The Shepherd of Hermas, Chapter 2 summary

What happens

1. A Spirit carries Hermas to a familiar place, where an aged woman lends him a book to copy.
2. After fifteen days of fasting and prayer, Hermas receives the meaning of the writing.
3. The message condemns his family's sins, demands repentance, and warns believers against denial during approaching tribulation.
4. Hermas receives instructions to correct his family without resentment and warn Maximus against denying again.
5. A young man tells Hermas that the aged woman is the Church, created before everything else.
6. At Hermas's house, the woman orders copies for Clement and Grapte and a public reading with the elders.

In this chapter

The key line

“Bearing a grudge brings death.”The message in the book

The warning makes Hermas's response to his family's wrongdoing part of his own moral responsibility. Correction must not become resentment.

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