Greek Philosophy—Did It Enrich Christianity?
“Christianity, though hostile to pagan Greek and Roman culture, in fact absorbed much classical philosophy.”—The Encyclopedia Americana.
AMONG those who had a definitive influence on “Christian” thought, “Saint” Augustine holds an undisputed position. According to The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Augustine’s “mind was the crucible in which the religion of the New Testament was most completely fused with the Platonic tradition of Greek philosophy; and it was also the means by which the product of this fusion was transmitted to the Christendoms of medieval Roman Catholicism and Renaissance Protestantism.”
Augustine’s legacy is indeed enduring. Speaking of the extent to which Greek philosophy has influenced Christendom, Douglas T. Holden stated: “Christian theology has become so fused with Greek philosophy that it has reared individuals who are a mixture of nine parts Greek thought to one part Christian thought.”
Some scholars strongly believe that such philosophical influence enhanced Christianity in its infancy, enriched its teaching, and made it more convincing. Was this the case? How and when did the influence of Greek philosophy take place? Did it, in fact, enrich or did it pollute Christianity?
It is enlightening to trace a number of developments from the third century B.C.E. to the fifth century C.E. through an examination of four strange terms: (1) “Hellenized Judaism,” (2) “Christianized Hellenism,” (3) “Hellenized Christianity,” and (4) “Christian philosophy.”
“Hellenized Judaism”
The first, “Hellenized Judaism,” is truly a contradiction. The original religion of the Hebrews, which was instituted by the true God, Jehovah, was not to be contaminated with false religious ideas. (Deuteronomy 12:32; Proverbs 30:5, 6) Right from the start, however, purity of worship came under threat of corruption by the false religious practices and thinking that surrounded it—such as the influence from Egyptian, Canaanite, and Babylonian sources. Sad to say, Israel allowed its true worship to become deeply corrupted.—Judges 2:11-13.
Centuries later, when ancient Palestine became part of the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.E., this corruption plumbed new depths and left behind a lasting and corrosive legacy. Alexander recruited Jews into his army. The contacts between the Jews and their new conqueror deeply influenced Jewish religious thinking. Judaistic education was penetrated by Hellenistic thought. High Priest Jason is reputed to have established a Greek academy in Jerusalem in 175 B.C.E. to promote the study of Homer.
Interestingly, a Samaritan, writing in the second half of the second century B.C.E., sought to present Bible history as Hellenized historiography. Apocryphal Jewish books, such as Judith and Tobit, actually allude to Greek erotic legends. A number of Jewish philosophers appeared who attempted to reconcile Greek thought with the Jewish religion and the Bible.
The figure that is most credited with this is Philo, a Jew of the first century C.E. He appropriated the doctrines of Plato (fourth century B.C.E.), the Pythagoreans, and the Stoics. Jews were profoundly influenced by Philo’s views. Summing up this intellectual infiltration of Greek thought into Jewish culture, Jewish author Max Dimont says: “Enriched with Platonic thought, Aristotelian logic, and Euclidian science, Jewish scholars approached the Torah with new tools. . . . They proceeded to add Greek reason to Jewish revelation.”
In time, the Romans absorbed the Greek Empire, taking over Jerusalem. This opened the way for even more significant changes. By the third century C.E., the philosophical and religious doctrines of thinkers who endeavored to develop and synthesize the ideas of Plato took their definitive form, known collectively today as Neoplatonism. This school of thought was bound to have a profound influence on apostate Christianity.
“Christianized Hellenism”
During the first five centuries of our common era, certain intellectuals sought to demonstrate a relationship between Greek philosophy and the revealed truth of the Bible. The book A History of Christianity states: “Christian metaphysicians were to portray the Greeks in the decades before Christ as struggling manfully but blindly towards a knowledge of God, trying, as it were, to conjure up Jesus out of the thin Athenian air, to invent Christianity out of their poor pagan heads.”
Plotinus (205-270 C.E.), a precursor of such thinkers, developed a system that was based chiefly on Plato’s theory of ideas. Plotinus introduced the concept of a soul separate from the body. Professor E. W. Hopkins said of Plotinus: “His theology . . . had no little influence upon the leaders of Christian opinion.”
“Hellenized Christianity” and “Christian Philosophy”
Starting in the second century C.E., “Christian” thinkers made a determined effort to reach the pagan intellectuals. Despite the apostle Paul’s clear warning against “the empty speeches that violate what is holy” and “the contradictions of the falsely called ‘knowledge,’” such teachers integrated in their teachings philosophical elements from the surrounding Hellenistic culture. (1 Timothy 6:20) The example of Philo seemed to suggest that it might be possible to reconcile the Bible with Platonic ideas.—Compare 2 Peter 1:16.
