Table Of ContentExperiencing the Shepherd of Hermas
Ekstasis
Religious Experience
From Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Edited by
John R. Levison
Editorial Board
David Aune, Jan Bremmer, John Collins,
Dyan Elliott, Amy Hollywood, Sarah Iles Johnston,
Gabor Klaniczay, Paulo Nogueira,
Christopher Rowland, and Elliot R. Wolfson
Volume 10
Experiencing the
Shepherd of Hermas
Edited by
Angela Kim Harkins and Harry O. Maier
ISBN 978-3-11-077954-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-078074-1
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-078075-8
ISSN 1865-8792
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022931827
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
Detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgements
ThisvolumebeganasasessionattheannualmeetingoftheSocietyofBiblical
Literature(SBL) in2018,jointlyhostedbytheReligiousExperienceinAntiquity
programunitandtheInventingChristianityprogramunit.Wearegratefultothe
chairs of those SBL program units—Fred Tappenden and Catherine Playoust of
the Religious Experience in Antiquity, and Paul Middleton and Taylor G. Petrey
oftheInventingChristianityprogramunits—foragreeingtohostthissessionon
Experiencing the Shepherd of Hermas.We wish to also acknowledge the assis-
tance of Sheila Boll, Hayden Cowart, and Alexander Klee for their careful
work on the formatting of notes and bibliography, and to Alice Meroz and the
staffatDeGruyterfortheirinvaluablehelp.Finally,wearegratefultotheseries
editor, Jack Levison, and to Albrecht Doehnert at De Gruyter for accepting this
volume into the Ekstasis series.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110780741-001
Abbreviations
AGJU ArbeitenzurGeschichtedesantikenJudentumsunddesUrchristentums
AGSU ArbeitenzurGeschichtedesSpätjudentumsundUrchristentums
AJEC AncientJudaismandEarlyChristianity
APF ArchivfürPapyrusforschung
ANRW AufstiegundNiedergangderrömischenWelt
ARA AnnualReviewofAnthropology
ASE AnnalidiStoriadell’Esegesi
BETL BibliothecaEphemeridumTheologicarumLovaniensium
Bib Biblica
BibInt BiblicalInterpretation
BMSSEC Baylor-MohrSiebeckStudiesinEarlyChristianity
CBQ CatholicBiblicalQuarterly
ConBOT ConiectaneaBiblica:OldTestamentSeries
CQ ChurchQuarterly
CRINT CompendiaRerumIudaicarumadNovumTestamentum
ECL EarlyChristianityanditsLiterature
ETL EphemeridesTheologicaeLovanienses
ExpTim ExpositoryTimes
FAT ForschungenzumAltenTestament
FRLANT ForschungenzurReligionundLiteraturdesAltenundNeuenTestaments
GCS DiegriechischenchristlichenSchriftstellerderersten[drei]Jahrhunderte
HABES HeidelbergeralthistorischeBeiträgeundepigraphischeStudien
HNT HandbuchzumNeuenTestament
HTR HarvardTheologicalReview
JBL JournalofBiblicalLiterature
JCT JewishandChristianTexts
JECS JournalofEarlyChristianStudies
JHS JournalofHellenicStudies
JR JournalofReligion
JRAI JournaloftheRoyalAnthropologicalInstitute
JSJ JournalfortheStudyofJudaism
JSNT JournalfortheStudyoftheNewTestament
JSPSup JournalfortheStudyofthePseudepigraphaSupplementSeries
JTS JournalofTheologicalStudies
KAV KommentarzudenApostolischenVätern
LCL LoebClassicalLibrary
MTSR Method&TheoryintheStudyofReligion
Neot Neotestamentica
NHC NagHammadiCodices
NovTSup SupplementstoNovumTestamentum
NTOA NovumTestamentumetOrbisAntiquus
NTS NewTestamentStudies
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110780741-002
VIII Abbreviations
ODCC OxfordDictionaryoftheChristianChurch
PTS PatristischeTexteundStudien
RThom Revuethomiste
SBL SocietyofBiblicalLiterature
SBLEJL SocietyofBiblicalLiterature:EarlyJudaismanditsLiterature
SBLSP SocietyofBiblicalLiteratureSeminarPapers
SCO Studyclassicieorientali
SNTSMS SocietyforNewTestamentStudiesMonographSeries
ST StudiaTheologica
STAC StudienundTextezuAntikeundChristentum
SVTP StudiainVeterisTestamentiPseudepigrapha
SymS SocietyofBiblicalLiteratureSymposiumSeries
TDNT TheologicalDictionaryoftheNewTestament.EditedbyGerhardKittel,GerhardFrie-
drich,andGeoffreyWilliamBromiley.GrandRapids,MI:W.B.Eerdmans,1985.
