Bible dictionaries

Hermas

What Bible dictionaries say about “Hermas”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Hermas - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

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.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

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.

S. F. Hunter

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915

Smith’s Bible Dictionary

(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.

William Smith; revised by F. N. Peloubet and M. A. Peloubet; CrossWire SWORD module Smith 1.3

The article in Smith