For students of the New Testament wanting a background into Greek and Roman philosophy to help them better understand the New Testament text.This book offers a survey of the Greek philosophical tradition from its inception in the Classical period until the final stages of its evolution beginning in the first part of Late Antiquity, covering the pre-Socratics, the Classical philosophers, the major schools of the Hellenistic period (the Stoics, Epicureans, Academics), the rise of Roman philosophy, developments and revivals in the post-Hellenistic period, and the emergence of Christianity as a philosophy. While making Greek and Roman philosophy its central feature, the book's underlying interest is the relevance of these traditions to the early Christian movement, especially the New Testament. For although Christianity is rooted in and ineradicably linked with Judaism, its shoots quickly extended outward into the Greco-Roman world where it was able to flower and propagate only by competing with the intellectual traditions of the Greek-speaking world, above all, the philosophical traditions. A knowledge of these traditions, therefore, is an essential complement to the study of Second Temple Judaism for serious students of the New Testament and early Christianity. It is the purpose of this book to offer such an introduction.
