King James Bible Dictionary

STOIC, noun [Gr., a porch in Athens where the philosopher Zeno taught.] A disciple of the philosopher Zeno, who founded a sect. He taught that men should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to the unavoidable necessity by which all things are governed.

STOIC, STOICAL adjective

1. Pertaining to the Stoics or to their doctrines.

2. Not affected by passion; unfeeling; manifesting indifference to pleasure or pain.

STOICALLY, adverb In the manner of the Stoics; without apparent feeling or sensibility; with indifference to pleasure or pain.

STOICALNESS, noun The state of being stoical; indifference to pleasure or pain.

A Grecian philosophy, inculcating doctrines of severe morality, self-denials, and inconvenient services.

Scripture analogies to:

John the Baptist:

Wears camel's hair and subsists on locusts and wild honey
Matthew 3:4

Comes neither eating nor drinking
Matthew 11:18; Luke 7:33

Jesus requires:

Self-Denials and crosses
Matthew 10:38-39; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:23-26; Luke 14:27

The subordination of natural affection
Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26

Paul teaches:

That the law of the mind is at war with the law of the members
Romans 7:14-24

That the body must be kept under
1 Corinthians 9:27

Advises celibacy
1 Corinthians 7:1-9; 1 Corinthians 7:25-26; 1 Corinthians 7:32-33; 1 Corinthians 7:39-40

School of, at Athens
Acts 17:18
Asceticism

STOICISM, noun

1. The opinions and maxims of the Stoics.

2. A real or pretended indifference to pleasure or pain; insensibility.

A sect of Greek philosophers at Athens, so called from the Greek word stoa i.e., a "porch" or "portico," where they have been called "the Pharisees of Greek paganism." The founder of the Stoics was Zeno, who flourished about B.C. 300. He taught his disciples that a man's happiness consisted in bringing himself into harmony with the course of the universe. They were trained to bear evils with indifference, and so to be independent of externals. Materialism, pantheism, fatalism, and pride were the leading features of this philosophy.

See Stoicism; Asceticism
Stoicism; Asceticism

The Stoics and Epicureans, who are mentioned together in (Acts 17:18) represent the two opposite schools of practical philosophy which survived the fall of higher speculation in Greece. The Stoic school was founded by Zeno of Citium (cir. B.C. 280) and derived its name from the painted "portico" (stoa) at Athens in which he taught. Zeno was followed by Cleanthes (cir. B.C. 260); Cleanthes by Chrysippus (cir. B.C. 240) who was regarded as the founder of the Stoic system. "They regarded God and the world as power and its manifestation matter being a passive ground in which dwells the divine energy. Their ethics were a protest against moral indifference, and to live in harmony with nature, conformably with reason and the demands of universal good, and in the utmost indifference to pleasure, pain and all external good or evil, was their fundamental maxim."

American Cyclop'dia. The ethical system of the Stoics has been commonly supposed to have a close connection with Christian morality; but the morality of stoicism is essentially based on pride, that of Christianity on humility; the one upholds individual independence, the other absolute faith in another; the one looks for consolation in the issue of fate, the other in Providence; the one is limited by Periods of cosmical ruin, the other is consummated in a personal resurrection. (Acts 17:18) But in spite of the fundamental error of stoicism, which lies in a supreme egotism, the teaching of this school gave a wide currency to the noble doctrines of the fatherhood of God, the common bonds of mankind, the sovereignty of the soul. Among their most prominent representatives were Zeno and Antipater of Tarsus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.