Originally written for a course entitled, "GOD AND THE GODS," 
taught by Dr. Robert Grant, at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, in Spring, 1985.
(c) 1985, 2003 Christa Landon

Criticism of traditional religion in the ancient world was not invented by St. Paul, or even by Jewish prophets. Xenophanes (c. 540 b.c.e.) criticized anthropomorphic imagery (1) and attempted to construct a rational theology which proposed a supreme deity characterized by unity, knowledge, and immobility, who "without toil sets everything in motion, by the thought of his mind." (2) Euhemerus (3) opined in about 300 b.c.e. that the gods were originally remarkable men, whose stories grew in the telling, much like our Davey Crockett. Critias (460-403 b.c.e.) believed that "when the laws forbade (people) from committing open crimes of violence, and they began to do them in secret, a wise and clever man invented fear (of the gods) for mortals..." (4)

The popular concept of Pagan religion current today is almost entirely derived from the New Testament, a book with which more people are familiar than any other about or from that period. It is interesting to note, that even persons who do not believe the Bible to be divinely inspired or authoR.tive in any special way, have accepted the Biblical description of Paganism uncritically.

The purposes of this paper will be first, to delineate the criticisms of the Pagan religions of the Roman Empire as these criticisms appear in Acts and the Epistles and second, to compare these criticisms with Pagan literature dated during and before the canonical period.(5)

One school of hermeneutics recommends that to correctly interpret a text, one must know the intents of the author(s) and editor(s). It is fair, I think, to assume that the purposes behind the efforts of the editors and authors of the Christian canon included a desire to discredit Pagan religion in order to persuade people to convert to Christianity. I will argue that such persuasive purpose has resulted in a distorted presentation of Pagan religion in the canonical era.

Whether this distortion was deliberate, whether the producers of the Christian canon deliberately set up a straw man is another question. It may be argued that the Jewish and early Christian communities had so effectively isolated themselves from the educated Pagans that these distortions were the result of the simple misunderstandings that arise from segregation. In fact, II Corinthians, 6:14-18, suggests that there was some effort in this direction.(6)

"Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers. Virtue is no companion for crime. Light and darkness have nothing in common. Christ is not the ally of Beliar, nor has a believer anything to share with an unbeliever. The temple of God has no common ground with idols, and that is what we are -- the temple of the living God. We have God's word for it: 'I will make my home among them and they shall be my people.' (Lv.26:11-12) 'Then come away from them and keep aloof, says the Lord. Touch nothing that is unclean,' (Is.52:11) 'and I will welcome you and be your father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Almighty Lord.' (Is.43:6)"

It may be impossible to establish that any of the writers and editors of Acts and the Epistles had actually read any of this Pagan theological literature. On the other hand, at least some of the producers of the Christian canon (such as the author of John) were knowledgeable enough about these religions and the critical philosophical traditions which emerged from them, to borrow key concepts such as Logos, Heraclitus' divine principle of unity and inner cause of orderly motion and change.

This paper will be examining the canonical charges against Paganism and compare these charges with other evidence, documents selected because they represent some of the reflective thought from within the religious traditions being criticized in the Christian Bible. The Pagan religions of the Roman Empire were never institutionalized in quite the same way as Christianity. There never was a Pagan council called to establish a creed against which heresy could be defined; there never was a canon of Pagan literature whose authority parallels the Christian canon for Christians. Paganism was never a single religion; in fact, the term "pagan" was coined by Christians to describe all religions except Judaism and Christianity. (The term may be translated as "hick" or country-dweller.) This paper cannot then compare two canons.

But even though Pagans did not write creeds, they did write theology. Paul Tillich has said "Every creative philosopher is a hidden theologian." (7) The philosopher, "wants to serve the universal Logos. ... This obligates him to be critical of every SPECIAL EXPRESSION of his ultimate concern." (8) Yet any conception of the Holy was conditioned by the culture in which the philosopher lived; a fact that was apparent to the cosmopolitan of the Hellenized world. (9)

As Tillich has commented, "The conflict between the intention of being universal and the destiny of remaining particular characterizes every philosophical existence. It is its burden and its greatness." (10) Granted, not every Pagan was a philosopher; but then, not every Christian was an author or editor of the Christian canon. Since the New Testament criticisms leveled at Pagans did not exclude the philosophers, (11) should we not let them speak in their own defense? Thus let us examine what the elite of each religious community had to say on the subject.

