Conference: 2025 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston, Massachusetts (USA)
Program Unit: Religion and Philosophy in Antiquity Seminar
Session: Fresh Perspectives on Epicureanism and Christianity (chaired by Prof. Dr. Rainer Hirsch-Luipold)
At this year’s annual SBL conference, Prof. Dr. Rainer Hirsch-Luipold, the PI of the «Resonances» project, chaired a session concerning the comparison of Epicureanism and early Christianity. Dr. Travis Niles offered a presentation on piety in Epicurean sources and in Paul’s Areopagus speech.
Abstract: The lexical field of εὐσέβεια occupies little space in Luke-Acts (Acts 3:12; 10:2, 7; 17:23). Considering the scarcity of its use by the auctor ad Theophilum, the occurrence of εὐσεβεῖν in Acts 17:23 during Paul’s Areopagus address to the Athenians – which includes Epicureans (Acts 17:18) – deserves closer attention. In the commentaries of Fitzmyer and Keener, for example, one finds a focus on the concepts of δεισιδαιμονία and ἄγνοια, but not εὐσέβεια. Alternatively, as in M. Becker’s Lukas und Dion von Prusa,one finds a treatment of εὐσέβεια, but only in relation to Dio Chrysostom and Epictetus. Operating on the assumption that Acts 17:22–23 functions in its rhetorical context as a captatio benevolentiae, and by considering Epicurus’s epistles to Herodotus and Menoecus, this paper will investigate Luke’s use of εὐσεβεῖν in Acts 17:23 with the intention not only of elucidating what it might tell us about the manner in which Luke addresses the Epicureans, but also what it might tell us about Luke’s view of piety.
In the Photo: (left to right) Eric Brewer (Baylor University), Travis Niles, Rainer Hirsch-Luipold