The Shepherd of Hermas

Hermas

Hermas. The Apostolic Fathers with an English translation by Kirsopp Lake. In Two Volumes. Vol. II. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd. 1913

What, I said, did they bear? Listen, she said: Stripes, imprisonments, great afflictions, crucifixions, wild beasts, for the sake of the Name.

Therefore is it given to them to be on the right hand of the Holiness, and to everyone who shall suffer for the Name; but for the rest there is the left side. But both, whether they sit on the right or the left, have the same gifts, and the same promises, only the former sit on the right and have somewhat of glory.

And you are desirous of sitting on the right hand with them, but your failings are many. But you shall be cleansed from your failings, and all who are not double-minded shall be cleansed from all sins, up to this day.

When she had said this she wished to go away, but I fell at her feet and besought her by the Lord, to show me the vision which she had promised.

And she again took me by the hand and lifted[*](The vision of the town) me up, and made me sit on the couch on the left and she herself sat on the right. And she lifted up a certain glittering rod, and she said to me: Do you see a great thing? I said to her: Lady, I see nothing. She said to me: Behold, do you not see before you a great tower being built on the water with shining square stones?

Now the tower was being built four-square by the six young men who had come with her; but tens of thousands of other men were bringing stones, some from the deep sea, and some from the land, and were giving them to the six young men, and these kept taking them and building.

The stones which had been[*](The stones) dragged from the deep sea, they placed without exception as they were into the building, for they had all been shaped and fitted into the joins with the other stones. And they so fastened one to the other that their joins could not be seen. But the

building of the tower appeared as if it had been built of a single stone.

Of the other stones, which were being brought from the dry ground, they cast some away, and some they put into the building and others they broke up and cast far from the tower.

And many other stones were lying round the tower, and they did not use them for the building, for some of them were rotten, and others had cracks, and others were too short, and others were white and round and did not fit into the building.

And I saw other stones being cast far from the tower, and coming on to the road, and not staying on the road, but rolling from the road into the rough ground. And others were falling into the fire, and were being burnt, and others were falling near the water, and could not be rolled into the water, although men wished them to be rolled on and to come into the water.