The "Pagan" Bible

So I've alluded to and outright stated many times that I was not raised in a Church or brought up Christian in any way. But in my late 20's, I began attending various protestant churches due to a variety of circumstances not related to actually seeking out the religion. It's been quite a culture shock for many reasons. I've written at length as to why I think the religion is utterly unconvincing, so that's not my purpose here.

You've probably heard by many people that the Bible contains wisdom; that it's a profound book in some sense. I truly do not understand how anyone could think this. I guess if you are never exposed to any of the classics or ancient writings outside of the near-east, then sure some of the content could contain some profundity. But if you read say, any of the Socratic dialogues, Greek Tragedies, or Hellenistic philosophy prior to being exposed to the Bible, it's somewhat an absurd compendium. Recently, while at a church service, the community was reading about the good works of Dorcus; a widowed woman who sewed clothes for the poor. The message was nice; do good works for your community (and implicitly, you will be rewarded). I have no problem with this per se, and I wish more Churches emphasized passages like these; maybe the political landscape would look significantly different. My gripe was the observation that, the pastor was just stunned by the profundity of such a passage.

This made me scoff somewhat because year after year, I sit in these Church services and somewhat feel my brain rotting. But then I hatched a bright idea: what if I created a "pagan" or "secular" "Bible" that contains classical writings relevant to peoples lives? There is simply so many interesting writings from the ancient world that people are unaware of but contain endless amounts of wisdom. Many of these texts are directly responsible for modern Christian theology, given the cultural context in which the early NT canon developed.

So my goal here is to create an outline of a "Pagan" bible. It contains readings classified by universal themes any human could consider within their lifetime. The idea was to construct categories that reflect common themes of human thought, while simultaneously serving as a learning tool that could enhance your reasoning capacity while sustaining deep philosophical reflection. One of my biggest problems with the Bible is that it does not directly or indirectly teach how to reason deeply; alot of that comes from extra-biblical teaching, often dogmatic theology, that uses concepts from many of the sources I've listed in each category. For example, the vast majority of Christians are simply unaware of Neoplatonic thought on the Early Church Fathers, who established basic theological dogmas Christians inherit today, written directly from those philosophical frameworks.

So anyways, the point here is to be a bit provacative while also being informative about the readings that exist. You'll find ancient philosophy, classical plays and comedies, tragedies, pagan perspectives on religion, and epics from pre-socratic Greece, ancient Greece, the Hellenistic period, ancient near east writings, and even ancient Indian writings. This is "Western" slanted; another motivation for creating this is my utter disdain for culture warriors claiming that "the west is in decline", implicitly meaning Christianity is on the decline, while never having read some of the most basic texts that have shaped "The West". I also have a section for non-belief explicitly, because I just want to demonstrate that unbelief has persisted for thousands of years contrary to what the fundamentalists want to tell you.

Concept Index

Each concept lists Category → anchor reading(s), and then where to read.

Assent, criteria, “what counts as knowing?”

• 1 → Plato Theaetetus ; AristotlePosterior Analytics (Scaife/Perseus; Archive/Loeb; various) ( Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• 25 → Sextus PH I; II (proof) (Archive; academic editions) ( Internet Archive)
• 25 → Cicero Academica (Attalus; Gutenberg) ( Attalus)

Proof, mathematics, and the limits of demonstration

• 5 → Euclid/Archimedes (Scaife/Perseus; Archive) ( Internet Archive)
• 25 → Sextus Against the Mathematicians (AM III–IV esp.) (Archive) ( Internet Archive)

Naturalizing “the divine” (disease, weather, cosmos without superstition)

• 4 → Hippocrates On the Sacred Disease (MIT; Scaife/Perseus) ( Internet Classics Archive)
• 4 → Hippocratic/medical reasoning generally (MIT; Archive/Loeb) ( Internet Classics Archive)
• 8 → Lucretius DRN (anti-fear-of-gods therapy by physics) (ToposText; Gutenberg) ( ToposText)

