Tuomas Rasimus - Stoicism in Early Christianity

2010 by Tuomas Rasimus, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, and Ismo Dunderberg

Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com

Ebook edition created 2012

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ISBN 978-1-4412-3367-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

C ONTENTS

Troels Engberg-Pedersen

Runar M. Thorsteinsson

Niko Huttunen

Stanley K. Stowers

Harold W. Attridge

Gitte Buch-Hansen

J. Albert Harrill

John T. Fitzgerald

Nicola Denzey

Esther de Boer

Ismo Dunderberg

Takashi Onuki

Tuomas Rasimus

P REFACE

What was the earliest Christian interaction with Greco-Roman philosophy like? And how early did it begin? The story has often been told of the engagement with Middle Platonism of the Greek and Latin church fathers up until Origen. Over the last few decades, however, attempts have been made to take the role of philosophy in early Christianity further back into the first century. Here the potential role of Stoicism has also been variously explored. Faced with this new scholarly situation, the three editors of this volume decided that the time was ripe for an investigation into the earliest Christianity and its relationship to Stoicism.

The volume that has come out of this venture is exploratory in nature. In no way did we attempt to cover the whole field. The possible interaction of Stoicism and Platonism in early Christian texts is also not a primary concern in this volume. However, we wanted the volume to address the following question head-on: To what extent are distinctly Stoic ideas useful for illuminating the meaning of Christian texts from the first and second centuries? We suggest that early Christiansthe authors of New Testament writings, those of noncanonical early Christian writings, and some early apologistsadopted philosophical ideas in the first and second centuries, and that it was specifically Stoicism that influenced their views, often to a degree greater than Middle Platonism. In this way, an entirely new light can be thrown on the relationship between philosophy and religion at the birth of Christianity.

The essays are arranged in a roughly chronological order. After an introductory chapter by Troels Engberg-Pedersen that sets the scene, there is, first, a series of essays on New Testament authors and Stoicism by Runar M. Thorsteinsson (Romans), Niko Huttunen (Paul and the law), Stanley K. Stowers (Gospel of Matthew), Harold W. Attridge (Gospel of John), Gitte Buch-Hansen (Gospel of John), and J. Albert Harrill (2 Peter). Then follow essays by John T. Fitzgerald (Christians and Stoics on slavery) and Nicola Denzey (Stoics, Justin, and martyrdom). Finally, the presence of Stoic ideas in other early Christian evidence from the second century is explored by Esther de Boer ( Gospel of Mary ), Ismo Dunderberg (Valentinianism), Takashi Onuki ( Apocryphon of John ), and Tuomas Rasimus (Sethianism and Stoicizing Platonism).

It remains to thank everybody involved in bringing off this project, which began during conversations at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in November 2006. In particular, we would like to thank each of the contributors, who not only accepted our invitation to participate but also delivered what we were after. We would also like to thank Hendrickson Publishers, which has been uncommonly forthcoming in the preparation of this project. Finally, we wish to express our gratitude to Margot Stout Whiting, who has helped improve the English of several non-English-speaking contributors. It is our hope that this volume will help to strengthen a field of study where so much more remains to be done.

Just before the publication of this volume, the editors heard of Esther de Boers premature and tragic death on July 6, 2010. We are grateful to be able to publish her essay here in her memory.

Tuomas Rasimus

Troels Engberg-Pedersen

Ismo Dunderberg

A BBREVIATIONS