The authors of Acts and the Epistles attacked Paganism on four fronts: They alleged that Pagans believed that their images were the deities. They alleged that the Pagan gods were dead or non-existent. They alleged that Pagans worshipped demons. They alleged that Pagans are irresponsible hedonists, living aimlessly.

I. PAGANS BELIEVED THAT THEIR IMAGES WERE THE DEITIES.

In Acts 7:40-42, we read that Stephen recalls how the Israelites, wandering in the desert, lapsed into Paganism. They begged Aaron,

"'MAKE US SOME GODS TO BE OUR LEADERS; we do not understand what has come over this Moses who led us put of Egypt.' It was then that THEY MADE A BULL CALF AND OFFERED SACRIFICE TO THE IDOL. THEY WERE PERFECTLY HAPPY WITH SOMETHING THEY HAD MADE FOR THEMSELVES. God turned away from them and abandoned them to the WORSHIP OF THE ARMY OF HEAVEN." (stars and planets, worshipped as gods in the Near East by many peoples).

In Acts 17:16-33, we read that when Paul visited Athens, "his whole soul was revolted at the sight of a city given over to idolatry." However, he managed to disguise this revulsion, and used flattery to win a hearing:

"So Paul stood before the whole Council of the Areopagus and made this speech: 'Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how EXTREMELY SCRUPULOUS YOU ARE IN ALL RELIGIOUS MATTERS, because I noticed, as I strolled around ADMIRING YOUR SACRED MONUMENTS, that you had an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. Well, the God whom I proclaim is in fact the very one you already worship without knowing it.

Since the God who made the whole earth and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and earth, he DOES NOT MAKE HIS HOME IN SHRINES MADE BY HUMAN HANDS. Nor is he dependent on anything that human hands can do for him, since he can never be in need of anything; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything -- including life and breath -- to everyone. ... And he did this so that all nations might seek the deity and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him. Yet in fact he is not far from any of us, since it is in him that we live, and move, and exist, as indeed some of your writers have said: 'We are all his children.'

Since we are the children of God, we have no excuse for thinking that the deity looks like anything in gold, silver or stone that has been CARVED AND DESIGNED BY A MAN.

God overlooked that sort of thing when men were ignorant, but now he is telling everyone everywhere that they must repent, because he has fixed a day when the whole world will be judged...'"

The account of Paul's journey to Ephesus (Acts 19, 22-41) presents the only lengthy reference to a goddess in the New Testament. Ironically, the very passage which records the prophetic fear of the workmen that the new Christian cult will "reduce the sanctuary of the great goddess to unimportance" is one of the few pieces of evidence of goddess worship generally read by the average Westerner.

"A silversmith named Demetrius, who employed a large number of craftsmen making silver shrines of Diana (sic, actually Artemis), called a general meeting of his own men with others in the same trade. 'As you men know,' he said, 'it is on this industry that we depend for our prosperity. Now you must have seen and heard how, not just in Ephesus but nearly everywhere in Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and converted a great many people with his ARGUMENT THAT GODS MADE BY HAND ARE NOT GODS at all. This threatens not only to discredit our trade, but also to reduce the sanctuary of the great goddess Diana to unimportance. It could end up by taking away all the prestige of a goddess venerated all over Asia, yes, and everywhere in the civilized world.' This speech roused them to fury, and they started to shout, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!' ... When the town clerk eventually succeeded in calming the crowd, he said, 'Citizens of Ephesus! Is there anybody alive who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the guardian of the temple of great Diana and of her statue fell from heaven? Nobody can contradict this and there is no need for you to get excited or to do anything rash. These men you have brought here are not guilty of any sacrilege or blasphemy against our goddess.'"

Perhaps not. The sacrileges and blasphemy were to come later, when the temples and sacred images of Ephesian Artemis and those of the other gods were burned for plaster, appropriated for Christian worship, or defaced.

Did Pagans REALLY believe that their statues and paintings were actually the gods themselves? For this claim to be true, Pagan mental processes would have to be limited to concrete operational thought. (12) Yet literature of the period indicates a high level of sophistication. The artisans of Ephesus KNEW that they made the silver shrines. So did everybody else.

Our brains have not evolved so much in 2,000 years. The Emperor could distinguish between himself in the flesh and his statue, even if he did use his statue for honors by proxy. Is it reasonable to assume that the ancients could not distinguish between a symbol and its referent?

