Texts in Conversation
The Christian theologian Tertullian’s instructions on prayer use language from the Shepherd of Hermas, where the narrator prays and then sits before receiving a vision. This posture became an example that influenced early Christian tradition.
Share:
Shepherd of Hermas 25:1
Early Christian
1 As I was praying in the house, and sitting on the couch, there entered a man glorious in appearance, in the clothing of a shepherd, with a white skin wrapped around him, and with a bag on his shoulders and a staff in his hand. And he greeted me, and I greeted him in return. 2 And he immediately sat down by my side, and he says to me, “I was sent by the most holy angel, so that I might stay with you for the rest of your days.” 3 I thought he had come to tempt me, and I said to him, “Why, who are you? For I know,” I said, “the one to whom I was entrusted.” He says to me, “Do you not recognize me?” “No,” I said. “I,” he says, “am the shepherd to whom you were entrusted.”
Date: 90-140 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Tertullian On Prayer 16
Early Christian
Again, for the custom which some have of sitting when prayer is ended, I perceive no reason, except that which children give. For what if that Hermas, whose writing is generally inscribed with the title The Shepherd, had, after finishing his prayer, not sat down on his bed, but done some other thing: should we maintain that also as a matter for observance? Of course not. Why, even as it is the sentence, When I had prayed, and had sat down on my bed, is simply put with a view to the order of the narration, not as a model of discipline. Else we shall have to pray nowhere except where there is a bed! Nay, whoever sits in a chair or on a bench, will act contrary to that writing. Further: inasmuch as the nations do the like, in sitting down after adoring their petty images; even on this account the practice deserves to be censured in us, because it is observed in the worship of idols. To this is further added the charge of irreverence — intelligible even to the nations themselves, if they had any sense.
Date: 200-230 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Search:
Notes and References
"... In his 'Treatise on Prayer' Tertullian described the attitude required and correct posture for different occasions of Christian prayer ... Hermas' stated in his 'Vision Fifth' that he sat after praying, 'After I had been praying at home, and had sat down on my couch.' It appears that some Christians had taken the example of Hermas, from his popular writings called the Shepherd of Hermas c. 160CE, as a guide to Christian practice ..."
Milroy, Leon Francis
Prayer in Earliest Christianity in the Context of the Graeco-Roman World
(pp. 56-57) University of New England, 2001
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.