purposes. This does not result in a wooden literality. Sound exegesis takes note of

symbols and figures of speech. These have their place, but it is evident that God uses

human words in their normal accepted meaning, otherwise how could He convey His

truth to men?

The epistle of Barnabas shows two great flaws: (1) Failure to interpret the Word

aright through extensive use of allegory. (2) Failure to grasp that good deposit of

doctrine made known by the risen Christ to the Apostle Paul as the channel of Truth to

the Gentiles, so fitting in this peculiarly Gentile age.

Among the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, perhaps that which makes the strangest

reading to Christian minds today is The Shepherd of Hermas. Hermas was a slave or a

freedman in Rome, who lived somewhere around the last decade of the first century. In

ancient times two opinions prevailed as regards his identity. Some held that he was the

Hermas of Rom. 16: 14. Origen states this opinion (Comment in Rom. lib. 10:31), and

it is repeated by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 3:3) and Jerome (De Vris Illustribus e.10:). The

second opinion is based on the Muratorian fragment on the Canon. This states "The

Pastor was written very lately in our times, in the city of Rome by Hermas, while

bishop Pius, his brother, sat in the chair of the church of the city of Rome". In view of

conflicting evidence, it is not possible to be dogmatic as to who the author was, but it is

certain that this writing is an early composition.

Hermas claimed to be a Christian prophet, and so the work begins with a series of

four visions emphasizing repentance, in which he has interview with the angel of

repentance, whom he calls the Shepherd. Three or four years later Hermas produced a

larger work, The Shepherd proper, which begins with an apocalypse. Then follows a

series of twelve Commands, showing how the truly repentant believer should live, and

after this ten parables occur, setting forth the workings of repentance. Hermas was

evidently concerned with the low standard of Christian walk in the Roman church and

he sought, by his writing, to stir up believers at Rome and elsewhere. The Shepherd of

Hermas was highly thought of by early Christians and was accepted as part of inspired

Scripture by Clement of Alexandria towards the end of the second century, and by Origen

in the third, Tertullian first accepted it, but later repudiated it. Eusebius, the historian, put

it among the rejected writings. It stood at the end of the Codex Sinaiticus, about the

middle of the fourth century. Athanasius (367A.D.) recommended it to converts for

private reading.

What is the true value of this work? It is a loose presentation in allegorical form of

what the writer deemed to be Christian truth, but when it is brought to the test of the N.T.,