“Religion invented” / atheism / impiety lineages

• 25 → Sisyphus fragment (FragTraG; standard refs) ( fragtrag1.upatras.gr)
• 22 → Xenophanes fragments (anthropomorphic-gods critique) (standard fragment collections; scholarly sites) ( Wikipedia)
• 25 → Protagoras ‘On the gods’ (via Diogenes Laertius 9.51) (ToposText; LacusCurtius) ( ToposText)
• 25 → Theodorus “the Atheist” (via DL 2.97–2.99) (ToposText; LacusCurtius) ( ToposText)
• 25 → Lucian Zeus Tragoedus &Zeus Refuted (Scaife/Perseus; Gutenberg; Sacred-texts) ( Scaife Viewer)

Materialism & “no afterlife” doctrines (Greek, Roman, Indian)

• 8 → Epicurus Letters/Doctrines; Lucretius DRN III–IV (Archive/Loeb; Gutenberg; ToposText) ( Project Gutenberg)
• 25 → Ajita Kesakambali (DN 2) (suttas.com; other DN2 translations) ( Suttas.com)
• 25 → Cārvāka chapter (Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha) (PDF; WisdomLib) ( who.rocq.inria.fr)
• 25 → Jayarāśi Tattvopaplavasimha (Archive scans) ( Internet Archive)

Divination, prophecy, fraud, and “signs”

• 25 → Cicero On Divination I–II (typically online in classics collections; often public-domain) ( Reading Rooms)
• 25 → Sextus (attacks on “professions,” astrology, etc.) (Archive Loeb scans) ( Internet Archive)
• 25 → al-Rāzī anti-prophecy tradition (mostly testimonia/modern editions) ( OUP Academic)

The Categories

Contents

• 1) Thinking and Knowing
• 2) Speech, Persuasion, and Public Argument
• 3) Reality, Metaphysics, and First Principles
• 4) Nature, Body, and Explanation
• 5) Mathematics, Proof, and Models
• 6) Time, Impermanence, and Mortality
• 7) Self-Mastery, Discipline, Inner Freedom
• 8) Desire, Pleasure, and the Good Life
• 9) Love, Friendship, Loyalty, Betrayal
• 10) Family, Kinship, Household, Duty
• 11) Grief, Suffering, Endurance
• 12) Death, Afterlife Imagination, and the Soul
• 13) Fate, Luck, Necessity, Limits
• 14) Justice, Law, and Order
• 15) Power, Corruption, Institutional Decay
• 16) Leadership, Responsibility, Character in Command
• 17) War, Violence, Moral Cost of Victory
• 18) The City, Civic Life, Citizenship, Belonging
• 19) Work, Craft, Skill, Excellence
• 20) Money, Status, Greed, Simplicity
• 21) Education, Formation, Making a Person
• 22) Myth, Religion, and Meaning-Making
• 23) Transformation, Identity, Becoming
• 24) Beauty, Art, Theatre, and What Making Does
• 25) Doubt, Skepticism, Atheism, and Anti-Religion Critique
• Where to Find the Classics Online

1) Thinking and Knowing

• Plato, Apology 17a–42a (Read at: Scaife/Perseus)
• Plato, Euthyphro 2a–16a (Scaife/Perseus)
• Plato, Meno 70a–100b (Scaife/Perseus)
• Plato, Theaetetus 151d–187a; 200d–210a (Scaife/Perseus)
• Aristotle, Posterior Analytics I.1–I.3 (Scaife/Perseus; Archive/Loeb)
• Aristotle, Prior Analytics I.1–I.7 (Scaife/Perseus; Archive/Loeb)
• Nyāya Sūtras, 1.1.1–1.1.40 (Best access: print/academic; many partials online)
• AN 3.65 Kālāma Sutta (Best access: major sutta sites; many reliable translations)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 5, 2, 25

