Vision Second.
Again, of His Neglect in Chastising His Talkative Wife and His Lustful Sons, and of His Character.
About a year later while journeying to the district of the Cumans, Hermas was recalling his previous vision. "And again," he writes, "the Spirit carried me away, and took me to the same place where I had been the year before." [1] (See Kindle Location 244.). Here he has a vision of the old woman reading a book. She asks him “Can you carry a report of these things to the elect of God?” [2]He agrees to transcribe her book for the elect, but as soon as he was finished, the book was snatched away from him.
After fifteen days of prayer and fasting, the meaning of the writing was revealed to him. His wife and sons have sinned greatly, but will repent and be saved when they’ve heard the words revealed to Hermas. Then the old woman says the strangest thing:"For the Lord has sworn by His glory, in regard to His elect, that if any one of them sin after a certain day which has been fixed, he shall not be saved. For the repentance of the righteous has limits." [3]
And likewise, this words:
For the Lord hath sworn by His Son, that those who denied their Lord have abandoned their life in despair, for even now these are to deny Him in the days that are coming. To those who denied in earlier times, God became gracious, on account of His exceeding tender mercy.” [4]
Hermas will be saved by his simplicity and self-control, should he remain faithful. Hermas is told to relay a message to someone by the name of Maximus. He is to warn him of the coming great tribulation. Apparently this Maximus had once denied the Lord and he is now being warned of times coming that he might again be placed in a similar situation. "The Lord is near to them who return unto Him, as it is written in Eldad and Modat, who prophesied to the people in the wilderness.” [5]
If I understand this, there may have been a ideology that suggested if we are called to deny the Lord in the face of persecution, let us do that to save ourselves, we can always repent later. Who are Eldad and Medad? We read of them in Numbers 11:26–29 (ESV)
26 Now two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27 And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the assistant of Moses from his youth, said, “My lord Moses, stop them.” 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
These may have apocryphal books attributed to them that are now lost. They may have provided a similar warning in their writings.
A young man then reveals to him that the old woman is the Church (not the Sibyl as he had presumed). Sibyl was "one of a number of women regarded as oracles or prophets by the ancient Greeks
and Romans." [6] Hermas is instructed to write two books, one for Clemens (Is this Clement of Rome?) and the other for Grapte. Clemens will send his to foreign countries; and Grapte will "admonish the widows" (presumably she is a deaconess.) And Hermas is to "read the words in this city, along with the presbyters who preside over the Church.” [7]
There are significant questions in this Vision that arise. I the theology of the visions such that the saved can be lost? Is there something here that limits the time of repentance for sin even toward the saved of God? At this point it is confusing. Also, why would a Christian man such as Hermas think favorably toward a pagan prophetess?
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1. Schaff, Philip (2009-06-08). Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 2 - Enhanced Version (Early Church Fathers) (Kindle Locations 389-391). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.
2. Ibid, (Kindle Location 393).
3. Ibid, (Kindle Locations 409-411).
4. Ibid, (Kindle Locations 416-419).
5. Ibid, (Kindle Locations 430-432).
7. Schaff, Philip (2009-06-08). Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 2 - Enhanced Version (Early Church Fathers) (Kindle Location 442). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.
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