The Events of Holy Thursday

Maundy Thursday, also known as “Holy Thursday” is the Thursday of Passion Week, one day before Good Friday (the Thursday before Easter). Maundy Thursday is the name given to the day on which Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, known as the Last Supper. Two important events are the focus of Maundy Thursday.

First, Jesus celebrated the Last Supper with His disciples and thereby instituted the Lord’s Supper, also called Communion ..................


To read more: http://www.gotquestions.org/Maundy-Thursday.html#ixzz2OCuslDXw

The Shepherd of Hermas - Visions 4 and 5

Vision Fourth.

Concerning the Trial and Tribulation

that are to Come Upon Men.

This fourth vision is summarized by Hermas: "Twenty days after the former vision I saw another vision, brethren—a representation of the tribulation that is to come."[1]  I note that this is addressed to "brethren" therefore implying a prophetic communication to the Church.  In this vision, Hermas is confronted by a whale-like beast with fiery locusts in its mouth and four colors upon its head. Hermas places his trust in the Lord and is not harmed. Beyond the beast, he meets the woman, this time young and dressed in white, as a virgin. She tells him "this beast is a type of the great tribulation that is coming. If then ye prepare yourselves, and repent with all your heart, and turn to the Lord, it will be possible for you to escape it, if your heart be pure and spotless, and ye spend the rest of the days of your life in serving the Lord blamelessly."[2]

She explains the colors to be four ages of the world: black is the current darkness, red the perishing of the world by blood and fire, gold is what remains after the test, and white the purity of eternal life. . While the beast represented calamities that awaited the world, it would be powerless against faithfulness and repentance.

Vision Fifth.

Concerning the Commandments.

In the last vision, Hermas is visited by an angelic figure dressed like a shepherd who was sent to dwell with him for the remainder of his life and deliver to him the commandments of the Lord. “The Shepherd,” then, is the “angel of repentance,” here represented as a guardian angel. [Notation #151] The shepherd's task was to give him the twelve commandments that he was not only to write down but also to obey.  The Shepherd says to him:

"First of all, then, write down my commandments and similitudes, and you will write the other things as I shall show you. For this purpose,” said he, “I command you to write down the commandments and similitudes first, that you may read them easily, and be able to keep them.”[3]

This is the shepherd for which the book is named.

In the fourth vision,. Then the old woman returned (now as a young bride) and praised him for his faith. He was told to share his vision with the elders

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[1] Schaff, Philip (2009-06-08). Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 2 - Enhanced Version (Early Church Fathers) (Kindle Locations 825-827). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 858-860).

[3] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 923-925).

The Shepherd of Hermas - Vision 3

Vision Third.

Concerning the Building of the Triumphant Church, and

the Various Classes of Reprobate Men.

While Hermas was fasting and praying the old woman came to him again. “Since you are so anxious and eager to know all things, go into the part of the country where you tarry; and about the fifth hour I shall appear unto you, and show you all that you ought to see.”[1] At the place, he found an ivory seat and the old woman did not appear until he began confessing his sins to God.  There were young men present which the old lady dispatched to go an build.  Then she asked Hermas to set on her left. "While I was thinking about this, and feeling vexed that she did not let me sit on the right, she said, 'Are you vexed, Hermas? The place to the right is for others who have already pleased God, and have suffered for His name’s sake; and you have yet much to accomplish before you can sit with them. But abide as you now do in your simplicity, and you will sit with them, and with all who do their deeds and bear what they have borne.'”[2]  What they had to bear and what Hermas may have to bear is persecution and trial.

Then, she showed him the vision that she had promised, a host of young men led by her six attendants who were building a mighty tower from square stones. It was built upon waters. It was built square. "myriads of men were carrying stones to it, some dragging them from the depths, others removing them from the land, and they handed them to these six young men."[3]  These were perfect and were placed just as they were. Others were from the earth and had defects, some being altered or even cast away unused.  The old lady is wanting to leave but Hermas presses her for more understanding.

