Brother AACOOLDRE : St. Augustine hating on the Stoic philosophers

AACOOLDRE

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Jul 26, 2001
2,577
368
Michigan
Occupation
Teacher
ST. AUGUSTINE HATING ON STOIC PHILOSOPHERS

By Andre Austin

Stoic philosophy taught that “virtue is sufficient for happiness” which included living a balanced life in justice and righteousness. St. Augustine thought differently. In his City of God Book 9:4-5 he said they were the opposite of Happy: Wretched and Miserable. Augustine then went on in later down ten more chapters in Book 19:4:

“But such is the stupid pride of these men, (Stoics), who fancy that the supreme good can be found in this life, and that they can become happy by their own resources, that their wise man, or at least the man whom they fancifully depict as such, is always happy, even though he become blind deaf, dumb, mutilated, racked with pains”

This information gave me the suspicions that members of the Lukewarm church of Laodicea may have been influenced by Stoic philosophy because they faced some of the same charges.

Laodicea was a great center of banking and finance (Rev. 3:14-21). It was one of the wealthiest cities of the ancient world! When Laodicea was destroyed by an earthquake in 60 A.D., they refused aid from the Roman Empire and rebuilt the city from their own wealth. "One of the most famous cities of Asia, Laodicea, was in the same year overthrown by an earthquake and without any relief from us recovered itself by its own resources" (Tacitus, Annals, 14:27).

The Laodicea church told Jesus (Emperor Domitian) Iam rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful (miserable), poor, blind and naked” (Rev 3: 17).

All of this negative talk on Laodicea came about because Domitian fell out with some of Stoic philosophers and that he was a construction nut. He wanted his subjects to be dependent upon him and to be happy in their faith and allegiance to him. He thought he was a god and wanted to be addressed in that manner.

Lukewarm was classified as a deed and is a metaphor of an eye condition of a deed, health and happiness.

PITIFUL & JOYFUL EYES: Spiritual Symbolism of eyesight

By Andre Austin

“There are six things the Lord Hates: Haughty eyes…” –Proverbs 6:16-17)

The separation of the Sheep and Goats are symbolically tied in with vision in Matthew 25:31-46. The Sheep look out for others and the goats can’t be seen doing good deeds because they do not look out for others. As a result the Sheep go to the right and the Goats go to the left just like they do in the Egyptian hall of Justice.

Then we have Moses having the requirement of those seeking life/healing look at the Bronze serpents wrapped around a pole (Numbers 21:4-9) which is the Egyptian symbol for healing we use today in the medical profession and to write prescription drugs Rx. We can also take into account “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8) and “anyone who does what is evil has not seen God” ( 3 John 11). In Egypt “seeing God” is equated with healing.

I said all of this to build up a foundation. Pliny the Elder (23-79) was a walking encyclopedia of all sorts of information. He’s famous for his book Natural History. He was with the Stoic school of Philosophy and he and his works was “one of the people who worked on the writings of the Gospels” (Caesar’s Messiah p.395 by Joe Atwill). Some of the Lost books of the Bible accuse Paul of having “Hollow-eyed” (Paul & Thecla chapter 1:7), which means he was deceptive and crooked. Even Plato & Socrates said that the eyes are a virtue.

Pliny the Elder when speaking of Eyesight said:

Swelling denotes a Temper (When eyes are inflamed they swell see notes*)

Level (balance) eyebrows=Gentle

Curved on the side of the nose=Stern

Bent down at the temples=scoffer

Drooping=spiteful and ill-intentioned

Narrow on both sides=malicious in character (Natural History Book 11:274). All are bad passions except for the one in bold.

To be a good student of the Bible and ancient spirituality I’m finding out that it pays to know a little bit about astronomy, medicine and world history. Its also good tactic to go back and read over things to see if you missed something. The Bible is a good word puzzle book and rewards those like a police detective who’s solves mysteries and crimes of plagiarism. I overlooked Pliny when he stated:

THE EYES

“No other part of the body supplies more evidence of the state of mind…The eyes show signs of self-restraint, Mercy, pity, hatred, love, sorrow, joy; in fact the eyes are the windows of the soul.

