Monday, July 7, 2014

Could the Parallels in Plato, Judaism and Christianity Date Back to their Mutual Reliance on Persian Religion?

Just a thought.  Celsus complains that Christians 'misrepresent Plato' when they connect the world of ideas to a super-celestial realm above that of the Demiurge.  That may well be true but what if Jews and Christians recognized that Plato was dependent on Iranian concepts for his 'realm of ideas'?  Would it really be tantamount to 'misrepresenting Plato' or better yet 'correcting errors' in his doctrine by determining where he strayed from his source?  An example.  The earliest Persian sources speak apparently of three heavens.  The Jews 'the heaven of heavens.'  The Christians, that of 'the third heaven' up to which the apostle ascended.  If, as I would suggest, this was identified by Philo and the early Christians with Plato's realm of ideas (proof to follow) then it would seem that Jews and Christians were only correcting Plato rather than misrepresenting him. 


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