2) Speech, Persuasion, and Public Argument

• Aristotle, Rhetoric I.1–I.3; II.1–II.11; III.1–III.2 (Scaife/Perseus; Archive/Loeb)
• Plato, Gorgias 447a–466a; 500b–527e (Scaife/Perseus)
• Plato, Phaedrus 258e–279c (Scaife/Perseus)
• Isocrates, Against the Sophists (Scaife/Perseus)
• Cicero, De Oratore I.31–I.60; II.115–II.184 (often on LacusCurtius/Latin sites; Archive editions)
• Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria II.16–II.20; X.1 (Archive; sometimes LacusCurtius)
• Thucydides, 3.82–3.83 (Scaife/Perseus)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 14, 15, 25

3) Reality, Metaphysics, and First Principles

• Parmenides fragments (Way of Truth) (Best access: print/academic fragment editions)
• Heraclitus fragments (Best access: print/academic fragment editions)
• Anaxagoras (DK 59 B12 and core B-fragments) (Best access: fragment editions; many excerpts online) ( Better World Books)
• Aristotle, Metaphysics I.1–I.2; IV.1; XII.6–XII.7 (Scaife/Perseus)
• Plotinus, Ennead V.1; VI.9 (Best access: online translations exist; often in public-domain sets / Archive)
• Aetius, Placita (Books 1–2 runs) (Best access: Loeb paywall; Brill mostly paywalled; try libraries/Archive) ( Loeb Classical Library)
• Mesopotamia, Enūma Eliš I; IV; VI–VII (Best access: reputable myth anthologies online/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 22, 4, 25

4) Nature, Body, and Explanation

• Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease (Read at: MIT; Scaife/Perseus) ( Internet Classics Archive)
• Hippocrates, On Ancient Medicine (MIT; sometimes Scaife/Perseus)
• Hippocrates, On the Nature of Man (MIT/Archive)
• Hippocrates, Prognostic (MIT/Archive)
• Hippocrates, Epidemics I (Archive/Loeb scans) ( Internet Archive)
• Aristotle, Physics II.1–II.3 (Scaife/Perseus)
• Hippo of Samos (testimonia) (Best access: fragment collections)
• al-Rāzī, Doubts about Galen (Best access: print/academic)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 5, 6, 25

5) Mathematics, Proof, and Models

• Euclid, Elements I; V (Scaife/Perseus; Archive editions)
• Archimedes, Measurement of a Circle; Sphere & Cylinder I (Archive; sometimes Perseus collections)
• Apollonius, Conics I (Archive/print; sometimes partial online)
• Ptolemy, Almagest I (Archive/print; some online extracts)
• India, Āryabhaṭīya (Best access: print/academic; some online PDFs)
• Hypatia (Synesius letters + Suda entry) (Read at: Archive/collections; Suda often online) ( OUP Academic)
• (Link to 25) Sextus vs mathematics (see Category 25)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 1, 25, 24

6) Time, Impermanence, and Mortality

• Seneca, On the Shortness of Life (often online; Archive; some classics sites)
• Seneca, Letters 1; 24; 49; 104 (often online; Archive)
• Marcus Aurelius, Meditations II; IV; VI; IX; XII (Gutenberg; many public sources)
• Epictetus, Discourses I.1; II.1; III.24 (Gutenberg/Archive)
• Epicurus, Letter to Menoeceus (often via classics sites; sometimes in Diogenes Laertius Book X)
• Lucretius, DRN III.830–1094 (ToposText; Gutenberg) ( ToposText)
• Gilgamesh selections (Best access: reputable translations online/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 11, 12, 25

7) Self-Mastery, Discipline, Inner Freedom

• Epictetus, Enchiridion 1–14; 29–33 (Gutenberg/Archive)
• Epictetus, Discourses II.5; III.2; IV.1 (Gutenberg/Archive)
• Seneca, On Anger I–II (Archive/online classics)
• Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind (Archive/online classics)
• Plutarch, On the Control of Anger (often online; Archive)
• Aristotle, Ethics II.1–II.6 (Scaife/Perseus)
• Plotinus, Ennead I.2 (online translations; Archive)
• Diogenes Laertius, Lives VI (ToposText; LacusCurtius) ( ToposText)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 8, 20, 25