In Oration VIII, Maximus of Tyre (ca.125-185 c.e) addresses this charge; further, he points out that "images" made by men can be words as well as statuary. (13)

"For the God who is the Father and Creator of all that is, older than the sun, older than the sky, greater than time and eternity and the whole continual flow of nature, is not to be named by any lawgiver, is not to be uttered by any voice, is not to be seen by any eye. But we, being unable to gasp his essence, make use of sounds and names and pictures, of beaten gold and ivory and silver, of plants and rivers, of mountain peaks and torrents, yearning for knowledge of him, and in our weakness naming all that is beautiful in this world after his nature. The same thing happens to those who love others; to them the sweetest sight will be the actual figures of their children, but sweet also will be their memory -- they will be happy at (the sight of) a lyre, a little spear, or a chair, perhaps, or a running ground, or anything whatever that awakens the memory of the beloved. Why should I go any further in examining and passing judgement on images? Let all men know what is divine; let them know, that is all. If Greeks are stirred to the remembrance of God by the art of Phidias, or the Egyptians by paying worship to animals, or others by a river, or others by fire, I will not quarrel with their differences. Only let them know, let them love, let them remember."

Dio Chrysostom's Olympic Oration (written in the person of Phidias and delivered in 105 c.e.) defends the use of anthropomorphic images.

"What I am called to answer for is my representation of the god who rules the whole universe: whether it has been made with due reverence and as a fitting likeness of him, in no way falling short of the best portrayal a human being can make, or whether it is altogether unworthy and improper. ... (N)o sculptor can portray reason and intelligence as they are in themselves; they are completely invisible and can by no means be depicted. But as for that in which knowledge and intelligence express themselves ... people ascribe to God a human body, because that is the form in which knowledge and intelligence are found. For lack of a better exemplar we try to reveal the invisible and the unportrayable in a shape that can be seen and portrayed; we use symbolic means. ... But he who is the supreme master ... (Homer) has been by far the greatest creator of images of the divine beings. ... (O)wing to our attraction toward the divine all men have a strong desire to honor and worship God close at hand approaching and laying hold of him, offering him sacrifices and garlands. Just as little children, when torn from their father or mother, feel a terrible longing and homesickness for them, and while dreaming often hold out their hands to their absent parents, so also do men to the gods. For they rightly love them for their beneficence and kinship, and are eager in every way to be with them and to converse with them. ... The kinship of god and man is expressed by his human form itself, as a kind of symbol." (14)

The authors of the Christian Bible would have been on firmer ground if they had argued that since no image was veridical, all were misleading, and thus unworthy. Plutarch (c. c.e. 46-120), an early structuralist who favored an emanationist cosmology, himself warns that identification of the gods with their statues or with animals which are sacred to them leads to atheism: (15)

"For it is impossible to think of these (concrete and perishable) things as gods, since we cannot conceive God to be lacking in mind, or an inanimate thing, or subject to man. Accordingly we have concluded that those who make use of these things and bestow them upon us ... are gods -- not different gods among different people, not barbarian or Greek, nor of the South or of the North; but just as the sun, the moon, the sky, the earth, the sea are the common property of all men, yet are given different names by different peoples, so too the one Reason which regulates all these things and the one Providence which supervises all, and the subordinate powers that are appointed over all things, have different honors and titles assigned to them by custom among the different peoples. So men also use consecrated symbols, some obscure, some more intelligible, in order to guide the understanding toward things divine, but never without a certain degree of risk. For some have completely missed their meaning and have slid into superstition; while others, flying from superstition as from a quagmire, have unwittingly fallen over a precipice into atheism."

Plutarch here is echoed by Paul Tillich when he describes ways in which we can relate preliminary concerns to that which concerns us ultimately: First, we may confuse the concept or image with the spiritual being to which it refers: "Idolatry is the elevation of a preliminary concern to ultimacy." (16) Second, we may use the symbol more self-consciously, to point beyond itself. In this case,

"a preliminary concern becomes the vehicle of the ultimate concern without claiming ultimacy for itself. ... That which is a finite concern is not elevated to infinite significance, nor is it put beside the infinite, but in and trough the infinite it becomes real. Nothing is excluded from this function. In and through every preliminary concern the ultimate concern can actualize itself." (17)

Other Pagan theologians had long before developed concepts of God which transcended any possible artistic expression.

