Hermas (freedman)

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Hermas was a well-to-do freedman who lived in Ancient Rome in the second century, A.D. He was a brother of Pius, Bishop of Rome about the middle of the second century. He was an earnest simple-minded Christian, with little education or culture, but typical, no doubt, of many in the Church of his day. Some later writers confuse him with the Hermas mentioned in Romans xvi, 14. Hermas the freedman was the character in the work titled The Shepherd of Hermas, which, in the early Church, was often classed among the "Scriptures," i. e., among what we call the canonical books of the New Testament.

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.