Paul and Greek Philosophers

 Paul and Greek Philosophers

It is never wise to build a claim on untruths and present it as truth. Yet, in examining Paul’s writings, we see a system that often reads less like a faithful record of Jesus and more like a carefully constructed patchwork of Greek philosophical concepts repurposed as divine revelation. Passages such as 1 Corinthians 2:1–8, 3:18–20, 8:1, Colossians 2:8, and 1 Timothy 6:20 reveal a pattern of warning against human deception and false knowledge, yet the ideas themselves—about wisdom, virtue, and the soul—show clear resonance with Hellenistic thought. In reinterpreting Jesus through this Greek conceptual lens, Paul moved the emerging Christian movement away from its original Jewish framework, creating a religion that could speak to the philosophical world of his time.

Acts 14:15 English Standard Version 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

I am a man, and, like other men, a creature of flesh and blood, and not of ” wood or stone 

Plato’s Apology Section 3D

2 Corinthians 7:2 English Standard Version 2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.

Plato’s Apology 

"We have corrupted no man"

In Apology 33a–b, Socrates challenges his accusers to produce a single witness:

"If I am a corrupter, and an ancient corrupter of youth, there ought to be some of them who have grown up and become sensible that I gave them bad advice in the days of their youth, and who would now rise as my accusers... But there are none."

"We have wronged no man"

Apology 25e–26a, Socrates argues that he never wronged anyone intentionally: "I am so far from being able to determine whether I corrupt them or not, that I do not even know that I have ever wronged any man... If I have been a corrupter, it was an unintentional one; and for unintentional errors, the law does not bring a man into court."

we have taken advantage of no one.

"I have a sufficient witness to the truth of what I say—my poverty... I have never been anyone's teacher, but if anyone desired to hear me... I never denied him. I have never taken money.

Apology 31b–c

1 Corinthians 9:24 English Standard Version 24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

"But such as are true racers, arriving at the end, both received the prizes and our crown."

Plato’s Republic Book X, section 613C

2 Corinthians 3:18 English Standard Version 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4:4 English Standard Version 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

"Evils... hover about this mortal nature and this region of ours. Wherefore we ought to fly away from earth to heaven as quickly as we can; and to fly away is to become like God, as far as this is possible; and to become like him is to become holy and just and wise."

Plato’s Theaetetus  section 176a–b also 155C-D.

Romans 7:22-23 English Standard Version 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

"There is a victory in defeat - the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats - which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself; this shows that there is a war against ourselves - going on within every individual of us."

Plato’s Laws Book 1, Section 626E

Romans 8:5 English Standard Version 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

Galatians 6:8 English Standard Version 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Plato’s Phaedo 64c–67d

Philippians 1:21 English Standard Version 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

"Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain."

Plato’s Apology Section 40D

Philippians 3:19 English Standard Version 19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Plato mentions gluttonous and intemperate souls whose belly was their Go

Plato's Republic Book IX, Section 586a–b. "Gluttony and Philosophical Moderation in Plato's Republic" is the title of a doctoral dissertation by Hannah Hintze, submitted to the University of Chicago (Committee on Social Thought) in 2009.

1 Corinthians 13:12 English Standard Version 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

I am very far from admitting that he who contemplates existences through the medium of thought, sees them only "through a glass darkly," any more than he who sees them and they're working effects.

Plato’s Phaedo Section 100a

2 Timothy 4:6 English Standard Version 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

"The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways, I to die and you to live. Which is better God only knows."

Plato’s Apology Section 42a

1 Thessalonians 5:15 English Standard Version 15 See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

"Then we ought not to retaliate or render evil for evil to anyone, whatever evil we have made have suffered from him."

Plato’s Crito Section 49c

Ephesians 1:22-23 English Standard Version 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

"First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe, and close the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which we now turn the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of all that is in us; to this the gods, when they put together the body, gave all the other members to be servants."