Empedocles, writing in the 5th century, b.c.e., rejected the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic imagery alike. (18) For him, "It is not possible to bring God near within reach of our eyes, nor to grasp him with our hands, by which route the broadest road of Persuasion runs into the human mind." (19). God "is Mind, holy and ineffable, and only Mind, which darts through the whole universe with its swift thoughts." (20)

For Heraclitus (c. 500 b.c.e.), "That which is wise is one; it is willing and unwilling to be called by the name of Zeus." (21) Tillich distinguishes between image as vehicle and the heteronomous image (or concept or group) which is "demonic" because it appropriates ultimacy for itself, and does not "point beyond itself". For these Pagan theologians, the statues of the gods are symbols which point beyond themselves to spiritual beings, which are often themselves considered emanations of an abstract, non-anthropomorphic absolute God.

II. PAGAN GODS (THE REFERENTS OF THE IDOLS) DO NOT EXIST OR ARE DEAD.

There are several references in the New Testament to the doctrine that Pagan gods are either non-existent or dead (which seems to imply that once they were alive, although I have found no text in the New Testament which explained how they had died.) In Cor. 8: 4-6, Paul says, "Well then, about food sacrificed to idols: we know that IDOLS DO NOT REALLY EXIST in the world and that there is no god but the One." Again in I Thessalonians 1:9 Paul writes, "...you broke with idolatry when you were converted to God and became servants of the REAL, LIVING GOD..."

Acts 14:11-18 presents an account of mistaken identity. When they had performed a healing, Barnabas was mistaken for Zeus and Paul for Hermes, the spokesman of Zeus. "These people are gods who have come down to us disguised as men." The priests of Zeus-Outside-the-Gate, proposed the sacrifice of garlanded oxen; the apostles Barnabas and Paul were horrified.

"Friends what do you think you are doing? We are only human beings like you. We have come with good news to make you TURN FROM THESE EMPTY IDOLS TO THE LIVING GOD who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that these hold. In the past he allowed each nation to go its own way; but even then he DID NOT LEAVE YOU WITHOUT EVIDENCE OF HIMSELF IN THE GOOD THINGS HE DOES FOR YOU: he sends you rain from heaven, he makes your crops grow when they should, he gives you food and makes you happy.' Even this speech, however, was scarcely enough to stop the crowd offering them sacrifice."

III. PAGAN GODS EQUATED WITH DEMONS

The New Testament presents yet another argument that contradicts the last. In these passages, Paul acknowledges that the Pagans are not worshipping the artwork itself, nor deceased deities, nor non-existent, imaginary beings, but real spiritual beings, unworthy of veneration. In Gal. 4:8-10 we read, "Once you were ignorant of God, and enslaved to 'gods' who were NOT REALLY GODS AT ALL; but now that you have come to acknowledge God ... how can you want to go back to elemental things like these, that can do nothing and give nothing, and be their slaves?" In Colossians 2:18, Paul (22) says, "Do not be taken in by people who like groveling to angels and worshipping them; people like that are always going on about some vision they have had, inflating themselves to a false importance with their worldly outlook." In I Cor. 10: 14-22, Paul expresses a fear that the gods worshipped by the Pagans are not merely subordinate elementals (entrusted by God to maintain and in some systems to complete the natural world) nor angels.

"This is the reason, my dear brothers, why you must keep clear of idolatry. I say to you as sensible people: judge for yourselves what I am saying. The blessing cup that we bless is a communion with the blood of Christ, and the bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ. The fact that there is only one loaf means that, though there are many of us, we form a single body because we all have a share in this one loaf. Look at the other Israel, the race, where those who eat the sacrifices are in communion with the altar. Does this mean that the food sacrificed to idols has a real value, or that the idol itself is real? Not at all. It simply means that the sacrifices they offer THEY SACRIFICE TO DEMONS who are not God. I have no desire to see you IN COMMUNION WITH DEMONS. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the table of the Lord and at the table of demons. Do we want to make the Lord angry; are we stronger than he is?"

