The Stoics took their name from the stoa or colonnade in Athens where their founder Zeno taught. This philosophical school emphasized virtue, rational self-control, and living in harmony with nature's rational order. They believed in divine providence but conceived divinity as impersonal cosmic reason. When Paul preached in Athens, he encountered both Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who brought him to the Areopagus. The Stoics would have found Paul's resurrection message absurd, contradicting their belief that only rational soul, not physical body, could be immortal. Luke's specificity about philosophical schools highlights the gospel's confrontation with Greek intellectual culture.