Graphic Bible · Scene 9 of 9

Hermas stands at the right end of the empty couch as the woman gently stops him.
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 3, section i

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 9:9

The Place on the Left

The Secluded Field and the Place on the Left · Shepherd of Hermas 9

Story guide: Hermas’s desired place, the leftward gesture, grief and counsel unfold beside the empty couch. The final empty-seat image is a visual essay on the explanation.

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9So when I wanted to sit on the right side, she did not permit me, but motioned to me with her hand that I should sit on the left side. So as I reasoned and was grieved that she had not allowed me to sit on the right side, she says to me, “Are you grieved, Hermas? The place on the right side belongs to others—those who have already pleased God and suffered for the sake of the Name; but you lack many things to sit with them. But as you remain in your simplicity, remain, and you will sit with them, as will all who do their works and endure what they also endured.”

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