F_ Gerald Downing, Christ and the Cynics

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F. Gerald Downing, Christ and the CynicsF. Gerald Downing, CHRIST AND THECYNICS; John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography Selections byPeter Myers, November 11, 2001; update December 26, 2003. My comments are shown{thus}.You are at http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/downing.html.(1) F. Gerald Downing, CHRIST AND THE CYNICS: Jesus and other Radical Preachersin First-Century Tradition, JSOT Press, Sheffield UK, 1988.This book shows that the early Christians were followers of the Cynic philosophy- Taoists, in effect. The first part is Downing's Preface; the second part isthe parallel passages showing the Cynic derivation of much of the SynopticGospels. This material suggests that Jesus and his disciples were NOT Zealots,as Jewish writers like Hyam Maccoby and Robert Eisenman would have us believe.{p. v} PREFACEOur oldest traditions about Jesus clearly stem from Jewish Palestine in theearly first century. The names of people and places belong there, as do most ifnot all of the customs and institutions taken for granted, along with details ofthe topography and climate, as well as many apparent allusions to other strandsof contemporary history. In these accounts the only other literature drawn onfor illustration, for support and for interpretation is contained almostentirely in the Jewish canon of writings (the 'Old Testament', itself by nowvirtually finalised). This source is supplemented on a very few occasions bymore recent compositions: but they are still clearly Jewish. No proof of any

important direct literary dependence on non-Jewish sources has emerged from twocenturies of close study.On the other hand, the documentary evidence on which we rely for our knowledgeof these traditions is itself written in Greek to audiences that would seem tobelong outside of Palestine. Those first listening to the Gospels being read maywell have included Jews - even Jews who had grown up in Galilee or Judaea. Butmost of the Jewish Christians listening would seem to have been Jews who hadgrown up in Greek-speaking, largely 'pagan' cities (of which there were many inGalilee itself, of course). Paul's letters and Luke's Acts of the Apostles wouldsuggest that within perhaps twenty years the majority of Christians outside ofthe Jewish homeland were converts from 'paganism'. Some may have had prior

contact with Jewish tradition, perhaps even attending synagogues. But sufficientseem to have come in from 'outside' to need to have Jewish customs explained tothem.Thus the audiences for the documents we have are likely at least to have beenaware of the popular culture of the hellenistic cities and towns; and for mostof them, this will have constituted their natural way of conversing andthinking, and interpreting what they heard or read. Jewish tradition in Galileeand Judaea as well as in the rest of the Mediterranean world had, of course,itself been encountering hellenism for more than three centuries. The extent ofhellenistic influence in the homeland continues to be debated. Yet whatever ourconclusion on that contentious issue, the former conclusion seems indisputable:our early Christian documents are addressed in Greek to people for whom it was

natural to converse and think in Greek, people living in, and mostly immersed ina popular hellenistic culture.The traditions about Jesus, then, are Palestinian Jewish, with supporting andinterpretative literary material drawn from Jewish writings. The audience is'hellenised', and perhaps mostly 'hellenistic'. We are aware that for anycommunication, and especially in a largely oral culture, 'feed-back' from theaudience is extremely significant. The growth of the Christian movement musthave involved effective communication. So we are bound to assume that thepresuppositions, the prior interests of those who joined in, and those being


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approached, are likely to have had a significant effect on what was said andlater written. At the very least, the listeners will have made clear what wasgetting home to them, and what was leaving them cold, what was answering theirquestions and what seemed to be beside the point, and not worth repeating. Thiswill have affected selection; it may also of course have influenced style, andeven content.{p. vi} If we want to understand these documents as they came into being, weneed then to understand the audiences that will have helped to shape them. Forthat we need to glean what we can of popular hellenistic culture at the time(always open to the likelihood of considerable diversity).The evidence assembled in the first few pages of texts printed in thiscollection would seem to suggest that at least one important (but not at allmonochrome) strand was provided by radical 'Cynic' philosophers. Although this'movement' often figured quite prominently in New Testament scholarship in thefirst third of this century, it then seems to have suffered something of aneclipse, and has only slowly been re-emerging to view. It is sometimes pious,but often sceptical, sometimes gentle, but often radical and shocking, and forsome decades scholars seem to have preferred to look to more devout, moreobviously 'religious' sources: to mystery religions, to academic philosophy,even, and to an imagined pervasive 'gnosticism', rather than to the Cynics.Yet if the first Christian missionaries obeyed instructions of the kind recordedin Mt. 9.35-10.16, Mk 6.6-11, Lk. 9.1-5, 10.1-12, they would have looked like akind of Cynic, displaying a very obvious poverty. Not all Cynics wore exactly

the same dress (40, 151); not all of them even carried the staff that for somewas symbolic. But a raggedly cloaked and outspoken figure with no luggage and nomoney would not just have looked Cynic, he would obviousiy have wanted to.Perhaps a wandering Christian preacher repeated the approach ascribed to Jesusin the tradition, 'How's your health today? Feeling well, are you? I'm only herefor the ones who are ready to admit they're a bit sickly, and need the doctor,'(159). But that was a standard Cynic gambit, from the earliest days (even ifthey weren't the only ones to use it). 'You're sick with worry about your housewhen you're away from it and about your job when you're at home,' he might havecontinued; 'and about whether the fleet will bring a decent catch in tomorrow,and about the winter clothes you put away last month. One day's worry at a time

is enough. Take a lesson from the wild birds and beasts and flowers. They livevery well without grain stores. God cares. Believe me.' (58, 59, 115).But the last Cynic who came your way (nice lad, cobbler from the next town upthe valley) had said much the same. Well, perhaps he said 'gods', sometimes, aswell as 'God' other times. And he talked about Diogenes and Herakles the son ofZeus, not Iesous Christos, son of God. You asked him what he expected to get outof it, throwing up his job and taking to the road. That last one expectedexactly what he did get, an earful of abuse, and a kick that landed him in thegutter. This new one, Christicos or Christianos they say he is, this one seemsto be just about as hopeful: 'the really happy person is the one who's beingabused and hated.' (16)In these last two paragraphs I have been deliberately paraphrasing. But time and

again the excerpts here collected clearly provide remarkably close 'parallels'with the material in the Jesus tradition in the first three the 'synoptic"gospels, very often the closest parallels to be found among near contemporaries.The full signficance of these parallels is obviously a matter for judiciousreflection and debate. As the person responsible for the present collection I ammyself certain that they have an important and{p. vii} positive significance for our understanding of Christian origins,


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including our understanding of Jesus himself. But these passages are presentedhere in the hope of stimulating a discussion, not foreclosing it. They demandconcerted consideration rather than piecemeal treatment, (let alone silentneglect).Yet their possible relevance is not a twentieth century discovery. Many earlyChristians, and others, were aware - and happily aware - of the similaritiesbetween strands of Jesus' preaching, and the much older Cynic tradition. In themid-second century a satirist called Lucian tells us of a man he's sure is acharlatan, a man called Proteus Peregrinus, whom followers of Jesus called 'theChristian Socrates', and Cynics hailed as the greatest man since the originalDiogenes, accepting his Christian sufferings as part of his Cynic credentials.There's a story from even later of a man going to be consecrated as bishop ofConstantinople still wearing his Cynic cloak; and there's much more besides.But the main weight of my argument lies in the passages here collected together.They are deliberately left with the minimum of comment, so they may have achance to 'speak for themselves'. When a reader has allowed them to do that, thenext step will be to check with some recent thorough commentary on Matthew,Mark, Luke, James (or on the "Q" material: see below).It seems to me that it will appear that Christians who shared publicly theteaching and stories that go to build up our first three gospels must have beenentirely happy to sound as well as look like Cynics, content to find themselvessaying a great many things of the kind that the Cynics were saying. They

focussed on the same topics, very often pressing the same conclusions, and thatfrequently in very similar language.There were differences. But then there were considerable differences among paganCynics themselves. Some talked about God and prayer and life to come; otherswere more sceptical and 'humanist'. All were opposed to cant and hypocrisy,opposed to letting public opinion live your life for you, opposed to findingyour reality in property or expensive enjoyment. They wanted to be free of alithat, free to live their own lives - and free of the great men who likedthrowing their weight around and expected everyone else to see them asbenefactors (30, 151, 173). Cynics do not look very 'political' to many of ustoday. They didn't organise political parties, they didn't (for the most part;there were some exceptions) have political programmes. But they certainly got up

the noses of peop!e in authority, and were likely to find themselves in exile.They seem to have appeared political (and subversive) in their own day. But theyweren't exactly anarchists, either. They expected that if everyone lived moresimply we could do without most of the rules and regulations; but the resultwould be more peaceful and more orderly - as well as more enjoyable. They wereagainst what we might call a 'consumerist' society. They favoured passiveresistance. And the authorities often saw this as a very real political threat,and took it very seriously indeed.Even that is an over simplification. Some Cynics were very elitist, sure thatthe Cynic way was only for heroes. But many seem to have been much morepopularist, and we have contemporary impressions of numbers of workers

