Before Jerusalem Fell

Additional Extend Witnases 87
he acknowledges that the internal evidence strongly suggests a date
in the span of A.D. 90-100.
Schaff, on the contrary, is decisively supportive of an early date
for The Shepherd, even allowing that it most probably was written
by the very Hermas mentioned in Remans. 3
Lightfoot cites several
writers supportive of the earlier date: Cotelier, Cave, Lardner, Gallandi,
Lumper, Lachmann, Sprinzl. 4
More recently still, Lawson, 5
Goodspeed,G and others concur in the view that it was written in the
A.D. 90s.
Nevertheless, there are those who argue – and quite persuasively
– for a date earlier even still, a date only a decade and a half
after A.D. 70. Oxford and Cambridge trained scholar Arthur S.
Barnes argues most vigorously for this date. 7
Two of his arguments
can be summarized as follows. First, the writer of the Muratorian
Canon (c. A.D. 180) seems to be confused as to the identity of
Hermas:
Pius I, about 150, “changed the house of Pudens into a church, and
gave it precedence over all the other parishes of Rome as the dwelling
of the Bishop, and dedicated it with the title of the Pastor, that is, the
Good Shepherd.” This seems to be the original and true story and is
told in the Roman Breviary for his feast on July 11th. The “Acts of
Pastor and Timotheus”, which are not authentic but contain some
true traditions, make “Pastor” the brother of Pius, whom he put in
charge of this church. There is the first confusion. The author of the
Muratorian Fragment takes it a bit farther. He says: “the ‘Pastor’ of
Hermas is not really ancient, for it was written by the brother of Pope
Pius I quite lately”. Thus we have a double confusion. The dedication
of the church has been confused with the name of its priest, and he
again has been confused with the name of the book which Hermas
wrote. 8
3. Philip Schaff, Hi.rtoy of ttu Christian Church, 8 vols. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
[1910] 1950) 2:688fT.
4. Llghtfoot and Harmer, Apostolic Fat/wrs, p. 294.
5. John Lawson, A Theologwal and Historical Introduction to tb Apostolic Fathm (New
York: Macmillan, 1961), p. 225.
6. Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Apostolic Fathm (New York Harper, 1950), p. 97; and
idsm., A History of Ear~ Christian Lateratwe (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1942), pp.
47-48.
7. Arthur Stapylton Barnes, Chri.diani& at Rorru in the Apostolic Age (Westport, CT:
Greenwood, [1938] 1971), pp. 212tT.
8. Ibid., p. 212. Robinson agrees; John A. T. Robinson, Redating the Nsw T~tarwnt
(Philadelphia: Westminster, 1976), pp. 320K