8) Desire, Pleasure, and the Good Life

• Epicurus, Principal Doctrines (usually online; also via DL X context)
• Epicurus, Vatican Sayings (often online)
• Philodemus, On Anger (Best access: print/academic; some partial PDFs circulate)
• Lucretius, DRN IV.1030–1287 (ToposText; Gutenberg) ( ToposText)
• Plato, Symposium 201d–212c (Scaife/Perseus)
• Aristotle, Ethics X.6–X.8 (Scaife/Perseus)
• Kāma Sūtra, Book I + conduct chapters (Best access: public-domain translations exist; verify edition quality)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 7, 20, 25

9) Love, Friendship, Loyalty, Betrayal

• Aristotle, Ethics VIII–IX (Scaife/Perseus)
• Cicero, On Friendship (often on Attalus / classics sites; Archive)
• Plato, Lysis (Scaife/Perseus)
• Homer, Iliad 9; 16–18; 24 (many online; often Perseus)
• Homer, Odyssey 6–8; 19; 23 (many online; often Perseus)
• Euripides, Medea (often on MIT; Perseus) ( Internet Classics Archive)
• Ovid, Metamorphoses IV; X (Perseus/ToposText)
• Mahābhārata betrayal arc (Best access: reliable translation project / print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 10, 11, 16

10) Family, Kinship, Household, Duty

• Xenophon, Oeconomicus (Scaife/Perseus)
• Aristotle, Politics I (Scaife/Perseus)
• Egypt: Sinuhe, Two Brothers, Amenemope (Best access: public-domain Egypt anthologies online/Archive)
• Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa sustained run (Best access: reputable translation online/print)
• Pañcatantra, Book 1 (public-domain translations online)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 14, 23, 18

11) Grief, Suffering, Endurance

• Aeschylus, Agamemnon (Perseus/MIT)
• Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (MIT/Perseus)
• Sophocles, Philoctetes (MIT/Perseus)
• Euripides, Trojan Women (MIT/Perseus)
• Seneca, Consolation to Marcia (Archive/online)
• Mesopotamia: Ludlul, Babylonian Theodicy (Best access: reputable anthologies online/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 6, 17, 25

12) Death, Afterlife Imagination, and the Soul

• Plato, Phaedo (Scaife/Perseus)
• Homer, Odyssey 11 (Perseus)
• Virgil, Aeneid 6 (Perseus/ToposText)
• Egypt, Book of the Dead (Spell 125; 30B) (public-domain translations exist; check edition)
• Inanna/Ishtar descent (public-domain translations exist)
• Plotinus, Ennead IV.7 (online/Archive)
• Greek Anthology epitaphs (Perseus selections exist)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 3, 6, 22

13) Fate, Luck, Necessity, Limits

• Herodotus I (Croesus) (Perseus)
• Sophocles Antigone (MIT/Perseus)
• Aeschylus Libation Bearers + Eumenides (MIT/Perseus)
• Aristotle Physics II.4–II.6 (Perseus)
• Plutarch Fortune of the Romans (Archive/online)
• Atrahasis / Erra (anthologies online/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 15, 17, 25

14) Justice, Law, and Order

• Plato Republic key books (Perseus)
• Plato Laws selections (Perseus)
• Aristotle Ethics V (Perseus)
• Aristotle Politics III; V (Perseus)
• Cicero On Duties I–III (often online; Archive)
• Polybius 6 (often online; Archive)
• Hammurabi (many reputable museum/academic postings exist)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 2, 15, 25

15) Power, Corruption, Institutional Decay

• Thucydides 2.47–54; 3.82–83 (Perseus)
• Sallust Catiline (Perseus/ToposText)
• Tacitus Annals I–III (often online; LacusCurtius sometimes; Archive)
• Juvenal Satires 1; 3; 10 (Perseus/ToposText)
• Lucian Passing of Peregrinus (Gutenberg/Scaife) ( Project Gutenberg)
• Arthaśāstra selected books (Best access: reliable translation online/print)
• Merikare (Egyptian instruction texts: anthologies online/Archive)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 16, 14, 25