Nature has provided the eye with many thin membranes and hard outside coverings as a protection against cold and heat, she cleans the eyes with moisture” (Natural History Book 11:145-147). [The top half of Pliny quote I missed but not the bottom. But earlier essays I found quotes from Christians and other Stoics that filled in the evidence]

As a Stoic Pliny knows that they are being charged with being Wretched and Pitiful= Unhappy and lacking zeal/passions. The Stoics advocated being indifferent to Hot & Cold physically and spiritually in order to appreciate life and avoid sin.

When we get to the city and church of Laodicea Amen (unseen) states he’s a eyewitness to their deeds of being neither Hot or Cold but Lukewarm. The City of Laodicea was famous for their medical school for eye-treatment and selling of salve for the eyes (see Strabo Geography). This fact didn’t matter to Emperor Domitian. The emperor who demanded being called Lord/God didn’t like Laodicea Stoic behavior and independence. He called them Wretched, Pitiful and blind in need of salve for eye inflammation (Rev 3:17-22).

Luke is a Doctor/Physician but nobody knows what area of medicine he was in. I speculate he was a mythological eye doctor because he states:

1. He writes down what Eyewitness saw

2. Luke can be a pun for Look.

3. His name is used as a prefix to warm about a Church that’s spiritual blind

4. The NT is originally written in Greek so Luke is Loukas which could be used as a pun for Leukomas, an inflammation of the eye (Lukehot). If so the condition isn’t inflamed (heat) which “Heat (tjau) in Egypt the eye may mean inflammation, although alternatively it may mean irritation” (Ancient Egyptian Medicine p.202 by John F. Nunn). Lukewarm must have been a healthy condition because its not Hot or Cold. Aristotle said: “Healthy is the balance between Hot and Cold”.

This would have brought us to the category of Level/ balance of being gentle which the Stoics wanted peoples attitude and behavior in. However Domitian wanted them to be in fight mode of a zealous passion (Rev 3:19). This is corroborated with Epaphras being sent to Laodicea to fight for them zeal which is said in conjunction with Luke the beloved Physician (Colossians 4:12-14).

So basically the Laodicea people are being associated with Stoic Behavior. And this is pissing off Lord/God Domitian who wants people to jump up and down for this crazy Emperor who himself was called Hot-tempered. So they have the equivalent of being stereotyped like a Spock type character on star-trek of being emotionless which is still being misinterpreted today.

You can’t deny that Pliny and Rev 3 are using the same structure, anecdotes metaphors when speaking on the Eyes and Church business. Its more than a coincidence.

Conclusion

Having a hot-heart or Cold-heart impairs your vision to do righteous deeds. The Stoics taught being in virtue was sufficient for happiness and it’s their opponents who took pity upon them and couldn’t see the light. In Egypt balance is called Maat-Tefnut, the “Heat of Heaven” and she helps set up the eyes of Ra in their correct place and order. Tefnut is spit in birth just like Lukewarm is. Lukewarm is the temperature of justice/balance.

It was good spending 6 months on this journey of cracking this case. I stayed on it like a fly guy on do do never stopping until the job was done. I truly hope you can see what all I’m saying.

Notes:

When the Bible speaks of the Lord/God Emperor Domitian wearing hair of wool it’s a wig because Domitian was bald headed and very sensitive about his hair. When they say “his eyes were as a flame of Fire” (Rev 1:14) this means he swells with his hot-temper historians wrote about; and lacks good Judgement.

Leukomas when I looked up the front part of this eye disorder from the Oxford English dictionary 2nd Edition (1989) from the reference library this popped up:

Leuk, form of Look

Leuke, Leun, League, Luke, Lion
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top