Epicureans

How Nave’s arranged it

• (Referring to those who are fastidious in their tastes or enjoyments, connoisseurs)
• Reject John the BaptistMatthew 11:18Luke 7:33
• Doctrines propagated by, familiar to SolomonEcclesiastes 2:1–10
• To Paul1 Corinthians 15:32
• Dispute with PaulActs 17:18

The passages, in Bible order (5)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 5 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Ecclesiastes 2:1–10

   I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good!” But it proved to be futile.

   ›Commentary on Ecclesiastes 2:1–102 voices

   "I said to myself: Come, I will experiment with joy and enjoy pleasure. That, too, turned out to be futile." After I detected that pain and labour were in the essence of wisdom and the accumulation of knowledge, and nothing else except vain and endless struggle, I felt joyful that I would overflow with excess, accrue riches, amass great wealth, and take temporary pleasures before I die. But even in this I saw my vanity, for past pleasures do not help the present, and do not fill up what is empty.

   “I said in mine heart,....

   Everything gathered on Ecclesiastes 2:1–10→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Matthew 11:18

   For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’

   ›Commentary on Matthew 11:182 voices

   “If fasting then pleases you, why were you not satisfied with John? If fulness, why not with the Son of man? Yet one of these ye said had a dæmon, the other ye called a gluttonous man, and drunkard.

   “For John came neither eating nor drinking,....

   Everything gathered on Matthew 11:18→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Luke 7:33

   For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’

   ›Commentary on Luke 7:332 voices

   “They take upon themselves to slander a man worthy of all admiration. They say that he who mortifies the law of sin which is in his members hath a devil.

   “For John the Baptist,.... Who is designed by the children that mourned in the above simile, with whom his character and conduct agree; he preached very mournful doctrine, delivered it in a very solemn and awful manner, and lived a very austere life, and fasted much, as did also his disciples. The word "Baptist" is here added by Luke, which Matthew has not, to distinguish him from others; and it may be, because he had just spoke of his baptism.

   Everything gathered on Luke 7:33→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Acts 17:18

   Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

   ›Commentary on Acts 17:182 voices

   “Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans,....

   "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;" branding not all philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the Apostles, which abolishes providence and deifies pleasure, and whatever other philosophy honours the elements, but places not over them the efficient cause, nor apprehends the Creator.

   Everything gathered on Acts 17:18→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. 1 Corinthians 15:32

   If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

   ›Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:322 voices

   “If all hope of the resurrection is lost, let us eat and drink and lose not the enjoyment of the things present, for we have none to come.… The Epicureans say they are followers of pleasure because death means nothing to them, because that which is dissolved has no feeling, and that which has no feeling means nothing to us. Thus they show that they are living only carnally, not spiritually. They do not discharge the duty of the soul but only of the flesh.

   “If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus,....

   Everything gathered on 1 Corinthians 15:32→

   Verse page →Original language →