The Shepherd of Hermas TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY CHARLES H. HOOLE, M.A. SENIOR STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD RIVINGTONS INTRODUCTION. T occurred to the author of the present translation, while collecting materials illustrative of the earliest period of Christian antiquity, that many English readers might be interested to see a translation of the oldest Christian allegory, a work which, though never unanimously accepted as canonical in the early Church, was generally considered to be inspired, was publicly read in churches, and cited as an authority in controversies. It has indeed been already translated into English, but has only appeared as part of a larger collection, and in connexion with works not so likely to interest the general reader. But the Shepherd of Hermas has a distinctive interest of its own, not shared by any other work of the period of the Apostolic Fathers, as being the oldest example of those allegorical 1 The Latin version was translated into English by Archbishop Wake, and there is a translation of the Greek text in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library, now in the course of publication by Messrs. Clark of Edinburgh. |