I've lost count of how many times I have read the Bible all the way through. What is cool is that as you read it over and over again it is filtered through your life's experiences. Because of that effect different verses jump out at you at different times in your life.
This is just a recent example. Here is the verse that triggered this post.
Colossians 2:8-10 Beware lest anyone [e]cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead [f]bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all [g]principality and power.
It is that first part. "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy…"
As you know the prophets of the OT stopped speaking around 400-450 BC. What filled that void?
One of the big things was philosophy. How do I know that? Because I had just finished listening to The Lives Of The Stoics by Ryan Holiday. It covered the lives of a lot of the "great" philosophers. Zeno, Cato, Cicero, Seneca (who lived during the time of Jesus), and many others.
It's interesting how we sometimes compartmentalize knowledge. What I learned is that Greek philosophy flourished from about 400 BC right up and through the life of Jesus. Seneca for example was born 5BC and died 65AD. Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus both lived shortly after Jesus.
I knew of Jesus and the Bible in history. I knew of the philosophers. For some reason I never realized that they were actively being taught at the same time in history. These weren't two separate ethos at separate times in history. These were way of living that were competing daily in the market place of ideas in a real world way.
For that reason all the previous times I read this passage I thought it was just a general use of the word philosophy. Now I realize that it was a real and active philosophy being preached and practiced at the time throughout the area of Paul's ministry. Kinda cool!
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