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Paul in 1 Corinthians describes the church as one body with many parts, each needed by the others. The Stoic philosopher calls brothers parts of each other like eyes and hands, sharing this common image of a group as one body.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Corinthians 12:12
New Testament
11 It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things. 12 For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body—though many—are one body, so too is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, we were all made to drink of the one Spirit.
Hierocles On Fraternal Love
On Brotherly Love
Classical
In our behavior, therefore, towards every man, and in a much greater degree towards a brother, we should imitate the reply of Socrates to one who said to him, "May I die unless I am revenged on you." For his answer was, "May I die, if I do not make you my friend." And thus much concerning these particulars. In the next place, a man should consider that after a manner his brothers are parts of him, just as my eyes are parts of me; and likewise my legs, my hands, and the remaining members of my body. For brothers have the same relation to a family considered as one thing [as the parts to the whole of the body]. As, therefore, the eyes and the hands, if each of them should receive a peculiar soul and intellect, would, by every possible contrivance, pay a guardian attention to the remaining parts of the body, on account of the beforementioned communion, because they could not perform their proper office well without the presence of the other members; thus also it is requisite that we who are men, and who acknowledge that we have a soul, should omit no offices which it becomes us to perform to our brothers. For again, brothers are more naturally adapted to assist each other, than are the parts of the body.
Date: c. 120 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... In the case of brothers, thanks to their consanguinity, oikeiôsis is particularly evident: they are directly part of our own body, and, still more, of our self. In addition, the equal relationship that binds one to a brother makes ‘appropriation’ easier; in the case of other ties that are less equal and not so much between like partners, such as those cited by Hierocles in this passage, between parents and children or masters and slaves, the reciprocal exchange of identities is not so immediate. In Dissertation 15B Musonius too had extolled the bond of brotherhood, noting its beauty and usefulness: ‘What can one compare for beauty with the goodwill of a brother in regard to a brother? What more pleasing partner of one’s goods could one have than an upright brother? I believe that the most enviable man is he who lives among many likeminded brothers, and I consider that man most dear to God who derives his goods from his own home’ ...
Ramelli, Ilaria
Hierocles the Stoic: Elements of Ethics, Fragments, and Excerpts
(p. 124) Society of Biblical Literature, 2009
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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