{p. viii} downing tools and taking to this ascetic way; ...When Christians didn't just repeat Jesus' teaching, but talked a lot about him,that would have been distinctive. (But some Cynics talked a lot about theirfounder, Diogenes.) When Christians said, Your attitude to Jesus' teaching nowwill decide the verdict on you in the judgment to come, that would have beendistinctive. (But we have two Cynic pieces that seem to allow that sort ofpossibility: the teacher will be the judge after death, (78)). When Christianssaid, God is ending this phase of the world's existence, and soon, it would havebeen unusual. (Yet some Stoic-inclined Cynics in particular themselves believed


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the present phase was only temporary, and not a few other pagans consideredthings to be run down enough for the end to be near, (78, again)). And whenthese Christians talked about Jesus as 'saviour' and 'liberator', and youimagined they meant what a Cynic using those words of Diogenes might mean, oncloser inspection you might find something rather different intended. Still,they don't seem to have had a lot of words from Jesus about 'liberation' or'salvation' (173). ...{p. ix} Of course, even if we found pagan Cynics and early followers of Jesusuttering identical words in sentence after sentence, they could still be'meaning' something rather different by them. Yet to say that is to say no morethan many scholars would say of Matthew and Luke when they included similarsequences of words in their respective works. The similarities remainsignificant, even if in context the 'meaning' can be shown to be distinctive.The point being made may be of some importance. It is NOT being suggested thatsimilarities in wording, imagery or subject matter necessarily indicateagreement in meaning, let alone any kind of dependence in either direction. ItIS being argued that where any such similarities appear they must be examined,and not be dismissed without careful consideration as though bound to be 'merelysuperficial'.And the only point I am hoping to place beyond dispute with this collection isthat some early Christians and some radical pagan preachers (seen by others andby themselves as Cynics) would often have sounded alike to their hearers.However, it does then seem to me extremely unlikely that these early Christians

were unaware of all this; and with such a considerable range of similarutterances, they must in fact have been quite happy to sound familiar in thisway. They could have avoided it. A Christian like Paui sounds much less Cynic(though there are parallels in his writing, too), and John has practicallynothing in common with Cynic material (281-289).If this point is agreed, it would seem to entail that these Cynic-soundingChristians did in fact mean (or often meant) also to be understood in much thesame sort of way as the general run of Cynics seemed to be understood. If thatwere not so, we may assume they wouid have selected from the Jesus traditionteaching and stories that were more distinctive, or would have taken more careto make the differences explicit, or would have gone in for the more abstracttheologising of someone like Paul.Further, if the arguments of these last two pages be accepted, then, as things

were understood in the first century, it would make those early Christiansappear both political and subversive. That is how those in authority saw Cynics.

For anyone now wanting to maintain some continuity with early Christianity, someresponse to New Testament documents that takes their likely original intentionand reception seriously, that must be important. It does not provide a politicalprogramme for the late twentieth century; (it did not for the first, in oursense of a programme). But it does provide a very powerful socio-economic andcultural 'ethos'. It stands against any ideology (capitalist or Marxist) thatdefines people as producers or as consumers, and against any system that

enforces that definition as the one by which people are obliged to live andsuppose themselves living fully. And it insists that such a Christian ethos mustnever be simply an ornament, a beautiful ideal. It demands actign.{p. x} Then yet another question asks to be considered. How was it that theseearly Christians could display so much of the Jesus tradition, so often sotellingly matching the concerns, convictions and even preferred metaphors of thepagan Cynics? As noted right at the beginning, there is so much that looks to be


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Palestinian-Jewish in the synoptic gospel tradition. There seems to be noplausible scenario in which such a colouring would have been imposed on orthreaded into Cynic teaching simply borrowed in some hellenistic city: any suchborrowings would surely not have seemed to be 'improved' by adding aPalestinian-Jewish colouring. We seem to have to accept that in all likelihoodmost if not all the material taken to come from Jesus the Jew of Nazareth camealready 'looking Cynic' and 'sounding Cynic', from the first re-telling of thestories and teaching. The Cynic colour is the colour Jesus of Nazareth Nazarethhimself gave to his teaching.Jesus would have been able to give his teaching this Cynic colour either by purecoincidence - or because the Cynic preachers had themselves not missed Galileein their endless wanderings, which took in 'barbarian' (non-Greek) as well asGreek-speaking cities and territories. (And, anyway, ordinary ('koine') Greekmay well have been at least a widely used second language in Galilee. In thenext century Jews were often writing even grave inscriptions in it.) If Cynic'missionaries' reached Galilee they are likely to have homed in on Sepphoris,Antipas' new and splendid hellenistic capital for the territory, being built allthe while that Jesus grew up in Nazareth, six miles away. Part - though onlypart - of the ethical, cultural, and religious stimulus that Jesus received ashe grew up may well have included some variants of this Cynic radicalism, whichwould often also have matched the concerns and ethical convictions of theancient Israelite prophets. Certainly Josephus thought that a case could be made

for calling the radical libertarian movement started by Judas of Galilee, theJews' 'fourth', that is, Cynic, philosophy; (see Introduction). ...{p. xi} Much recent scholarship has been concerned to explore cultural contextsfor Jesus in a Palestinian Judaism seen as non-Greek or at most only marginallyHellenised, and has used Dead Sea Scroll, Rabbinic, and other matter oftenlabelled 'sectarian', or 'apocalyptic' or 'apocryphal'. In what follows I setout where I can the most striking parallels from this Jewish literaturecurrently suggested as context for the Jesus tradition, for the sake ofcomparison. On a few occasions they are much closer here than are the Cynics,especially in the areas I have listed as 'christological', 'eschatological' and'soteriological'. But for the bulk of the material, the Cynic parallels seem tome much more strlking; and the best Jewish ones are often in fact from Philo,

who knows and uses the Diogenes tradition, sometimes explicitly, often (as isusual) without acknowledgment.This Jewish material is given first, in [square brackets]. Not all that isavailable is given each time, only items that are as close or closer than thepagan parallels. As just noted, where such comparable matter is known, it can befound in most of the longer current commentaries./13/ ...For better or worse the translations are the author's own, but should integratereadily with the standard translations of the New Testament and of the relevanttexts in the Loeb Classical Library.The other source most often tapped these days for supposedly illuminatingparallels is tne 'Gnostic' library of Nag Hammadi. It is argued (or often takenfor granted) that it was this psycho-therapeutic retreat into an inner religious

security that was popularly in demand in the first century, and that it was tothis demand that the Christians more or less drastically adapted. There isactually no evidence for any such popularity of anything one may call 'gnostic'in the first century; the only popular demand for which we do have evidence isthat displayed in the material assembled here. The Jesus tradition was asearthed (and as earthy) as the Cynics, certainly concerned with innerauthenticity, but only as exhibited in a succesful engagement with the worldaround, not in any 'cowardly' flight inward and away. No attempt is made here to


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engage with gnostic writings.{p. xii} The first set of New Testament passages to be chosen is the materialthat Luke and Matthew have in common, but which does not appear (or not in thiscommon form) in Mark. This is the so-called 'Q' material, the supposed commonsource that Matthew and Luke may have used, independently of each other, inproducing their interpretative expansions of Mark. By no means all scholars areconvinced of the validity of this hypothesis (though the present writer is, andhas contributed to the debate). Anyone not persuaded can still make use of thematerial collected here, noting - perhaps with interest - just how muchCynic-sounding material Matthew was willing to borrow from Luke (or vice-versa).It still leaves the material itself looking Cynic.The next section is the 'special Matthew' material - with some further strikingparallels with Cynic motifs, perhaps particularly unexpected when Matthew aboveall is seen as the 'Jewish' gospel. Maybe Matthew would better be seen as adeliberate combination of Cynic with Jewish strands, for a mixed Christiancommunity; perhaps also as evidence for the wider penetration already of someareas of the Jewish population by Cynic preaching. (There is some evidence thatthe second century Cynic Oenomaus, from Gadara, in the Decapolis, not far fromthe lake of Galilee, was highly regarded by some contemporary Rabbis.)The third block is the Markan 'teaching' material (for the miracle stories thereis no claim to find Cynic parallels). Then fourthly, the special Lukan material(somewhat sparse, despite Luke's supposed antipathy to riches, and so forth).

Fifthly there is the letter of James. For anyone convinced for other reasonsthat James cornes from the pen of the brother of Jesus, or at least from theJerusalem Christian community, this should offer still further evidence for thepenetration of the Jewish homeland by Cynic ideas. However, James seems muchmore often than does the synoptic material to have its closest parallels withPhilo.Penultimately there is a brief consideration of Paul, with special reference towork by Professor A. J. Malherbe. ...Oh, and 'Cynic'? It means something like 'doggy', or perhaps better, 'dogged' -one of those rude words which the disparaged pick up and wear with defiance. Our'cynic' and 'cynical' come from this group's refusal to be{p. xiii} hoodwinked by others (or even their own) pretensions. Someone who

suspects everyone's motives and presses them to look closely at their ownfailings is a 'Cynic'. As Jesus seems to have been. ...{p. 1} INTRODUCTlON: COMMON AIMS OF CHRISTlANS AND CYNICSNot only does most of the early Christian material here set out readily findCynic parallels, but most of the Cynic preaching, as seen by contemporaries,readily finds Christian parallels. ...{Here begin the passages from the Cynic philosophers and the Synoptic Gospels}A. ADDRESSING "ORDINARY PEOPLE" (INCLUDING WOMEN)Most Cynics and at least most Christians saw their message as aimed in a similardirection: to the mass of ordinary people. ...{p. 2} There is no Jew, no Greek, no slave, no free citizen, no male, no female.

