Eldad and Modad

The Shepherd of Hermas quotes from a work it calls ‘Eldad and Modad’, and several later ecclesiastical book lists also name this writing. While this work is otherwise unknown, there are good reasons for inferring not only that the authors of James, 1 Clement, and 2 Clement also knew ‘Eldad and Modad’, but further that they have preserved a few lines from it. If so, those lines can help us to gain some idea of the nature and shape of this lost apocalypse or pseudepigraphon.