Graphic Bible · Scene 17 of 17
Historical Library · Apostolic Fathers
Shepherd of Hermas — Mandate 11
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. Retain change their minds: this is retreat from baptism or vacillation into divination, not repentance toward God. Preserve the adverse direction.
Shepherd of Hermas 40:17
Trust and Keep Away
Testing the Prophet by the Life · Shepherd of Hermas 40
Story guide: The shepherd concludes by urging trust in one spirit and avoidance of the other.
Open this scene in the reader →1721. You see, then, that things from above, though very small when they fall upon the earth, have great power; so also the divine spirit that comes from above is powerful. Trust in this spirit, but keep away from the other.”
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