Stoic had been on the scene long before Paul. For this reason, those who deny that Paul appropriated Stoic thought cannot, as with Gnosticism, take support from a lack of external, historical evidence, but must argue from the internal evidence of the epistle itself. But this also requires that the umpire “call it as he sees it.” The thesis of this commentary is that the striking parallels between Paul of Tarsus (a city celebrated for its Stoic schools) and the popular Stoic philosophy do not derive