1 Tim 5:6 and the Notion and Terminology of Spiritual Death : Hellenistic Moral Philosophy in the Pastoral Epistles.

Abstract

A close relationship exists between 1 Timothy and Hellenistic philosophy, especially Stoicism and (Middle) Platonism. A remarkable parallel is found between I Tim 5:1-2 and Hierocles the Stoic's doctrine of oakeiosis. A similar parallel between the notion of spiritual death, as it is expressed in 1 Tim 5:6 and in broadly contemporary authors influenced by Roman Stoicism and Middle Platonism, proves that the author of 1 Timothy knew and adapted conceptions drawn from the Hellenistic moral lore and philosophy of his day. In 1 Tim 5:6 the notion of the spiritual death of the immoral person appears connected both to Paul and to the philosophical landscape of the early Empire (Middle-Platonic and Neo-Stoic). Philo occupies an important place in this tradition, which has remarkable developments in Origen. 1 Tim 5:6 is basic for Origen's conception of spiritual death. The author of 1 Timothy has a deep knowledge of Hellenistic philosophy, especially Stoicism and Platonism, not only of single points or details, but of crucial philosophical conceptions, which he consciously employs for his own paraenetic discourse. This proves consistent with the long-recognised fact that the Pastoral Epistles represent an attempt at adapting Christian Pauline communities to their Hellenistic cultural environment and making them less suspect in the eyes of Graeco-Roman society.