Epicurean Similarities With Early Christianity

Epicurean Similarities With Early Christianity

— Personalized letters (Epistles) were the primary form of literary dissemination.

— "FAITH" (as ΠIΣTIΣ or pístis) served a key role (also "confidence", "conviction", "guarantee", "pledge", "assurance")

— The founder was called "SAVIOR" (as ΣΩTHP or sōtēr) and honored as a universal "Savior of Humanity".

— Followers venerated the founder as a deity.
— A core set of beliefs was prescribed by the founder as dogma (ΔOΓMA).

— Uniquely included women as equals and leaders of the early community.

— General cautioning against participating in State politics

— Suspicion of wealth and fame as reliable sources of happiness.

— Recognition that a simple life is all that is required to enjoy the fullness of a good life.

— Acknowledgement that a beloved friend is worth sacrificing oneself for.
— Prayer was employed as an effective practice

— Jesus is called "kathegetes" in Matthew 23:10, the same noun used to describe Epicurus' brothers' roles

— Epicurus, St. Paul, and Noah are described as KHPYX, a “herald" (or "preacher" in the King James Version)

— Incorrectly represented as "atheists" by philosophical and political opponents

Regarding Epicurus as the sōtēr of humanity:

“It is interesting that a man like Epicurus—who later was so much attacked by the Christians that only some of his fragments remain—was called soter by his pupils. This is the Greek word which the New Testament uses and which we translate as “savior”. Epicurus the philosopher was called a savior. […] He was called soter because he did the greatest thing anyone could do for his followers: he liberated them from anxiety.” (Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought, from Its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins to Existentialism 5 [1972])

“The similarity of god and sage reaches out of the paradisiacal realms of the Garden and intermundia into the world inhabited by common men, for it is in the world of the common man that the effects of divinity and deosimilitude are most visible. Both the sage and the gods are called sōtēres in Epicurean writings, for both effect acts of salvation for the benefit of the common man still in the world.” (Frischer, The Sculped Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment in Ancient Greece 79)

“[T]he Lord Jesus Christ . . . our Savior. In the Greco-Roman world, it was common for the Caesars to call themselves “Lord” (kurios […]) and “Savior” (sōtēr […]) […] For example, Epicurus is called sōtēr by his followers.” (Hoehner and Davids, Ephesians; Philippians, 1-2 Thessalonians; Colossians, Philemon 209)

“Epicurus is occasionally described as a savior (sōtēr) or messenger (kēryx), terms which are also used by Epicureans themselves and are reminiscient of Old Testament expressions. Perhaps such a chocie of words was intended as a kind of ‘competitive offer’ to the blossoming of Christianity. Lucian’s Alexander seeks to put up a monument to Epicurus the ‘saviour’, ‘for this in the truest sense holy and divine man, the only one actually to recognize that which is true and good and, through its dissemination, to become a liberator and benefactor of his disciples’.” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism 53)

Regarding the usefulness of prayer:

“[P]etitionary prayer to the gods is obviously, for an Epicurean, of no avail; and, indeed, as Epicurus says in his Vatican sayings 65, it is pointless to pray for happiness which a man can provide for himself. If the gods paid attention to human prayers the human race would long since have become extinct since men are continually praying for calamities to fall upon their enemies [...] Yet Epicurus recommend prayer, on the grounds that it is a natural act and that one should also participate in the religious life of one’s country, and it seems that he himself, led the way by taking part, and urging his followers to take part, in the sacrifices of the gods, without worrying too much about popular superstitious beliefs.” (Thrower, The Alternative Tradition: Religion and the Rejection of Religion in the Ancient World 184)

“…already been pointed out by the Epicurean Hermocrates — does one have to pray to be able to pray properly? — by using Epicurean ideas of prayer as meditation, when the good is not a result generated from outside, but consists in the act of the prayer itself and, consequently, in looking after the self.” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, 60)

“[T]he Epicurean school encouraged prayer representing a disinsterested, high-minded admiration and adoration of an ideal. Pray (in its genesis and in its employment, doubtless representing, at once, for some an individual, emotional need, and for others a social habit) became through the Epicurean rationalization of religion, theoretically at least, an intellectual matter, conducted, according to the Epicurean conception, truly pie and sancte. The higher aspiration of the Epicureans for an ideal that might be worshiped because of its perfection, found expression in prayer, that necessarily involved the religion of poetry, of mythology, of cultus, and of dogma, while at the same time, it gave to gods and goddesses a new function and character. It is inconceivable that prayer among the Epicureans was wholly or even in large part the result of a concessionary or cowardly spirit; it was rather a psycholigcal necessity and at the same time, as conceived by Epicureans, not inconsistent with the entire Epicurean philosophy of religion. Sincerity in the matter of prayer would necessarily among the Epicureans be a variable matter, as also the degree of attachment to the old religion of which the Epicurean theology was an out-growth, a purification, and a reconstruction.” (Classical Philology: Volume 2 188)

“It is true that Epicurus saw little value in prayer but he did declare that continuous happiness was possible and he exalted the virtue of gratitude to first rank as a factor of happiness. Verse 16 is therefore partly Epicurean, partly exclusively Pauline: ‘Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks under all circumstances.’” (St. Paul and Epicurus 51)

On Epicurus being a herald:

“Epicurus is occasionally described as as a saviour (sōtér) or messenger (kéryx), terms which are also used by Epicureans themselves and are reminiscient of Old Testament expressions. Perhaps such a choice of words was intended as a kind of ‘competitive offer’ to the blossoming Christianity.” (The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism 53)

“Diogenes employs similar language to describe Epicurus to his fellow Epicureans in Rhodes, calling him ‘the herald who saved you’ (NF 7 III.12f [see Smith (1971) 365-71]) = fr. 73 Casanova [= fr. 72.III.12-14 Smith]). The conception of Epicurus as a savior is of course not unique to Diogenes; we find it in Pompeia Plotina’s letter to the Epicureans of Athens, and elsewhere among Epicureans both Greek and Roman. But the term kēryx is neither common nor orthodox. Epicurus had, it seems, used the verb Κῆρυttein in his enthusiastic description of friendship ‘dancing about all of the inhabited world, heralding the call to us all: Awake to proclaim blessedness!’ Diogese speaks of ‘salvation’ when he states his motives for displaying on the wall of his stoa the gospel of Epicurean philosophy. The philosophy as a soter is not a commonplace in the philosophical literature of the second century. And Diogenes’ description of Epicurus as a herald (kēryx) is even less common. Both terms, ‘savior’ and ‘herald,’ remind us rather of the language of the New Testament. The language of I Timothy 2.7 combines the terms ‘herald’ and ‘apostle,’ and ‘savior’ is the word for Christ in II Timothy 1.10. The kērygma of the New Testament is of course the coming of Christ as the Messiah and savior.” (Clay, Paradosis and Survival 243-244)

"For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all--this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." (1 Timothy 2:5-7)

"This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has not been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospelI was appointed a herald and an apostle and Ia teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do." (2 Timothy 1:9-12)

"For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of the deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly" (2 Peter 2:4-5)