Broad Street, Oxford.
Your correspondent MR. GILL (Vol. v., p. 175.) suggests an inquiry as to
the probable extent to which St. Paul was acquainted with the writings
of Aristotle. His letter reminds me of a similar question of still
greater interest, which has often occurred to me, and to which I should
like to call your readers' attention, "Whether St. Paul had read Plato?"
I think no one who studies the 15th of the First Epistle to the
Corinthians--that sublime chapter in which the Apostle sets forth the
doctrine of the Resurrection--and who is also familiar with the _Phædo_,
can fail to be struck with a remarkable similarity in one portion of the
argument. I allude especially to the 36th verse of the chapter, and
those immediately following, "That which thou sowest is not quickened
except it die," &c. The reasoning, as almost every Christian knows, is
based on analogy, and tends to show that, as in the vegetable world life
springs from death, the seed dies, but out of it comes the perfect
plant; so the dissolution of our present body is only a necessary step
to the more glorified and complete development of our nature. In the
_Phædo_, sect. 16., Socrates is represented as employing the same
argument in defence of his doctrine of the immortality of the soul. In
the course of his discussion with Kebes and Simmius on this subject, a
consideration of the phenomena of animal and vegetable life leads him to
assert the general conclusion, "ἐκ τῶν τεθνεώτων, τὰ ζῶντά τε καὶ οἱ
ζῶντες γίγνονται," and he then proceeds to demonstrate the
probability that in like manner the soul will not only survive the body,
but reach a higher and purer condition after its death. Wetstein, whose
abundant classical illustrations of the sacred text are alluded to by
your correspondent, refers to little else than verbal parallelisms in
his notes on this chapter, and does not quote Plato at all; nor do I
remember seeing any edition of the Greek Testament in which the
coincidence is pointed out. Perhaps some of your correspondents can
elucidate this subject; it is one of great interest, and when pursued in
the reverent and religious spirit indicated by MR. GILL, can hardly fail
to prove a source of profitable investigation.