Classical roots to some of the things Jesus is represented as saying:1) Plato, Phaedrus 233d-e "[233d] Besides, if you ought to grant favors to those who ask for them most eagerly, you ought in other matters also to confer benefits, not on the best, but on the most needy; for they will be most grateful, since they are relieved of the greatest ills. And then, too, [233e] at private entertainments you ought not to invite your friends, but beggars and those who need a meal; for they will love you and attend you and come to your doors and be most pleased and grateful, and will call down many blessings upon your head."

Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by Harold N. Fowler. 1925.[233] , : . [233] , : .Platonis Opera, ed. John Burnet. 1903.Compare to

Luke 14:12-14: 12 He said also to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your kinsmen or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

RSV

12 , , . 13 , , , , 14 , , .GNT2) Plutarch, Lives 39, quoting Roman politician Tiberius Gracchus:

"The wild beasts of Italy have their caves to retire to; but the brave men who spill their blood in her cause have nothing left but air and light. Without houses, without any settled habitations, they wander from place to place with their wives and children; and their generals do but mock them, when, at the head of their armies, they exhort their men to fight for their sepulchers and domestic gods: for, among such numbers, perhaps there is not a Roman who has an altar that belonged to his ancestors, or a sepulcher in which their ashes rest. The private soldiers fight and die to advance the wealth and luxury of the great; and they are called masters of the world, while they have not a foot of ground in their possession."Compare to

Matthew 8:20: "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'"Luke 9:58: "And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'"RSV

3) Herodotus, Histories, book 1.141.1-4, citing Cyrus the Great response to the Greeks who wanted to become allied with him now that he had defeated Lydia, but who had previously snubbed his request that they desert to his side:1 As soon as the Lydians had been subjugated by the Persians, the Ionians and Aeolians sent messengers to Cyrus, offering to be his subjects on the same terms as those which they had under Croesus. After hearing what they proposed, Cyrus told them a story. Once, he said, there was a flute-player who saw fish in the sea and played upon his flute, thinking that they would come out on to the land. 2 Disappointed of his hope, he cast a net and gathered it in and took out a great multitude of fish; and seeing them leaping, "You had best," he said, "stop your dancing now; you would not come out and dance before, when I played to you." 3 The reason why Cyrus told the story to the Ionians and Aeolians was that the Ionians, who were ready to obey him when the victory was won, had before refused when he sent a message asking them to revolt from Croesus. 4 So he answered them in anger. ...http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.01261 , , , . , , 2 , , , . 3 , , . 4 , , . .

http://www.mikrosapoplous.gr/en/texts1en.htm4) Aesop's Fables290. The Fisherman and his Pipe, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)There was once a fisherman who saw some fish in the sea and played on his pipe, expecting them to come out onto the land. When his hopes proved false, he took a net and used it instead, and in this way he was able to haul in a huge catch of fish. As the fish were all leaping about, the fisherman remarked, 'I say, enough of your dancing, since you refused to dance when I played my pipe for you before!' 108. A Fisherman and his Pipe, Sir Roger L'Estrange (1692)

A Fisherman that understood Piping better than Netting, set himself down upon the side of a River, and touchd his Flute, but not a Fish came near him. Upon this, he laid down his Pipe and cast his Net, which brought him a very great Draught. The Fish fell a frisking in the Net, and the Fisherman observing it; what Sots are these (says he) that would not dance when I playd to em, and will be dancing now without Musick!

THE MORAL. There are certain Rules and Methods for the doing of all Things in this World; and therefore let every Man stick to the Business he understands, and was brought up to, without making one Profession interfere with another. 11. The Fisherman Piping, G F Townsend (1867)

A FISHERMAN skilled in music took his flute and his nets to the seashore. Standing on a projecting rock, he played several tunes in the hope that the fish, attracted by his melody, would of their own accord dance into his net, which he had placed below. At last, having long waited in vain, he laid aside his flute, and casting his net into the sea, made an excellent haul of fish. When he saw them leaping about in the net upon the rock he said: 'O you most perverse creatures, when I piped you would not dance, but now that I have ceased you do so merrily.'

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Matthew 11:16-17: 16 But whereunto shall I esteem this generation to be like? It is like to children sitting in the market place. 17 Who crying to their companions say: 'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.'RSV

16 ; 17 , .

GNT

Luke 7:31-32: 31 To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another, 'We piped to you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not weep.'RSV

31 ; 32 , .

GNT

5) Lucian of Samosata (ca. 125 CE after 180 CE, maybe as late as 200 CE) refers to the fable twice, apparently as familiar to his readers.

Remarks addressed to an illiterate book-fancier, 30, (ca. 170 CE) he writes:

So it is with you [the ignorant book collector]: you might, to be sure, lend your books to someone else who wants them, but you cannot use them yourself. But you never lent a book to anyone; you act like the dog in the manger, who neither eats the grain herself nor lets the horse eat it, who can.

, . , , .Lucian, with an English Translation by A. M. Harmon (vol. 3 of 8, 1921)

In the play Timon, 14, Lucian has Zeus speak to Plutus (god of wealth) about the way misers hoard him (wealth) without benefiting from him:

for they [i.e., misers] thought it enjoyment enough, not that they were able to enjoy [i.e., riches]

themselves, but that they were shutting out everyone else from a share in the enjoyment, like the dog

in the manger that neither ate the barley herself nor permitted the hungry horse to eat it.

, , .Lucian, with an English Translation by A. M. Harmon (vol. 2 of 8, 1915)compare to

Luke 11:52:

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered

or

Matt 23:13:

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.