You are all one in Christ Jesus - Gal. 3.28There aren't many among you who'd normally be thought clever, not many importantpeople, not many from the city aristocracy. God has chosen people others thinksimple... and powerless... from the despised bottom of the heap... - 1 Cor.1.26-28 (Compare notes of poverty: 2 Cor.8.2, 1 Thess. 4.11, 2 Thess. 3.10.)The mass of the people accept our Cynic aims. But when they see how hard it isto realise them, they desert our speakers - ps.Crates 21.You must try going out into the market place, where the mass of people spendtheir time - ps.Diogenes 6.


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If the opportunity offers, the Cynic must speak up on the public platform likeSocrates - Epictetus III xxii 26; and:You must be able to explain to individuals as well as to a crowd of people thebattle they're embroiled in - Epictetus III xxiii 24; (and cf. IV iv 26-27). ...

The mass of ordinary people keep a clear memory of these sayings ascribed toDiogenes - Dio 72.11.Almost everywhere you go is crowded with this kind of [Cynic] philosopher - Dio72.4He calls a popular assembly all on his own - Dio 80.2.Many would come up to me and ask me my thoughts on what's good and what's bad -Dio 13.12, Rome; (cf. 8.6; 13.14, 31; 32.20, Alexandria; 34.2, 'the many',Tarsus; 54.3; 60.10).I stayed away from the towns, passing my time... in the countryside, findinglots to think about, mixing with herdsmen and hunters, very genuine people withtheir simple and straightforward life-style - Dio 1.51.Make your way to the most crowded places - Lucian, Philosophies for Sale, 10,cf. Peregrinus 2-3; Demonax 9, 11, 61.{p. 3} ... the respect the mass of the people show my fellow philosophers -Lucian, Runaways 12.Virtue is the same for women and men alike - Antisthenes, LEP Vl 12, (where'virtue' is what the Cynic way is all about).Women are not by nature inferior to men... and it would be a disgrace,

Hipparchia, for you to change your mind now, when you've already covered halfthe way - ps.Crates 28; cf. epp. 29-33; Diogenes ep. 3.Would it ever be proper for men, and only men, to try to give carefulconsideration to the issue of living their lives well - in effect, to dophilosophy - would it be proper for men to do this, but not women? Musonius III.

Lucian chides 'working class' Cynics with 'excessive interest in women',persuading them to leave home, 'pretending they are going to be philosophers,' -'The Runaways' 18, cf.16, and see below; cf. also Peregrinus 12, (aged widows inattendance).

B. SIMILARLY WIDESPREADThe gospel must first be preached to all the nations - Mk 13.10. Make disciplesof all the nations - Mt 28.18. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and allJudaea and Samaria and right to the ends of the earth - Acts 1.8; cf. Acts2.9-11. From Jerusalem right round to Illyricum (Yugoslavia)... to Rome... toSpain - Rom. 15.19, 24. Pontus, Galatia, Cappodocia, Asia, and Bythinia - 1 Pet.1.1.I am a citizen of the world - Diogenes, LEP Vl 63.'Hipparchia... you must seek out wise men (sic), even if it means going to thevery ends of the earth' - ps.Crates, 30.I visited as many countries as I could... sometimes among Greeks and sometimesamong barbarians... arriving in the Peloponnese, I stayed away from the towns,

passing my time... in the countryside - Dio 1.50I've just completed a very long journey, all the way from the Danube - Dio 12.16

The deity ordered me to keep on with what I was doing, 'till you reach the veryends of the earth,' - Dio 13.9.Peregrinus ('the one and only rival to Diogenes and Crates') left home a secondtime to wander far and wide. The Christians provided him with sufficientresources for his travels - (in Asia Minor, Syria, including Palestine, Greece,Egypt, Italy and Rome) - Lucian, Peregrinus 15-16.


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{p. 4} C. SIMILAR AGENTS: "ORDINARY PEOPLE" - INCLUDING WOMENFishermen (Mk 1.16-20); tax-collector (Mk 2.14); carpenter (Mk 6.3);leather-workers (Acts 18.3; cf. 1 Cor. 4.12).They noted that Peter and John were uneducated and very ordinary... - Acts 4.13.How has this Jesus achieved such literacy, without any education ? - Jn 7.15.Where are the sophisticated, the highly literate, the debaters? - 1 Cor. 1.20.People spinning and weaving wool in their own houses, and leather-workers andfullers and farm labourers' - Celsus, in Origen, contra celsum III 55.(Women are first to be commissioned to proclaim the resurrection [Mk 16.7 Mt.28.7; they do so, Lk. 24.11, Jn 20.18].)Many of the Samaritan townspeople believed in Jesus because of what the womensaid in witness - Jn 4.39.When Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos they took him in and expounded God's Waymore accurately for him - Acts 18.26.Phoebe... Prisca and Aquila... Mary who exerted herself ('apostolically'?) foryou... Andronicus and Junia, kinspeople, fellow prisoners, and notableapostles... Tryphaena and Tryphosa, and beloved Persis too, women who alsoexerted themselves ('apostolically'?) - Rom. 16.1-12.Euodia and Syntyche ... two women who exerted themselves with me in apostolicevangelism, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers - Phil. 4.2-3.Monimus... a pupil of Diogenes... was a slave working for a Corinthian banker -LEP Vl 82. (Compare 'Simon the Cobbler', LEP II 122; and Socratic epp. 12 and

13.)You only need to learn how to live a healthy life, like a slave or a labourer,like a genuine philosopher... like Cleanthes, who studied while he pumped waterfor a living - Epictetus III xxvi 23.NO matter whether your teacher's a Greek or a Roman - or Scythian or Indian, forthat matter - Dio 13.32.[Dio, during his exile] planted and dug, drew water for baths and gardens andperformed many such menial tasks for a living - Philostratus, Lives of theSophists, 488.I particularly recommend the life of a shepherd. There's nothing to compare withdoing philosophy while working on the land, certainly nothing preferable -

Musonius Rufus XI.{p. 5} They were learning to be cobblers or builders' labourers; they wereoccupied with fullers' vats, or they were carding wool to make it nice and easyfor the women... Lucian, Runaways 12; cf. Dio 72.4.Even if you are quite ordinary - a tanner, fisherman, carpenter, money-changer -there's nothing to stop you annoying others, so long as you have the cheek, thenerve... How about boat-man or gardener? Lucian, Philosophies for Sale, II.It would be shameful, when you have taken up the Cynic life with your husband,living in porches, forgoing wealth, to change your mind now and turn back whenyou've covered half the Way - ps.Crates 28, to Hipparchia (cf. ps.Diogenes ep.3, again).Does it really seem to you that I was ill-advised to devote my time to a

philosophical education rather than waste it on a loom? - 'the femalephilosopher', Hipparchia - LEP Vl 98.Some people are sure to say that women who spend their time with philosophersare bound to become self-willed and arrogant, deserting their households for thecompany of [other ] men, practising speeches, talking like sophists, when theyought to be sat at home spinning - Musonius III; (though Musonius thinksphilosophy should make both men and women more dutiful - the womenphilosophically domestic.)Some even run off with their hosts' wives, like the adulterous young Trojan in


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the old tale, pretending that the women are going to become philosophers -Lucian, Runaways 18, again.D. A SIMILARLY UNPRETENTIOUS MESSAGENo clever oratory, no intellectual sophistication... - 1 Cor. 2.2.I serve God in accordance with the Way. They call it a school. - Acts 24. 14.The wordy way to well-being is long; daily Cynic exercise is a short-cutps.Crates 21.if Cynicism is really a school of philosophy, and not, as some maintain, just away of life - LEP Vl 103.Philosophy is nothing other than knowing about living... Particular clarity andforcefulness in speech... I don't rate all that highly, even in men - III andIV.Though you have so many enjoyable things to see and to hear, powerful speakers,delightful writers in verse as well as in prose, a peacock-like procession ofmultifarious sophists, borne on wings of fame by a crowd of disciples - yetdespite all these counter-attractions, here you are, coming up to me, waiting tolisten to what I have to say, though I know nothing and make no claims toknowledge (i.e., like Socrates) - Dio 12.5. ...I - THE "Q" MATERlAL (in the Lukan order).{p. 6} (1) THE TEACHER'S TEACHER: JOHN THE BAPTISER{p. 7} (2) THE TEACHER WHO REPRIMANDS ALL AND SUNDRY ...Diogenes marched into a theatre against the tide of those coming out. Asked why,

he said, 'This is what I spend my life practising' - LEP VI 64.No one makes any strenuous effort to become a good man and true - LEP Vl 27.Diogenes was asked what he could do. 'Lead men,' he replied - LEP VI 29; cf.27-30.A real Cynic well prepared will not be satisfied with having been well-trainedhimself. He must realise that he has been sent as God's messenger to his fellowhumans, to show them where they've gone astray over what is right and what iswrong [the good and the bad] - Epictetus III xxii 23.If someone has any wisdom to share, he should make his home where fools arethickest - Dio 8.5 (compare all of Dio 8 and 9).{p. 8} (3) YOU ARE ANIMALS (OR WORSE)You brood of vipers - Lk. 3.7, Mt. 3.7; cf. 39, 56, 58, 70, 264.When Diogenes saw professional dream-interpreters and seers and their customers

