Epictetus makes reference to Greek gods like Zeus as if they are 100% real. Not just some mythical story of the past. But he does not describe them as perfect or omnipotent.
Curiously he also talks about "God" as a singular, monotheistic, omnipotent, omniscient, all powerful creator. This God is obviously different to the Greek gods.
He was born in Turkey, lived in Rome, died in Greece. Around 100AD, so he could have been vaguely aware of early Christian Churches. But not once has he mentioned Jesus or the Jews.
So I'm curious where his monotheistic conception of God came from. I was always told that polytheism was the norm. And monotheism was something that spread with Christianity and Islam. But that doesn't seem to be the case. God was not just the "God of the Israelites". He seems to be understood by all.
@ned Sol Invictus was a Roman monotheistic solar cult / religion and was what Constantine practiced before "converting to Christianity on his deathbed" which can be described more accurately as his deathbed rebranding Sol Invictus into Christianity as we know it. Which is why Roman Catholicism seems a bit off in practice.
And don't make that mistake assuming all monotheistic references point to the same God (Israelites) you're used to. That's projecting.
@Klaatu But the God that he describes is universal. I'm not projecting Yahweh onto Sol in the same way Muslims might project Allah on Yahweh. I'm just pointing out the concept of a monotheistic creator seems to be generally accepted without any specific cultural attribution.
@ned @Klaatu That is interesting, but if you consider some of the Old Testament miracles and how word of that would have gotten out, maybe not that surprising. I’ve always considered that many Native Americans were closer to Judeo-Christian in a lot of their beliefs than much of Europe or Asia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gitche_Manitou
