Dictionaries :: Hermas

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Hermas:

Mercury, a Roman Christian to whom Paul sends greetings (Rom 16:14). Some suppose him to have been the author of the celebrated religious romance called The Shepherd, but it is very probable that that work is the production of a later generation.

Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary

Hermas:

Hermes, Mercury; gain; refuge

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Hermas:

hur'-mas (Hermas): An abbreviated form of several names, e.g. Hermagoras, Hermeros, Hermodorus, Hermogenes, etc.; the name of a Roman Christian to whom Paul sent greetings (Ro 16:14). Origen and some later writers have identified him with the author of The Pastor of Hermas, but without sufficient reason. According to the Canon of Muratori, the author of The Pastor wrote when his brother Pius was bishop of Rome (140-55 AD). He speaks of himself, however, as a contemporary of Clement of Rome (chapter 4) (circa 100 AD). The name Hermas is very common, and Origen's identification is purely conjectural.

Written by S. F. Hunter

Nave's Topical Bible

Hermas: A Christian at Rome

Rom 16:14

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Hermas:

(Mercury) the name of a Christian resident at Rome to whom St. Paul sends greetings in his Epistle to the Romans (Romans 16:14). (A.D. 55) Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen agree in attributing to him the work called The Shepherd. It was never received into the canon, but yet was generally cited with respect only second to that which was paid to the authoritative books of the New Testament.