- or people who'd let fame or fortune go to their heads - he thought human kindthe most obtuse of all the animals - LEP Vl 24; cf. 46-48.You certainly look human, but at heart you are apes - ps.Diogenes 28.1; cf. epp.29, 47, and ps.Heraclitus 9, people are worse than animals.With a wave of her wand Pleasure drives her prey into what amounts to a sty, andshuts him in. From then on the human that was lives on as a pig or a wolf. AndPleasure brings into being all kinds of snakes and creepy-crawlies - Dio 8.24-5;(cf. 8.3, 14, 17, 36 [water-snake] and 9 passim).The poor woman... has been changed from a human being into a viper - Epictetus I

xxviii 9.The man becomes a wolf, or a snake, or a wasp, instead of a human being -Epictetus IV i 127; (cf. I iii 7-9, xxiii 6, 9, III xiv 14, xxiii 5).Seneca, de ira 11 xxxi 6; Lucian, Demonax 28, 49; Musonius X, XIIIB; but note in56, God's positive csre for animals.(4) THE WRATH TO COME ('eschatology')God brings into balance aspects of things that are out of true, he puts togetheragain what has been broken apart, he hurries to press down what has started to


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slip out of place, he collects together again what has been scattered, hecleanses what is unseemly... he brightens up the darkness with light... he movesthrough everything that exists, moulding it, adapting it, disssolving,solidifying, melting... these are his remedies for a sick world - ps.Herclitus6.3-4.The Ephesians... will pay for their insolence and are paying for it already,already themselves fully under sentence for their wickedness. It's not by takingwealth away that God punishes, but by giving it to wicked people. He does it sothat, with the means for sinning to hand, they may be convicted - ps.Herclitus8.3.Come, let us obey God, so we may not remain under his anger - Epictetus III i37.We might follow the example of some of those who perform initiations andpurifications, appeasing the wrath of Hecate, claiming to make a person sound.Before the cleansing begins, I gather, they set out and expound the many varyingvisions that the Goddess, they say, sends to those with whom she is angry - Dio4.90.Are you not aware of the stable, true and ageless harmony of the elements, as weterm them, of air and earth and water and fire...? If this common partnershipwere ever broken and followed by mutual conflict, the elements are not by nature

sufficiently resistent to destruction or decay for them to escape being throwninto chaos. They would undergo sn unthinkable and unimaginable dissolution frombeing to non-being... the greed and lawless discord of all else carries with itthe greatest risk of ruin. Yet such destruction will never overtake the universeas a whole because an all-embracing peace and righteousness remain within it,and everything everywhere serves the law of Reason in attentive and obedientcompliance - Dio 40, 35-37.And when the guests (sc., mortals enjoying life) have to leave, the profligateand intemperate are dragged out and hauled away... But the others walk out ontheir own, steady and erect... light-hearted and happy, with nothing to beashamed of. God keeps an eye on all that is going on, like a host in his own

house, and notes how each guest behaves. The best of them he always calls up tobe with him; and if he happens to be especially pleased with anyone, he ordershim to stay and be his drinking partner and his friend - Dio 30,43-44.{p. 10} (5) REPENTANCE... All philosophers were trying to persuade the unconverted to change theirminds; and a stress on the importance of words matching deeds was not confinedto Cynic preaching. But with the Cynics espousing 'more a way of life than aphilosophy', changing people's life-style was their primary aim. Dio makes thecontrast explicitly, comparing useless academic philosophy with the populistCynic concern for praxis (Dio 32.8, 19-20).You need someone good with words, someone who can encourage and dissuade, toshow each individual the conflict he's caught up in, with all the wrong thatresults. He needs to show him clearly that he's not doing what he wants and is

doing what he doesn't want to do. As soon as you show someone this, of his ownaccord he'll refrain completely - Epictetus II xxvi 4; cf. I iv 18.A courageous and humane ruler who means well towards his subjects will inducethe wicked to change their attitude of mind, and also help the weak. He doesboth without diminishing in any way his respect for high moral standards, andhis determination to be second to no good man in that respect - Dio 2.77; cf.Dio 31-43, urging cities to change their ways.{p. 11} There are two ways to cure wickedness or prevent it, just as with otherills. One resembles dieting and drugs, the other is like cautery and surgery(the penal system) ... It is clearly preferable not to resort lightly to drastic


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measures. The task that really needs doing is the gentler one, to be performedby people able to sooth and reduce a soul's fever by persuasion and reason - Dio32 17-18.What makes us worst of all is each one's failure to look back over his own pastlife - Seneca, EM LXXXIII 2.I don't despair even over the most hardened case. There 's nothing thatdetermined effort and attentive and assiduous treatment won't overcome - Seneca,EM L 5 et passim; cf. XXV, XXVIII 9, Lll, LXXV, LXXXIX etc.Demonax considered that it was human to go wrong (sin), but the act of a God ora godlike human to set the wrong right - Lucian, Demonax 7 (cf. 10).(6) INHERITED PRIVILEGE ?Antisthenes... belittled the Athenians' boast thst their ancestors had sprungfrom the soil. He told them it made them no better than snails or locusts - LEPVl 1; (cf. Vl 63, 'world-citizen').Diogenes used to pour scorn on 'good birth' and fame and all such, calling themadvertisements for wickedness - LEP Vl 72.The Lacedaemonians display good sense in lots of things, and especially indesignating people as Spartans on the basis of their conduct, not their familyrecords - ps.Heraclitus 9.2.Why do you say you are an Athenian...? it is from God that the seeds of lifehave come down, not just to my father or my grandfather, but to everything that

comes to birth on this earth - Epictetus I ix 1-4 (and all of I ix; alsoMusonius XIIIB).{p. 12} If you are cowardly, pampered, slavish, you are no kin either to thegods or to good humans - Dio 4 . 23 .Those who originally used these terms, 'noble' and 'of good birth', applied themto those whose high moral standards showed them well-born, without botheringabout their parentage - Dio 15.29; (note all of 14 and l5 on free and servilebirth; and 9.5).If there is an incidental extra benefit in philosophy, it's that it never looksat anyone's pedigree - Seneca EM XLIV 1 ( - end; and XLVII).(7) FRUITFUL IN DEEDThe axe is already poised against the root of the tree. Every tree that bears no

good fruit is cut down and burned on the fire - Lk. 3.9, Mt. 3.10; (compare 4on judgment, 23 on the imagery, 24 on 'deeds'.)The profligate, said Diogenes, were like fig-trees growing on a cliff, withfruit no human gets to taste - LEP VI 60; (compare Stobaeus III l5.10, ofCrates; IV 31b, 48, of Diogenes; criticising a lack of appropriate action,Diogenes, LEP Vl 27-28.]First of all take care that people don't know who you are. Do your philosophy onyour own for a while. This is how fruit is produced: the seed has to be burieddeep for a time, hidden away and allowed to grow slowly, so it can come tomaturity. Take care, my friend, you've grown up too lushly, you'll be nipped bythe frost - or it's already happened - right down at your roots - Epictetus IV

viii 35-6, 39; and the whole Discourse, on appropriate action.So, what fruit does this teaching produce? ...tranquillity, fearlessness,freedom - Epictetus II i 21.We praise a vine if it loads its shoots down with fruit... and we praise ahurnan being for the fruitfulness that is peculiar to us... our soul, and reasonbrought to perfection in our soul - Seneca, EM XLI 7-8; cf XX 1.{p. 13} (8) SYMBOLlC ACTlON, SOCIALLY DISTURBINGI baptise with water, but... he with wind and fire - Lk. 3.16, Mt. 3.11. (Cf.180, 181)


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Diogenes lit a lamp in broad daylight and went around with it saying, I 'mlooking for a real human being - LEP VI 41, etc.{Was this the inspiration for Nietzsche's story about the madman?}Diogenes saw someone engaged in a ritual lustration. 'You poor bedevilled fool!' he said. 'Don't you realise that getting your life wrong is no more going tobe helped by sprinkling yourself with water than getting your grammar wrong is'- LEP Vl 42; ...Men of Athens, said Demonax, you see me already wreathed. Come and offer me,too, in sacrifice. On the last such occasion [Socrates] you lacked favourableonens - Lucian, Demonax 11.{p. 14} (9) ONE MIGHTIER THAN IThere's someone greater than I am coming. I'm not fit to undo his sandal-strap -Lk. 3.16, Mt. 3.11.Antisthenes put up with his criticisms, for he greatly admired Diogenes'character - Dio 8 . 2 .(10) TEMPTATlON AND RESlSTANCE(a) We train both body and soul, accustoming ourselves to cold and heat, tothirst and hunger on a meagre diet, and to a hard bed; to abstinence from allpleasure, and patience under pitiful toil - Musonius Vl.{p. 15} Now's the right time for your fever - let it happen well. Now's the timefor going thirsty - thirst well. It's time to go hungry - hunger well! Epictetus

III x 8; cf. xxiv 17.Once when Diogenes was sunbathing in the Craneion, Alexander came and stood overhim and said, 'Ask me any boon you like.' 'Stand out of my sunlight,' snappedDiogenes - LEP Vl 38.For a Cynic, what's a Caesar or a proconsul, or anyone else? - Epictetus IIIxxii 56; cf. 60; 11 xiii 24.So who has any real authority over me? Has Philip, or Alexander, or Perdiccas,or the Great King? Where could they get it from? - Epictetus III xxiv 70.{p. 17} (12) GOD'S WILL PREFERREDDiogenes used to reprimand people about their prayers, telling them they askedfor what people in general valued, rather than what was really good for them -LEP VI 42.

