Shepherd of Hermas — Similitude 9 · Chapter 4

Greek (Lake printed edition)

Similitude 9.4.1 As they had stood together around the gateway, so they carried them: those who appeared strong had put themselves beneath the corners of the stone, while the others had placed themselves beneath its sides. In this way they carried all the stones. They carried them through the gateway as commanded and handed them to the men at the tower; those men received the stones and built.

Greek including Lake’s editorial reconstruction from versions

Similitude 9.4.2 The tower was built upon the great rock and above the gateway. Those ten stones were fitted together and filled the whole rock, becoming the foundation of the tower's construction. The rock and the gateway supported the entire tower.

Greek including Lake’s editorial reconstruction from versions

Similitude 9.4.3 After the ten stones, twenty other stones rose from the deep, and these too were fitted into the building of the tower, carried by the virgins like the first ones. After these, thirty-five rose, and they too were similarly fitted into the tower. After these, another forty stones rose, and all of these were put into the building of the tower. Thus there were four courses in the tower's foundations.

Greek (Lake printed edition)

Similitude 9.4.4 The stones stopped rising from the deep, and the builders also stopped for a little while. Again the six men ordered the multitude of the crowd to bring stones from the mountains for the building of the tower.

Greek (Lake printed edition)

Similitude 9.4.5 So stones of various colors were brought from all the mountains, cut by the men and handed to the virgins. The virgins carried them through the gateway and handed them over for the building of the tower. Whenever the variously colored stones were placed in the building, they became alike and white, changing their various colors.

Greek (Lake printed edition)

Similitude 9.4.6 But some stones were handed over by the men for the building and did not become gleaming; they remained as they were when placed there. For they had not been handed over by the virgins or carried through the gateway. These stones, therefore, were unsightly in the building of the tower.

Greek (Lake printed edition)

Similitude 9.4.7 When the six men saw the unsightly stones in the building, they ordered them removed and taken down to their own place, from which they had been brought.

Greek (Lake printed edition)

Similitude 9.4.8 They said to the men bringing the stones, “Do not hand over any stones at all for the building yourselves. Place them beside the tower, so that the virgins may carry them through the gateway and hand them over for the building. For unless they are carried through the gateway by these virgins' hands, they cannot change their colors. Therefore do not labor in vain.”