I. THEOLOGICAL TEXTS

4705—4707. HERMAS, PASTOR The Shepherd of Hermas

Published below are fragments of three papyrus manuscripts of the Pastor of Hermas, an early Christian ‘extracanonical’ work, well attested among papyri; for an annotated catalogue, see K. Aland (†), H.-U. Rosenbaum, Repertorium der griechischen christlichen Papyri, II/1: Kirchenväter-Papyri Repertory of Greek Christian Papyri, II/1: Church Father Papyri (Berlin—New York 1995) 232—311 (KV 29—43; the four parchment fragments are not included). The new items bring the total number of published papyri of Hermas to twenty-three (twenty-five with I 5 = KV 59 and P. Mich. inv. 6427, which contain quotations); two of them (P. Bodmer XXXVIII and P. Mich. 129) are very extensive. As expected, the bulk are codices; only two come from rolls (P. Berol. 5513, P. Mich. 130), to which 4705 (written on the back of a roll; cf. P. Mich. 130) and 4706 are now to be added.

The three new papyri are of considerable interest: they are early in date; offer a number of good readings not found elsewhere (but also others that are plainly wrong); and two of them (4705–6) transmit portions of the Visiones Visions, not well represented in papyri (otherwise only in P. Amh. II 190, P. Bodmer XXXVIII, and P. Berl. Sarisch. 9; P. Harr. I 128, which contains parts of Vis. V, need not come from a codex that contained Vis. I–IV).

On the text of Pastor and the papyri, see A. Carlini, ‘La tradizione testuale del Pastore di Erma e i nuovi papiri’ The textual tradition of the Shepherd of Hermas and the new papyri, in G. Cavallo (ed.), Le strade del testo The roads of the text (Bari 1987) 23–43; id., Papyrus Bodmer XXXVIII: Erma: Il pastore (I^a–III^a visione) Papyrus Bodmer XXXVIII: Hermas: The Shepherd (1st-3rd Vision) (Cologny—Genève 1991) 15 ff.; Aland & Rosenbaum, Repertorium pp. lxxxv–xcvii. There is a steady flow of new textual witnesses: see M. Bandini, G. Lusini, ‘Nuove acquisizioni intorno alla tradizione testuale del Pastore di Erma in greco e in etiopico’ New acquisitions concerning the textual tradition of the Shepherd of Hermas in Greek and Ethiopic, SCO 46 (1997) 625–35; G. Lusini, ‘Nouvelles recherches sur le texte du “Pasteur” d’Hermas’ New research on the text of the "Shepherd" of Hermas, Apocrypha 12 (2001) 79–97.

As a basis for collation I have used the editions of M. Whittaker, Der Hirt des Hermas The Shepherd of Hermas (GCS 48: Berlin 1967²), and (U. H. J. Körtner,) M. Leutzsch, (Papiasfragmente.) Hirt des Hermas (Darmstadt 1998). The sigla used are the following: A = Codex Athous; B = P. Bodmer XXXVIII; F^a = Lavra K 96 (ed. M. Bandini, RHT 30 (2000) 109–22); M = P. Mich. 129; S = Codex Sinaiticus; C¹ = the Achmimic Coptic translation; L¹ = the old Latin version (vulgata); L² = the Latin Palatine version; E = the Ethiopic version. (Readings from the indirect tradition and the translations are cited rather selectively.)

N. GONIS

4705. HERMAS, VISIO I 1.8–9

102/168(b)

Third century Plate I

A fragment of a roll, broken on all sides, written across the fibres on the back of an