Practice reducing your needs, and so come as close as possible to God [sc., whohas no needs] - ps.Crates 11.When someone has God's kind of peace proclaimed by God through his reasoningmind (not by Caesar - how could he effect it?) hasn't he enough to satisfy him?...Now no evil can happen to me... Another takes care to provide me with my foodand my clothes, my senses, and the structures of my mind ... - Epictetus IIIxiii 12-14.{p. 19} (14) POVERTY AND RICHESYou are the happy ones, you who are in poverty here and now ... Lk. 6.21, cf. Mt. 5.3; and, You are the wretched ones, you who are rich - Lk. 6.24; cf. 58, 59

Diogenes used ts condemn those who were loud in their praise of people who were

'right-minded', 'above matters of wealth' - yet for all their high-flownsentiments, were themselves envious of the rich - LEP VI 28 etc.{p. 20} The King, said Diogenes, was the most wretched person there was,surrounded by all that gold, yet afraid of poverty - Dio 6.34 et passim.Diogenes claimed that he enjoyed the sensations of warmth more than the wealthydid, and he ate his food with more enjoyment than they did - Dio 6.9.We should not get rid of poverty, but only our (bad) opinion of it. Then weshall have plenty - Epictetus Ill xvii 8.Is anyone going to be in two minds about putting up with poverty, to free hismind from madness? - Seneca EM XVII 7.


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Only the person who has despised wealth is worthy of God - Seneca EM XVIII 13.(15) HUNGER and REPLETION, SADNESS and LAUGHTERDon't you want to know why I never laugh? It's not because I hate people, butbecause I detest their wickedness... You are astonished because I don't laugh,but I'm astonished at those who do, happy in their wrong-doing when they oughtto be dejected at failing to do what's right - ps.Heraclitus 7.2,3.{p. 21} Lots of people are praising you, Antisthenes was told. Why? he asked.What have I done wrong? - LEP Vl 8.To some Diogenes seemed quite mad, lots despised him as a powerlessgood-for-nothing. Some abused him and tried insulting him by throwing bones athis feet as you do to dogs. Others, again, would come up and pull at his cloak..Yet Diogenes was really like a reigning monarch walking in beggars' rags amonghis slaves and servants - Dio 9.8-9; cf. 73.5-7.As a leading figure, Demonax fell foul of the mass of the people, and gained noless hatred from them, for his frank speaking and independence [freedom] thanhis predecessor [Socrates] had done - Lucian, Demonax 11.Socrates said, Follow these instructions, if you are willing to listen to me atall, so that you may live happily, letting yourself look a fool to others. Letanyone who wants to, offer you insult and injury... If you want to live happily,a good man in all sincerity, let all and sundry despise you - Seneca EM LXXI 7;cf. 18.{p. 22} (17) THE HAPPY REWARDS - NOW AND TO COME

My soul will not sink downwards. Because it is immortal, it will fly high intothe heavens, and there I shall be welcomed home, as a fellow citizen among Gods,not mere humans - ps.Heraclitus 5.2.{p. 23} We are deliberately delayed in this mortal life to provide a rehearsalfor the better and longer life ahead... the day you dread as the end ofeverything is your birthday into eternity - Seneca EM CII 23, 26, et passim; cf.consol. at marciam xxi-xxiii.The soul is either sent off into a better life to live among divine beings inbrighter light and deeper peace, or else, at least, it's to be mixed back againwith its natural elements, without any hurt, returning to all that is - SenecaEM LXXI 16.

(18) LOVE YOUR ENEMIESLove your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,pray for those who abuse you. If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the otheras well... Love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return- Lk. 6.27-29, 35; Mt. 5.39-44; cf. 16, 19-21.{p. 24} Socrates bore all the ill-treatment he received with forbearance. Forexample someone expressed surprise once at his self-restraint when he'd beenkicked. Socrates commented, If an ass did kick me, still would it have been inorder to take it to court? - LEP 11 21.Someone told Diogenes that his friends were conspiring against him. Diogenesreplied, Well now, what's to be done, when you have to treat friends and foesthe same? - LEP Vl 68; [an enigmatic response, but most likely positive].

A rather nice part of being a Cynic comes when you have to be beaten like anass, and throughout the beating you have to love those who are beating you asthough you were father or brother to them - Epictetus III xxii 54.Socrates... didn't just avoid conflict at every point, but wanted to keep othersfrom conflict, too - Epictetus IV v 2; cf. 12.Who is there among us who does not admire Lykourgos of Sparta, in his responseto being blinded in one eye by a fellow-citizen. The people handed the young manover to him, to take whatever vengeance he wanted. He refrained from any


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retaliation in kind, but educated him and made a good man of him - Epictetus,Encheiridion 5.If the citizens of Mallus have behaved stupidly - and they have! - it's up toyou to put anger aside and forgive them the punitive revenge you thought you hada right to; and, instead, work out a solution to this dispute over boundaries -Dio 34.43 (to citizens of Tarsus).{p. 25} Never to give way, never to concede a point to a neighbour (or notwithout feeling humiliated); never to marry getting your own way with allowingothers to as well - that's not manly or strong-minded, it's just ignorantstupidity - Dio 40.34, (to his fellow townspeople in Prusa); compare all ofDiscourses 37-41, on (re-)conciliation.How shall I defend myself against my enemy? By being good and kind towards him,replied Diogenes - Gnomologium Vaticanum 187, (in Paquet pp. l01, 183;) cf.Plutarch Moralia 88B.Someone gets angry with you. Challenge him with kindness in return. Enmityimmediately tumbles away when one side lets it fall - Seneca, de ira II xxxiv 5;cf. III v 8, xxiv 1, etc.You ask, If a man of sense and understanding happens to get his ears boxed, whatis he to do? Just what Cato did when someone boxed his ears. He stayed cool, hedidn't retaliate, he didn't even offer to forgive. He refused even to admit that

anything had happened. His denial was more high-minded even than forgivenesswould have been - Seneca, de constantia xiv 3; cf. de ira III xxv 3.We shall never desist from working for the common good, helping one another, andeven our enemies, till our helping hand is stricken with age - Seneca, de otio i4.It's a pitiably small-minded person who gives bite for bite - Seneca, de ira 11xxxiv 1.(19) GIVE, GENEROUSLYIf someone takes your cloak from you, let him have your shirt as well. Give toeveryone who begs from you; and if someone takes your belongings, don't ask forthem back - Lk. 6.29-30, Mt. 5.40-42.

{p. 26} When someone asked Diogenes for his cloak back (sic), he said, If it wasa gift, it's mine. If it was a loan, I still need it - LEP Vl 62.Crates sold up all his property - he was from a prominent family - and realisedabout two hundred talents. This he shared among his fellow citizens; [or threwit into the sea, according to another tradition ] - LEP Vl 87.How much more splendid than consuming lots of goods, to do good to lots ofpeople! How much better to spend money on other people than on bits of wood andstone for yourself - Musonius XIX.Many's the time I've taken pity on shipwrecked strangers and welcomed them to myshanty, given them something to eat and drink, and done everything else I couldto help them, and taken them back to civilisation... I never did it to win a

testimonial or even gain gratitude - Dio 7.52; cf. all of Discourse 7; also17.12.{p. 27} (20) (a) DO AS WOULD BE DONE BY, (b) GIVE FREELY, (c) BE GODLIKEIf you want to be loved, love - Sen. EM IX 6 (quoting Hecato); cf. XLVII 11.My advice is to rate a friend as highly as yourself... - Seneca EM XCV 63,again; cf. 18.Take care not to harm others, so others won't harm you - Seneca EM CIII 3-4.{p. 29} (21) JUDGE NOT, CONDEMN NOTDon't stand in judgment, and you'll not stand in the dock. Don't condemn andyou'll not be condemned; release, and you'll find release. The measure you use


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will be used for you. Why take note of the speck in your brother's eye, butignore the log in your own?... you hypocrite, first throw away the log from yourown eye, and then you'll see clearly to take the speck out for your brother -Lk. 6.37-38, 41-42; Mt. 7.1-2, 3-5; cf. 18.Diogenes expressed his amazement that the literary critics worked out what wasamiss with Odysseus, but ignored what was wrong with themselves... and thatpublic speakers accorded great importance to justice, without ever practising it... and that money-grubbers condemned money while deeply in love with it - LEPVl 27-28.{P. 30} A man with his cloak drawn tightly round him, walking alone, one whoalways starts by rebuking himself... [sc. Dio and other Cynics] - Dio 33.14. ...

