Let us begin by considering an undeniably pre-Christian philosopher, Aristotle, writing during the 4th century BCE.

In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle discussed the basic motivation behind charity (generosity) in a way that suggested that it was not unusual for people, motivated by generosity, to give things to other people in circumstances which could include charity: "The word ‘generosity’ is used relatively to someone’s means; for generosity resides not in how much one gives, but in the moral character of the giver, and this is relative to the giver’s means. There is therefore nothing to prevent the man who gives less from being the more generous man, if he has less to give than those who are thought to be more generous, yet who have not made their wealth but inherited it; for in the first place, the latter sort of man has no experience of want, and secondly all men are fonder of what they themselves have achieved, as are parents and poets. It is not easy for the generous man to be rich, since he is not apt either at taking or at keeping, but at giving it away, and he does not value wealth for its own sake, but as a means to giving." (Nichomachean Ethics 4.1)

This is part of Aristotle's broader discussion of charity as manifestation of generosity by certain people. See T.H. Irwin, “Generosity and Property in Aristotle’s Politics,” Social Philosophy and Policy 4.2 [April 1987]: 37-54.

Nor should the argument be made that Aristotle's arguments about the role of charity within society represented an anomaly within the Hellenistic (and later Roman) Mediterranean. Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BCE – c. 39 CE) wrote that “among those laws that are unwritten, and yet set in stone…are the obligations on all to give alms to a beggar and throw earth on a corpse” (Seneca the Elder, Controversies 1.1.14). Since failure to give a corpse burial was the horrific act (for the Greek audience) behind the tragedy Antigone, Seneca the Elder's words strongly suggest that there was also a moral duty for those capable of doing so to support beggars through charity.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BCE – 65 CE), the son of Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder, was contemporary with the development of Christianity, yet efforts to claim that he was a Christian are based upon forgeries claiming to represent his correspondence with Paul of Tarsus: Joseph Barber Lightfoot (1892) "St Paul and Seneca: Dissertations on the Apostolic Age". Seneca the Younger, despite being non-Christian, wrote the following words about charity: "It is indeed worthy of great praise, when man treats man with kindness! Shall we advise stretching forth the hand to the shipwrecked sailor, or pointing out the way to the wanderer, or sharing a crust with the starving? … Nature produced us related to one another, since she created us from the same source and to the same end. She engendered in us mutual affection, and made us prone to friendships. She established fairness and justice; according to her ruling, it is more wretched to commit than to suffer injury. Through her orders, let our hands be ready for all that needs to be helped. (Seneca, Moral Epistles 95.51.)"

Nor did Seneca the Younger present charity as only involving helping people who would otherwise die. People in less dire straits, he wrote, should also be helped by worthy people, whose actions should be the following: "He will bring relief to another’s tears, but will not add his own; to the shipwrecked man he will give a hand, to the exile shelter, to the needy alms; he will not do as most of those who wish to be thought pitiful do—fling insultingly their alms and scorn those whom they help, and shrink from contact with them—but he will give as a man to his fellow-man out of the common store…and he will not avert his countenance or his sympathy. (Seneca, On Clemency 2.6.1-2.)"

These quotations should disprove the assertion that Christianity introduced to the Greco-Roman world the idea of charity as a virtue where it had been seen as a weakness. But people may assert that Christianity was the first religion to present charity as a virtue - after all, the Senecae and Aristotle were philosophers. But this assertion can also be disproven by considering a religion outside the Roman world - but not outside the Hellenistic world.

Buddhism, due to Alexander the Great's conquests, had a role within the Hellenistic world - to the extent that Menander I Soter (ruled c 160 - 130 BCE), the Greek ruler of a Greek dynasty ruling over Bactria from Sâgala, was noted in both Indian and Greco-Roman sources for his support for and achievements within Buddhism.

King of the city of Sâgala in India, Milinda [the Pali form of the name Menander] by name, learned, eloquent, wise, and able; and a faithful observer, and that at the right time, of all the various acts of devotion and ceremony enjoined by his own sacred hymns concerning things past, present, and to come. — The Questions of King Milinda, Translation from the Pali by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890.

After meeting with the Buddhist monk Nagasena, Menander converted to Buddhism.

May the venerable Nâgasena accept me as a supporter of the faith, as a true convert from to-day onwards as long as life shall last! — The Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890

Menander also became a Buddhist monk renowned for his spiritual achievements.

And afterwards, taking delight in the wisdom of the Elder, he handed over his kingdom to his son, and abandoning the household life for the houseless state, grew great in insight, and himself attained to Arahatship! — The Questions of King Milinda, Translation by T. W. Rhys Davids, 1890

Lest Pali Indian sources be deemed untrustworthy, they receive some confirmation in Plutarch's Moralia 28.6: "But when one Menander, who had reigned graciously over the Bactrians, died afterwards in the camp, the cities indeed by common consent celebrated his funerals; but coming to a contest about his relics, they were difficultly at last brought to this agreement, that his ashes being distributed, everyone should carry away an equal share, and they should all erect monuments to him."

This division of the ashes of a person and erecting monuments over said ashes is standard for Buddhist monastics who are deemed to have achieved extraordinary things (including arhatship), and Georgios T. Halkias, writing in "When the Greeks Converted the Buddha: Asymmetrical Transfers of Knowledge in Indo-Greek Cultures" in "Religions and Trade" Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West", edited by Peter Wick and Volker Rabens, accepted Plutarch's words as confirming the account in the Indian "The Questions of King Milinda".

Buddhist religion, which through Menander and others was briefly part of the Greek world, is a pre-Christian religion with a long tradition of encouraging charity within its scriptures. Two examples from Pali Buddhist scriptures (first committed to writing during the first century BCE - again, pre-Christian) should suffice.

In the Pāyāsisutta (DN 23:31.15), Pāyāsi, a non-Buddhist, having been converted to Buddhism, is persuaded to engage in the following act of charity (as translated into English by Bhikkhu Sujato): "Then the chieftain Pāyāsi set up an offering for ascetics and brahmins, for paupers, vagrants, travelers, and beggars. At that offering such food as rough gruel with pickles was given, and heavy clothes with knotted fringes." This describes, in short, the charitable distribution of food and cloth to various types of poor people.

In the Vaccha Sutta (AN 3:58), the Buddha Gotama is portrayed as saying (as translated into English by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu), "I tell you, Vaccha, even if a person throws the rinsings of a bowl or a cup into a village pool or pond, thinking, ‘May whatever animals live here feed on this,’ that would be a source of merit, to say nothing of what is given to human beings. But I do say that what is given to a virtuous person is of great fruit, and not so much what is given to an unvirtuous person."

All of these sources reveal that seeing charity as a virtue was not introduced to the Hellenistic world by Christianity - rather, it was found within Hellenistic intellectual circles and was reinforced by Buddhism in parts of the Hellenistic world.