Tool Alpha
The Stoic Reader
Stoic texts read beside the New Testament passages that share their words or their argument, and where the New Testament turns.
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.
Philippians 3:20, in every translation this tool compares.
The real question: Epictetus and Paul both tell people their real citizenship is somewhere other than their city. Is it the same somewhere? She has lived in Ohio for thirty years but still calls herself Irish. Is that because she belongs to the whole world, or to one place she has not yet gone back to?
"Besides, you are a citizen of the universe, and a part of it; not a subordinate, but a principal part. You are capable of comprehending the Divine economy, and of considering the connections of things."
Different words from the same root. Epictetus 2.10.3: πολίτης εἶ τοῦ κόσμου, you are a citizen (πολίτης, politēs) of the world. Philippians 3:20: ἡμῶν γὰρ τὸ πολίτευμα ἐν οὐρανοῖς ὑπάρχει, for our πολίτευμα (politeuma) is in heaven. Politeuma, Strong's G4175, occurs only here in the New Testament; the site's lexicon gives citizenship, or community, commonwealth. Paul uses the verb πολιτεύομαι (politeuomai) at 1:27, live as citizens worthy of the gospel.
Both loosen the hold of the local city by naming a larger citizenship. The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, on 3:20, says philosophers sometimes declared themselves citizens of the world rather than of any mere city-state.
Epictetus's city is the cosmos already: you are in it now as a reasoning part. Paul's is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies (3:20-21). The study note says the Philippians knew what it was to be citizens of a place they had never visited, since Philippi was a Roman colony whose citizens were citizens of Rome. Epictetus's citizen looks around. Paul's looks for someone coming.
The study note names the philosophers' world citizenship as part of the background. The Greek words differ, and no source in hand says either writer knew the other. A shared argument about belonging.
Not escape from the world. Paul's citizens wait for a Savior who will come here and change their bodies, not for a way out of the body.
- Epictetus, Discourses 2.10.3-5, Greek text ed. Heinrich Schenkl (Teubner, 1916), Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit)
- Epictetus, Discourses, trans. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1890), 2.10, Perseus Digital Library
- SBL Greek New Testament, Philippians 3:20, via MorphGNT
- Site Greek lexicon (Abbott-Smith), word-study-lexicon.json, G4175
- Site word study data, word-study-alpha.json, G4176
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan, 2016), note on Philippians 3:20
