HER'MAS, SIIEPIIERD OF (Lat.. from Gk. `Epyiis I. The title of a work (in Greek). writ ten by a Christian of the second century, who lived in Rome; it is included among the works of the Apostolic Fathers (q.v.). Berms was a well-to-do freedman, and a brother of Pius, Bishop of Rome about the middle of the second century. He was an earnest. simple minded Christian, with little education or cul ture, but typical, no doubt, of many in the Church of his day. Some later writers, like Jerome, confuse him with the Hernias mentioned in Rom. xvi. 14, which is not surprising in view of the fact that he refers to persons and events of the Apostolic age as if they were contempo rary. Parts of The Shepherd may have been written near the beginning of the second century. but other parts are obviously later, and the work as a whole should probably be dated not long be fore A.D. 140.
The hook takes its name from one of its prin cipal characters, an old man in shepherd's garb. who appears at the close of the first part, and thereafter attends Hernias as a sort of guardian, committing to his charge certain divine com mands. The general theme is repentance and the duty of moral strenuousness. The book is divided into (1) five 'Visions,' which form the intro duction; (2) twelve 'Mandates.' or command ments respecting the Christian life. and (3) ten `Similitudes,' or parables. which picture among other things the progress of the Church. The whole forms an important source for our knowl edge of second-century Christianity in Rome.
Here and there it shows close resemblances to the Epistle of .Tames. Visions and revelations play such an important part in the hook that it is properly elassed among early Christian apoc alypses. A few recent critics hold that it was originally a .Jewish hook which received Christian revision and enlargement.
For sonic time after it was written opinion was divided as to whether The Shepherd deserved to be classed among the 'Scriptures,' that is, among what we call the canonical books of the New Testament. Irenieus cites from it as 'Scrip ture,' and Clement of Alexandria and Origen es teemed it highly. It was often read in public worship. Tertullian, on the other hand, speaks slightingly of its moral teaching. In the fourth century it was still held jn honor, as Eusebius and Jerome testify, but there was no longer any doubt that it stood outside the sacred canon.
The Greek text, with English translation, has been published by Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, edited by Harmon (Loudon, 1893). An English translation is given in volume i. of the American edition of Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Roberts and Donaldson (Buffalo, 1886). In general con sult: Cruttwell. Literary History of Early Chris tianity, vol. ii. (London. 1893) ; Kruger. History of Early Christian Literature York. 1897) ; Taylor, The Shepherd of Hernias (New York, 1901).