She reveals that the tower is her, the Church. It is built on the water that saves mankind and is supported by the invisible power of the Lord. When asked why the tower (the Church) was built on water, the lady answers, "It is because your life has been, and will be, saved through water. For the tower was founder on the word of the almighty and glorious Name and it is kept together by the invisible power of the Lord.”[4]  Hermas learns that the six men building are angels.

The young men are the holy angels and the six attendants are the greatest amongst them. The different kinds of stones are the saints and the sinners, ranging from the polished and tight-fitting ones being the clergy who act in unity and the stones cast away being those not saved due to their sins. Some stones are found acceptable and others are set aside for a time for various reasons until they become useful for building.  The various types of stones are:

1. There are square stones which are the apostles, bishops, etc. who have been faithful, peaceful and cooperative.

2. The stones dragged from the depths and are in the building are those who have suffered for Christ's sake.

3. Other stones dragged from the land and fitted into the building without polishing are those who the Lord has found to be righteous.

4. There are some being brought and placed in the building. They are young in the faith but righteous.

5. Who are the ones that are rejected? These are the ones that have sinned and need to repent if they are to be used.

6. There are some thrown far away. "They are the sons of iniquity, and they believed in hypocrisy, and wickedness did not depart from them."[5]

7. There were other stones lying around not going into the building. "Those which are rough are those who have known the truth and not remained in it, nor have they been joined to the saints."[6]

8.  There are some who have rents and are shortened.  These stones include those who are not at peace with one another and some who have lots of sin in their lives but not entirely.

9. There are some that are white and round and do not fit into the building. "These are those who have faith indeed, but they have also the riches of this world. When, therefore, tribulation comes, on account of their riches and business they deny the Lord.”[7]  When they have been "circumscribed" they will be useful.

Hermas asks the lady if repentance is possible for those who have been discarded and cast away. “Repentance,” said she, “is yet possible, but in this tower they cannot find a suitable place. But in another and much inferior place they will be laid, and that, too, only when they have been tortured and completed the days of their sins."[8]

The woman points out that there are seven women around the tower, supporting it: Faith, Self-restraint, Simplicity, Guilelessness, Chastity, Intelligence, and Love. Each is the daughter of the prior.  Hermas is commanded to speak the words of this revelation to the saints. Hermas wanted to know why the woman appeared very old to him in the first vision and progressively younger in the others that followed. After praying for this to be revealed and fasting, a young man appeared to him and explained that the age of the woman, that is the Church, was a reflection of his spirituality and strength.

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[1] Schaff, Philip (2009-06-08). Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 2 - Enhanced Version (Early Church Fathers) (Kindle Locations 510-511). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 525-528).

[3] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 539-541).

[4] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 563-565).

[5] Ibid, (Kindle Location 595).

[6] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 598-599).

[7] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 605-607).

[8] Ibid, (Kindle Locations 622-624).

You All Together Are the Temple of God

"Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, ESV).   This is an amazing assertion.  It's an assertion that we often individualize, especially as we think of Paul's second letter to Corinth.  “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16, ESV) .  In both cases the "you" is plural.  The sense is captured by the NLT this way:

“Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, NLT)

Greek: “Οὐκ οἴδατε ὅτι ναὸς θεοῦ ἐστε καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν” (1 Corinthians 3:16, SBLGNT) where ὑμῖν is the second person plural present indicative .  We are all of us together the Temple of God.  Therefore the destruction of that Temple is a heinous crime.  “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:17, ESV) . "The one who destroys God’s temple (in this context, the church) is not part of God’s people and so faces eternal destruction on the final day, just as God eventually destroyed the Babylonians who had destroyed Solomon’s temple." - Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (2195). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Shepherd of Hermas - Vision 2

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).

6. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sibyl

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.



The Shepherd of Hermas - Vision 1

Vision First.

Against Filthy and Proud Thoughts, and the Carelessness of Hermas in Chastising His Sons.

The beginning varies.  In the translation [1] I use we read, "He who had brought me up, sold me to one Rhode in Rome."  Elsewhere we read "He who had brought me up, sold a certain young woman at Rome. Many years after this I saw her and recognized her.”  She had presumably died.

