The writings of the Apostolic Fathers

1681. Go ... wishes. And you will obtain the victory, and will be crowned on account of it, and you will arrive at good desire, and you will deliver up the victory which you have obtained to God, and you will serve Him by acting even as you yourself wish to act.—Vat.

1682. Chapters third, fourth, and part of fifth, are omitted in the Palatine.

1683. God. The Lord.—Vat.

1684. If ... kept, omitted in Vat.

1685. Isa.xxix. 13; Matt. xv. 8.

1686. John xii. 40; 2 Cor. iii. 14.

1687. Empty. Half full.—Vat.

1688. Trust God. Believe ye, then, who on account of your sins have forgotten God.—Vat.

1689. Practise ... days, omitted in Vat.

1690. Matt.x. 28; Luke xii. 5.

1691. Rule over ... commandments. But we shall conquer him completely, if we can keep these commandments.—Vat.

1692. This sentence may be also rendered thus, giving ἕνεκεν the meaning of “as regards,” “respecting”—a usual enough signification: “What then do you intend to do, as you have a law in your own city regarding your lands and the rest of your possessions?” The Vatican punctuates the passage so that it runs as follows: “What then will you do, who have a law in your own city? Will you, on account of your land, or any other of your preparations, be able to deny your law?” The Vatican also omits several clauses that are in the Greek, down to “for if thou shalt deny, and shalt desire to return,” etc.

1693. See ... law, omitted in Lips.

1694. The Vatican has: “Acquit widows, and do justice to orphans.”

1695. The Vatican renders, “Do not covet, therefore, the riches of the heathen.”

1696. The Vatican, rendering παραχαράσσετε, adulterare, proceeds as if the reference were to adultery. “Neither touch another man’s wife, nor lust after her, but desire your own work, and you will be saved.”

1697. The Vatican reads: “Unless this vine be attached to the elm, and rest upon it, it cannot bear much fruit. For, lying upon the ground, it produces bad fruit, because it is not suspended upon the elm.”

1698. The Vatican here makes Hermas interrupt the Shepherd, and ask, “How greater than the vine?”

1699. The translation of the text is based on the Palatine. Lips. reads: “When the rich man fills out upon the poor.” Hilgenfeld amends this: “When the rich man recovers breath upon the poor.” Neither gives sense. The Æthiopic has: “But if the rich man lean on the poor;” and the Greek of Hilgenfeld might mean: “When the rich man recovers his breath by leaning on the poor.” The Vatican is quite different: “When, therefore, the rich man helps the poor in those things which he needs, the poor man prays to the Lord for the rich man, and God bestows all blessings upon the rich man, because the poor man is rich in prayer, and his prayer has great merit with God. Then the rich man accordingly assists the poor man’s things, because he feels that he is fully heard (exaudiri) by the Lord; and the more willingly and unhesitatingly does he give him every help, and takes care that he wants for nothing. The poor man gives thanks to God for the rich man, because they do their duty in respect to the Lord (a Domino).”

1700. The sentence in brackets is not in Lips. It is taken from Pal.

1701. The Vatican renders this thus: “Why do they resemble those that are, as it were, withered?”

1702. Summer. Throne.—Lips.

1703. The Vatican has, “And all the merry and joyful shall be restored in that age.”

1704. The Vatican adds, “for his successors.”

1705. i.e. attach the vines to stakes.

1706. The Vatican adds, “Having called together his friends.”

1707. Pseudo-Athanasius gives this paragraph as follows: “First of all be on your guard to fast from every evil word and evil report, and purify your heart from every defilement and revenge, and base covetousness. And on the day on which you fast, be content with bread, and herbs, and water, giving thanks to God. And having calculated the amount of the cost of the meal which you intended to have eaten on that day, give it to a widow, or an orphan, or to some one in want, so that, having clearly filled his own soul, he shall pray to the Lord on your behalf. If you therefore perform your fasting as I enjoined you, your sacrifice will be acceptable before the Lord, and inscribed in the heavens in the day of the requital of the good things that have been prepared for the righteous.”

1708. Literally, “self-willed” (αὐθάδης).

1709. This clause occurs only in the Vatican. It does not occur in Lips., Pal., or in the Æth.

1710. The sentence in brackets is omitted in Lips. and Æth., occurs in Vat. and Pal.

1711. This passage varies in each of the forms in which it has come down, and is corrupt in most, if not in all. The Vatican (Lat.) has, “Because the messenger hears the Holy Spirit, which was the first of all that was poured (infusus) into a body in which God might dwell. For understanding (intellectus) placed it in a body as seemed proper to Him.” The Pal. reads: “For that Holy Spirit which was created pure [first] of all in a body in which it might dwell, God made and appointed a chosen body which pleased Him.” The Æth. reads: “The Holy Spirit, who created all things, dwelt in a body in which He wished to dwell.”

1712. The Vatican renders this sentence: “This body, therefore, into which the Holy Spirit was led, was subject to that Spirit, walking rightly, modestly, and chastely, and did not at all defile that Spirit. Since, then, that body had always obeyed the Holy Spirit, and had laboured rightly and chastely with it, and had not at any time given way, that wearied body passed its time as a slave; but having strongly approved itself along with the Holy Spirit, it was received unto God.” The Palatine is similar. The Æth. reads: “That body served well in righteousness and purity, nor did it ever defile that Spirit, and it became His partner, since that body pleased God.”

1713. πορεία. Vatican, potens cursus.

1714. The passages within brackets are omitted by Lips. and Æth.

1715. Omitted in Lips. Æth. has simply, “But be on your guard now.”

1716. The Vatican has a sentence before this: “For if you sin not afterwards, you will greatly fall away from your former [transgressions].”

1717. Found only in Pseudo-Athanasius. It occurs in none of the translations.

1718. καταφθοράν, translated in Pal. and Vat. by defectio, apostasy, as departure from goodness and truth. The Æthiopic has “ruin.”

1719. Of ... deceit, omitted in Lips. Our translation is made from the Vat.

1720. Pseudo-Athanasius has, “of such men the life is death.”