The Shepherd of Hermas

I took it and went away to a certain place in the country, and copied it all, letter by letter, for I could not distinguish the syllables.[*](Hermas no doubt means that it was written, like most early MSS., in a continuous script with no divisions between the words.) So when I had finished the letters of the little book it was suddenly taken out of my hand; but I did not see by whom.

But after fifteen days, when I had fasted and[*](The contents of the little book) prayed greatly to the Lord, the knowledge of the writing was revealed to me. And these things were written:

Your seed, Hermas, have set God at naught, and have blasphemed the Lord, and have betrayed their parents in great wickedness, and they are called the betrayers of parents, and their betrayal has not profited them, but they have added to their sins wanton deeds and piled up wickedness, and so their crimes have been made complete.