The Egyptian Hermas: the shepherd in Egypt before Constantine

This article surveys manuscripts preserving the Shepherd of Hermas which survive from Egypt before the time of Constantine. Considered scripture by some (even to the point of being included in Codex Sinaiticus), Hermas is the best attested Christian text from Pre-Constantinian Egypt after the Gospels of Matthew and John, and retains its relative popularity into the fourth and fifth centuries. Eleven texts on papyrus and parchment have been palaeographically dated to this period, with the earliest dating to the late second or early third century. This chapter provides a catalogue of the manuscripts, and discussed their format and handwriting, and suggests that use of Hermas' works for catachetical instruction accounts for the high rate of survival among the papyri.