λώμενοι ἀγαθῷ,[1] οὐ κρίσει δικαίᾳ, χήρᾳ καὶ ὀρφανῷ οὐ προσέχοντες, ἀγρυπνοῦντες οὐκ εἰς φόβον Θεοῦ ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ τὸ πονηρόν, ὧν μακρὰν καὶ πόρρω πραΰτης καὶ ὑπομονή, ἀγαπῶντες μάταια, διώκοντες ἀνταπόδομα, οὐκ ἐλεῶντες πτωχόν, οὐ πονοῦντες ἐπὶ καταπονουμένῳ, εὐχερεῖς ἐν καταλαλιᾷ, οὐ γινώσκοντες τὸν ποιήσαντα αὐτούς, φονεῖς τέκνων, φθορεῖς πλάσματος Θεοῦ, ἀποστρεφόμενοι τὸν ἐνδεόμενον, καταπονοῦντες τὸν θλιβόμενον, πλουσίων παράκλητοι, πενήτων ἄνομοι κριταί, πανθαμάρτητοι.
XXI. Καλὸν οὖν ἐστίν μαθόντα τὰ δικαιώματα τοῦ Κυρίου, ὅσα γέγραπται, ἐν τούτοις περιπατεῖν. ὁ γὰρ ταῦτα ποιῶν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ δοξασθήσεται· ὁ ἐκεῖνα ἐκλεγόμενος μετὰ τῶν ἔργων αὐτοῦ συναπολεῖται.
Next in order follows the Shepherd of Hermas, with a date not much later than the Epistle of Barnabas, and certainly one of the oldest Christian works outside the canon of the New Testament. Here we have again the doctrine of the two ways, called here the ὀρθὴ and στρεβλὴ ὁδὸς, the straight and the crooked path, and two angels are fancifully represented as presiding over them. "Walk thou," says the author of the Shepherd, "in the straight path, and avoid the crooked." The notion of duality in conduct, of two lines of life laid before every one, one to be avoided, and the other to be followed, is insisted upon in Hermas chiefly on ethical grounds, and with little reference to Scripture, but more to the δίκαιον and ἄδικον of the philosophic schools, and even an
- ↑ Rom. xii. 9.
