rtality of the soul was preserved by the
tradition of the Mysteries,[8] not by the Academy. Stoics and
Epicureans, far more important for the {89} first century than
Academics, were materialists; but that does not mean that they did not
believe in the existence of a human soul or spirit. Spirit was for
them merely the most attenuated form of matter. The spirit of man
might be dissipated after death, as the grosser material composing his
body would be, or it might survive and retain consciousness and memory
until the cycle came round when all things, including human careers,
would be repeated.

But the first Greek Christians were scarcely influenced by an
intelligent comprehension of Stoic metaphysics, and attempts made to
trace their direct influence in Paul or elsewhere only show that their
vocabulary was more widely used than their problems were understood--a
phenomenon not peculiar to the first century. All that can be said
with any confidence is that the expectation of blessed immortality--not
for all but for the chosen few--fostered by the mysteries was probably
most often conceived as the survival of the soul after death, and the
soul in turn was conceived as "Spirit," a highly attenuated material
existence, which was found until death in the body, and was then
released from it.

In some such way the Greeks in Corinth who were converted to
Christianity expected immortality. So they did also in the other cults
offering salvation. The points of difference in Christianity are in
the kind of life which was demanded from initiates, and in the final
consummation expected.

1 Corinthians shows clearly that some Hellenic {90} Christians held
that having secured immortality they were free to do as they liked with
their bodies. Paul insisted on the observance of that morality which
was central in Judaism. He had rendered his task difficult by his
rejection of the Law, but he won his fight, and the permanent
association of Jewish morality with the Christian Church and its
Hellenic Christology and sacraments was the result.

In the same way Paul contended successfully for the Jewish doctrine of
a resurrection, though with some modifications. This was not the same
thing as the Greek belief in personal immortality. The Sadducees,
indeed, may have Hellenised on this subject, as did some of the
Alexandrian Jews, represented by the Wisdom of Solomon. But the bulk
of the people followed the Pharisees and looked for