TENTS TextsandEditionsforNewTestamentStudy
ThH Théologiehistorique
TU TexteunUntersuchungen
VC VigiliaeChristianae
VCSup SupplementstoVigiliaeChristianae
WUNT WissenschaftlicheUntersuchungenzumNeuenTestament
ZAC ZeitschriftfürantikesChristentum
ZNW ZeitschriftfürdieneutestamentlicheWissenschaftunddieKundederälterenKirche
ZPE ZeitschriftfürPapyrologieundEpigraphik
Foreword
AmongthewritingstohavecomedowntousfromChristianantiquity,theShep-
herd of Hermas is by all accounts a strange and most enigmatic text—strange
and enigmatic, that is, to modern scholarship,which has been poring over its
pages only to find what Robert J. Hauck described as the “many puzzles in
this puzzling little book.”¹ Some of the greatest intellects of the early Christian
Church, such as Irenaeus of Lyon or the Alexandrians Clement and Origen, as
well as many others after them, read the very same book with close attention
and regarded it as an important catechetical and mystagogical work of great
use to God-seekers. Indeed, if there is anything puzzling about the Shepherd,
it is the fact that this text never scandalized the doctrinal certainties of its con-
temporaries or later orthodoxy.
Perhaps our comprehension of texts such as the Shepherd is hampered by the
undeniablediscontinuitybetweentheimpliedreadersofmuchofearlyChristian
literature,andtheactualonesinacademia.TheShepherdhashighexpectations
ofitsreaders,someofwhichareareincomprehensible,unreasonable,orimpos-
sible for scholars.When Hermas isgiven a booklet to read and copy, and finds
that he can onlydecipher and copyeach letter in turn,unable tomakeout syl-
lablesandutterlyfrustratedinhisattempttoreadandunderstand,hissolution
is the following: “Fifteen days later, after I had fasted and earnestly asked the
Lord, the meaning of the writing was revealed to me” (Vis. 2.2 [6.1]);When he
has difficulty makingsense of the parables, he addressesthe angelusinterpres:
“IdonotunderstandnoramIabletocomprehendtheseparablesunlessyouex-
plain them to me” (Sim. 5.3 [56.1]). Needless to say, becoming existentially in-
volvedinthetext,undergoingspiritualconversion,andexercisingoneselfasceti-
cally is not what the guild of Early Christian Studies is set up to do. While
the Shepherd claims to bear witness to divine revelation, a scholarly approach
toancienttextsisbydefinitiononethatmaintainsacriticaldistancetothetext.
Thestudyofvisionaryexperiencesisoneareawheretheacademyhasshiftedin
thepastfiftyyears.AdistinguishedexpertofJewishapocalypticliterature,such
as Michael Stone,who insists, in some of his seminal essays—“Apocalyptic,Vi-
sion, or Hallucination?” (1974), “On Reading an Apocalypse” (1989), and “A
RobertJ.Hauck,“TheGreatFast:ChristologyintheShepherdofHermas,”AnglicanTheolog-
icalReview75(1993):187–98,187.
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