16) Leadership, Responsibility, Character in Command

• Xenophon Anabasis I–IV (Perseus)
• Xenophon Cyropaedia I; VIII (Perseus)
• Caesar Gallic War selections (Perseus/ToposText)
• Plutarch Lives (Archive/online)
• Aristotle Ethics VI (Perseus)
• Bhagavad Gītā (widely available online)
• Posidonius (fragments/testimonia: Best access print/academic; sometimes excerpted in collections)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 17, 15, 7

17) War, Violence, Moral Cost of Victory

• Homer Iliad anchor books (Perseus)
• Thucydides Melian Dialogue 5.84–116 (Perseus)
• Euripides Hecuba (MIT/Perseus)
• Virgil Aeneid 2; 12 (Perseus/ToposText)
• Polybius (Archive/online)
• Mahābhārata war-opening sections (reputable translation online/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 11, 13, 15

18) The City, Civic Life, Citizenship, Belonging

• Aristotle Politics IV–VI (Perseus)
• Plato Republic V; VIII (Perseus)
• Aristophanes Knights (MIT/Perseus)
• Cicero On the Republic (fragments: Archive/print)
• Ovid Fasti I–II (Perseus/ToposText)
• Pausanias selections (Perseus/ToposText)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 2, 14, 15

19) Work, Craft, Skill, Excellence

• Hesiod Works and Days 1–382 (Perseus)
• Aristotle Ethics III.6–III.12 (Perseus)
• Vitruvius selections (Perseus/Archive)
• Hero of Alexandria (Archive)
• Egypt Satire of the Trades (anthologies online/Archive)
• Pañcatantra I–II (public-domain translations online)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 21, 20, 24

20) Money, Status, Greed, Simplicity

• Aristotle Politics I.8–I.11 (Perseus)
• Plutarch On Love of Wealth (Archive/online)
• Horace Satires selections (Perseus)
• Lucian Timon (Gutenberg; Scaife) ( Project Gutenberg)
• Juvenal Satire 14 (Perseus)
• Egypt Eloquent Peasant (anthologies online/Archive)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 8, 7, 15

21) Education, Formation, Making a Person

• Plato Protagoras 319a–328d (Perseus)
• Plato Republic II–III; VII (Perseus)
• Aristotle Politics VIII (Perseus)
• Quintilian I.1–I.3; X.1 (Archive)
• Plutarch On the Education of Children (Archive)
• Aristophanes, Clouds (MIT; Scaife/Perseus; Gutenberg) ( Internet Classics Archive)
• Isocrates Antidosis (Perseus/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 1, 2, 25

22) Myth, Religion, and Meaning-Making

• Hesiod Theogony (Perseus)
• Homeric Hymn Demeter (Perseus)
• Ovid Metamorphoses I; XV (Perseus/ToposText)
• Egyptian Contendings of Horus and Seth (anthologies online/Archive)
• Xenophanes fragments (Best access: fragment editions; some excerpts online) ( Wikipedia)
• Euhemerus (fragments/testimonia) (Best access: fragment editions; summaries in ancient sources)
• Enūma Eliš selections (anthologies online/print)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 25, 3, 18

23) Transformation, Identity, Becoming

• Homer Odyssey anchor books (Perseus)
• Euripides Bacchae (MIT/Perseus)
• Apuleius Golden Ass I–III; XI (Perseus/ToposText/Archive)
• Ovid Metamorphoses III–IV (Perseus/ToposText)
• Egypt Shipwrecked Sailor (anthologies online/Archive)
• Plotinus Ennead IV.8 (online/Archive)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 10, 24, 7

24) Beauty, Art, Theatre, and What Making Does

• Aristotle Poetics 1–6; 13–18 (Perseus)
• Plato Ion (Perseus)
• Horace Ars Poetica (Perseus/ToposText)
• Sappho fragments (Best access: editions; selections online)
• Greek Anthology curated epigrams (Perseus)
• Vitruvius III; VI (Perseus/Archive)
• Plotinus Ennead I.6 (On Beauty) (online/Archive)
• Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae (MIT; Wikisource) ( Internet Classics Archive)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 2, 18, 25