These criticisms seem to confuse near Eastern "demons" -- or evil spirits -- in the service of Ahriman or Satan with "daemons" -- gods subordinate to a supreme deity. A functionalist would identify the daemon as playing a similar role to the guardian angel or patron saint. Apparently, Paul was concerned with making a distinction between the experience of encounter with a "demon" and with experience of encounter with the Holy Spirit. Do the two inspired states differ? Paul offers only one distinction: the prophetic utterances of the one affirm Jesus' lordship; the prophetic utterances of the other reject it:

I Cor. 12: 1-3

Now my dear brothers, I want to clear up a wrong impression about spiritual gifts. You remember that, when you were pagans, whenever you felt IRRESISTIBLY DRAWN, it was TOWARD DUMB IDOLS? It is for this reason that I want you to understand that on the one hand no one can be speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit and say, 'Curse Jesus,' and on the other hand no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit'

IV. PAGAN BELIEFS RESULT IN IRRESPONSIBLE HEDONISM

In I Cor. 5:12-13, Paul writes, "It is not my business to pass judgement on those outside (the Church). Of those who are inside, you may be the judges. But of all those who are outside, God is the judge." Yet Paul and his colleagues continually judge "those outside". In the pseudonymous (23) I Peter 4:3, for example, we read, "You spent quite long enough in the past LIVING THE SORT OF LIFE THAT PAGANS live, behaving indecently, giving way to your passions, drinking all the time, having wild parties and drunken orgies and degrading yourselves by following false gods."

This is the popular image of Paganism still extant. But is it fair? Compare the teaching of Epicurus (341-270 b.c.e.) as preserved in his letter to Menoceus (24).

"When, therefore, we maintain that pleasure is the end, we do not mean the pleasures of profligates and those that consist in sensuality, as is supposed by some who are either ignorant or disagree with us or do not understand, but freedom from pain in the body and from trouble in the mind. For it is not continuous drinkings and revellings, nor the satisfactions of lusts, nor the enjoyment of fish and other luxuries of the wealthy table, which produce a pleasant life, but sober reasoning, searching out the motives for all choice and avoidance, and banishing mere opinions, to which are due the greatest disturbance of spirit. ... it is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently and honorably and justly, nor, again, to live a life of prudence, honor, and justice without living pleasantly."

If the Epicureans did not live "the kind of life that Pagans live", and certainly the Stoics did not, then how widespread was this lifestyle? Certainly, there were decadent courts and notorious cities, such as Corinth. But was the dissolute lifestyle really as widespread as the Christian canon suggests? After all, as the proverb suggests, "Not everyman's concern is a trip to Corinth." (25) One might as well argue that since American jet setters are Christians that "the sort of life that Christians live" is fairly characterized as "behaving indecently, drinking all the time, having wild parties and drunken orgies". If Elvis is not a fair example, then neither is Caligula!

A. D. Nock presents another picture. He compares early Christian morality with that of their contemporary Pagans.

"(W)hile Christian requirements were severe, they were not marked by an unheard of severity, and the analogies to them were not confined to the most cultivated circles in society. The Greek words for conscience are words of common speech, little used in formal philosophic language. It is in any case a grave error to think of the ordinary man in the Roman Empire as a depraved and cruel fiend, dividing his time between the brothel and intoxication, torturing a slave from time to time when he felt bored, and indifferent to the suffering and poverty of others. ... To most serious - minded men, the good life seemed to involve considerable self-denial. ... As for social services, the age of the Antonines set a standard which has only recently been again attained." (26)

The disputed author (27) of Ephesians reminds his flock, "Do not forget, then, that there was a time when you were pagans ... you were immersed in this world, without hope and without God." He goes on to say in Ephesians 4:17-20,

"In particular, I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the AIMLESS KIND OF LIFE that pagans live. Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, without knowledge because they have shut their hearts to it. Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned themselves to sexuality and eagerly pursue a career of indecency of every kind."

Did Pagans really live an "aimless kind of life"? Presumably, the disputed author of Ephesians was unfamiliar with Stoicism. (28) If he had read Seneca's "On Tranquility", he would have known that the "aimless kind of life that pagans live" was sometimes, especially in the case of the Stoics, so demanding that pastoral counseling for scrupulosity was necessary. Marcus Aurelius' diary, of course, was not discovered until the eleventh century, but was written during the canonical period, and expressed one element of Pagan spirituality that undoubtedly had other, well-known expressions. The irony of this epistle is that one of Christianity's real advantages over Stoic philosophy was that it offered some relief for guilt-ridden perfectionists with the doctrine of redemption and salvation from sin. Yet because the producers of the Christian canon chose to represent Pagans as "living an aimless life", pursuing "a career of indecency of every kind", the full impact of this innovation is blunted.

