Graphic Bible · Scene 2 of 5

The white-clad figure explains the color meanings to attentive Hermas.
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. Reported literary vision

Historical Library · Apostolic Fathers
Shepherd of Hermas — Vision 4, section iii

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.

Shepherd of Hermas 24:2

World, Trial, and Purification

The Four Colors Explained · Shepherd of Hermas 24

Story guide: She explains black, fiery blood-red and gold, comparing trial and purification with gold tested by fire and usefulness for the tower.

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2She says, "Listen: the black is this world, in which you dwell. And the fiery and blood-red is because this world must be destroyed by blood and fire. But the golden portion is you who have escaped this world. For just as gold is tested by fire and becomes useful, so also you are being tested in them. Therefore, those who remain and are burned by it will be purified. Just as gold casts off its dross, so also you will cast off every grief and distress, and you will be purified and will be useful for the building of the tower.

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