SHEPHERD OF HERMAS

SHEPHERD OF HERMAS. This apocalypse, a series of revelations or visions, is aimed at teaching repentance (q.v.), and is a book divided into “Visions,” “Mandates,” and “Similitudes.” The revelations are communicated to Hermas by the Church, represented by a woman, and by the archangel in charge of Christians. The dating of the book is ca. A.D. 148 in Rome, since Bishop Pius is described as the brother of Hermas “sitting on the throne of the church of the city of Rome.” Although theoretically an apocalypse, the genre is baroque, for every revelation there is also an accompanying ethical explanation: Its only real purpose is ethical and practical, not a revelation of a divine mystery. The fascination that 2nd-c. readers had for apocalypse was used by Hermas to teach them a new approach to sin after Baptism (qq.v.).

The single most important message of the book is that there is the possibility of repentance after Baptism, explained in the respective divisions of the book in different ways-though that repentance is limited to a single occasion. This teaching differs from what was probably the then-current practice in Rome wherein repentance from capital sins was not considered possible after Baptism, i.e., there was no second confession (q.v.). Although The Shepherd of Hermas is not contained in the canon of Scripture (q.v.), it is worth noting that both Eastern and Western Christianity took its advice in modifying the developing penitential discipline.