SVF I.153
- Stoic
- Zeno of Citium
- Ancient source
- Hippolytus, Philosophumena 21,1 (with Galen, Hist. phil. 16) — Philos. 21,1
- Source language
- Ancient Greek
- Source status
- Testimonium
Original — Ancient Greek
Χρύσιππος καὶ Ζήνων, οἳ ὑπέθεντο καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀρχὴν μὲν θεὸν τῶν πάντων, σῶμα ὄντα τὸ καθαρώτατον, διὰ πάντων δὲ διήκειν τὴν πρόνοιαν αὐτοῦ. — Galenus, Hist. phil. 16: Πλάτων μὲν οὖν καὶ Ζήνων ὁ Στωικὸς περὶ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ θεοῦ διεληλυθότες οὐχ ὁμοίως περὶ ταύτης διενοήθησαν, ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν Πλάτων θεὸν ἀσώματον, Ζήνων δὲ σῶμα, περὶ τῆς μορφῆς μηδὲν εἰρηκότες.StoicOs Translation
Chrysippus and Zeno, who themselves too posited that the principle of all things is god, being the purest body, and that his providence pervades all things. — Galen (Hist. phil.): Plato and Zeno the Stoic, having treated of the substance of god, did not think alike about it: Plato held god to be incorporeal, Zeno a body — neither having said anything about its shape.
Context
Hippolytus' handbook of philosophies summarizes the Stoic theology under the two most famous names of the school; the pseudo-Galenic history sharpens the point by setting Zeno's corporeal god against Plato's incorporeal one.
Source notes:Text verified against von Arnim, SVF I (1903), no. 153, p. 41 (OCR of the scanned edition). Von Arnim appends the pseudo-Galenic Historia philosopha 16, which contrasts Plato's incorporeal god with Zeno's corporeal one, “neither having said anything about its shape”.
What the source actually tells us
Two independent doxographic reports. The first attributes to Zeno (jointly with Chrysippus) god as the purest body and all-pervading providence; the second isolates precisely what is Zeno's against Plato: the corporeality of god. Both agree with the god-and-matter doctrine of SVF I.85–88 and I.161–162.
Philosophical meaning
Zeno's god is not outside the world but its finest body, woven through everything — and therefore his care (pronoia) reaches everything. Providence is not intervention from beyond but the immanent intelligence of the cosmos itself. Against Plato, divinity does not require immateriality: to act on bodies, god must be body (cf. SVF I.89).
Scholarly uncertainty
Hippolytus names Chrysippus and Zeno jointly, so the formulation cannot be assigned to Zeno alone; both reports are late handbook summaries. The specifically Zenonian core — god as body, pervading matter — is independently secured by SVF I.85–88.
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About this edition
StoicOs Ancient Library is a developing multilingual digital study edition of surviving early Stoic material. The Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta assembled by Hans von Arnim provides the traditional reference framework. StoicOs distinguishes carefully between fragments, testimonia, later reports and interpretation. StoicOs translations are prepared from the surviving ancient-language sources where available.