Why the Jewish Word for Heretic Is Based on Epicurus – Greek Reporter

View into the Jewish Talmud, which denotes Epicurus as meaning heretic. Credit: Chajm Guski. CC BY-4.0/Wikimedia Commons/Chajm Guski

In rabbinic literature, the word epikoros refers to a heretic or person whose views contradict Jewish literature. The term is a specific reference to Greek philosopher Epicurus.

The Talmud, the central text of Jewish religious law, explicitly states that epikoros means heretic and refers to an individual who does not have a share in the world to come. In Sanhedrin 10:1, it is written that all of Israel [has] a part in the world to come. But the following have no part in the world to come: one who says that the resurrection of the dead is not biblical, or that the Torah is not from heaven, or the Epicurean.

According to Maimonides, an ancient Jewish philosopher, insulting a scholar of the old testament is synonymous with disrespecting the entire Torah and its scholars. In his work Mishneh Torah, he explains that an epikoros is one who denies that god communicates with humans through prophecy, a person who denies the prophecy of Moses, or one who denies gods knowledge of the affairs of humans. In other words, this refers to one who doubts gods intervention in human affairs.

In an article published by Philosophy Documentation Center, titled Maimonides and the Epicurean Position on Providence, the author claims that Maimonides likely encountered the word or name Epicurus some time between writing his commentary on the Mishneh and before penning his defining work, The Guide for the Perplexed.

In the former, the author writes, Maimonides said the term epikoros was an Aramaic word, but in The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonides seems to have become aware of the atheistic worldview of the philosopher by that name.

However, why did the ancient Jewish philosophers regard Epicurus to be a heretic? Anthony Graftons book, The Classical Tradition, argues that the most important Greek philosopher in the development of atheism was Epicurus, who espoused a materialistic worldview devoid of divine conclusions and drew on ideas from Democritus and the Atomists.

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Epicurus still believed that the gods existed but just didnt hold that they were interested in the everyday lives of human beings.

The encyclopedia explains that the aim of the Epicureans was to reach ataraxia, a mental state of being untroubled. One sure fire way of achieving this was by calling out fear of divine wrath as irrational.

The Epicureans also held that there was no such thing as the afterlife. Therefore, according to them, there was no need to fear divine punishment after death.

In The Oxford Handbook of Atheism, written by David Sedley, the author explains that Epicureans denied being atheists, but that their critics, including Jewish philosophers, insisted they were.

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Why the Jewish Word for Heretic Is Based on Epicurus - Greek Reporter