40 Diss. 2.6.26.
38Patience (ὑπομονή) and perseverance (μαϰϱοθυμία) are closely akin: in the latter the note of steadfastness and staying power is stressed. In the Testament of Joseph 2:7 Joseph tells how he was steadfast (ἐμαϰϱοθύμησα) in all his trials, and adds that “μαϰϱοθυμία is a great medicine and ὐπομονή yields many good things.” “A merciful man perseveres (μαϰϱοθυμεῖ),” according to Prov. 19:11 (i.e., he defers his anger). “With great patience” (ἐν πολλῇ μαϰϱοθυμία) toward the impenitent God postpones the day of reckoning (Rom. 9:22; cf. 2:4); and this, like his other ethical qualities, is to be reproduced in his children: “love (whether in him or in them) μαϰϱοθυμεῖ, is patient” (1 Cor. 13:4). Cf. Col. 3:12.
39Joy (ϰαϱά), like μαϰϱοθυμία, is also an element in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
40Diss. 2.6.26.
41Gk. αὐτάϱϰεɩα. The ideal Stoic, according to Horace, is in se ipso totus teres atque rotundus (Sat. 2.7.86); Paul’s αὐτάϱϰεɩα (2 Cor. 9:8) was Christ-sufficiency rather than self-sufficiency; he expresses it in terms of his power to cope (αὐτάϱϰηςεἶναɩ) with all the conditions of mortal existence through his divine enabler (Phil. 4:11-13). On Stoicism and early Christianity see R. Bultmann, “Das religiose Moment in der ethischen Unterweisung des Epiktet und das Neue Testament,” ZNW 13 (1912), 97-110, 177-91; A. Bonhöffer, Epiktet und das Neue Testament (Giessen, 1911); E. Bevan, Stoics and Sceptics (Oxford, 1913); D. S. Sharp, Epictetus and the New Testament (London, 1914); M. Pohlenz, Paulus und die Stoa (Darmstadt, 1964); also H. D. Betz, Der Apostel Paulus und die sokratische Tradition (Tübingen, 1972).