The real victim, of course, was Biblical truth. “Christian” teachers tried to show that Christianity was in harmony with Greco-Roman humanism. Clement of Alexandria and Origen (second and third centuries C.E.) made Neoplatonism the foundation of what came to be “Christian philosophy.” Ambrose (339-397 C.E.), bishop of Milan, had “absorbed the most up-to-date Greek learning, Christian and pagan alike—notably the works . . . of the pagan Neoplatonist Plotinus.” He tried to provide educated Latins with a classical version of Christianity. Augustine followed suit.
A century later, Dionysius the Areopagite (also styled pseudo-Dionysius), probably a Syrian monk, tried to unite Neoplatonic philosophy with “Christian” theology. According to one encyclopedia, his “writings established a definite Neoplatonic trend in a large segment of medieval Christian doctrine and spirituality . . . that has determined facets of its religious and devotional character to the present time.” What a flagrant flouting of the apostle Paul’s warning against “the philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men”!—Colossians 2:8.
Corrupting Pollutants
It has been noted that “the Christian Platonists gave primacy to revelation and regarded Platonic philosophy as the best available instrument for understanding and defending the teachings of Scripture and church tradition.”
Plato himself had been convinced that there exists an immortal soul. Significantly, one of the most prominent false teachings that crept into “Christian” theology is that of the immortality of the soul. Accepting this teaching can in no way be justified on the grounds that doing so made Christianity more appealing to the masses. When preaching in Athens, the very heart of Greek culture, the apostle Paul did not teach the Platonic doctrine of the soul. Rather, he preached the Christian doctrine of the resurrection, even though many of his Greek listeners found it hard to accept what he said.—Acts 17:22-32.
Contrary to Greek philosophy, the Scriptures clearly show that the soul is not what a person has but what he is. (Genesis 2:7) At death, the soul ceases to exist. (Ezekiel 18:4) Ecclesiastes 9:5 tells us: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten.” The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not taught in the Bible.
Another deceptive teaching had to do with the position of the prehuman Jesus, the notion that he was equal to his Father. Explains the book The Church of the First Three Centuries: “The doctrine of the Trinity . . . had its origin in a source entirely foreign from that of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures.” What was that source? The doctrine “grew up, and was ingrafted on Christianity, through the hands of the Platonizing Fathers.”
Indeed, as time went by and the Church Fathers became increasingly influenced by Neoplatonism, the Trinitarians gained ground. Third-century Neoplatonic philosophy seemingly enabled them to reconcile the irreconcilable—to make a threefold God appear like one God. By philosophical reasoning they claimed that three persons could be one God while retaining their individuality!
The truth of the Bible, however, clearly shows that Jehovah alone is Almighty God, Jesus Christ is His lesser created Son, and the holy spirit is His active force. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 45:5; Acts 2:4; Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14) The Trinity doctrine dishonors the only true God and confuses people, turning them away from a God they cannot comprehend.
One more victim of the Neoplatonic influence on Christian thinking was the Scripture-based millennial hope. (Revelation 20:4-6) Origen was noted for his condemnation of millennialists. Why was he so opposed to this well-founded Biblical doctrine of Christ’s rule of one thousand years? The Catholic Encyclopedia answers: “In view of the Neo-Platonism on which his doctrines were founded . . . , [Origen] could not side with the millenarians.”
The Truth
None of the above-mentioned developments had anything to do with the truth. This truth is the entire body of Christian teachings as found in the Bible. (2 Corinthians 4:2; Titus 1:1, 14; 2 John 1-4) The Bible is the one and only source of truth.—John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:16.
However, the enemy of Jehovah, of truth, of humankind, and of everlasting life—Satan the Devil, the “manslayer” and the “father of the lie”—has used a variety of devious ways to adulterate that truth. (John 8:44; compare 2 Corinthians 11:3.) Among the most powerful tools he has used are the teachings of pagan Greek philosophers—actually a reflection of his own thinking—in an effort to alter the content and nature of Christian teachings.
This unnatural blending of Christian teaching with Greek philosophy is an attempt to dilute Bible truth, diminishing its strength and appeal to the meek, sincere, and teachable truth seekers. (1 Corinthians 3:1, 2, 19, 20) It also tends to defile the purity of crystal-clear Biblical doctrine, making the line between truth and falsehood appear fuzzy.
Today, under the direction of the Head of the congregation, Jesus Christ, true Christian teaching has been restored. Also, sincere seekers of truth can very easily identify the true Christian congregation by its fruits. (Matthew 7:16, 20) Jehovah’s Witnesses are willing and eager to help such ones find the unadulterated waters of truth and to assist them to get a firm hold on the inheritance of everlasting life offered by our Father, Jehovah.—John 4:14; 1 Timothy 6:19.
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Augustine
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Greek text: From the book Ancient Greek Writers: Plato’s Phaedo, 1957, Ioannis N. Zacharopoulos, Athens; Plato: Musei Capitolini, Roma