The First Discourse on Kingship by Dio Chrysostom
…Next, after the gods
the good king has regard for his fellow-men;
he honors and loves the good,
yet extends his care to all.
Now, who takes better care of a herd of cattle than does the herdsman?
Who is more helpful and better to flocks of sheep than a shepherd?
page 11
John 10:11
“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”
Hebrews 13: 20
… Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep…
~ ~ ~= = =~ ~ ~
…
And, so, who is presumably as great a lover
of his fellow-man as he who exercises authority
over the greatest number of men and enjoys the highest admiration of men?
For it would be strange if men governing beasts, wild and of another blood than theirs,
prove more kindly to these their dependents
than a monarch to civilized men who are of the same flesh and blood as himself.
page 11
The good king also believes it to be due to his position to have the larger portion,
not of wealth or of pleasures, but
of painstaking care and anxieties; hence,
he is actually more fond of toil than many others are of pleasure or of wealth.
… he looks upon himself as being king, not for the sake of his individual self,
but for the sake of all men.
page 13
Matthew 20
…25But Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. 26It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave
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… They who come into his presence and behold him feel neither terror nor fear;
but into their hearts creeps a feeling of profound respect,
something much stronger and more powerful than fear. For
those who fear must inevitably hate and want to escape:
those who feel respect must linger and admire.
page 15
Mt 20:27
and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave
Dio Chrysostom
In the title “master,” however, he can take no delight, nay, not even in relation to his slaves, much less to his free subjects; for he looks upon himself as being king, not for the sake of his individual self, but for the sake of all men.
page 13 (1st Discourse on Kingship)
(But I will pass over most of the details and give the clearest mark of a true king:
he is one whom all good men can praise without compunction not only during his life
but even afterwards.) And yet, even so, he does not himself covet the praise of
the vulgar and the loungers about the market-place, but only that of
the free-born and noble,
men who would prefer to die rather than be guilty of falsehood.
Dio Chrysostom, page 19
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their reward.
Jesus, Matthew 6:5
On Jesus’ Long Hair
Most philosophers and most of the pagan gods were depicted with long hair.
Dio Chrysostom, the practical philosopher who lived in the first century, told his readers that he and other philosophers wore their hair long (Oration Thirty-Five, vol.III. pp.391, 401 Loeb ed.).
But Jesus remained silent and made no reply.
Again the high priest questioned Him,
“Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”
“Iam,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man
sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared,
Why do we need any more witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy. What is your verdict?”
And they all condemned Him as deserving of death.
Mark 14: 61-64
Would you really put an offspring of an Earthling species at the right hand of the creator of
billions of stars and planets?
The Milky Way alone has 100 billion stars–not all Sun-sized.
Luke 1: 33
Luke 22;29-30
John 18: 37
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Diogenes: Are you the Alexander whom they call a bastard?
Alexander the Great: What gave you the idea of calling me a bastard?
Diogenes: Your mother Olympias gave me the idea when she told me Philip is not your father
but a dragon or the god Ammon (depicted with ram horns, venerated by Libyan desert tribes) or
some god or demigod.
Alexander the Great: Do you think the story is true or false?
Diogenes: It is uncertain. If you are self-controlled and know the royal art of Zeus, nothing prevents your being a son of Zeus.
Alexander: Who imparts the art of kingship?
Diogenes: You know the art of kingship if the words of your mother are true and you are a son of Zeus, for it is he who first and chiefly possesses this knowledge. All to whom Zeus imparts the knowledge of kingship are sons of Zeus. You would not have to learn: you would have to recall.
The Fourth Discourse on Kingship by Dio Chrysostom
ps 177 – 183
Unlike Herod the Great, Jesus fits the bill of Dio Chrysostom, being a son of God/Zeus.
Jesus: God provides (followers, food, clothes)
Jesus is righteous
Jesus in John’s Gospel: The Father and I are one (like-minded)
And again, Jesus as shepherd
Diogenes: For mark you, Minos is said to have been the most righteous man in the world. Once more, when he says that kings are “nurtured by Zeus” and “dear unto Zeus,” do you think that he means any other nurture than the teaching and instruction which I called divine? Can anyone, therefore, who is a friend of Zeus and is like-minded with him by any possibility conceive any unrighteous desire or design of what is wicked and disgraceful? Homer seems to answer this very question clearly also when in commending some king, he calls him a “shepherd of peoples.” For the shepherd’s business is simply to oversee, guard, and protect flocks.
