Was there a friendship between Seneca and St. Paul? Had Seneca converted to Christianity? This statement, although suggestive, has several ingredients of medieval legend.
Let us briefly look at the context: at the end of the first century BC, driven by Augustus, many Roman citizens returned to traditional cults, in order to put a brake on the advancement of Greek philosophical schools and religions of Eastern origin. In this revival of Roman religious traditions, ancient temples would be restored to venerate Jupiter, Juno, Minerva and Mars. This strengthening of the cult would encourage the growth of the figure of the emperor as savior of the Roman world. During the Tiberius rule, Celtic and Jewish priests would be persecuted and even sent to exile.
In this context, the first Christians in Rome had a marked proselytizing intentionality, targeting the homeless, the most disadvantaged classes, and all those who might have an interest in a life after death, a better life that would compensate for the sufferings of this world. On the other hand, certain Christian practices, coinciding with stoicism and austerity, were implicit contempt for the Roman cult and generating suspicion and justifying persecution.
It is true that the fathers of the Church were interested in the postulates of stoicism, in fact, Seneca was read among Christians where he enjoyed a certain prestige especially in medieval times. And in this line, there were legends that stated that Seneca and St. Paul had met. In fact, St. Jerome claimed in 392 that he had found correspondence between the two exchanged during the first years of Christianity. According to this version, Seneca expressed his admiration for St. Paul but would have recommended him to give a literary form to his thought and suggest the use of a book of rhetoric. Saint Paul, for his part, would have invited the philosopher to preach the teachings of Jesus in the court of Nero.
This legend fed a biblical quote: Galion, the elder brother of Seneca, being a proconsul of Greece, said on behalf of Saint Paul when he was brought before his court: “But if it is a matter of word, and of names, and of your law, see it there: for I do not want to be a judge of these things. “ Acts of the Apostles 18:15
However, in Renaissance times, different research works proved that the epistles between Seneca and Saint Paul were apocryphal, so that considering that Seneca's alleged conviction to Christianity influenced his philosophical doctrine is, a misguided concept beyond the conceptual affinity that could be found between some aspects of stoicism and Christianity.