Socrates and Jesus

Both Socrates and Jesus were teachers who gave answers to a question with another question. They both used paradoxical riddles to reveal deep truths. They both didn’t write anything with their own pen. They were both, obviously, very significant to the development of Western Culture. They were both executed by the authorities for subverting the power structure. The following quotes are from Socrates but sound like they are from Jesus

“When a man is well, there is no need of a physician.”

“A man may be expected to love those whom he thinks good, and to hate those whom he thinks evil.”

“The true physician is the healer of the sick, not the maker of money.”

“The criminal is the happiest of men.”

“Everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.”

“It is just to do good to our friends when they are good and harm to our enemies when they are evil? But ought the just to injure anyone at all?”

Alexander the Great’s conquests brought Greek culture and thought from Macedonia in the north, down to Egypt in the south, all the way east to what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan in 323 BC. This was after the Old Testament, and before the New. The extent to which the New Testament is Greek is very understated. Jesus’ parents fled Israel for Egypt during the time of Herod, His earliest years then were in Egypt, but an Egypt controlled by Rome and composed of a Greek culture- in fact, he may have fled to Alexandria, itself a Greek city, founded by Alexander. So it is a logical conclusion that Jesus was influenced when he was young by the study of Socrates