It is true that at times a shepherd buys and drives off many sheep; but there is a world of difference between the functions of butcher and shepherd, practically the same as between monarchy and tyranny.
ps 187-189
For no foolish and evil man knows himself; else Apollo would not have given as the first commandment, “Know thyself!” regarding it as the most difficult thing for every man.
p 195
Would you really put an offspring of an Earthling species at the right hand of the creator of
billions of stars and planets?
The Milky Way alone has 100 billion stars–not all Sun-sized.
Well they didn’t know this. They thought the earth was a flat disk covered by a dome of sky. The ocean abyss was below and the heavenlies were above the firmament. I mean after all how can they depict Satan taking Jesus to a high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the world if you didn’t have some idea the world was flat? How could you have Jesus ascend into the clouds if you didn’t think Heaven was above the sky?
Therefore he finds greater pleasure in conferring benefits
than those benefited do in receiving them,
and in this one pleasure, he is insatiable.
The First Discourse on Kingship
p 15, line 23
…remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Acts 20: 35
In The Second Discourse On Kingship, Dio Chrysostom says kings should read Homer.
We see antecedents of Jesus’ and the New Testament’s sayings in the discourses of Chrysostom.
Now, a case can be made that the content of the Gospel of Mark is following Chrysostom as if taking editorial advice for surely Homer influenced the content of Mark, as explained by Dennis R. MacDonald in The Homeric Epics and the Gospel of Mark.
Dio Chrysostom was a friend of Apollonius of Tyana. That the Gospels can be traced back to emperors of Rome is now sealed.
Comparisons with Jesus
Biblical scholar ** you do not have permission to see this link **, he describes an important figure from the first century without first revealing he is writing about the stories attached to Apollonius of Tyana:
Even before he was born, it was known that he would be someone special. A supernatural being informed his mother the child she was to conceive would not be a mere mortal but would be divine. He was born miraculously, and he became an unusually precocious young man. As an adult he left home and went on an itinerant preaching ministry, urging his listeners to live, not for the material things of this world, but for what is spiritual. He gathered a number of disciples around him, who became convinced that his teachings were divinely inspired, in no small part because he himself was divine. He proved it to them by doing many miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. But at the end of his life he roused opposition, and his enemies delivered him over to the Roman authorities for judgment. Still, after he left this world, he returned to meet his followers in order to convince them that he was not really dead but lived on in the heavenly realm. Later some of his followers wrote books about him.** you do not have permission to see this link **
Ehrman goes on to say that Apollonius was a real person and that his followers believed ** you do not have permission to see this link ** to be a fraud.
** you do not have permission to see this link **
Similarities shared by the stories about Apollonius and the life of Jesus ** you do not have permission to see this link **
- Birth miraculously announced by God
- Religiously precocious as a child
- Asserted to be a native speaker of Aramaic
- Influenced by Plato/ reflected Platonism (Jesus)
- [Renounced/ denounced (Jesus)] wealth
- Followed abstinence and asceticism
- Wore long hair and robes
- Were unmarried and childless
- Were anointed with oil
- Went to Jerusalem
- Spoke in [metaphors/ parables] (Jesus)
- Saw and predicted the future
- Performed miracles
- Healed the sick
- Cast out evil spirits/ Drove out demons (Jesus)
- Raised the daughter of a [Roman official/ Jewish official (Jesus)] from the dead
- Spoke as a “law-giver”
- Was on a mission to bring [Greek culture/ Jewish culture (Jesus)] to [the “barbarians”/ the ” nations” (Jesus)]
- Believed to be “saviors” from heaven
- Were accused of being a magician
- Were accused of killing a boy
- Condemned [by Roman emperor/ by Roman authorities (Jesus)]
- Imprisoned [at Rome/ at Jerusalem (Jesus)]
- Was assumed into heaven/ Ascended into heaven (Jesus)
- Appeared posthumously to a detractor as a brilliant light
- Had his image revered [in temples/ in churches (Jesus)]
BDEhrman
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