AGNOSTICISM IN THE FIRST CENTURY

Acts 17:18 reads: "But some of both the Ep·i·cu·reʹan and the Stoʹic philosophers began disputing with him, and some were saying: “What is it this chatterer would like to tell?” Others: “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign deities.” This was because he was declaring the good news of Jesus and the resurrection."

Who were the Epicureans and the Stoics?

Paul faced a challenging audience at the marketplace. Among his listeners were Epicureans and Stoics, members of rival schools of philosophy.

The Epicureans believed that life came into existence by accident. Their view of life was summed up as follows: “Nothing to fear in God; Nothing to feel in death; Good can be achieved; Evil can be endured.” They believed in the existence of gods but thought that the gods had no interest in men and would neither reward nor punish them, so prayer or sacrifice was useless. Epicureans held pleasure to be the supreme good in life. Their thinking and actions were devoid of moral principle. Moderation was urged, however, on the grounds that it prevented the negative consequences of overindulgence. Knowledge was sought only to rid a person of religious fears and superstition.

The Stoics, on the other hand, believed that all things were part of an impersonal deity and that the human soul emanated from such a source. Some Stoics held that the soul would eventually be destroyed along with the universe. Other Stoics believed that the soul would ultimately be reabsorbed by this deity. According to Stoic philosophers, happiness was to be obtained by following nature. The Stoics stressed reason and logic and did not believe God to be a Person.

Neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics believed in the resurrection as taught by Christ’s disciples. Clearly, the philosophical views of these two groups were incompatible with the elevated truths of genuine Christianity, which Paul was preaching.

How did the Greek intellectuals react to Paul’s teaching? Some used a word that means “chatterer,” or “seed picker.” Regarding this Greek term, one scholar states: “The word was originally used of a small bird that went around picking up grain, and later was applied to persons who picked up food scraps and other odds and ends in the market place. Still later it came to be used figuratively of any person who picked up odd bits of information, and especially of one who was unable to put them together properly.” In effect, those learned men were saying that Paul was an ignorant plagiarist. Yet, Paul was not intimidated by such name-calling.

It is no different today. For example, some educators teach that evolution is a fact and insist that if you are intelligent, you must accept it. They, in effect, label as ignorant those who refuse to believe in it. Such learned men would have people think that we are ‘seed pickers’ when we present what the Bible says and point to the evidence of design in nature. But we are not intimidated. On the contrary, we speak with confidence when defending our belief that life on earth is the product of an intelligent Designer.