Why not a son of God?

Romans 8:14

Romans 8:14, in every translation this tool compares.

First, in plain English

The real question: when Epictetus and Paul both call people sons of God, is it the same sonship? Two people both say they are a son of the family firm. One was born into it; the other was adopted. Does it matter how you became the son?

The Stoic text

"why may not such a one call himself a citizen of the universe! Why not a son of God? And why shall he fear any thing that happens among men?"

Epictetus, Discourses 1.9.6, trans. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1890)

The shared term

υἱὸς θεοῦ (huios theou), son of God. Epictetus 1.9.6: διὰ τί μὴ υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ; why not a son of God? Romans 8:14: οὗτοι υἱοί εἰσιν θεοῦ, these are sons of God. The noun is υἱός (huios), Strong's G5207.

Where they agree

Both draw courage from the sonship. Epictetus's next sentence asks why such a man should fear anything among men, since God is his maker, father and guardian. Paul says the Spirit received is not a spirit of slavery leading back into fear (8:15).

Where the New Testament turns

For Epictetus every rational being is God's son by nature: the seeds of being have come down from God to all rational natures, so he should never call himself Athenian or Corinthian (1.9.1-5). For Paul sonship is given: it is the Spirit's leading, a Spirit of adoption by whom we cry Abba, Father (8:15), and it makes the sons heirs with Christ, if they suffer with him (8:17). Epictetus argues from what every man already is. Paul argues from what God has done.

How sure the link is

The phrase is shared and the courage it yields is similar. No source in hand says Paul knew this discourse; Wright calls Epictetus Paul's near contemporary. The link is the phrase and a common way of reasoning about kinship with God.

What this is not

Not a claim that Epictetus believed in the Christian Son of God. The phrase in 1.9 belongs to every person who reasons, which is the opposite of Paul's claim about one Son.

Reads with

For we are also his offspring Citizen of the universe, citizens of heaven You carry a God about with you

Sources

Epictetus, Discourses 1.9.1-7, Greek text ed. Heinrich Schenkl (Teubner, 1916), Perseus Digital Library (canonical-greekLit)
Epictetus, Discourses, trans. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1890), 1.9, Perseus Digital Library
SBL Greek New Testament, Romans 8:14, via MorphGNT
Site word study data, word-study-alpha.json, G5207
N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography (HarperOne), ch. 8, Athens, calling Seneca and Epictetus Paul's near contemporaries