Other references in the New Testament relate a reinterpretation of idolatry (29) to identify it with other vices, perhaps to strengthen the case against Paganism. In Ephesians 5:5 we read: "For you can be quite certain that nobody who actually indulges in fornication or impurity or promiscuity -- WHICH IS WORSHIPPING A FALSE GOD -- can inherit anything of the kingdom of God." In Colossians 3:5, another pseudonymous letter (30) we read, "This is why you must kill everything in you that belongs only to earthly life: fornication, impurity, guilty passion, evil desires, and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god." Then in I Thessalonians 4:3-6, Paul himself (31) writes:

"What God wants is for you all to be holy. He wants you to keep away from fornication, and each one of you to know how to use the body that belongs to him in a way that is holy and honorable, not giving way to selfish lust LIKE THE PAGANS WHO DO NOT KNOW GOD."

Finally, in James 2:19-20, we see, "You believe in the ONE God -- that is creditable enough, but the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Do you realize, you senseless man, that faith without good deeds is useless." (These references suggest a revision of the concept of idolatry which was more fully developed by Tillich.)

The missionaries' greatest competitors were the philosophers, especially the Stoics. According to Perrin and Duling (32), Colossians was written by a follower of Paul. In chapter 2, verse 8 he says, "Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom by some secondhand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this world instead of on Christ."

The student seems to be faithfully echoing his master, for in Romans 1:18-28, Paul himself condemns the philosophers with whom he has contended:

"The anger of God is being revealed from heaven against all the impiety and DEPRAVITY of men who keep truth imprisoned in their wickedness. For what can be known about God is perfectly plain. Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity -- however invisible -- have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made. That is why such people are without excuse: they know God and yet refused to honor him as God or to thank him; instead, they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were darkened. The more they called themselves philosophers, the more STUPID they grew, until they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a worthless imitation, for the image of mortal man, or birds, of quadrupeds and of reptiles.... That is why God has abandoned them to their degrading passions ... In other words, since they refused to see that it was rational to acknowledge God, God has left them to their own IRRATIONAL ideas and to their MONSTROUS BEHAVIOR."

We have presented some of the surviving writings of these "depraved" and "stupid" philosophers, and we can judge their "irrational ideas" and "monstrous behavior".

Let us end with Cleanthes (331-233 b.c.e.); his "Hymn to Zeus" (33) was a well-known Stoic classic. Since Tarsus was one of the leading centers of Stoic thought, and Paul quoted other Hellenists such as Menander, it is possible that Paul was familiar with it. Is it probable that none of the editors of the Christian canon were familiar with it?

Hymn to Zeus

"Most glorious of the immortals, Zeus

The many-named, almighty evermore,

Nature's great Sovereign, ruling all by law --

...

Naught on earth is wrought in thy despite, O God,

Nor in the eternal sphere aloft which ever winds

About its pole, nor in the sea -- save only that

The wicked work, in their strange madness.

Yet even so thou knowest how to make the crooked strait,

Prune all excess, give order to the orderless;

For unto thee the unloved still is lovely--

And thus in one all things are harmonized,

The evil with the good, so that one Word

Should be in all things everlastingly.

...

Scatter, o Father, the darkness from their souls,

Grant them to find true understanding--

On which relying thou justly rulest all--

While we, thus honored, in turn will honor thee,

Hymning thy works forever, as is meet

For mortals, while no greater right

Belongs to the gods than evermore

Justly to praise thy Universal law!"

NOTES

1. "The being of the god is spherical, with no resemblance to man." Diogenes Laertius, IX, 19, READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, ed. George F. McLean and Patrick J. Aspell, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1970), p.31.

2. Fr. 25, Simplicius, PHYSICA, 23, 23, 20, READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, P. 31.

3. Euhemerus, SACRED HISTORY VI, ed. Frederick C. Grant, HELLENISTIC RELIGIONS (New York: Bobbs Merrill Press, 1953), pp. 74-5.

4. Fragment 25, SISYPHUS, READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p.84.

5. The scope of this paper will then preclude non-canonical Christian writers such as Origen, Theophilus of Antioch, Arnobius, Eusebius, Jerome and Augustine, but also later Pagan thinkers such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Julian, Sallustias, and Macrobius.

