"... The clothing metaphor itself is, of course, not Hermas’s creation. It became particularly prominent among the philosophers, mystery cults, gnostic sources, and Jewish and other Christian literature of our period. In fact, the metaphor’s ubiquity makes it virtually impossible to determine its origins. It appeared, for example, among the earliest Greek authors and even before that in Sumerian sources too. We find it scattered throughout Jewish scripture; (E.g., LXX 2 Chronicles 6:41, Isaiah 51:9, 59:17, Job 29:14, 40:10, Psalm 132:9, Proverbs 31:25, Wisdom of Solomon 5:18, Baruch 5:1–2, 4 Esdras 2:45, 4 Maccabees 13:16.) non-Pauline literature ultimately included in the New Testament also attests it. Other so-called Apostolic Fathers roughly contemporaneous with Hermas use the metaphor as well: Clement exhorts his audience with him to “put on harmony” (ἐνδυσώμεθα τὴν ὁμόνοιαν, 1 Clem 30.3), and Ignatius refers to Polycarp as “being clothed with grace” (ἐν χάριτι, ᾗ ἐνδέδυσαι, Poly. 1.2). One can only assume, given the wide attestation of the clothing metaphor, that it was employed extensively in non-literary second-century Roman culture as well ..."