Chap. III.
"But as for you, Hermas, remember not the wrongs done to you by your children, nor neglect your sister, that they may be cleansed from their former sins. For they will be instructed with righteous instruction, if you remember not the wrongs they have done you. For the remembrance of wrongs worketh death. 1 And you, Hermas, have endured great personal 2 tribulations on account of the transgressions of your house, because you did not attend to them, but were careless 3 and engaged in your wicked transactions. But 4 you are saved, because you did not depart from the living God, and on account of your simplicity and great self-control. These have saved you, if you remain stedfast. And they will save all who act in the same manner, and walk in guilelessness and simplicity. Those who possess such virtues will wax strong against every form of wickedness, and will abide unto eternal life. Blessed are all they who practice righteousness, for they shall never be destroyed. Now you will tell Maximus: Lo! 5 tribulation cometh on. If it seemeth good to thee, deny again. The Lord is near to them who return unto Him, as it is written in Eldad and Modat, 6 who prophesied to the people in the wilderness."
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The Vat. adds: but forgetfulness of them, eternal life. [Lev. xix. 18. See Jeremy Taylor, Of Forgiveness, Discourse xi. vol. i. p. 217. London, Bohn, 1844.] ↩
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Personal. Worldly.--Vat. ↩
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You ... careless. You neglected them as if they did not belong to you.--Vat. [See cap. iii. supra, "easy-minded."] ↩
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But you will be saved for not having departed from the living God. And your simplicity and singular self-control will save you, if you remain stedfast.--Vat. ↩
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Now you will say: Lo! Great tribulation cometh on.--Vat. Lo! Exceedingly great tribulation cometh on.--Lips. [Maximus seems to have been a lapser, thus warned in a spirit of orthodoxy in contrast with Montanism, but with irony.] ↩
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[The sense is: This is the temptation of those who pervert the promises made to the penitent. They may say, "we are threatened with terrible persecution; let us save our lives by momentarily denying Christ: we can turn again, and the Lord is nigh to all who thus turn, as Eldad and Medad told the Israelites."] Eldad (or Eldat or Heldat or Heldam) and Modat (Mudat or Modal) are mentioned in Num. xi. 26, 27. The apocryphal book inscribed with their name is now lost. Cotelerius compares, for the passage, Ps. xxxiv. 9. ↩