(22) BLIND GUIDE5 and WELL-TAUGHT DISCIPLESCan a blind man lead a blind man? will they not both fall into the ditch? Adisciple is not above his teacher; but everyone fully taught will be as histeacher - LK. 6.39-40, Mt. 15.14, 10.24-5; cf. l~ 22, 36, 37-43, 68, 221.{p. 31} You can no more have a fool as a king than a blind man to lead you alongthe road - Dio 62.7. ...(23) BY THE FRUITThere's no good tree bearing useless iruit; but neither can a tree be useless if

it bears good fruit. You can recognise each kind of tree by the fruit it bears.People don't find figs on a thorn tree, nor do they gather grapes from a bramblebush. A good man produces good out of his heart's good treasury, and a wickedman evil out of his store of wickedness Lk. 6.43-45, Mt. 7.16-21, 12.33-35; cf.5, 7, 24.{p. 32} who would think to be surprised at finding no apples on the brambles inthe wood? or be astonished because thorns and briars are not covered in usefulfruits? - Seneca de ira II x 6.{p. 37} (30) UNROYAL, UNCOMMONWhat did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? No?What did you go to see? A man in soft clothes? You find people got up like that

[in fine clothes, living in luxury] in royal courts - Lk. 7.25-26, Mt. 11.7-8;on popular response to the messenger, see Introduction and 2; on attitudes tokings, 151, 173, etc.Once upon a time Alexander came and stood in front of Diogenes and announced, Iam Alexander, the Great King. And I, said Diogenes, am Diogenes the Dog [Cynic]- LEP Vl 60; cf. 43, 44, 65; ps.Diogenes 23.{p. 38} Diogenes says, Going naked is better than all the scarlet robes in theworld; and asleep on bare earth you're in the softest bed you could find -Epictetus I xxiv 7.Take a look at me then, says the Cynic. I've no home, no city, no property, noslave ... no governor's tiny mansion, nothing but earth and sky and one worncloak ... - Epictetus III xxii 47.It pained Alexander to think that someone living as free and easy as Diogenes

might get the better of him, and end up no less famous... Dio 4.11, et passim;and Dio 6.It was mostly people from a distance away who came to talk with Diogenes... thecommon motive was just to have heard him speak for a short while, so as to havesomething to tell other people about... rather than look for some improvementfor themselves - Dio 9. 5 .I wonder what on earth you came expecting or hoping for, looking for someonelike me to speak to you. Did you come expecting me to have a nice voice, to beeasier to listen to than other people... like a song-bird?... So, whenever yousee someone who begins by flattering himself on everything he does, and courting


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favour with his dinners and his dress, and minces around provocatively, you canbe sure he'll flatter you, too... But when you see some squalid figure, wrappedtight in his cloak, walking on his own, a man who always begins by rebukinghimself, then you need not look for any flattery or deceit from him... - Dio33.1, 13-14.{p. 39} (31) SILLY CHILDRENWhat are our contemporaries like? They're like children sitting in the marketplace and complaining to each other, 'We played on the pipes for you, and youwouldn't dance.' 'Well, we sang laments, and you wouldn't mourn' - Lk. 7.31-32;Mt. 11.16-17.When Diogenes joked playfully, as he did from time to time, people were quitedelighted. But when he pulled out all the stops and started to be serious, theycould not stand his frankness. It seems to me it was rather like children whoenjoy playing with thorough-bred dogs, but when the dogs show signs of anger andbark more loudly, the children are frightened to death - Dio 9.7; cf. 4.47 (forthe image), and 35.7.{p. 40} (32) TOO HARD OR TOO SOFTJohn came to people's attention as someone who refused to eat baked bread andrefused to drink wine - and they said he had a daimonion. The son of man came topeople's attention eating baked bread and drinking wine - and they say he's aglutton and a soak - and a friend of tax-collectors and other wrong-doers into

the bargain - Lk. 7.33-34, Mt. 11.18-19.Antisthenes was reproached for keeping bad company - LEP Vl 6. Diogenes wasreproached for drinking in a bar - LEP Vl 66.Though the mass of people want the same results as the Cynics, once they see howdifficult the way is, they steer well clear of those who propose it- ps.Crates21.{p. 41} (34) LAWLaw is a fine thing, but not as good as philosophy. Where law uses force againstinjustice, philosophy persuades us by teaching. Philosophy is better than socialpressure just to the extent that it's better to do something willingly rather

than under compulsion - ps.Crates 5.It's very much simpler to get rid of any written rule you choose than it is anitem of customary morality... while laws are preserved on tablets of wood orstone, customary morality is engraved deep in our living souls - Dio 76.3 [etpassim, criticising written law, and 80.5; per contra, 75, praising it].Demonax said that laws were probably pretty useless, whether they were framedwitn bad or with good people in mind. Good people don't need them, and badpeople aren't in any way improved by them - Lucian, Demonax 59.{p. 43} (36) (b) FOXHOLES AND BIRDSNESTSJesus said to the would-be disciple, Foxes have their earths to go to and birdshave their nests to fly down to, but the son of man has nowhere to rest his head- Lk. 9.58, Mt. 8.20.

According to Theophrastos Diogenes had watched a mouse running around, notbothering about finding anywhere for its nest, not worrying about the dark,showing no particular desire for things one might suppose particularlyenjoyable. It was through watching this mouse that he discovered the way to copewith circumstances - LEP Vl 22.The whole earth is my bed - ps.Anarcharsis 5.People used to see Diogenes shivering out in the open, often going thirsty - Dio6.8.


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I have travelled around for so long, not only without hearth or home, butwithout even a single attendant to take round with me - Dio 40:2.{p. 44} (36) (c) SKIMPED OBSEQUIESIf you die without a servant to wait on you, who will take you away to bury you?Whoever wants the house, said Diogenes - LEP Vl 52.Some say that when Diogenes was dying he gave instructions that he should bethrown out without burial, for every wild animal to eat. Or they were to squashhim down into any hole they found, and scrape a little dust over him - LEP Vl79.There's no need to thank your parents, either for your birth, or for being thesort of person you are - ps.Diogenes 21.A little while before Demonax died someone asked, 'What instructions have yougiven about your burial?' 'No need to fuss,' he said. 'The stink will get meburied.' But the questioner went on, 'Isn't it disgraceful for the body of a manlike you to be left out for birds and beasts to feed on?' 'I don't see anythingamiss,' replied Demonax, 'in being useful to other living beings after my death'- Lucian, Demonax 66; cf. 35, and Teles 30H, 31H.{P. 45} (37) MASS HARVEST, SCARCE HARVESTERSThe harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few - Lk. 10.2, Mt. 9.37; cf.Introduction.A good physician goes to be helpful where there's most sickness. So a good

philosopher should oe where there's most stupidity - Dio 8.5.{p. 46} (38) COMMISSlONINGI believe I've taken up this task, not of my own choice, but by the decision ofsome divine being -Dio 32.12.You must not refuse... to accept that a man who has arrived among you as I have,out of the blue, has come at the bidding of some divine being to talk to you andadvise you - Dio 34.4; cf. 12.20.{p. 47} (40) MISSlON EQUIPMENTYou're not to carry a purse with you at all, nor a satchel, and don't wearsandals // Take nothing for your journey, no satchel, no bread no money, nochange of shirt, no sandals, no staff - Lk. 10.4; cf. Mt. 10.9-10, Mk 6.7-13;

and 8, 10 (a), 14, 30, 59.[Essenes make their way into the houses of people they've never met before asthough they were their best friends. Though they travel armed against robbers,they take nothing else at all with them. They don't change their clothes ortheir sandals before they either fall to pieces or are worn through with use -Josephus, Jewish War II 125-127; Philo notes the Essenes' frugality, quod omnisprobus liber sit 77-78, but says they had no weapons; he does also note theirvisiting, ibid. 85.]According to some, Diogenes was the first person to double his threadbare cloak,Because he had to use it to sleep in, and he carried a satchel for his bread...but he took to carrying a staff for support only when he became infirm - LEP VI22-3.

When I'd chosen in favour of this Cynic way, Antisthenes took off the shirt andthe cloak I was wearing, put a doubled threadbare cloak on me instead, slung asatchel on my shoulder, with some bread and other scraps of food, and put in acup and a bowl. On the outside of the satchel he hung an oilflask and a scraper,and then, finally, he gave me a staff, too - ps.Diocenes 30.3.Wearing only ever one shirt is better than needing two; and wearing just a cloakwith no shirt at all is better still. Going bare-foot, if you can, is betterthan wearing sandals - Musonius XIX; but note also XVI.


