The Shepherd Of Hermas Volume 1 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... PREFACE AMONG Early Church Classics the Shepherd of Her mas is distinct in species, being neither an epistle, nor a homily, nor a treatise, but a sort of "allegory or religious romance." Picturesque and pleasing in form, and credited with the inspiration which it seemed to claim, the work soon won for itself popularity and influence; for a time it was classed with the sacred writings read in churches; and part of a copy of it is still preserved in one of the chief manuscripts of the Bible in Greek. Whatever may be said in disparagement of the style of " Hermas," he writes with a facility which implies that he had read discursively. For the suggestion that the Tablet or picture of Kebes was one of his main sources I am indebted to the Reverend J. M. Cotterill, Hon. D.D. of the University of St. Andrews. Clearly he drew also from the Old Testament and the New, but to what extent we cannot quite say with certainty; for the reason that he merely works up or plays upon more or less of their contents as literary material, never expressly citing either. A like free handling of the words of Holy Scripture is common to inventive composers in all ages, from the early Christian homilist (p. 162 f.) to writers and speakers of to-day. Traces of books of the Bible in the Shepherd are pointed out in Zahn's Der Hirt des Hernias; in Resch's extra-canonical Paralleltexte zu den Evangelien; and in the commentaries on Hermae Pastor. The Index to the Introduction and Notes in this edition is by Mr. H. J. A. Hart, Fellow of St. John's College. C. Taylor. Cambridge, Nov. 1902. INTRODUCTION i. Authorship And Date. The author of the Shepherd, who is addressed in it as Hermas, used to be reckoned one of the Apostolic Fathers, with Clement of Rome, Ignatius, ...