Did Moses Plagiarize from Plato? BYP Live Sunday, Jan 7

[Philo Sofee]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=989NZL04uQs

Benny Hinrichs is my guest and we are talking about the Greek influence on the Bible. It's going to be great! Looking forward to seeing you all there.

[huckelberry]

influence spreads wide. Plagiarize, what a odd word to choose.

[honorentheos]

huckleberry, I suggest reading about Philo of Alexandria.

[Imwashingmypirate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=989NZL04uQs

Benny Hinrichs is my guest and we are talking about the Greek influence on the Bible. It's going to be great! Looking forward to seeing you all there.

I doubt I'll be awake in 80 mins. Sounds interesting.

My son likes chess. He asked for fairie chess for Christmas which we managed to get for him but I have no idea how to play. For some reason the instructions don't say where to put the pieces. Only where to put the value of the pieces. So I need to get watching some videos and work it out. He's an interesting kid. He asked for microbit as well, so tonight we've been doing tutorials on that. It's overwhelming. You'd think with his parents having physics degrees we wouldn't have to be learning it with him

Edit: I managed to watch some. I don't think the stories are literal. I think they are symbolic and it stands to reason that stories would be similar if it is symbolic rather than literal.

[huckelberry]

huckleberry, I suggest reading about Philo of Alexandria.

Known for interpreting Jewish scripture and thought using a good deal of Greek philosophy. To say he learned from the Greeks is not very similar to saying Moses learned from the Greeks. I am not sure what you are aiming at honorentheos. I am no expert on Philo and he produced a bunch of things so there is plenty I do not know about him. I have a vague memory that early common era there were some people who claimed Plato learned from Moses, a far fetched notion I think, but I am not remembering if Philo thought that.

[huckelberry]

influence spreads wide. Plagiarize, what a odd word to choose.

Well, I listened to a good portion of this discussion. It is too long for me to do at one time. I noticed that off the bat Kerry notes plagiarize was word use as click bait. Ok.

I can find some interest in seeing how biblical stories have parallels elsewhere. I think there is a degree of shared culture in the region going back thousands of years. Usually the flood story is seen has having earlier Mesopotamian sources. It can also be seen that the idea can crop up widely. There are human themes that are very widespread. I think it would be difficult to trace which paths of influence were most important when any two similarities in a story could have had quite a variety of possible sources.

[Kishkumen]

I thought the claim was that Plato borrowed from Moses. Of course Philo’s Moses looks like a good Platonist because Philo was one.

[Chap]

I thought the claim was that Plato borrowed from Moses....

I really hope it was. The question as posed in the thread title would involve a (probably mythical) person living in the late second millennium BC inventing a time machine to travel forwards a thousand years to Athens in the time of Plato, learning Greek, jotting down a lot of stuff, and then nipping back to enlighten the early Hebrews.

[huckelberry]

I thought the claim was that Plato borrowed from Moses....

I really hope it was. The question as posed in the thread title would involve a (probably mythical) person living in the late second millennium BC inventing a time machine to travel forwards a thousand years to Athens in the time of Plato, learning Greek, jotting down a lot of stuff, and then nipping back to enlighten the early Hebrews.

Chap, yes the title of the tread is rather goofy. The actual presentation is about story similarities between Old Testament material presumed formed post Babylonian captivity and various Greek stories. I am more inclined to think popular thematic tropes but direct influence is not impossible as far as I know.

[Kishkumen]

Well? THAT IS a worthwhile topic, since the post-exilic Hebrew Bible came to be in a world in which the Greeks were very influential.