Graphic Bible · Scene 3 of 4

Illustrative vision detail: the empty ivory cushioned bench stands on exactly four feet on level grassy ground.
AI-generated artwork interprets this work's literary visions and teaching, not authenticated historical events or portraits. Source and translation notes preserve the available edition's limits and review uncertainty. Illustrative vision detail

Historical Library · Apostolic Fathers
Shepherd of Hermas — Vision 3, section xiii

The available POB edition is a partial translation, not a summary or the complete ancient work. Popular, not Scripture. Artwork interprets literary visions and teaching; it does not establish their portrayals as historical events.

Source and translation notes

The text names Hermas as its narrator. The illustrations do not identify a historical author or supply authenticated portraits.

Existing reader manuscript-image reference: Codex Sinaiticus. Working source: Lightfoot & Harmer 1891 (normalized OCR) · Greek

English witness: People's Open Bible provisional English rendering (Cartha Inc. and contributors) · CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ — for POB project outputs; source editions retain their original licenses

Numbered reading units are modern paragraph divisions, not ancient verse numbers. The available units follow Visions, Mandates, and Similitudes; absent passages are not reconstructed.

  • The available edition begins mid-dialogue and ends mid-sentence in Similitude 8.iv; absent passages are not supplied.
  • Reading paragraph 4 [a]: Repentance and related expressions are read in this works own context; they are not restricted to feeling sorry, and no uniform Godward formula is imposed. Use repentance for moral change while preserving the works own teaching about baptism, forgiveness, conduct and the angel of repentance; do not impose a different tradition on it.

Shepherd of Hermas 21:3

Four Feet and Firmness

The Third Form and Firm Foundation · Shepherd of Hermas 21

Story guide: The bench’s four feet explain its firm position. The account also connects the world with four elements; no cosmic mechanism is illustrated.

Open this scene in the reader →

3And because you saw her sitting on a bench, the position is firm; because the bench has four feet and stands firmly. For indeed the world is held together by four elements.

Step through the story beside the Scripture itself. About the People’s Open Bible