25) Doubt, Skepticism, Atheism, and Anti-Religion Critique

Pyrrhonism / Sextus

• Sextus PH I.1–I.12; I.164–I.186; PH II.1–II.10 (Archive Loeb scans) ( Internet Archive)
• Sextus Against the Mathematicians (AM II–IV core runs) (Archive; scholarly partials) ( Internet Archive)

Academic Skepticism

• Cicero Academica (Attalus; Gutenberg) ( Attalus)
• Cicero On the Nature of the Gods I & III (often bundled with Cicero philosophy online; Archive)
• Cicero On Divination I & II (often online; Archive)

“Atheism / impiety / invention of gods” line

• Sisyphus fragment (read in Sextus; also on FragTraG) ( fragtrag1.upatras.gr)
• Prodicus (testimonia; best accessed via doxography collections—often in DL/Sextus discussions)
• Protagoras ‘On the gods…’ (Diogenes Laertius 9.51) (ToposText; LacusCurtius) ( ToposText)
• Diagoras of Melos (testimonia; best via reference collections)
• Theodorus “the Atheist” (Diogenes Laertius 2.97–2.99) (ToposText; LacusCurtius) ( ToposText)

Lucian’s anti-theology comedy-logic

• Lucian Zeus Tragoedus (Scaife/Perseus; Gutenberg; Sacred-texts) ( Scaife Viewer)
• Lucian Zeus Refuted (often included in Lucian collections; Gutenberg lists major dialogues) ( Project Gutenberg)

Indian materialists / skeptics

• Ajita Kesakambali passage (DN 2 Samaññaphala Sutta) (suttas.com; other DN2 sites) ( Suttas.com)
• Cārvāka chapter in Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha (PDF; WisdomLib) ( who.rocq.inria.fr)
• Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa, Tattvopaplavasimha (Archive scans/text) ( Internet Archive)

Celsus and al-Rāzī

• Celsus fragments via Origen, Contra Celsum (New Advent; Gutenberg has Origen volumes) ( New Advent)
• al-Rāzī’s “critiques of religion/prophecy” largely survive via opponents’ reports; best access tends to be print/academic discussions and editions ( OUP Academic)

Continuity / tie-ins: → 1, 2, 5, 13, 22, 4

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Where to Find the Classics Online

• Scaife/Perseus = reliable free Greek/Latin corpora + many public-domain translations ( Scaife Viewer)
• MIT Classics = clean public-domain English for lots of Greco-Roman texts ( Internet Classics Archive)
• ToposText = free public-domain translations, often pulled from Perseus ( ToposText)
• Gutenberg = free ebooks (often older translations, but convenient) ( Project Gutenberg)
• Attalus = excellent, readable Cicero pages (Rackham etc.) ( Attalus)
• LacusCurtius = strong classics site incl. Diogenes Laertius (English + often Greek) ( Penelope)
• Sacred-texts = lots of public-domain classics (good for Lucian, etc.) ( Internet Sacred Text Archive)
• Internet Archive = scans of Loebs/older editions/translations (hit-or-miss availability by region) ( Internet Archive)
• DN2 (Ajita) = multiple full translations online ( Suttas.com)
• Sisyphus fragment = preserved via Sextus; accessible via fragments sites and standard references ( fragtrag1.upatras.gr)
• Aetius, Placita = new Loeb is paywalled; reconstruction/editions exist in Brill (mostly paywalled) ( Loeb Classical Library)
• al-Rāzī anti-religion = mostly survives via opponents/testimonia; modern translations are generally print/academic-access ( OUP Academic)
• Celsus = survives embedded in Origen’s Contra Celsum (free online) ( New Advent)
• Tattvopaplavasimha (Jayarāśi) = full scans/editions on Archive ( Internet Archive)
• Cārvāka via Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha (chapter on Cārvāka) = full translations online ( who.rocq.inria.fr)

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