Vision Second.
Again, of His Neglect in Chastising His Talkative Wife and His Lustful Sons, and of His Character.
Chap. I.
As I was going to the country55 about the same time as on the previous year, in my walk
I recalled to memory the vision of that year. And again the Spirit carried me away, and took
me to the same place where I had been the year before.56 On coming to that place, I bowed
my knees and began to pray to the Lord, and to glorify His name, because He had deemed
me worthy, and had made known to me my former sins. On rising from prayer, I see opposite
me that old woman, whom I had seen the year before, walking and reading some book. And
she says to me, “Can you carry a report of these things to the elect of God?” I say to her,
“Lady, so much I cannot retain in my memory, but give me the book and I shall transcribe
it.” “Take it,” says she, “and you will give it back to me.” Thereupon I took it, and going
away into a certain part of the country, I transcribed the whole of it letter by letter;57 but
the syllables of it I did not catch. No sooner, however, had I finished the writing of the book,
than all of a sudden it was snatched from my hands; but who the person was that snatched
it, I saw not.
Chap. II.
Fifteen days after, when I had fasted and prayed much to the Lord, the knowledge of
the writing was revealed to me. Now the writing was to this effect: “Your seed, O Hermas,
has sinned against God, and they have blasphemed against58 the Lord, and in their great
wickedness they have betrayed their parents. And they passed as traitors of their parents,
and by their treachery did they not59 reap profit. And even now they have added to their
sins lusts and iniquitous pollutions, and thus their iniquities have been filled up. But make
known60 these words to all your children, and to your wife, who is to be your sister. For she
does not61 restrain her tongue, with which she commits iniquity; but, on hearing these
words, she will control herself, and will obtain mercy. For after you have made known to
55 Country; lit. to the villages. From Cumæ—Vat. While I was journeying in the district of the Cumans.—Pal.
56 [Ezek. i. 1; iii. 23.]
57 Going … Letter. [Ezek. ii. 9; Rev. x. 4.] Now taking the book, I sat down in one place and wrote the whole
of it in order.—Pal. In the ancient mss. there was nothing to mark out where one word ended and another
commenced.
58 God … against. Omitted in Vat.
59 Not, omitted in Vat.
60 Make known. Rebuke with these words.—Vat. [Your sister in Christ, i.e., when converted.]
61 Let her restrain her tongue.—Vat. [Jas. iii. 5–10.]
Vision Second. Again, of His Neglect in Chastising His Talkative Wife and His Lustful Sons, and of His Character.
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Vision Second. Again, of His Neglect in Chastising His Talkative Wife and…