Shepherd of Hermas — Vision 3, Chapter 7
Rolled from the Road into Trackless Places
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Vision 3.7.1“The other stones you saw thrown far from the tower, falling onto the road and rolling from the road into trackless places, are people who have believed but abandon their true way because of their double-mindedness. Thinking they can find a better way, they wander and suffer as they walk through trackless places.
Vision 3.7.2“Those falling into the fire and burning are people who have finally departed from the living God. The thought of repenting no longer rose into their heart because of their desires for licentiousness and the wicked deeds they committed.
Vision 3.7.3“Do you wish to know who the others are, those falling near the waters but unable to roll into the water? These are people who heard the word and wished to be baptized into the name of the Lord. Then, when the purity of the truth comes to their remembrance, they change their minds and go back again after their evil desires.”
Vision 3.7.4She thus finished the explanation of the tower.
Vision 3.7.5Still acting boldly, I asked her whether all these stones that had been rejected and did not fit into the tower’s building had any repentance and a place in this tower. “They have repentance,” she said, “but they cannot fit into this tower.
Vision 3.7.6“They will fit into another, much lesser place, and that only when they have been tormented and have completed the days of their sins. They will be transferred for this reason: because they shared in the righteous word. And then it will happen that they are transferred out of their torments, because of the evil works they committed. But if it does not rise into their heart, they are not saved, because of their hardness of heart.”
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.