Plato and the prophets?

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Beyond “Athens and Jerusalem”: Integrating Classical Philosophy into the Comparative Study of the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East

October 2025・Harvard Theological Review 118(3):381-406
DOI:10.1017/S0017816025100850
License・CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Authors Ethan Schwartz

Abstract

Biblical studies is currently seeing resurgent interest in comparing the Hebrew Bible and ancient Greek literature. However, classical philosophy has been underrepresented in this work. This article argues that this underrepresentation stems from historical-critical scholars’ suspicion of “Athens and Jerusalem,” the essentialization of classical philosophy and the Hebrew Bible as, respectively, “reason” and “revelation”—the “twin pillars of Western civilization.” Such essentialism violates the historical-critical principle of cultural continuity. Wariness of it is therefore justified. However, avoiding classical philosophy only exacerbates the problem. If Greek literature is a legitimate historical-critical comparandum for the Hebrew Bible, then classical philosophy should be as well. Through case studies in the biblical prophets and Plato, this article shows how this comparison may contribute on two levels: first-order comparison, in which classical philosophy provides new data for understanding the Hebrew Bible in its ancient context; and second-order comparison, in which scholarship on classical philosophy raises metacritical questions about biblical studies itself.

HT Rogue Classicism. This article is open access.

It happens that I have been re-reading Plato's and Xenophon's Socratic dialogues lately. I agree that they have potential for illuminating aspect of biblical studies (Hebrew Bible and New Testament). There has been some comparative work in recent years, but, perhaps surprisingly, there's more to be done.

By the way, yes, I said Xenophon's Socratic dialogues. The Greek general Xenephon is best known for his Anabasis, the account of his leading thousands Greek mercenaries back from Persia to Greece after their failed attempt to put Cyrus the Younger on the Persian throne.

But did you know that Xenophon was also a disciple of Socrates and he too published Socratic dialogues? They present a somewhat different Socrates than Plato's. It's surprising how many people don't know this.

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