Grape gathering from elm trellises in Italy, an 1849 illustration. " For as a round stone cannot become square unless portions be cut off and cast away, so also those who are rich in this world cannot be useful to the Lord unless their riches be cut down." The Shepherd of Hermas was one of the most popular and widely-read books in early Christianity. Written during the first half of the second century, The Shepherd was “the most widely read Christian book outside our present biblical canon in the first five centuries of the Church” with more copies discovered in Egypt before the fourth century than any other New Testament book, including even the Gospels of Matthew and John.[1][2][3] The fourth century Codex Sinaiticus included it among the books of the New Testament, and it is spoken of as scripture by theologians such as Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Tertullian.[4] This popular text was composed in Rome over the span of about forty years and includes five v
By Miguel Escobar