There is no trace in the NT of either atpean or ffxif/ia denoting a party that had separated itself from the main boay. Pharisees and Sadducees were sects in Judaism, not withdrawn from it. Such sects were, so to speak, recognized, not depre-
HERITAGE
HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF 561
cated. Again, the pai'ties in the Corinthian Church which called themselves after the names of Paul, Cephas, Apollos, and Christ were divisions in the Cimrch, not separated from it. It was the harm done by strife and the absence of that spirit of unity and charity, which is the very essence of Christianity, that called for the Apostle's rebukes. By the time that we pass into the sub-apostolic period, aiperns connotes theological error and false teaching, and the sense of a sect or party gradu- ally recedes till it passes away entirely. Two passages from Ignatius may be quoted in support of this : oTi irdvTes /caret d\rj9eiai> '^rjre /cat ort ev v/mlv ovdefiia atpeais KaroiKel (ad Eph. vi.) ; and Trapa/caXcS o^v vfids . . . /xourj rrj XpidTiavfj rporprj XPV'^^^'> d-Wo- Tpias 8k ^oravTis d-jrexeffOe, ijris icTTiv aipecns (ad Trail.
vi.). MoELEY Stevenson.
HERITAGE.— See Heir.
HERMAS ("EpyuSy, Ro 16").— Hermas is a Greek name, a contracted form of several names such as Hermagoras, Hermeros, Hermodorus, Hermogenes, etc., common among members of the Imperial household (J. B. Lightfoot, Philippians*, 1878, p. 176). It is the last of a group of five names (all Greek) of persons, and 'the brethren with them,' saluted by St. Paul. Nothing is known of any member of the group. It is conjectured that to- gether they formed a separate iKicX-qcria or ' church,' the locality of which we shall suppose to have been Rome or Ephesus, according to our view of the destination of these salutations. Cf. vv.^ ^^ and perhaps v.^^ and 1 Co 16'^ and perhaps Ac 20-''. Possibly these live men were heads of five separate household churches, or leaders or office-bearers in the Church. T. B. Allworthy.
HERMAS, SHEPHERD OF.— This valuable and interesting relic of the life and thought of the early Roman Church may be described as a manual of personal religion, cast in an imaginative form. It has been compared in the latter respect with Bunyan's Pilgrims Progress, with Dante's Divina Commedia, and with the visions of such mystics as St. Teresa and St. Catherine of Siena. Whether it be looked upon as a work of allegorical fiction, or, as G. Salmon strenuously maintains (Historical Introduction to the NT', p. 529 ff. ), a record of actual dream experience, or again, as may well be, a com- bination of both, its strong moral earnestness and its didactic purpose are equally apparent. It is primarily a call to repentance, addressed to Chris- tians among Avliom the memory of persecution is still fresh ( Vis. iii. 2, 5, Sim. is. 28), and over whom now hangs the shadow of another great tribulation (Vis. ii. 2, iv. 2). From the first Vision, with its revelation of the sinfulness of sins of thought, and of neglect of responsibility for others, to the last Parable, where the greatness of the Shep- herd, the supernatural Being ' to whom alone in the whole world hath authority over repentance been assigned ' (Sim. x. 1), is ordered to be declared to men, the theme is repentance and amendment of life.
Indeed, the little book would almost seem to have been written partly as an attempt to break through the iron ring of despair resulting from a rigorous acceptance of those words in the Epistle to the Hebrews which speak of the impossibility of repentance for sin committed after baptism (6^ and 12"). The subject is discussed in the Fourth Commandment (Mand. iv. 3) in a curiously simple manner. The authority of this teaching is admitted verbally, and then an exception is made, which covers the whole teaching of the book. ' I have heard. Sir,' says Hermas, ' from certain teachers, that there is no other repentance, save that which
VOL. I. — 36
took place when we went down into the water and obtained remission of our former sins.' The Shep- herd replies that this is so. They that have believed, or shall believe, have not repentance, but only re- mission of their former sins. He then, however, goes on to say that, if after this great and holy calling any one, being tempted of the devil, shall commit sin, he hath only one (opportunity of) re- pentance. This one opportunity, however, would seem to be embodied in the Shepherd himself, who was sent 'to be with you who repent with your whole heart, and to strengthen you in the faith' (xii. 6), and whose command to Hermas is, 'Go, and tell all men to repent, and they shall live unto God ; for the Lord in His compassion sent me to give repentance to all, though some of them do not deserve it, for their deeds ' (Sim. viii. 11).
1. Authorship. — There are a few references scattered through the work to the circumstances of its author. He had originally been a slave, and was sold to one Rhoda, in Rome (Vis. \. 1). After his freedom he had engaged in business and pros- pered (iii. 6). but he had been con-upted by the affairs of this world (i., iii.), practising deception in the course of his business (Mand. iii.). However, he had lost his riches, and become useful and profitable unto life ( Vis. iii. 6). His worldly loss seems to have been connected with the misdeeds of his children (i., iii.), who had not been very strictly looked after by him. His wife is represented as a person who did not sufficiently restrain her tongue (ii. 2). Hermas depicts himself as slow of under- standing, but insatiable in curiosity (Mand. xii. 4, Sim. V. 5), and at the same time as ' patient and good tempered and always smiling,' ' full of all simplicity and of great guiielessness ' (Vis. i. 2).