The Little Scroll and the Church

I was walking to Cumae, about the same time of year as the year before, and as I walked I found myself remembering the vision of that year. And again a spirit took hold of me and carried me off to the same place I had been the year before. When I got there I knelt down and began to pray to the Lord and to give glory to his name, because he had counted me worthy and had let me know the sins I had committed before. And when I got up from praying I saw, right in front of me, the elderly lady I had seen the year before. She was walking along, reading a little scroll. She said to me, “Can you carry a report of these things to God’s chosen ones?” I said to her, “Lady, I cannot hold so much in my memory. Give me the little scroll and I will copy it out.” She said, “Take it, and you will give it back to me.” So I took it, and I went off to a spot out in the field and copied the whole thing out letter by letter — I could not make out the syllables. And the moment I had finished the letters of the little scroll, it was snatched out of my hand. Who snatched it, I did not see. [a]

Fifteen days later, after I had fasted and asked the Lord many times, the meaning of the writing was revealed to me. This is what was written there: “Your offspring, Hermas, have set God aside and spoken against the Lord, and in great wickedness they have betrayed their own parents. They earned the name of parent-betrayers, and betraying them did them no good. They have gone on adding to their sins acts of shameless indecency and a filthy tangle of evil, and so their lawless deeds have been filled up. [e]

“But make these words known to all your children, and to your wife, who is going to be your sister. She does not hold her tongue back either, and with it she does wrong; but when she hears these words she will hold back, and she will find mercy. After you have made these words known to them — the words the Master commanded me to have revealed to you — then all the sins they sinned before are forgiven them, and forgiven to all the holy ones who have sinned up to this day, if they repent with their whole heart and take the double-mindedness out of their hearts.

“For the Master has sworn by his own glory concerning his chosen ones: now that this day has been fixed, if anyone sins after it, there is no salvation for them. Repentance for the righteous has a limit. The days of repentance have been filled up for all the holy ones — though for the nations there is repentance right up to the last day. So tell the leaders of the church to set their ways straight in righteousness, so that they may receive the promises in full, with great glory.

“So stand firm, all of you who do what is right, and do not be double-minded, so that your passage over may be with the holy angels. Happy are you, every one of you who endures the great affliction that is coming, and happy are those who will not deny their own life. For the Lord has sworn by his Son that those who deny their Christ have been disowned from their life — those who are about to deny him now, in the days that are coming. But to those who denied him in earlier times he was merciful, because his compassion is great.

“But you, Hermas — stop holding a grudge against your children, and do not let your sister go, so that they may be cleansed from the sins they committed before. They will be disciplined with a just discipline, if you stop holding a grudge against them. Holding a grudge works death. You yourself, Hermas, have had great afflictions of your own because of the wrongs done in your household, because you paid no attention to them. You let it slip your mind, and you got yourself tangled up in your own corrupt business dealings. [p]

“But what saves you is that you did not turn away from the living God, and your single-heartedness, and your great self-control. These have saved you, if you stand firm; and they save everyone who acts this way and walks in innocence and single-heartedness. Such people will prevail over every kind of wickedness and will hold out to eternal life. Happy are all who do what is right: they will never be destroyed.

“And say this to Maximus: ‘Look — affliction is coming. If you think it best, deny again.’ The Lord is near to those who turn back to him, as it is written in Eldad and Modad, who prophesied to the people in the wilderness.”

Now while I was asleep, brothers and sisters, a revelation came to me from a strikingly handsome young man. He said to me, “That elderly lady you took the little scroll from — who do you think she is?” I said, “The Sibyl.” He said, “You are mistaken. She is not.” I said, “Who is she, then?” He said, “The Church.” I said to him, “Then why is she elderly?” He answered, “Because she was created before anything else. That is why she is elderly — and it was for her sake that the world was put together.” [u]

After that I saw a vision in my house. The elderly lady came and asked me whether I had already given the book to the elders. I said I had not. She said, “You have done well. I have words to add. So when I have finished all the words, they will be made known through you to all the chosen ones. You are to write two little scrolls, and send one to Clement and one to Grapte. Clement will send his to the cities outside, since that is what has been entrusted to him. Grapte will instruct the widows and the orphans. And you are to read it aloud in this city, together with the elders who stand in front of the church.”