Philosophical Conversion: Experiences of Being Re-born in Pre-Christian Greek Times Lars Rydbeck The aim of this paper is to draw attention to fragments of Menander that I consider important parallel materials to the New Testament (NT). These texts have not received the attention they deserve in NT scholarship. The points of contact with the NT texts lie in their description of the human condition and a concept of conversion. The texts are monologues spoken by characters in the plays, and this makes their interpretation difficult. Still, the difference in genre between the New Comedy of Menander and the NT texts should not prevent us from examining correspondences between them. An obvious difference between the NT and Menander is that, in Menander’s plays, it is always possible to assume an ironic distance, and that the words a character speaks are there only for the sake of characterization or some other purely dramatic purpose. While some NT authors also know how to characterize