The Ninth Similitude [of the Shepherd
of Hermas] speaks of stones which ‘did . . . come up from the deep though
they had already received the seal (σφραγις)’. Hermas explains
their meaning thus:
These, the apostles and the teachers
who preached the name of the Son of God, after they had fallen asleep in the
power and faith of the Son of God, preached also . . . to them that had fallen
asleep before them (προκεκοιμημενοις), and themselves
gave unto them the seal (σφραγις) of the preaching.
Therefore they went down with them into the water, and came up again . . . So
by their means they were quickened into life, and came to the full knowledge of
the name of the Son of god. (IX, 16:5-7)
The symbolism of this passage is
beyond doubt. The water represents the infernal regions, the lower waters, in which
the dead abide. From what has already been said, it is clear that those who ‘had
fallen asleep before’ must be the men of the various generations of the Old
Testament, who died before the coming of Christ. The most curious point,
however, is the last: it is not Christ who goes down to them but ‘the Apostles
and the teachers’. They, after their death go down to the infernal regions, and
this descent has a twofold purpose; they proclaim (εκηρυξαν) salvation, but above all they procure the salvation
which they proclaim by giving the seal (σφραγις), that is,
by baptism; after this both parties rise from the waters, that is, they are
restored to life.
Once again this is a reflection on the
salvation of the saints of the Old Testament. The context is still strictly
Jewish Christian, but a new problem is raised. Baptism is absolutely necessary
for salvation, but the saints of the Old Testament were not baptised; hence
they have to receive baptism. This is clearly stated in the previous passage:
It was necessary for them to rise up
through the water, that they might be made alive; for otherwise they could not
enter into the Kingdom of God, except they had put aside the deadness of their
former life. So these likeness that had fallen asleep received the seal (σφραγις) of the Son of God and entered into the Kingdom
of God. For before a man, saith he, has borne the name of (the Son of) God, he
is dead; but when he has received the seal (σφραγις), he layeth aside his deadness, and resumeth
life (IX, 16:2-3).
At this stage the descent of the
Apostles to Hell intervenes. It was to the Apostles that the mission of giving
baptism had been entrusted, and if baptism was necessary to every soul, then
their mission must take them to every soul. Now the souls of the saints of the
Old Testament were in Hell; and so to Hell the Apostles must go. This strange conception,
the naive solution in Clement of Alexandria, who refers to this passage from
the Shepherd, but enlarges the conception by extending baptism to the
Gentile righteous who have been pleasing to God, whether after the Law or
before it, and among whom he mentions Abel and Noah (Strom. II, 43:5;
cf. also Strom. VI, 45:4). (Jean Daniélou, The Theology of Jewish
Christianity: The Development of Christian Doctrine Before the Council of
Nicaea [trans. John A. Baker; London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964], 237-38)
The descent of the Apostles to Hell in
order to baptize the saints of the Old Testament is one of the most curious features
in the Shepherd; but this baptism in Hell is found elsewhere attributed
to Christ himself. This is so, for example, in the Epistle of the Apostles:
I willed to give their reward to those
whom I had caused to set their hope upon it. Therefore I descended, and spake
with Abraham, Isac and Jacob, and with your fathers the Prophets, and
proclaimed to them in Hell that rest in Heaven to which they are to come. With
my right hand I gave them the baptism of life, pardon and remission of all
evil, as I did for you (26-27). (Ibid., 239)