Generally speaking, Hermas’s piety, especially in its language, adheres closely to Old Testament forms. But it is doubtful (pace Spina and Völter, who assume a Jewish or a proselyte basis) whether this means more than that the Old Testament was still the Scriptures of the Church. In this respect, too, Hermas faithfully reflects the Roman Church of the early 2nd century (cf. the language of 1 Clem., esp. the liturgical parts, and even the Roman Mass). Indeed the prime value of the Shepherd is the light it casts on Christianity at Rome in the otherwise obscure period c. 110-140, when it had as yet hardly felt the influences converging on it from other centres of tradition and thought. Thus Hermas’s comparatively mild censures on Gnostic teachers in Sim. ix. suggest that the greater systems, like the Valentinian and Marcionite, had not yet made an impression there, as Harnack argues that they must have done by c. 145. This date, then, is a likely lower limit for Hermas’s revision of his earlier prophetic memoranda, and their publication in a single homogeneous work, such as the Shepherd appears to be. Its wider historic significance—it was felt by its author to be adapted to the needs of the Church at large, and was generally welcomed as such—is great but hard to determine in detail.[5] What is certain is its influence on the development of the Church’s policy as to discipline in grave cases, like apostasy and adultery—a burning question for some generations from the end of the 2nd century, particularly in Rome and North Africa. Indirectly, too, Hermas tended to keep alive the idea of the Christian prophet, even after Montanism had helped to discredit it.
Literature.—The chief modern edition is by O. von Gebhardt and A. Harnack, in Fasc. iii. of their Patr. apost. opera (Leipzig, 1877); it is edited less fully by F. X. Funk, Patr. apost. (Tübingen, 1901), and in an English trans., with Introduction and occasional notes, by Dr C. Taylor (S.P.C.K., 2 vols., 1903-1906). For the wide literature of the subject, see the two former editions, also Harnack’s Chronologie der altchr. Lit. i. 257 seq., and O. Bardenhewer, Gesch. der altkirchl. Lit. i. 557 seq. For the authorship see [Apocalyptic Literature], sect. III.
(J. V. B.)
[1] More than one interpretation, typical or otherwise, of this “Clement” is possible; but none justifies us in assigning even to this Vision a date consistent with that usually given to the traditional bishop of this name (see [Clement I.]). Yet we may have to correct the dubious chronology of the first Roman bishops by this datum, and prolong his life to about A.D. 110. This is Harnack’s date for the nucleus of Vis. ii., though he places our Vis. i.-iii. later in Trajan’s reign, and thinks Vis. iv. later still.
[2] That a prior vision in which Hermas was “delivered” to the Shepherd’s charge, has dropped out, seems implied by Vis. v. 3 f., Sim. x. 1. 1.
[3] Harnack places “The Shepherd” proper mostly under Hadrian (117-138), and the completed work c. 140-145.
[4] A careful study of practical Christian ethics at Rome as implied in the Shepherd, will be found in E. von Dobschütz, Christian Life in the Primitive Church (1904).
[5] Note the prestige of martyrs and confessors, the ways of true and false prophets in Mand. xi., and the different types of evil and good “walk” among Christians, e.g. in Vis. iii. 5-7; Mand. viii.; Sim. viii.