Gospel of Matthew

• Writings that didn’t make it into the Bible, on the other hand, are often called “apocrypha,” a Greek term that refers to hidden or secret things.
• There are hundreds of apocryphal Jewish and Christian texts that, for one reason or another, were not included in different versions of the Bible.
• Just because a text was deemed apocryphal, however, does not mean that it was unpopular or lacked influence.

Enslaved to God

• The Shepherd urges self-control and fear of God, trying to instill obedience and avoid allowing emotions like fear or doubt to overcome believers.
• My own research on the Shepherd focuses on how the text depicts believers as enslaved to God, as is true of some other early Christian literature as well.
• The writer imagines that God’s holy spirit is able to enter loyal believers’ bodies and possess them, urging them to do what God wills.
• Instead, readers find a story about an otherwise unknown enslaved man named Hermas experiencing visions and talking with divine beings in the Italian countryside.

‘Useful for the soul’

• The Shepherd became one of the most popular texts among Christians for the first five centuries C.E.
• The Shepherd is even included in what scholars consider one of the oldest and most complete Bibles in the world.
• The Codex Sinaiticus, however, a fourth- or fifth-century manuscript now held at the British Library, ends with the Shepherd.
• Even figures who did not include the Shepherd among New Testament texts thought it was too important to be discarded.

An open Bible

• As the Shepherd helps demonstrate, whether a religious text is included or excluded from the Bible is not necessarily an indicator of its popularity or significance.
• While scholars often lament that the Shepherd is boring, pedantic or too long, its style likely made it ideal teaching material for early Christians.
• In religious communities, the idea of “canonical texts” can be especially limiting, determining what believers can or can’t read or believe.