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The Stoic Reader

Stoic texts read beside the New Testament passages that share their words or their argument, and where the New Testament turns.

Autarkes: content, or self-sufficient? Paul says he has learned to be autarkes in whatever state he is in. Marcus Aurelius uses the same word for the man who needs nothing from outside.
Hold it as something not your own Epictetus tells his student to hold wife, child and land as a traveller holds an inn. Paul tells the Corinthians to buy as though not possessing.
Having nothing Epictetus's Cynic stands before the crowd with no house, no city, no slave, and asks what he lacks. Paul describes his apostles as having nothing and possessing everything.
Who is free? Epictetus opens his discourse on freedom by defining the free man. Paul tells the Corinthian slave he is the Lord's freedman and the free man that he is Christ's slave.
Your brother, the slave Epictetus scolds a master who cannot bear his slave: the slave is his brother, a son of Zeus. Paul sends Onesimus back no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother.
They are slaves. No, they are men. Seneca praises Lucilius for living on familiar terms with his slaves and answers every objection with the same reply. Paul says in Christ there is neither slave nor free.
For we are also his offspring In Athens, Paul quotes a Greek poet: "For we are also his offspring." The line is the opening of Aratus's Phaenomena, a poem that begins with Zeus.
God needs nothing from us Seneca would forbid lamps on the Sabbath and offerings to Jupiter, because God seeks no servants. Paul tells the Athenians God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything.
From thee, in thee, to thee Marcus addresses Nature: from you are all things, in you all things, to you all things. Paul ends Romans 11 with all things from God, through God and to God.
Why not a son of God? Epictetus asks why a man who understands his kinship with God should not call himself a citizen of the world, and a son of God. Paul says those led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
You carry a God about with you Epictetus tells a careless student he carries a god about inside him. Paul says the apostles carry about in the body the dying of Jesus.
God is near you, with you, within you Seneca tells Lucilius there is no need to lift hands to heaven: a holy spirit sits within us. Paul asks the Corinthians whether they do not know that God's Spirit dwells in them.
The strict father Seneca says God loves good men like a strict father and toughens them by hardship. The writer of Hebrews says God disciplines those he loves, as a father his sons.
A member, not a part Marcus tells himself to say he is a melos, a limb, of the body of rational beings, not merely a meros, a part. Paul tells the Corinthians they are Christ's body and members of it.
If the foot could reason Epictetus says a citizen of the world should act like a hand or foot that could reason and always chose for the whole. Paul has the foot speak: because I am not a hand, I am not of the body.
Members of one great body Seneca gives Lucilius one rule for human duty: everything you see is one, and we are parts of one great body. Paul tells the Romans that the many are one body in Christ.
Family affection Paul tells the Romans to be philostorgoi, devoted with family affection, to one another. The word was a Stoic virtue, and Marcus praises his teacher Sextus for having it while free of passion.
Death is nothing terrible Epictetus says death is nothing terrible; the terror is our opinion of it. Paul calls death the last enemy and taunts it: where is your sting?
Ready to depart, or mere obstinacy? Marcus praises the soul ready to leave the body when reason says so, "not from mere obstinacy, as with the Christians." The line is often read as Marcus sneering at martyrs he persecuted.
Written on the heart Epictetus says no one is born knowing a right-angled triangle, but everyone comes into the world with a notion of good and evil. Paul says Gentiles who do by nature what the law requires show its work written on their hearts.
Does nature teach you? Epictetus argues that nature gave men beards to mark them from women, and that the marks must be kept. Paul asks whether nature itself does not teach that long hair dishonors a man.
A Jew in name only Epictetus mocks a student who calls himself a Stoic but does not live it: he is like someone who acts the Jew but has not become one. Paul says a Jew is not one outwardly but inwardly.
Citizen of the universe, citizens of heaven Epictetus tells his student he is a citizen of the universe and a part of it. Paul tells the Philippians their citizenship is in heaven.
What I would, I do not Epictetus says every wrongdoer does what he does not want and fails to do what he does. Paul says the good he wants he does not do.
The athlete's training Epictetus tells the man who wants to win at Olympia to count the cost of the diet, the training and the beatings first. Paul says every athlete exercises self-control in all things for a wreath that perishes.
Without distraction Epictetus says that in present conditions the Cynic should stay unmarried, undistracted and wholly given to the service of God. Paul says the unmarried can attend to the Lord without distraction.
Sent Epictetus says the true Cynic must know he has been sent from Zeus as a messenger to show men where good and evil lie. Paul says Christ sent him to preach the gospel, not with clever words.
Worthy of the calling Epictetus tells his student he is a witness summoned by God and asks whether he will shame the calling. Ephesians urges its readers to walk worthy of the calling to which they were called.
The Galileans Epictetus mentions in passing that the Galileans face tyrants and swords without fear from mere habit. George Long thought he probably meant the Christians.
Gallio, Seneca's brother The proconsul who threw the case against Paul out of court in Corinth was Gallio, Seneca's older brother. A later set of letters claims Paul and Seneca wrote to each other.