Texts in Conversation
In Ephesians, the community is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The Shepherd of Hermas describes a similar picture of a tower representing the community, but its foundation also includes two earlier righteous generations.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ephesians 2:20
New Testament
19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, 20 because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Shepherd of Hermas 92:4
Early Christian
4 “But the stones, Sir,” I said, “that came from the deep and were fitted into the building—who are they?” “The first ten,” he said, “that were placed in the foundations, are the first generation; the twenty-five are the second generation of righteous people; the thirty-five are God’s prophets and His ministers; the forty are apostles and teachers who preach the Son of God.” 5 “Then why, Sir,” I said, “did the virgins also offer these stones for the building of the tower and carry them through the gate?” 6 “Because those first ones,” he said, “bore these spirits, and they never separated from each other—neither the spirits from the people nor the people from the spirits—these spirits stayed with them until they fell asleep; and if they had not had these spirits with them, they would not have been found useful for building this tower.”
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Notes and References
“... Hermas has connected the idea of Christ as the building’s foundation in 1 Cor 3:11 with the idea of him as stone in 10:4. This connection possibly occurred in association with Eph 2:20, where Christ is named as the constructed community’s corner foundation-stone. At the same time, Hermas has also expanded ideas that he learned from Pauline letters. To the list of figures comprising the church’s foundation found in Eph 2:20 (i.e., apostles and prophets), Hermas has added a number of others now arranged in tiers, namely the first two righteous generations, teachers, and god’s servants. He also extended that same verse’s image of the church-building’s being fitted together by describing the Tower’s stones fusing together into an apparently single white stone. ...”
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