6. Perrin, Norman and Duling, Dennis C., THE NEW TESTAMENT: AN INTRODUCTION, 2nd ed. (Chicago: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1982, 1974), p. 129. "II Cor. 6:14-7:1 (is) a section that contains language and ideas so characteristic of the Dead Sea Scrolls and so unlike those of Paul (e.g. Belial - Greek: Beliar - for the prince of demons; the light-darkness dualism; the use of the term "righteousness"; separation from unbelievers) that many believe that it is a non-Pauline fragment inserted into the letter when the letters were brought together as a collection at a later date."

7. Paul Tillich, SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Vol. I: REASON AND REVELATION, BEING AND GOD. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), p. 25.

8. Ibid.

9. Even as early as the 6th century b.c.e., Xenophanes observed that "Aethiopians have gods with snub noses and black hair, Thracians have gods with grey eyes and red hair." (Fr. 16, Clement, Stromateis, VII, 22,1. READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p. 31.) He concluded that, "if oxen (and horses) and lions ... could ... create works of art like men, horses would draw pictures of god like horses and oxen of gods like oxen ... in accordance with the form that each species itself possesses." (Fr. 15, Clement, Stromateis, V, 109, 3, READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p. 31.)

10. Paul Tillich, op. cit., p. 25.

11. See Colossians 2:8 and Romans 1:18-28 which specifically includes them.

12. The mental life of children ages 7-11 was typified by Piaget as being concrete operational because they are not yet able to operate on their operations, they cannot produce formal, abstract hypotheses, they cannot imagine possible events that are not also real events. In contrast, the formal operations stage is characterized by the use of hypotheses and the sophisticated use of symbols to solve problems with formal reasoning. (Robert M. Liebert, R. Wicks Poulos, Gloria D. Strauss, DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1974) pp. 225-228; also see J.S. Brunner, "The Course of Cognitive Growth", AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST, 1964, Vol. 19, pp. 1-15.

13. HELLENISTIC RELIGIONS, p 168.

14. Ibid., pp.162-165.

15. "On Isis and Osiris", Ibid., pp.94-5.

16. Tillich, p. 13.

17. Ibid.

18. p.52, Fragment 28, Strobaeus, Anth., I, 15,2 a,b.

19. Fragment 133, Clement, Stromateis., V, 81, 2, READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p. 52.

20. Fragment 134, Ammonius, De Interpretatione, 249, 6, Busse. READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p. 52.

21. Fragment 32, Clement, Stromateis, V, 115, 1. READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p. 33.

22. According to Perrin and Duling, p. 210-11, there is some doubt as to authorship of Colossians because of distinctive vocabulary and wordy style, although these may be attributable to the extensive use of traditional material, such as lists of virtues and hymns. In addition, they note that the concepts represent a departure from earlier, more certain letters. Several Pauline ideas are not referred to: righteousness, law, salvation, justification. Christology and institutional ideas are more developed.

23. Perrin and Duling, p. 377.

24. Diogenes Laertius, X. 131-5, READINGS IN ANCIENT WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, p. 292-3

25. Strabo, Georgics, VIII 378, as quoted in Perrin and Duling, p. 175.

26. A.D. Nock, CONVERSION, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), p. 217-8.

27. The authorship of Ephesians is in doubt. Four out of six analysts cited by Perrin and Duling argued against Paul's authorship because of discrepancies in language and style, and the fact that Ephesians quotes Colossians heavily. p. 218-220.

28. The alleged correspondence between Paul and Seneca was in fact a later Christian forgery, though they were in fact contemporaries. However, there is some evidence that suggests that Paul himself WAS familiar with Stoic philosophy: First, Paul himself had lived in Tarsus, one of the three major educational centers of the Hellenistic world in his day, and well-known for its Stoic philosophers. Second, Perrin and Duling point out that "Paul's letters show that he had a formal Greek education, for he writes (and dictates) Greek well and displays knowledge of Greek rhetorical devices especially characteristic of Cynic-Stoic preachers of the period." Ibid., pp.135. See also pp. 136-40, 180, 188, and 207.

29. This idea is further articulated by Tillich.

30. Perrin and Duling, p. 42.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid., p.43.

33. HELLENISTIC RELIGIONS, p. 152-4.

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