Synopsis
Extremely popular in its time, The Shepherd of Hermas is a second-century work often used for instruction of catechumens, and in fact, is widely regarded as scripture. In it Hermas, a rich freed slave whose wealth was not always lawfully obtained, undergoes and relates several visions (including one from an angel disguised as a shepherd), repents, and offers advice on Christian teaching and behavior.
Comprehensive and careful, Carolyn Osiek's is the only full-length commentary on "The Shepherd" in English. Hermas's revelations afford us glimpses of religious imagination, social world, and moral ideals among early second-century Roma
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About the Authors
Carolyn Osiek is Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas. Her previous books include: Shepherd of Hermas (Hermeneia, Fortress Press, 1999).
Helmut Koester is John H. Morison Research Professor of Divinity and Winn Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chair of the New Testament Board of the Hermeneia commentary series. He is editor of numerous volumes in the Hermeneia series as well as Cities of Paul: Images and Interpretations from the Harvard New Testament and Archaeology Project on CD-ROM (2004, 978-0-8006-3673-9) and author of Paul and His World: Interpreting the New Testament in Its Context (2007, 978-0-8006-3890-0).
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From the Introduction: 1 Literary Character 1.1 History of the Text 1.1.1 Manuscript History
No other noncanonical writing was as popular before the fourth century as the Shepherd of Hermas. It is the most frequently attested postcanonical text in the surviving Christian manuscripts of Egypt well into the fifth century. That it later became unknown in the East while continuing to be popular in the West in Latin translation through the Middle Ages, and that it is relatively unknown today in the churches either East or West, reflect differing responses to differing needs in differing times.
In the case of such a text that was not necessary to preserve carefully for its historical or literary character, but which was freely used in a variety of church settings, "it is doubtful whether there ever was an authoritative text after the writer's autograph copy had perished." If the text was composed over a long period of time and on the basis of oral use, it is even doubtful whether the author had one authoritative text. The enormous variety of readings within a relatively small range of manuscripts witnesses to the diverse uses to which the text was put.
The Greek text was unknown in modern times until the discovery of Codex Athous. The text is preserved in four substantial manuscripts, none of them complete:
Codex Athous (A), dated to the fifteenth century, contains almost the entire text, from the beginning to the end of Sim. 9.30.3, thus about 95%. The leaves were discovered in 1855 on Mt. Athos and the facsimile edition published in 1907. The text was thought by many at first to be a retroversion from Latin, but only with the subsequent discovery of another Greek text in Codex Sinaiticus was A vindicated as an edition of the original Greek text.
Codex Sinaiticus (S), dated to the fourth century, was discovered by Tischendorf in the major New Testament manuscript at the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai. Hermas follows the Letter of Barnabas and breaks off four and one-half words into Man. 4.3.6; thus about the first quarter is preserved.
Michigan Papyrus 129 (M), dated to about 250 CE and published in 1934, contains most of Sim. 2.8--9.5.1 with occasional lacunae, thus most of the third quarter of the text.
Bodmer Papyrus 38 (B), dated to the late fourth or early fifth century, bound with a previously unknown revelatory work entitled the Vision of Dorotheus, contains Visions 1-3, and is more closely related to S than to A. It was published in 1991.
In addition, there are approximately twenty-one Greek fragments known to date, depending on whether one counts individual fragments or discrete publications of fragments. They include two miniatures intended to be worn as amulets or for handy reading, and a small fragment of the Mandates published in 1912 as a "medical text" but not identified as belonging to Hermas until 1979--80 and now tentatively dated to the early second century.
Two complete Latin translations are invaluable where the Greek manuscripts are not extant except for a few fragments and quotes: Sim. 9.30.3--10.4.5. The Vulgate (L), extant in several exemplars, is a translation usually considered very old, perhaps late second century; it was first published in 1873. The Palatine (L) is extant in two fifteenth-century manuscripts, Vat. Palatinus lat. 150 and Vat. Urbinas lat. 486, the latter a copy of the former; but the translation is thought to be of the fourth or fifth century; a critical edition was published in 1877. L is more closely related to A.
An Ethiopic (E) translation of the fourth century is of questionable value because of its own theological tendencies, which play freely with the text, but its existence testifies to enlarged circles of interest in the book. Fragmentary Akhmimic (C) and Sahidic (C), Coptic translations from the fourth and fifth centuries, and Middle Persian and Georgian translations witness to the widespread popularity of Hermas in the early church.
A first attempt at a critical edition was tried by J. Cotelier in Paris in 1672, by aligning a Latin text with the known Greek fragments. A critical text was published in 1856, but the Latin text was available only on the basis of a partially counterfeit copy of the Palatine text done by Constantin Simonides, who had taken three of the original nine leaves preserved, transcribed the rest, and made up what was lacking. Several critical editions were done in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Two critical editions are in use today, those of Whittaker and Joly. Of the two, that of Whittaker is superior, though Joly's is also partly commentary and therefore contains introductory essays.
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