Texts in Conversation
The Shepherd of Hermas opens with Hermas seeing Rhoda, his former owner, bathing in the Tiber, much like David watching Bathsheba bathe in 2 Samuel. David sends for her, but Hermas only wishes for a wife like her, and Rhoda later calls that wish a sin.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Samuel 11:2
Hebrew Bible
1 In the spring of the year, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, David sent out Joab with his officers and the entire Israelite army. They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. 3 So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 David sent some messengers to get her. She came to him and he went to bed with her. (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) Then she returned to her home. 5 The woman conceived and then sent word to David saying, “I’m pregnant.”
Shepherd of Hermas 1:2
Early Christian
1 The master, who raised me, had sold me to a woman named Rhoda in Rome. After many years, I met her again, and began to love her as a sister. 2 Some time later I saw her bathing in the river Tiber; and I gave her my hand, and led her out of the river. Seeing her beauty, I said to myself, “How happy I would be if I had a wife like her in beauty and in character.” I merely reflected on this and nothing more. 3 Some time later, as I was traveling to Cumae, and glorifying God’s creatures for their greatness and splendor and power, as I walked I fell asleep. And a Spirit took me, and carried me away through a pathless place where no one could walk, for the ground was steep and broken into clefts by the waters. When I had crossed the river, I came to level ground, and knelt down, and began to pray to the Lord and to confess my sins. 4 While I was praying, heaven opened, and I saw the woman I had desired greeting me from heaven, saying, “Good morning, Hermas.” 5 And, looking at her, I said to her, “Lady, what are you doing here?” Then she answered me, “I was taken up, so that I might convict you of your sins before the Lord.” 6 I said to her, “Are you convicting me now?” “No,” she said, “but listen to the words that I will say to you. God, who lives in the heavens, and created out of nothing the things that are, and increased and multiplied them for the sake of His holy Church, is angry with you, for you sinned against me.” 7 I answered her, “Sin against you? In what way? Did I ever speak an improper word to you? Did I not always regard you as a goddess? Did I not always respect you as a sister? How can you falsely accuse me, lady, of such wickedness and impurity?” 8 Laughing, she said to me, “The desire for evil entered your heart. Do you not think it is an evil thing for a righteous person if an evil desire enters their heart? It is indeed a sin, and a great one too,” she said. “For the righteous person has righteous intentions. As long as their intentions remain righteous, their reputation stands firm in heaven, and they find the Lord easily reconciled in all they do. But those who harbor evil intentions in their hearts bring death and captivity on themselves, especially those who cling to this present world and boast in its riches, and do not hold on to the good things to come.
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Notes and References
“... The idea of a woman accepting the assistance of her former slave while bathing is not unthinkable, given the known occurrences of romantic liaisons and even marriages between male freedmen and their female patrons, even though highly discouraged. However, the bathing scene is universally recognized as being replete with erotic literary evocations, both Jewish and Greco-Roman, among them the biblical scenes of David and Bathsheba (2 Sam 11:2) and Susanna and the elders. Thus its historicity is heavily in doubt. The introduction of literary motifs into the narrative need not negate the autobiographical setting. Hermas disavows any deliberately adulterous thought [...] By contrast to external actions, Rhoda lays emphasis not on behavior but on the desires of the heart. ...”
* 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.
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