The Bible, in Protestant circles, contains 66 books. Several councils in the fifth century decided which books made it into the biblical canon and which did not, guided by the Holy Spirit’s counsel. Most churches unanimously agreed which books made it into Scripture—based on authorship, Holy Spirit inspiration, and many other criteria. But some made it so close but didn’t quite make the cut. One of these is a book called The Shepherd of Hermas.
Today’s article will cover what happens in this book, why it didn’t make it into the biblical canon, and what we can learn from it.
What Happens in The Shepherd of Hermas?
The name Hermas, likely derived from the man Paul mentions in Romans 16, is a pseudepigraphical work penned over a century later. It’s broken up into three parts—in which Hermas has five visions—and deals with the idea of living a moral life.
It’s a very long book—twice the size of many of the Gospels.
The narrator is supposedly an enslaved person who has been set free.
He has a vision of his former owner, Rhoda, who claims that he has been sinning by lusting after her.
Each vision encourages Hermas to repent, do penance, and live uprightly. He’s given a handful of mandates and parables to follow.
He also speaks with an angel of righteousness and an older woman. He sees several strange, allegorical visions—about a tower, different angels living inside people (angels of righteousness and wickedness), and the tribulation to come.
All told, it’s a complex book covering a host of topics. It almost seems the writer threw the kitchen sink in with the rest of the book.
Interestingly enough, The Shepherd of Hermas does appear to take on the view of premillennialism. This view believes that people will experience tribulation and the reign of the antichrist before Jesus comes back and begins his millennial reign.
Many early church believers believed in amillennialism, the view that Christ is already doing his 1000-year reign now.
We can find it interesting that people in the early church had different views regarding the end times, much like the church today.
The book tends to deal primarily with the idea of repentance—that we have ample amount of time given to us to make things right and ought to repent from our sins.
Interestingly enough, Jesus never shows up in this book. Most other books considered for the canon talked about him, but we never hear him mentioned by name in this one.
Why Wasn’t The Shepherd of Hermas Included in the Bible?
Some early church Christians did believe that The Shepherd of Hermas was divinely inspired. One of these includes a man by the name of Iraneaus.
He quotes it in his work Against Heresies. Several heresies cropped up in the first few centuries, and Iraneaus wrote against them. You may recognize his name because he was a student of Polycarp, a student of the Apostle John. As early as three generations into the church, some people believed in the inspiration of The Shepherd of Hermas.
So if people like Iraneaus believe it canon, why didn’t it become Scripture?
First, it has dubious authorship.
Although some books like Hebrews don’t have a known author (people have guessed whether it’s Paul, Barnabas, or another writer), we have another category for books that go under a false name—the Pseudepigrapha.
Authors writing in the first- through third-century knew that if they went under the name of a famous apostle or follower of Jesus, people would read their writings. And therefore, they could spread heretical ideas. The Gospel of Thomas is one of the most famous, attempting to spread a false gnostic message under the pseudonym of one of Jesus’ followers.
Because this work was penned far later than the Hermas of Paul’s day, we can assume it falls under this category. Especially since it was written after Revelation, in which John states that not a dot or iota must get added to Scripture.
Second, it has some heretical ideas.
The text doesn’t appear to claim that Jesus was only a man, but it inspired a heresy that makes that claim. Adoptionism believes that Christ started as a man and only a man. And God “adopted” him at baptism and gave him divinity.
Although people throughout history have twisted Scripture, if a book directly inspires a heretical movement that catches fire in the 200s AD, we should probably eye it with suspicion.
Third, there is a difference between a helpful and an authoritative book.
When it comes to which books made the canon and which didn’t, the early church fathers would see who authored it, if the Holy Spirit inspired it, and if other Scripture confirmed it.
Although they didn’t include every book they debated, they found some helpful. Not authoritative, but helpful.
They threw The Shepherd of Hermas into this category. The Shepherd of Hermas encourages readers to live moral lives. As long as people didn’t read it as inspired Scripture, they could flick through the pages of this to remind themselves of our need for obedience to God.
What Can We Learn from The Shepherd of Hermas?
Although not every book makes it into the Bible, we can still learn much from the early church writings.
And as we can imagine, there’s a lot to glean from a book that discusses how to live a moral life.
First, we get the angel and demon on your shoulder from this book.
Have you ever seen a movie in which a person debates an action? An angel and demon appear on his shoulder and tell him he should either do the right thing or the wrong thing. This image comes from The Shepherd of Hermas.
We struggle with whether we should do right or wrong. Because although Christ has claimed us as his own, we still struggle with the flesh.
It’s important to know the origin story of illustrations such as this one.
Second, we should trust the early church fathers and the canonization of Scripture.
They took this job very seriously and chose not to include The Shepherd of Hermas for many reasons.
Nevertheless, the early church fathers did view the text as helpful. In the same way, we have the writings of the early church fathers, Christian living books, and even this article you’re reading. Scripture inspires none of these books, but they are all helpful in understanding our faith better.
We should attribute different authority to the Bible than our morning devotional book. But we should also see the benefits of both.
Finally, it’s important to remember even the church fathers and mothers argued.
Theologians often talk about primary matters (the core ideas crucial to Christianity, like Jesus being God’s son) and secondary matters (ideas that there is room for debate on, like where Jesus’ spirit went when he was in the tomb). Even in the church’s early days, people had different views on secondary matters. From views on the millennium to their relationship to God—Hermas viewed his relationship to God as a slave and a master—the first century Christians debated a lot of things.
Christians who didn’t fall into heresy agreed on the same core values. But they viewed God and interpreted certain texts differently from one another.
In the same way, Christians today have differing views on secondary matters. Our environment, the church we attend, and so on all affect the lens through which we see Scripture.
As long as we believe in the core values of the Bible—seen in the early church creeds—we can have grace with one another over secondary issues.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/andrewsafonov
Hope Bolinger is an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, book editor for hire, and the author of almost 30 books. More than 1500 of her works have been featured in various publications. Check out her books at hopebolinger.com for clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. Check out her editing profile at Reedsy.com to find out about hiring her for your next book project.
