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NON-CANONICAL APOCALYPSES AND REVELATORY TREATISES
(I, 4) Then, when she finished reading and rose up from the chair, four young men came and took the chair and went away to the east. 2 She called me over and touched my breast and said to me, “Did my reading please you?” I said to her, “Lady, these last words are pleasing to me, but the earlier ones were difficult and hard.” She said to me, “These last words are for those who are upright, but the former are for the outsiders and apostates.” 3 While she was speaking with me, two other men appeared and took her by the arms and went away to the east, where the chair was. She went away cheerfully; and while she was going she said to me, “Be a man,b Hermas.”
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Vision Two (II, 1) I was traveling to the countryside at the same time as the previous year, and on the way I remembered the vision from the year before. And again a spirit took me and bore me to the same place I had been then. 2 And so, when I came to the place I bowed my knees and began praying to the Lord and glorifying his name, be cause he considered me worthy and showed me my former sins. 3 When I arose from prayer I saw across from me the elderly woman I had seen the year before, walking and reading a little book. And she said to me, “Can you announce these things to the ones chosen by God?” I said to her, “Lady, I cannot remember so many things. Give me the book to make a copy.” “Take it,” she said, “and then return it to me.” 4 I took it and went away to another part of the field, where I copied the whole
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thing, letter by letter, for I could not dis tinguish between the syllables. And then, when I completed the letters of the book, it was suddenly seized from my hand; but I did not see by whom. (II, 2) Fifteen days later, after I had fasted and asked the Lord many things, the meaning of the writing was revealed to me. These are the words that were written: 2 “Your offspring, Hermas, have re jected God, blasphemed the Lord, and betrayed their parents with a great evil. And even though they have been called betrayers of their parents, they have gained nothing from their betrayal. Yet they have added still more licentious acts to their sins and piled on more evil; and so their lawless acts have gone as far as they can go. 3 But make these words known to all your children and your wife, who is about to become your sister. For she also does not restrain her tongue, but uses it to perpetrate evil. But when she hears these words she will control it and receive mercy. 4 After you have made known to them these words that the Master has com manded me to reveal to you, then all the sins they formerly committed will be for given them, along with those of all the saints who have sinned till this day, if they repent from their whole heart and remove double-mindedness from it. 5 For the Master swore by his own glory to his chosen ones: ‘If there is any more sinning once this day has been ap pointed, they will not find salvation. For there is a limit to repentance for those
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b
Or: Be courageous