Plato’s Timaeus Section 44D

Galatians 6:3 – “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor for each will have to bear his own load.”

“…I am not angry with my condemners or with my accusers; they have done me no harm, although they did not mean to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them. Still I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches…or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, – then reprove them as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. And if you do this, both I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.”

Plato’s Apology of Socrates Section 41e–42a

1 Corinthians 8:2 English Standard Version 2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

Socrates in Platos Apology Section 21D. “For my part, as I went away, I reasoned with regard to myself: “I am wiser than this human being. For probably neither of us knows anything noble and good, but he supposes he knows something when he does not know, while I, just as I do not know, do not even suppose that I do. I am likely to be a little bit wiser than he in this very thing: that whatever I do not know, I do not even suppose I know.” 

Galatians 5:23 English Standard Version 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Romans 2:14 English Standard Version 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

Aristotle: Such an one may truly be deemed a God among men. Hence we see that legislation is necessarily concerned only with those who are equal in birth and in capacity; and that for men of pre-eminent virtue there is  NO LAW—THEY ARE THEMSELVES A LAW. Any one would be ridiculous who attempted to make laws for them. Any would be ridiculed who attempted to make laws for them: they would probably retort what Antisthenes says the lions said when the hares began haranguing and claiming equality for all.

Book 3, Chapter 13 of Aristotle's Politics

Romans 12:4 English Standard Version 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function

"To begin with, our several natures are nor all alike but different. One man is naturally fitted for one task, and another for another."

Plato’s Republic. Explanation This quote is found in Book II, section 370a–b.

Acts 17:24 English Standard Version 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.

“The whole world is the temple of the immortal gods,” and “Temples are not to be built to God of stones piled on high. He must be consecrated in the heart of every man."

Seneca De Superstitione

Acts 17:25 English Standard Version 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

"God wants not ministers. How so? He himself minstereth to the human race: He is at hand everywhere and to all men. "

Seneca Moral Letters to Lucilius Letter 95

Acts 17:26 English Standard Version 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place

"We are members of a vast body, Nature made us kin, when she produced us from the same things and to the same ends." I will look upon all lands as belonging to me."

Seneca Moral Letters to Lucilius Epistle 95, Section 52 /"On the Happy Life" (De Vita Beata), specifically Chapter 20.

Acts 17:27-28 English Standard Version 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring

"God is at hand everywhere and to all men." and again, "God is near thee; he is with thee; he is within."

"God is close to you, he is with you, he is within you. That's what I mean Lucilla: a holy spirit lives within us, the one who notes our good and bad actions and is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, we are also treated by him. In fact, no man can be good without God's help."

Seneca Moral Letters to Lucilius Epistle 41, Section 1-2

Acts 17:29 English Standard Version 29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Thou shalt not form him of silver and gold: a true likeness of God cannot be molded of this material.

Only rise and mould thyself to kinship with thy God. This molding will not be done in gold or silver; an image that is to be in the likeness of God cannot be fashioned of such materials

Moral Letters to Lucilius Letter 31 Section 11

1 Corinthians 9:16 English Standard Version 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

But necessity was laid upon me-the word of God I thought ought to be considered first

Plato’s Apology Section 21e–22a

1 Corinthians 12:14-17 English Standard Version 14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

Is virtually single whole, and are justice and self-control and Holiness parts of it?.. as the parts that we face are parts - mouth, nose, eyes and ears." 

Plato’s Protagoras Section 329D

1 Corinthians 12:25 English Standard Version 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.a

And the city who state is most like that of an individual man? For example, if the finger of one of us is wounded, entire community of bodily connections stretching to the soul for "integration" with the dominant part is made aware, and all of its feels the pain has a whole, though it is a part that suffers, then that is how we come to say that man has a pain in his finger. And for any other member of the man the same statement holds alike a part that labors in pain or is ease by pleasure the same, he said, and, to return to your question the best governed statement was nearly resemble such an organism.

Plato’s Republic Book V, Section 462C-D.