It seems that while walking and admiring God's creation he fell asleep and saw a vision on this "certain young woman."  She had come to accuse him of sin on account of an impure thought the Hermas had once had concerning her. He was to pray for forgiveness for himself and all his house.

He is consoled by a vision of the Church in the form of an aged woman, weak and helpless from the sins of the faithful, who tells him to do penance and to correct the sins of his children. 

"While I was thinking over these things, and discussing them in my mind, I saw opposite to me a chair, white, made of white wool,35 of great size. And there came up an old woman, arrayed in a splendid robe, and with a book in her hand; and she sat down alone, and saluted me . . .." [2]

Who was this woman and what did she want?   Her message to Hermas was that God was not angry at him because of this sin, but because of the state of his household. "For, on account of their sins and iniquities, you have been destroyed by the affairs of this world." [3]  Hermas was to admonish his sons for their sin and if they repent they will be restored. The Lady then recounts this doxology:

“Lo, the God of powers, who by His invisible strong power and great wisdom has created the world, and by His glorious counsel has surrounded His creation with beauty, and by His strong word has fixed the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth upon the waters, and by His own wisdom and providence has created His holy Church, which He has blessed, lo! He removes the heavens and the mountains, the hills and the seas, and all things become plain to His elect, that He may bestow on them the blessing which He has promised them, with much glory and joy, if only they shall keep the commandments of God which they have received in great faith.” [4]

The Lady left with this thought, "Be a man!"




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1. Schaff, Philip (2009-06-08). Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 2 - Enhanced Version (Early Church Fathers) (Kindle Locations 238-239). Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.
2. Ibid, (Kindle Locations 267-270).
3. Ibid, (Kindle Locations 281-282).
4. Ibid, (Kindle Locations 293-300).

The Shepherd of Hermas - Introduction

THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS

Ποιμήν του Ερμά

A compilation of writings attributed to a Roman by the name of Hermas was recognized some 50 years after Clement of Rome.  Some think that it is a compilation of works done between 90 and 150 A.D.  Some refer to this work as a religious allegory.  Origen of Alexandria[1] believed that this Hermas was the same mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:14 (ESV) , "¹⁴ Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them."  Phillip Schaff adopts the view that Hermas was a contemporary of Clement.^[2]

The set " consists of five visions  . . . this is followed by twelve mandates or commandments, and ten similitudes, or parables."[3]

"The revelator in Visions 1–4 was a woman representing the church, and in Vision 5 through Similitude 10 was the angel of repentance in the guise of a shepherd—hence the name of the work. The Visions focus especially on the last days and mention the imminence of the great tribulation several times. The Mandates and Similitudes provide teaching on Christian behavior and principles respectively and served as a textbook for catechetical instruction in the second and third centuries." ^[4]

Apparently Hermas was read in the early centuries as Pilgrim's Progress is read and revered today. At the time of Eusebius and Jerome it was read in public worship.  Most view the writings as apocryphal and valuable to read. The Greek original even disappeared for centuries, until it turned up unexpectedly in the middle of the nineteenth century.^[5]

Who was the author of this book? Origen saw in him the Hermas whom St. Paul greets at the end of his Epistle to the Romans (xvi, 14). Others have made him a contemporary of St. Clement of Rome, according to vision ii, 4, 3. By far the most probable opinion is that based upon the authority of the Canon of Muratori, and that of the Liberian Catalogue, which makes Hermas a brother of Pope Pius I (c. 140-155). "As to the Shepherd" says the Muratorian Fragment, "it has been written quite recently, in our own time, in the city of Rome, by Hermas, while Pius, his brother, occupied, as bishop, the see of the Church of the city of Rome." (A Handbook of Patrology)

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd_of_Hermas

^[2] Schaff, P., & Schaff, D. S. (1910). History of the Christian church. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shepherd_of_Hermas

^[4] Vos, H. F., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1996). Exploring church history. Nelson's Christian Cornerstone Series. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[5] Schaff, P., & Schaff, D. S. (1910). History of the Christian church. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.