pre-existent Son
or Spirit.

"One is tempted to argue that this distinction is observed in
Similitudes v., viii., and ix., and that the Son of the master of the
vineyard, the great spreading tree, and the ancient rock respectively
represent the pre-existent Son, while the elect servant, the angel
Michael, and the lord of the tower represent the exalted Jesus. Thus
all the angelic representations of the Son of God would refer only to
the latter. Moreover, there are features in the angelology of Hermas
which strengthen such an argument. From Vis. ii. 2. 7, Sim. ix. 24. 4,
25. 2, 27. 3, it seems clear that Christians are believed to become
angels at their death. Their rank, however, in the angel world will
not be uniform, but will vary according to the excellence of their life
on earth. Jesus therefore, because of his unique purity of life, must
necessarily be the most highly exalted of all such angels. And so, in
point of fact, he is. Of all angels, only he has ever been admitted to
a position of co-equality with the pre-existent Son.

"On the other hand, it must be remembered that Hermas at times seems to
think of the pre-existent Son or Spirit as an angel (Mand. vi. 2, xi.
9). Moreover, in his representation as the son of the master in the
parable of Sim. v., he stands in very much the same relation to the
first-created angels as does the lord of the tower in Sim. ix. And
finally, there is an undoubted difficulty in supposing that the six
archangels are thought of as being obliged to wait from the beginning
of time until the exaltation of Jesus for their number to be completed.
It still remains an open question whether the Christian archangel, the
lord and judge of the Church, is the eternal or the adopted Son of God;
and with the uncertainty and obscurity of the data, it may be doubted
whether a final judgement in the matter can be given. Hermas does not,
in fact, preserve any clear distinction between spirits and angels. He
reveals throughout an undoubted fondness for hypostatisation. Even
virtues and vices, emotions and passions, are described as spirits or
demons as the case may be, and spoken of as if they {140} were
possessed of personality. And certainly some allowance ought to be
made for this tendency of the author, in the matter of determining his
conception of spirits in general, and in particular of the Holy Spirit,
who besides having an eternal existence with God, dwells also in every
man."