Abstract
The article examines the perception of atheism in Plato’s Apology of Socrates (4th century BC) in comparison to the book of Sapientia Salomonis (about 1st century BC or 1st century AD) from a cultural critical perspective. Special attention is paid to linguistic, ideological and theological aspects referring to the righteous and the godless in the face of God.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The perception of atheism in Plato’s Apology of Socrates in comparison to the book of Sapientia Salomonis is examined from the fields of Cultural Studies, Linguistics, Philosophy and Theology.
Highlights
In 399 BC, three enemies of the wise and righteous Socrates accused him of corrupting the youth and of godlessness and demanded the death penalty for him
From what has been said so far, the problem of atheism is approximated in both texts, the platonic Apology of Socrates and the book of Sapientia Salomonis, from the perspective of the righteous and the godless in the face of God
SapSal seems to be the Jewish answer to the unjust death of the wise and righteous Socrates, with special reference to the Jewish situation in the Hellenistic-Roman era
Summary
In 399 BC, three enemies of the wise and righteous Socrates accused him of corrupting the youth and of godlessness and demanded the death penalty for him. The platonic Apology exposes the following fallacies in this indictment, namely, the accusers of Socrates – based on a false analogy, falsely presenting it as self-evident – brought forth familiar motives that were at hand against all those who practised philosophy, namely, the celestial phenomena and the subterranean, the denial of the gods and the endeavour to make the weaker speech stronger He did not obey the seer and fear death, and he considered himself wise without being one (28e–29a). Unlike Socrates, who tested the others to lead them to the truth, the wisdom and the virtue, the godless pretends to test with the aim to exterminate the righteous physically and ethically: Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is a divine son, he will help him and will rescue him from the hand of those who oppose him. The ultimate explanation of moral and ethical corruption as well as physical and eternal death is expressed in SapSal 2:23f.: Because God created human beings for incorruption and made them the image of his own nature, but through the envy of the devil death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it
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