04_Biblica_Collins_Layout 1 01/04/14 11:47 Pagina 72 72 C. JOHN COLLINS Stoicism arose from the teachings of Zeno (ca. 334 – ca. 262 B.C.E.). Diogenes Laertius explains what Zeno’s followers mean by the word “nature” (7.148): Now the term Nature is used by them to mean sometimes that which holds the world together (th.n sune,cousan to.n ko,smon), sometimes that which causes terrestrial things to spring up. Nature is defined as a force moving of itself, producing and holding to- gether (avpotelou/sa, te kai. sune,cousa) its offspring in accor- dance with seminal principles … Although the Stoics can call God the Demiurge and father of all (Diogenes Laertius, 7.147), their sources do not offer examples of suni,sthmi to describe the construction of the world. Diogenes Laertius (7.138) uses the cognate noun, su,sthma, for the world as a system, citing Posidonius: a system made up of [su,sthma evx] heaven and earth and the na- tures in them, or again, as a system made up of [su,sthma evk] gods and men and all things created for their sake... The noun is in combination with the preposition evk, which is often used with the cognate verb, to convey a composite entity 18. Von Arnim’s collection of Stoic excerpts provides further exam- ples of sune,cw, with a focus on God holding the world together 19. 4. New Testament and Patristic usage Besides Col 1,17, the only other New Testament passage using sunisthmi in the relevant sense is 2 Pet 3,5, “that the heavens existed , long ago, and the earth was put together [sunestw/sa] out of water and through water by the word of God” 20. Shortly afterwards we have 1 Clement 27.4, “by his majestic word he [God] put all things 18 Cf. Stobaeus, Eclogue 1 (SVT no. 413): evx w-n suni,stasqai pa,nta … 19 From Galen, SVT nos. 439, 440; from Plutarch, no. 444; from Alexander of Aphrodisias (a Peripatetic), no. 448. See H.F. ARNIM, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Leipzig 1903-1924, repr. New York 1986) I-IV. 20 It is possible that the perfect participle here should be taken as the pres- ent of the intransitive use (“is composed’), but since 2 Peter goes on to speak of other past events (rather than conditions), the ESV seems better.