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{p. 48} I visited as many countries as I could, as a beggar, and dressed for thepart; sometimes among Greeks, sometimes among barbarians... then arriving in thePeloponnese, I stayed away from the towns, passing my time in the countryside,finding lots to think about, mixing with herdsmen and hunters - Dio 1.50.{p. 66} (56) NEVER FEAR, GOD CARES{p. 67} If we don't prepare carefully for death, a very unpleasant end awaitsus... it's only with great difficulty that the soul is set free - ps.Diogenes39.1.God has opened the door for you and says, Go! Where to? To nothing fearful, butjust to the friendly elements from which you came... There is no Hades, noAcheron... - Epictetus III xiii 14-15; cf. I xxix 28-29; 48; IV vii.Untroubled by fears, unsullied by desires, we shall not be afraid of death norof the Gods. We shall realise that death is in no way evil, and neither are theGods... - Seneca EM LXXV 16-17, cf. IV, (XIII), XXIV, LXXIV 3, CII 22; Dio 30.{end of quotes from Downing}(2) John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, HarperSanFrancisco,1994.{p. x} It is precisely that fourfold record that constitutes the core problem.If you read the four gospels vertically and consecutively, from start to finishand one after another, you get a generally persuasive impression of unity,harmony, and agreement. But if you read them horizontally and comparatively,focusing on this or that unit and comparing it across two, three, or four

versions, it is disagreement rather than agreement that strikes you mostforcibly. And those divergences stem not from the random vagaries of memory andrecall but from the coherent and consistent theologies of the individual texts.The gospels are, in other words, interpretations. Hence, of course, despitethere being only one Jesus, there can be more than one gospel, more than oneinterpretation.That core problem is compounded by another one. Those four gospels do notrepresent all the early gospels available or even a random sample within thembut are instead a calculated collection known as the canonical gospels. Thisbecomes clear in studying other gospels either discerned as sources inside theofficial four or else discovered as documents outside them.An example of a source hidden inside the four canonical gospels is thereconstructed document known as Q, from the German word Quelle, meaning

"source," which is now imbedded within both Luke and Matthew. Those two authorsalso use Mark as a regular source, so Q is discernible wherever they agree withone another but lack a Markan parallel. Since, like Mark, that document has itsown generic integrity and theological{p. xi} consistency apart from its use as a Quelle or source for others, I referto it in this book as the Q Gospel.An example of a document discovered outside the four canonical gospels is theGospel of Thomas, which was found at Nag Hammadi, in Upper Egypt, in the winterof 1945 and is, in the view of many scholars, completely independent of thecanonical gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is also most strikinglydifferent from them, especially in its format, and is, in fact, much closer tothat of the Q Gospel than to any of the canonical foursome. It identifies

itself, at the end, as a gospel but it is in fact a collection of the sayings ofJesus given without any compositional order and lacking descriptions of deeds ormiracles, crucifixion or resurrection stories, and especially any overallnarratival or biographical framework. The existence of such other gospels meansthat the canonical foursome is a spectrum of approved interpretation forming astrong central vision that was later able to render apocryphal, hidden, orcensored any other gospels too far off its right or left wing.Suppose that in such a situation you wanted to know not just what early


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believers wrote about Jesus but what you would have seen and heard if you hadbeen a more or less neutral observer in the early decades of the first century.Clearly, some people ignored him, some worshiped him, and others crucified him.But what if you wanted to move behind the screen of credal interpretation and,without in any way denying or negating the validity of faith, give an accuratebut impartial account of the historical Jesus as distinct from the confessionalChrist? That is what the academic or scholarly study of the historical Jesus isabout, at least when it is not a disguise for doing theology and calling ithistory, doing autobiography and calling it biography doing Christianapologetics and calling it academic scholarship. Put another way, no matter howfascinating result and conclusion may be, they are only as good as the theoryand method on which they are based.My method locates the historical Jesus where three independent vectors cross.That triangulation serves as internal discipline and mutual corrective, sinceall must intersect at the same point for any of them to be correct. It is likethree giant searchlights coming together on a single object in the night sky.{p. 114} Diogenes and DaedalusCynicism was a Greek philosophical movement founded by Diogenes of Sinope, whowas born on the mid-southern coast of the Black Sea and lived between 400 and320 B.C.E. The term itself means, literally, "dogism," coming from kyon, theGreek{p. 115} word for "dog," and it was used, as if quoting a well-known nickname,of Diogenes by Aristotle. It was originally a derogatory term for theprovocative shamelessness with which Diogenes deliberately flouted basic human

codes of propriety and decency, custom and convention. We use cynicism today tomean belief in nothing or doubt about everything, but what it meansphilosophically is theoretical disbelief and practical negation of ordinarycultural values and civilized presuppositions. Here is Farrand Sayre'sdescription of the Cynics' program:{quote} The Cynics sought happiness through freedom. The Cynic conception offreedom included freedom from desires, from fear, anger, grief and otheremotions, from religious or moral control, from the authority of the city orstate or public officials, from regard for public opinion and freedom alsofrom the care of property, from confinement to any locality and from the careand support of wives and children. ... The Cynics scoffed at the customs andconventionalities of others, but were rigid in observance of their own. TheCynic would not appear anywhere without his wallet, staff and cloak, which must

invariably be dirty and ragged and worn so as to leave the right shoulder bare.He never wore shoes and his hair and beard were long and unkempt. {endquote}My italics emphasize the Cynics' dress and equipment code, which was intended asa dramatization of their refusal to accept society's material values, as a clearvisualization of their countercultural position.The classic Cynic story is that of the encounter between Diogenes and Alexanderthe Great at Corinth in 336 B.C.E. The latter is just setting out to conquer theworld through military power; the former had already done so through disciplinedindifference. This oft-told tale was already known to Cicero in his Tusculan

Disputations 5.92 from 45 B.C.E.:{quote} But Diogenes, certainly, was more outspoken, in his qual- ity of Cynic,when Alexander asked him to name allything he wanted: 'Just now," he said,'stand a bit away trom the{p. 116} sun!" Alexander apparently had interfered with his basking in the heat.{endquote}We are back, by the way, to the quotation from Burton Mack that headed Chapter3. The story of Diogenes and Alexander involves a calculated questioning ofpower, rule, dominion, and kingship. Who is the true ruler: the one who wants


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everything, or the one who wants nothing; the one who wants all of Asia, or theone who wants only a little sunlight? If kingship is freedom, which of the twois really free, is really king? And just as Cynicism had a first flowering afterthe conquests of Alexander, so it had another after those of Augustus. Bothtimes were ripe for a fundamental questioning of power, and the Cynics did sonot only in abstract theory among the aristocratic elites, but in practicalstreet theater among the ordinary people.They were populist preachers inmarketplace and pilgrimage center, and their life and dress spoke as forcibly astheir speech and sermons.The Cynics' criticism was not directed, however, just at the materialism ofHellenistic culture in the wake of either the Alexandrian or Augustan empires.It was directed more fundamentally at civilization itself, advocating aself-sufficiency modeled on that of nature rather than culture. The Romanmoralist Seneca the Younger, who lived between 4 B.C.E. and 65 C.E., drew thecontrast, in his Epistulae Morales 90.14-16, not just between Alexander andDiogenes but between Daedalus and Diogenes, between the one who invented thearts of civilization and the one who refused them:{quote} How, I ask, can you consistently admire both Diogenes and Daedalus?Which of these two seems to you a wise man - the one who devised the saw, or theone who, on seeing a boy drink water from the hollow of his hand, forthwith took

his cup from his wallet and broke it, upbraiding himself with these words: "Foolthat I am, to have been carrying superfluous baggage all this time!" and thencurled himself up in his tub and lay down to sleep. ... If mankind were willingto listen to this sage, they would know that the cook is as supertluous as thesoldier. ... Follow nature, and you will need no skilled craftsmen. {endquote}{p. 117} Cynicism is not, in other words, just a moral attack on Greco-Romancivilization; it is a paradoxical attack on civilization itself. We are back, infact, with that distinction seen earlier between the wider phenomenon ofeschatology or world-negation and the narrower one of apocalypticism as but oneof its many forms. Cynicism is the Greco-Roman form of that universal philosophy

of eschatology or world-negation, one of the great and fundamental options ofthe human spirit. For wherever there is culture and civilization there can alsobe counterculture and anticivilization.{It's not really an opposition to civilization, but a correction, just as Taoismin China is a correction to Confucianism; the two can go well together aspolarities. In India, Shiva plays a comparable role in a trinity, alongsideBrahma and Vishnu: india.html}Knapsack and StaffThe Cynic missionaries and the Jesus missionaries agree about wearing no sandalsand spending no time on ordinary greetings and gossip on the way. But I focusnow on wallet and staff, because here they are in flat disagreement.

There is extant from around the Augustan age, before and after the time ofJesus, a series of pseudo-letters or fictional communications from revered orrepresentative Cynics. The title of this wider section, for instance, derivesfrom the phrase "the skin of my feet as my shoes" in Pseudo-Anacharsis 65, atext already known to Cicero in 45 B.C.E. These imaginary letters arenow easilyaccessible in The Cynic Epistles, a collection by Abraham Malherbe. In thefollowing excerpts from Pseudo-Diogenes, letters fictionally attributed toCynicism's founder from the first century B.C.E. or even earlier, notice theconstant emphasis on cloak, staff, and bag or wallet. Cloak refers to the single


