Gospels included in the New Testament. Some believe that The Shepherd was inspired by the Gospel According to Hebrews , an earlier Gospel which no longer exists , but this is not supported by the account given by Hermas of how the book came to be written.
Until the Council of Nicea, the book was accepted
and widely used by the early followers of Jesus, who regarded
Hermas as a prophet.
Towards the end of the second century A. D., it was accepted as part of
the New Testament by Clement of Alexandria .
Origen (185
- 254 A. D) also accepted it as a revealed book, and it was placed at the
end of Codex Sinaiticus which was in use in
the middle of the fourth century A. D.
Tertullian (160 -220 A. D.) at first accepted it,
but later repudiated in when he became a Montanist.
Iranius (130 -200 A. D) ,accepted
it as Scripture.
Eusebius of Caesaria rejected it but Athanasius accepted
it in 367 A. D. as being suitable for the private reading of new converts .
Manichaeaus , a Christian from Persia , took it
far into the East .
Dante was also definitely influenced by the book.
Thus the Shepherd was a book which obviously could not be ignored and which was accepted as a revealed book by the majority of early Christian thinkers and lovers of God. It was written when the movement to "Hellenise" the teachings of Jesus was in its infancy, and at a time when many of those who followed Jesus were still aware that Jesus had come to restore and expand the teaching which Moses had bought to the Jews. Like Jesus, they were practicing Jews whose understanding of what they were doing was illuminated by the knowledge Jesus had brought. They still believed in the followed the writing of the Old Testament, and since The Shepherd affirmed what they already knew , they accepted Hermas's book into their body of Scripture.
With the teaching by some, notably Paul, that the law of the Jews need not be followed by a Christian, contradictions began to arise between the body of newly -written Scriptures, which later became known as the " New Testament ", and the Old Testament. However, the Old Testament was retained by the established Church in spite of these contradictions , since an outright rejection of the Old Testament would have been regarded by many of people as a rejection of Jesus himself . Confusion was the inevitable result. In the attempt to accept and reject the Old Testament simultaneously, contradiction arose with in the New Testament itself, since it had to be "new' without openly rejecting the old. But ,in the early days of the Church, there was no real attempt to formally arrange the books and ensure that all the accounts and doctrines tallied with each other. The leaders of the first Christian communities were free to use their discretion and to refer to those Scriptures which they thought best contained the teachings of Jesus.
With the development , formulation and official acceptance in 325 A. D. of the doctrine of Trinity, such latitude was no longer acceptable to the established Pauline Church. The four accepted Gospels were selected and all the other Scriptures written after Jesus's birth were banned. However, the leader of the Pauline Church, who were not entirely satisfied with their doctrine of "mysteries" , which was now beginning to develop ,and who recognised the validity of some of the banned books, wished to retain some of these books even though they directly contradicted the new doctrine of the Church. They were gathered and their availability was limited to the people in power in the Church. they became known as the Apocrypha, which means " Hidden from the people ". They were then removed from the Bible , and only very few people had copies of these books which were being destroyed publicly along with those who were found in possession of them. This , as with the Gospel of Barnabas, , was the fate of The Shepherd of Hermas. It was removed form the New Testament and, since it created confusion in the minds of the people who were asked to believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, attempts were made to destroy it completely.
These attempts proved unsuccessful. There are records of references being made about it, but no one in the West had had the opportunity of reading it for a long time. then, suddenly , in 1922 , a third century papurus manuscript of the text came to light.
It was found that the Greek used by Hermas was simple vernacular. The language could be understood by the common people and it is clear that the book was written for everyone and not for an intellectual elite. His style was frank and informal and he possessed an originality of expression which made the book easy to read.
Hermas begin by telling of four visions he experienced, the last of which he calls a revelation since on this occasion an angel visited him dressed as a shepherd. The angel informed Hermas that he had been sent by the "most reverend angel" (that is , the angel Gabriel), to live Hermas for the rest of the days of his life.
The angel then ordered Hermas to write down all " the Commands and the Parables". Since these were dictated to him by the angel, who only related what he was told to say by the "most reverend angel" , it was accepted as a revealed book by the earlier Christians.
The commands he was told to write down were these :
I
first of all believe that God is One and that HE created all things and organised them, and out of what did not exist made all things to be, and HE contains all things but Alone is Himself uncontained. Trust Him therefore and fear Him, and , fearing Him, be self -controlled , Keep this command and you will cast away for yourself all wickedness, put on every virtue of uprightness, and you will live to God if you keep this commandment.
II
Be sincere and simple-minded.
Speak evil of nobody and do not enjoy hearing anyone do so.
Do right, and give generously.
III
Love truth
IV
Observe purity. Be pure not only in action but in thinking
V
Be patient and understanding. The Lord dwells in patience, but the devil in
ill-temper.
VI
Trust what is right, and do not trust what is wrong. Uprightness has a straight
and level way , but wrong doing a crooked one. there are two of angels with men,
one of uprightness and one of wickedness.
VII
fear the Lord and keep God's commands.
VIII
Be self-controlled about is wrong and do no wrong.
But do not be self-controlled about what is right, but do what is right.
Restrain yourself from all evil and follow the right path.
IX
Cast off doubt from yourself. Ask the Lord with our doubting , and you will
receive everything. God is not like men who hold grudges, but He is forgiving
and feels pity for what He had made. So Cleanse you heart of all vanities
of this world.
X
Put sadness away form you, for it is the sister of doubt and bad temper.
XI
A man who consults a false prophet is an idolater and void of the truth.
Hermas asked the angel how to distinguished a true prophet from a false. The
angels replied that in the first place the man who has the spirit that is from
above is gentle, quite , and humble. HE abstains from all wickedness and the
futile desires of the world .... (HE) foes not speak by himself ..... but speaks
when God wishes him to speak ..... but all power belongs to the Lord..
A false prophet exalts himself and wants to have front seat. He is bold, shameless, and talkative, lives in luxury and accepts pay for his prophesying, Can a divine spirit accept pay for prophesying ? The false prophet avoids the upright men and attaches himself to those who are doubtful and vain ; and he says everything to them falsely in line with their desires. An empty vessel put among empty ones does not break , but they harmonise with one another. take a stone and throw it up to heaven ; see if you can reach it. The earthly things are impotent and weak. On the other hand, take the power that comes from above. Hail is a very small gain. yet when it falls on man's head what pain it causes! Or again, take a drop of water which falls on the ground from the roof and makes a hole in the stone . So the Divine Power that comes from above is mighty.
XII
Cast off from yourself every evil desire and clothe yourself in good and holy
desires. God created the world for man's sake and made hi whole creation subject
to man, and gave him complete authority to have dominion over all things under
heaven. A man who has the Lord in his heart is able to master all things..
Behave as a slave of God. The devil cannot get control of the slaves of God. The
devil can wrestle, but cannot throw them.
(The Apostolic Fathers, Edgar .J. Goodspeed )
(ICRA)