Whatever opinion critics may have in regard to the authorship, there can be but one opinion as to the date. The Pastor of Hermas must have been written at an early period. The fact that it was recognised by Irenæus as Scripture shows that it must have been in circulation long before his time. The most probable date assigned to its composition is the reign of Hadrian, or of Antoninus Pius. The work is very important in many respects; but especially as reflecting the tone and style of books which interested and instructed the Christians of the second and third centur- ies. The Pastor of Hermas was written in Greek. It was well known in the Eastern Churches: it seems to have been but little read in the Western. Yet the work bears traces of having been written in Italy. For a long time the Pastor of Hermas was known to scholars only in a Latin version, occurring in several mss. with but slight vacations. But within recent times the difficulty of settling the text has been increased by the discovery of various mss. A Latin translation has been edited, widely differing from the common version. Then a Greek ms. was said to have been found in Mount Athos, of which Simonides affirmed that he brought away a portion of the original and a copy of the rest. Then a ms. of the Pastor of Hermas was found at the end of the Sinaitic Codex of Tischendorf. And in addition to all these, there is an Æthiopic translation. The discussion of the value of these discoveries is one of the most difficult that can fall to the lot of critics; for it involves not merely an examination of peculiar forms of words and similar criteria, but an investigation into statements made by Simonides and Tischendorf respecting events in their own lives. But whatever may be the conclusions at which the critic arrives, the general reader does not gain or lose much. In all the Greek and Latin forms the Pastor of Hermas is substantially the same. There are many minute differ- ences; but there are scarcely any of importance,—perhaps we should say none. In this translation the text of Hilgenfeld, which is based on the Sinaitic Codex, has been followed. The letters Vat. mean the Vatican manuscript, the one from which the common or Vulgate version was usually printed. The letters Pal. mean the Palatine manuscript edited by Dressel, which contains the Latin version, differing considerably from the common version. The letters Lips. refer to the Leipzig manuscript, partly original and partly copied, fur- nished by Simonides from Athos. The text of Anger and Dindorf (Lips., 1856) has been used, though reference has also been made to the text of Tischendorf in Dressel. 8 The letters Sin. refer to the Sinaitic Codex, as given in Dressel and in Hilgenfeld’s notes. The letters Æth. refer to the Æthiopic version, edited, with a Latin translation, by Ant- onius D’Abbadie. Leipzig, 1860. 10 Introductory Note