Sunday, October 2, 2022

Carolyn Osiek on Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.29.1-3

Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9.29.1-3 reads as follows:

 

"From the twelfth, white mountain are believers like these: they are like innocent babies, for whom no evil arises in their heart nor do they even know what evil is, but they remain always in innocence. People like these will dwell in the kingdom of God without hesitation because they did not defile the commandments of God in any way, but remained in innocence all the days of their life in the same attitude. Those who remain," he said, "and will be like babies, having no evil, will be held in greater honor than all those already mentioned. All babies are honored before God and hold first place with him. Blessed are you who have removed evil from yourselves and have put on innocence. You will live to God before all the rest." (Carolyn Osiek, The Shepherd of Hermas [Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1999], 243-44)

 

Commenting on this passage, Osiek noted that

 

The twelfth mountain is all white and from it come the innocents, a vision of an ideal church and ideal believers with which Hermas is not dealing directly. It has a general parallel in Vis. 3.5.3. It is not clear what is the difference between them and the guileless ones of the seventh mountain (chap. 24) except that there the emphasis was on the peaceful and effective aspect of their social relationships, whereas here the emphasis is on their own personal innocence and the complete absence of any evil tendency in their hearts-sure evidence that here we are dealing with the strictly ideal. Verse 3a-b is addressed to a hypothetical group that probably finds no actual correspondence in the community: the completely innocent. It is something of a puzzle that Hermas would interject such an ideal at the end of a heartening portrayal of real people with real problems, except that perhaps he thought he had to say it under the influence of the Christian ideal of childlike innocence. ss "Simplicity" (απλοτης) and "innocence" (ακακια) are among the seven or twelve virtues symbolized by the young women who help build the tower, but the term in vv. 1-2 is νηπιστης ("like a very small child"). The presentation serves no paraenetic purpose except to introduce v. 3c, the real message, a makarism on those who have distanced evil from themselves (οσοι αν αρητε αφ' εαυτων την πονηριαν) and put on innocence (ακακια), a virtue that can be gained after falling. Then, surprisingly in view of the previous verses, such people will have first priority in heavenly life (πρωτοι παντων ζησεσθε τω θεω) rather than the martyrs of the previous chapter. (Ibid., 252)