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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.
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.
Acts 2:7, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: is Epictetus's one word about Galileans a glimpse of the early Christians, or of someone else? A traveller's diary mentions the stubborn people from the north. It might be the hill tribe you have read about, or another group altogether. How much can one word settle?
"And is it possible that any one should be thus disposed towards these things from madness, and the Galileans from mere habit; yet that no one should be able to learn, from reason and demonstration, that God made all things in the world."
Γαλιλαῖος (Galilaios), Galilean. Epictetus 4.7.6: ὑπὸ ἔθους οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι, the Galileans from habit. The New Testament uses the word of Jesus' followers: the angels at the ascension say Ἄνδρες Γαλιλαῖοι, men of Galilee (Acts 1:11), and the Pentecost crowd asks whether all these who are speaking are not Γαλιλαῖοι (Acts 2:7).
Epictetus's point is that some people fear no tyrant or sword, by madness or habit, and he wants his students to reach the same fearlessness by reason. Acts describes these Galileans, filled with the Spirit, speaking to a crowd that is amazed at them (2:4-7).
If Epictetus means Christians, his complaint is that their courage is unreasoned, a habit rather than a conclusion. Acts presents the same boldness as the gift of the Spirit (2:4) and the result of having seen the risen Jesus (2:32). The disagreement is over where courage comes from.
The identification rests on one word. George Long's note on 4.7 says it is probable that Epictetus means the Christians, whose obstinacy Marcus Aurelius also mentions (11.3), and that Epictetus knew little about them. In a note to 2.9 Long calls the Galileans of 4.7 Epictetus's name for the Jews. So even Long's own notes waver. Long was writing in the nineteenth century; no modern source in hand settles it. The text supports only that Epictetus knew of a group called Galileans who faced danger without fear.
Not evidence that Epictetus read any New Testament book. At most it shows he had heard of the group's conduct.
- Epictetus, Discourses 4.7.5-6, Greek text ed. Heinrich Schenkl (Teubner, 1916), Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit)
- Epictetus, Discourses, trans. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1890), 4.7, Perseus Digital Library
- George Long, trans., Arrian's Discourses of Epictetus (George Bell and Sons, 1887), notes to 2.9 and 4.7, Perseus Digital Library
- SBL Greek New Testament, Acts 1:11 and 2:7, via MorphGNT
