A striking feature of the portrayal of Jesus in the synoptic gospels, some Cynic figures in Lucian of Samosata, and reports about Diogenes the Cynic in the doxography of Diogenes Laertius is the readiness with which conventional religion and its functionaries are criticized. Whether it be for reasons of exploitation (Matt. 23:14; cf. Mark 12:40, Luke 20:47), accusations of δεισιδαιμονία (Lucian, Philopseudes 38), or the false hope placed in a merely mechanical ritual practice (Diogenes Laertius 6.2.42), Jesus and the Cynics critiqued what they saw as inadequate in the religious thought and practice of their fellows. However, “one swallow does not a summer make.” Rather than taking similarity for proof of a shared identity, this paper will inquire what the peculiar basis of such critique is in the respective figures mentioned.