Often it is said that Christians were, or somehow now are, influenced by or take from the Platonists. Here I’m including the arbitrarily, and often maliciously, divided groups of “Middle Platonism” & “Neo-Platonism.” It should be said the only real Neoplatonists are those Germanic & British schools which, through a Hegelian lens, invented a new Platonism for themselves. At any rate, the charge against, or simply claim that, Christians learned or somehow learn anything from the Platonists is entirely & utterly erroneous. I say “somehow” when speaking of this in the present tense because all the Platonists died millenia ago. Before we begin with Plato himself, let’s begin with a few philosophers prior to him, whose students readily joined his academy.
History of Greek Philoophy
Pythagoras was the first of the Hellenes to call himself a philosopher. He learned from the Ægyptians, Persians, & Assyrians—i.e. the false prophets, the magi, & the Chaldæans. The Ægyptians credit all of their wisdom to a man whose name by them is a Coptic corruption of Joseph. As for the Persians & Assyrians, I know not who they say they learned their wisdom from. In my opinion, they learned it from the Hellenes. Insofar as the Hellenes credit their culture to the Ægyptians, let’s give them it. At any rate, it was into the mysteries of these gentiles Pythagoras was initiated—although for what need he had to learn of them, since he claimed to be Apollo manifest, I can’t understand. It was inspiration from him, while in the hands of Socrates, that Plato credits his interest in philosophy, being the first to own his teachings in writing, which was sold to him by Nicomachus. Again, what need Plato had, since the Platonists say he was a demigod, the son of Apollo, I don’t know. It should be noted here that, besides Socrates himself searching for wisdom by charge of Apollo’s oracle, Plato’s republic is nothing more than the Pharaonic state of Ægypt in Greek. I mention all of this because Platonism is inseperable from a Phœbic cult.
But let us say something good about Pythagoras & Plato. He undoubtly heard something of Abraham, Joseph, & even Moses, since his numerology is based onnthem. He heard of the Ten Commandments given by Moses, & at once taught the tetractys. Hebheard of the prophecy given by Joseph to Juda, & at once directed all prayer towards the sun as the abode of the leo zodiac. Plato, in turn, clearly was not ignorant ofbMoses. He heard how Moses was shown the pattern (parádīgma) of the Tabernacle, & at once taught his theory of the forms (eîdos). &c. Not to mention how Plato himself was an initiate of & participant in the Orphic mysteries, which, although in an abombinable form, learned from Jospeh’s same prophecy about Juda, even callingbBacchus Sabazius after the sabbath. And again Plato heard what Moses reveales about the beginning of the world, how the first man & woman were wedded, and that the first man called the first wooman bone of his bone, and that being wedded they are now one body, and Plato fabricated his fable of soul-mates. Lastly, to return to something good, Plato heard of the appearence of the One on Sinai, and Moses’ overpoweringly radiant face, and called the Good the noëtic Sun.
So then not only Platonism but all of Hellas learned from Israel seeds of wisdom. We could make mention of Thales hearing Moses and at once saying all was made of water, or how the Stoics heard Moses say God created by His Word, and they at once taught a logos, or how Hesiod, or some Assyrians he might’ve learned from, heard the same Moses & fabricated their myths of the division of Oceanus from Tethys, of Uranus from Gi, of the birth of Nyx from Chaos, of Phanes from Nyx, &c. But over time their tradition corrupted & decayed. So you have Aristotle arbitrarily distinguishing æther from fire as separate elements—for if the planets are gods & immortal, then they must be of an immutable substance—&c. But with each true prophet of Israel, they learned something new, adopted it, & later corrupted it.
In Our Times
This brings us to the “beginning” of Christianity, the Divine economy. The whole world heard the Apostles. All “ancient” religions originate from this time in response to Christianity. The Assyrians were already dead, so they didn’t. Zoastrianism was systemized during this time by the Sassanids to differentiate themselves from Christians. The Gnostics of Ægypt were an attempt by the gentile Roman state to take control of Christianity, but nonetheless systematized Ægyptian religion. And, now, turning to the Hellenes, they were directly confronted by the Martyrs, and so too systematized in face of Christians. Whence Plutarch & Iamblichus write. But something ironic happens, the Platonists slyly try to adopt Christians’ answers to difficult questions. This began with Plotinus himself, who studied under a Christian, Ammonius Sacchus, in Ægypt. He heard of the Most-Holy Trinity, and, being uninitiated into the Divine mysteries, fabricated his three “hypostases” of the world, and he hears of Christian theosis, and at once fabricates a surrogate henosis. Proclus, later, heard of the Christian doctrine of hypostas is in regards to the unity of our God, and at once fabricates his doctrine of idiote for his gods—but without understanding, since there is no causal arche mong them. Their worshippers are at any rate idiots.
Thus the notion Christians take from Platonists is not only slander from those who do not want to credit Christians or in any capacity admit they’re good for anything—they’d sooner credit Hagarene Turks over Christian Romans for the survival of the very gentiles they adore. On that, more could be said of how, first, the Jews themselves are a new & reactionary group against Christians, which slyly appeal to anyone—gentile Romans, Hagarene Arabs, &c.—against Chtistians, becoming a Bacchic cult, and Hagarenes in turn are an Arabic cult of Aphrodite, and both of which adopted Platonism.