{"author":"Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)","date_end":1885,"date_label":"1885 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain)","date_start":1885,"edition_year":1885,"edition_year_basis":"Original ANF II title and imprint 1885; physical transcription printing date uncertain; original credit allocation and transcription differences remain qualified","id":"ws-library-full-note:3b2d6d10a818defd751c:cite_note-9","is_genuine_commentary_verified":false,"license_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Reusing_Wikisource_content","public_import_allowed":true,"publication_location":"source-library","record_type":"editorial-footnote","references":[],"rights_approved":true,"section":"Chapter uncertain; original source section: Introductory Note, editorial note cite_note-9","semantic_kind_reviewed":false,"source_context":["This view of the subject, moreover, explains historical facts which have been so unaccountable to many critics; such as the general credit it obtained, and that its influence was greater in the East than among Latins. But once commended to the Asiatic churches by Pius, as a useful instruction for the people, and a safeguard against the Phrygian excesses, it would easily become current wherever the Greek language prevailed. Very soon it would be popularly regarded as the work of the Pauline Hermas, and as embodying genuine prophesyings of the apostolic age. A qualified inspiration would thus be attributed to them, precisely such as the guarded language of Origen suggested afterwards: hence the deutero-canonical repute of the book, read, like the Apocrypha, for instruction and edification, but not cited to establish any doctrine as of the faith. It must be remembered, that, although the Roman Church was at first a Grecian colony, and largely composed of those Hellenistic Jews to whom St. Paul’s arguments in his Epistle to the Romans were personally appropriate, yet in the West, generally, it was not so: hence the greater diffusion of The Shepherd written in Greek, through the Greek churches. There, too, the Montanists were a raging pestilence long before the West really felt the contagion through the influence of the brilliant Tertullian. These facts account for the history of the book, its early currency and credit in the Church. Nor must we fail to observe, that the tedious allegorizing of Hermas, though not acceptable to us, was by no means displeasing to Orientals. To this day, the common people, even with us, seem to be greatly taken with story-telling and “similitudes,” especially when there is an interpreter to give them point and application."],"source_library_url":"/library/3b2d6d10a818defd751c/#ws-library-full-note:3b2d6d10a818defd751c:cite_note-9","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_II/The_Pastor_of_Hermas/Introductory_Note#cite_note-9","translator":"Frederick Crombie (original ANF II translator credit; per-book allocation uncertain), Alexander Roberts (Edinburgh series editor), James Donaldson (Edinburgh series editor), Arthur Cleveland Coxe (American revision with prefaces and notes), Jesse Ames Spencer (typographical and Scripture-reference corrections)","verification":{"proof_file":"raw/review/source-library-note-batch-0061/proof-records.jsonl","proof_file_sha256":"7c4407a5986a306f1eaff33bf3f1bf135fc2e65f72270d1b3381ed0616bfbce3","proof_record_id":"ws-library-full-note:3b2d6d10a818defd751c:cite_note-9"},"verified":true,"work":"The Pastor of Hermas","work_id":"ws-anf2-remaining-1885-3b2d6d10a818defd751c"}