The Shepherd of Hermas
The Shepherd of Hermas was written sometime within the late first to mid-second century and was popular among early Christians. It was discovered bound in at least two surviving ancient codices (books) of the New Testament. Some of the early church fathers, such as Irenaeus, considered it to be canonical Scripture.1
The Shepherd of Hermas contains the following exchange between Hermas and the Angel of Repentance:2
Hermas: “Sir, if any one has a wife who trusts in the Lord, and if he detect[s] her in adultery, does the man sin if he continue[s] to live with her?”
Angel of Repentance: “As long as he remains ignorant of her sin, the husband commits no transgression in living with her. But if the husband know[s] that his wife has gone astray, and if the woman does not repent, but persists in her fornication, and yet the husband continues to live with her, he also is guilty of her crime, and a sharer in her adultery.”
Hermas: “What then, sir, is the husband to do, if his wife continue[s] in her vicious practices?”
Angel of Repentance: “The husband should put her away, and remain by himself. But if he put[s] his wife away and marry another, he also commits adultery.”
Hermas: “What if the woman put away should repent, and wish to return to her husband: shall she not be taken back by her husband?”
Angel of Repentance: “Assuredly. If the husband do[es] not take her back, he sins, and brings a great sin upon himself; for he ought to take back the sinner who has repented. But not frequently. For there is but one repentance to the servants of God. In case, therefore, that the divorced wife may repent, the husband ought not to marry another, when his wife has been put away. In this matter man and woman are to be treated exactly in the same way.”
1. Robert Davidson, and A. R. C. Leane, Biblical Criticism (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1970), 230.
2. Roberts, Alexander, and James Donaldson, eds. Ante-Nicene Christian Library: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, Volume I. Edinburgh, UK: T. and T. Clark, 1867, 352–3.