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heavy or doubled outer garment worn day and night, summer and winter - the onlygarment used. But for now, I emphasize only bag or wallet, and staff.{quote} [To Hicetas] Do not be upset, Father, that I am called a dog and put ona double, coarse cloak, carry a wallet over my shoulders, and have a staff in myhand ... living as I do, not in conformity with popular opinion but according tonature, free under Zeus.[To Apolexis] I have laid aside most of the things that weigh down my wallet,since I learned that for a plate a{p. 118} hollowed out loaf of bread suffices, as the hands do for a cup.[To Antipater] I hear that you say I am doing nothing unusual in wearing adouble, ragged cloak and carrying a wallet. Now I admit that none of these isextraordinary, but each of them is good when undertaken out of consciousdetermination.[To Anaxilaus] I have recently come to recognize myself to be Agamemnon, sincefor a scepter I have my staff and for a mantle the double, ragged cloak, and byway of exchange, my leather wallet is a shield.[To Agesilaus] Life has a sufficient store in a wallet.[To Crates] Remember that I started you [Crates] on yourlifelong poverty. ...Consider the ragged cloak to be a lion's skin, the staff a club, and the walletland and sea, from which you are fed. For thus would the spirit of Heracles,mightier than every turn of fortune, stir in you.The term wallet is probably a most unfortunate translation since for us it

connotes money. The Greek word is always pera in those letters, as it is in Luke10:4 and Mark 6:8, and a good translation, for us, would be "knapsack" ratherthan "wallet" or "bag." What it symbolized for the Cynics was their completeself-sufficiency. They carried their homes with them. All they needed could becarried in a simple knapsack slung over their shoulders. Similarly with thestaff. It represented their itinerant status, the fact that they had no fixedabode in any place, that they were always spiritually on the way elsewhere. Thetwo items taken together underlined their itinerant self-sufficiency.The Jesus missionaries, in contrast, are told precisely to carry no knapsack andhold no staff in their hands. Why this striking difference? Since a reciprocityof healing and eating is at the heart of the Jesus movement, the idea of

no-staff and no-knapsack is symbolically correct for the Jesus missionaries.They are not urban like the Cynics, preaching at street corner and market place.They are rural, on a house mission to rebuild peasant society from the grassroots upward. Since commensality is{p. 119} not just a technique for support but a demonstration of mes-sage, theycould not and should not dress to declare itinerant self-sufficiency but rathercommunal dependency. Itinerancy and dependency: heal, stay, move on.Poverty and RoyaltyI conclude this section with a series of quotations from the philosopherEpictetus, not to argue about who influenced whom but simply to show how povertyand royalty could be combined not just by Jesus within Judaism but by Epictetus

within Greco-Roman paganism. Epictetus was born the slave son of a slave motherand lived between 55 and 135 C.E. He was allowed by his master to studyphilosophy, was eventually freed, and was banished from Rome along with otherphilosophers by the emperor Domitian in 89 C.E. Here is a justly famous passagefrom "On the Calling of a Cynic" in his posthumously transcribed Discourses3.22.{quote} And how is it possible that a man who has nothing, who is naked,houseless, without a hearth, squalid, without a slave, without a city, can passa life that flows easily? See, God has sent you a man to show you that it ispossible. Look at me, who am without a city, without a house, without


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possessions, without a slave; I sleep on the ground; I have no wife, nochildren, no praetorium [official power], but only the earth and heavens, andone poor cloak. And what do I want? Am I not without sorrow? Am I not withoutfear? Am I not free? When did any of you see me failing in the object of mydesire? or ever falling into that which I would avoid? did I ever blame God orman? did I ever accuse any man? did any of you ever see me with sorrowfulcountenance? And how do I meet with those whom you are afraid of and admire? Donot I treat them like slaves? Who, when he sees me, does not think that he seeshis king and master? {endquote}Notice, in the flow of that passage, the sequence from nothing to free to king,the logic of poverty leading to freedom leading to royalty. Notice, also, theintense political undertones of the passage. If Epictetus represented royalty,what was the Roman{p. 120} emperor? And those three terms are best explained by other quotationsfrom Discourses 3.22.Poverty, first of all. Epictetus is very concerned that the externals ofCynicism may be mistaken for its internals. Since a Cynic philosopher looks muchlike a beggar, is not every beggar a Cynic philosopher? Do staff, knapsack, andone cloak automatically make one a Cynic? But, even while warning against thatdanger, he never suggests abandoning those externals. He simply insists thatinternal poverty must beget external and that external must not replaceinternal.{quote} So do you [would-be Cynics] also think about the matter carefully; it is

not what you think it is. "I wear a roughcloak even as it is, and I shall haveone then; I have a hard bed even now, and so I shall then; I shall take tomyself a wallet and a staff, and I shall begin to walk around and beg from thoseI meet, and revile them. ..." If you fancy the affair to be something like this,give it a wide berth; don't come near it, it is nothing for you. ... Lo, theseare words [the long quotation from 3.22 that I cited earlier] that befit aCynic, this is his character, and his plan of life. But no, you say, what makesa Cynic is a contemptible wallet, a staff, and big jaws; to devour everythingyou give him, or to stow it away, or to revile tactlessly the people he meets,or to show off his fine shoulder. {endquote}

It is obvious that Epictetus is speaking to an audience of the poorer classeswhose normal poverty is not that different, in externals, from Cynic poverty.But, he insists, it is voluntary not necessary poverty that counts.Freedom comes next. The one who has nothing and wants nothing is totally free.This comes not only from a physical poverty that renders one impervious to bothdesire and loss, but especially from a spiritual poverty that renders oneoblivious to both attack and assault.{quote} For this too is a very pleasant strand woven into the Cynic's pattern oflife; he must needs be flogged like an ass, and while he is being flogged hemust love the men who flog him, as though he were the father or brother of themall. But that is not your way. If someone flogs you, go stand in the midst andshout, "O Caesar, what do I have to suf-

{p. 121} -fer under your peaceful rule? Let us go before the Proconsul." Butwhat to a Cynic is Caesar, or a Proconsul, or anyone other than He who has senthim into the world, and whom he serves, that is, Zeus? ...Now the spirit of patient endurance the Cynic must have to such a degree thatcommon people will think him insensate and a stone; nobody reviles him, nobodybeats him, nobody insults him; but his body he has himself given for anyone touse as he sees fit. {endquote}It is fascinating to watch the Christian nervousness of some earlier translatorsin handling that passage. Does Epictetus sound too much like Jesus? In the 1910


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edition of The Moral Discourses of Epictetus, for example, Elizabeth Cartercompares that passage with Matthew 5:39-44, which speaks of turning the othercheek, giving up your garments, and going the second mile under constraint. Shenotes that "Christ specifies higher injuries and provocations than Epictetusdoth; and requires of all his followers, what Epictetus describes only as theduty of one or two extraordinary persons, as such." Not really.Royalty, true royalty, is the final theme, still from Epictetus. It isinteresting, in this regard, that the same Greek word could be used for royalscepter and for Cynic staff:{quote} Where will you find me a Cynic's friend? ... He must share with him hissceptre and kingdom. ... See to what straits we are reducing our Cynic [if hemarries], how we are taking away his kingdom from him. ... And yet shall theCynic's kingship [or: kingdom] not be thought a reasonable compensation [forcelibacy]? {endquote}Poverty, freedom, and royalty, then, because the Cynic "has been sent by Zeus tomen, partly as a messenger ... and partly ... as a scout" so that he walks theearth as "one whoshares in the government of Zeus." It is not my point thatJesus and Epictetus are saying or doing exactly the same thing. Difference mustbe respected just as much as similarity. But what Jesus called the Kingdom ofGod and what Epictetus might have called the Kingdom of Zeus must be compared asradical messages that taught and acted, theorized and performed against socialoppression, cultural materialism, and imperial domination in the first and

second centuries.{end of quotes from Crossan}More on the Cynics, and other Hellenistic philosophies:http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch12.htm.To study the debate about Q among New Testament scholars, refer tohttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Burton+Mack+Jesus+QHere are some samples:(a) Bruce Griffin, WAS JESUS A PHILOSOPHICAL CYNIC?http://www-oxford.op.org/allen/html/acts.htm"Burton Mack, a professor of Claremont School of Theology ... In 1988, Mackpublished Mark: A Myth of Innocence; here Mack argues that Mark is a thoroughlyunreliable source, an example of early Christian mythmaking, and that to theextent that the historical Jesus can be recovered, he looks like a Cynic wisdom

teacher ... This argument was continued in Mack's The Lost Gospel: the Book ofQ and Christian Origins in 1993. Mack defended Q as the most reliable source forthe reconstruction of the historical Jesus. Q in turn was believed to have gonethrough three different revisions or redactions before it was used as a sourcefor Matthew and Luke. Mack here was relying on the brilliantly argued work ofJohn Kloppenborg who believed that Q originally consisted of a collection ofwisdom sayings ..."(b) The Search for a No-Frills Jesus, by CHARLOTTE ALLEN, Atlantic Monthly,December 1996 http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96dec/jesus/jesus.htm(c) David Seeley, JESUS' DEATH IN Q {This article first appeared in NewTestament Studies 38 (1992) 222-34 ...]http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/synoptic-l/jdeath.htm

(d) Mark Goodacre, The Case Against Q: Studies in Markan Priority and theSynoptic Problem http://www.ntgateway.com/Q/A former student in a Rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem, contests my claim thatJesus' thinking was not Jewish but like that of the Cynic philosophers:letters.html (see Letter 7). Conversation with Israel Shamir: see Letter 11.More from F. Gerald Downing: Paul and the Cynics.Whereas F. Gerald Downing stresses the non-Jewish culture of the earlyChristians, specifically the Cynic parallels, S. G. F. Brandon emphasises theJewishness, which was checked by Rome's suppression of the Jewish revolt of66-70 A.D.: jewish-revolt.html.


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Adolf von Harnack on the development of early Christian theology, plus a studyof Philo's impact: philo.html.Christ and the Cynics is out of print. To order a second-hand copy from Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1850751501/qid%3D1000279949/t/103-2084202-5507810.

To order a second-hand copy of any of F. Gerald Downing's books via ABEbooks (ifone is available):http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch?an=F+Gerald+Downing.Alain Danielou on similarities between the Cynics of Greece and the Shaiviteascetics of India: danielou2.html (p. 17).

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F_ Gerald Downing, Christ and the Cynics