Greek Philosophy from the Bible

St. Justin the Martyr & Philosopher

It is nothing new to say the Greeks harvested seeds, so to say, from the Prophets—either directly, or indirectly through the Ægyptians or Assyrians. For the Ægyptians said they were taught wisdom by a Joseph, & the Chaldæans of Assyria, whose dwelling Abraham is from, are those most esteemed in wisdom by the ancients.

So Plato heard that Moses saw the pattern (parádīgma) & fashion (ī̂dos) of the tabernacle, & of the creation of the world, & so derived his theory of the forms.

The Magi (so-called Zoastrians) werr systematized under the Sassanids to differentiate themselves from Christians (cf. The Zurvan Heresy). The Gnostics of Ægypt were an attempt by the gentile Romans to take control of the Church, but nonetheless systematized Ægyptian religion. But turning now to the Greeks, who were directly confronted by the Martyrs, so too systematized in the face of Christians. Whence Plutarch & Iamblichus wrote.

Monotheism

Now I adjure you by the highest heaven,

the work of the great God, the only Wise;

and I adjure you by the Father’s Voice.

Which first He uttered when He established

the whole world by His counsel.

…

Take the Word divine to guide your steps,

and walking well in the straight certain Path,

look to the one & universal King—

one, self-begotten, & the only One,

of Whom all things & we ourselves are sprung.

There is one only unbegotten God,

almighty, invisible, most-high,

all-seeing, but Himself seen by no flesh.

…

But we have strayed from the Immortal’s ways,

and worship with a dull & senseless mind

idols, the workmanship of our own hands,

and images & figures of dead men.

God is one; & He Himself does not, as some suppose, exist outside the world, but in it, He being wholly present in the whole circle, & beholding all generations; being the regulating Ingredient of all the ages, & the Administrator of His own powers & works, the first Principle of all things, the Light of heaven, & Father of all, the Intelligence & animating Soul of the universe, the Movement of all orbits.

In my opinion, then, we must first define what That is Which exists eternally, & has no generation, & what that is which is always being generated, but never really is. The Former, indeed, Which is apprehended by reflection combined with reason, always exists in the same way; while the latter, on the other hand, is conjectured by opinion formed by the perception of the senses unaided by reason, since it never really is, but is coming into being & perishing.

Resurrection

There Tityus, large & long, in fetters bound,

o’erspread nine acres of infernal ground;

two ravenous vultures, furious for their food,

scream o’er the fiend, & riot in his blood,

incessant gore the liver in his breast,

th’ immortal liver grows, & gives th’ immortal feast.

For we saw, among other terrible sights, this also. When we were close to the mouth [of the pit], & were about to return to the upper air, & had suffered everything else, we suddenly beheld both [Ardiæus] & others likewise, most of whom were tyrants. But there were also some private sinners who had committed great crimes. And these, when they thought they were to ascend, the mouth would not permit, but bellowed when any of those who were so incurably wicked attempted to ascend, unless they had paid the full penalty. Then fierce men, fiery to look at, stood close by, & hearing the din, took some & led them away; but Ardiæus & the rest, having bound hand & foot, & striking their heads down, & flaying, they dragged to the road outside, tearing them with thorns, & signifying to those who were present the cause of their suffering these things, & that they were leading them away to cast them into Tartarus. Hence, he said, that amidst all their various fears, this one was the greatest, lest the mouth should bellow when they ascended, since if it were silent each one would most gladly ascend; & that the punishments & torments were such as these, & that, on the other hand, the rewards were the reverse of these

Genesis

There he described the earth, the heaven, the sea,

the sun that rests not, & the moon full-orb’d;

there also, all the stars which round about,

as with a radiant frontlet, bind the skies.

Time, accordingly, was created along with the heavens; in order that, coming into being together, they might also be together dissolved, if ever their dissolution should take place.

Towel of Babel

Proud of their strength, & more than mortal size,

the gods they challenge, & affect the skies.

Heav’d on Olympus tottering Ossa stood;

on Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood.

My Opinions

Now I reckon, following this, that Pythagoras heard of the ten commandments given by Moses, whence deriving the tetractys, & again heard the prophecy Joseph gave to his son Juda, whence directing all his prayer towards the sun, as the abode of the lion zodiac.

Further I reckon that Plato heard what Moses revealed about the beginning of the world—how the first man & woman were wedded, how the first man called the first woman bone of his bone, &, being wedded, said they are now one body—thence fabricating the fable of soul-mates. And he heard of the appearence of the One on Sinai, & Moses’ overpoweringly radiant face, & called the Good the noëtic Sun.

About the others, I reckon Thales heard Moses, & so said the world was created out of water. I reckon Heraclitus heard Moses say that God created by His Word, & so conceived his teaching of logós. I reckon Hesiod—or at any rate some Assyrian he might have learned from—heard Moses, & so fabricated his myths Chaos & Nyx, of the division of Ge from Uranus, &c.

Lastly, it seems to me the Orphic mysteries—into which Plato & the others were initiated—were derived from, although in an abombinable form, Jospeh’s prophecy about Juda, whence they called Bacchus Sabazius, after the sabbath.

About the later Greeks: I reckon Plotinus heard of the Most Holy Trinity, &, being uninitiated into the Christian mysteries, conceived his three hypostases of the world, & I reckon he also heard of Christian deification, & fabricated a surrogate hénōsis. I reckon Proclus heard of the Christian notion of hypostasis, as in regards to the unity of our God, & fabricated a surrogate doctrine of idiote for his gods—but without understanding, since there is no causal unity among them.

References

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