Shepherd of Hermas 42

First Testament

Second Testament

Shepherd of Hermas

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Kirsopp Lake ▾

1“Put on, therefore, joyfulness, which always has favour with God and is acceptable to him, and flourish in it; for every joyful man does good deeds, and has good thoughts, and despises grief. 2But the mournful man always does wickedly. First of all he does wickedly because he grieves the Holy Spirit, which is given to man in joyfulness, and secondly he grieves the Holy Spirit by doing wickedly, not praying nor confessing to the Lord. For the intercession of the mournful man has nowhere power to ascend to the altar of God.”^a 3“Why,” said I, “does not the intercession of the mournful man ascend to the altar?” “Because,” said he, “grief sits in his heart. Therefore, the grief which is mixed with his intercession does not permit the intercession to ascend in purity to the altar. For just as vinegar mixed with wine has not the same agreeableness, so also grief mixed with the Holy Spirit, has not the same power of intercession. 4Therefore purify yourself from this wicked grief, and you shall live to God, and all shall live to God who cast away from themselves grief, and put on all joyfulness.”

Footnotes

a2 of the mournful man — συμψέλλιον cannot be here translated by the same word as in Vis. 111. i. 4. Here it is the ‘bench’ of the learner as opposed to the ‘chair’ of the teacher.