Comparative sketch between Socrates and Jesus Christ
Socrates was born 470 years before Jesus Christ.
In our times, four hundred and seventy years is too long, but in the ancient age, things happened so slowly that we may dare to point out that they belong to quite similar epochs.
When Socrates was born, Greece was in its heyday, its golden age. When Jesus Christ was born, Greece was already a mere colony conquered by the Roman Empire.
The “centre of the world” had shifted from Athens to Rome.
In addition, while Socrates was born in the great world metropolis of the time, Jesus Christ was born in the farthest periphery of the Roman Empire.
Another important difference is that Socrates died at the age of seventy, while Jesus Christ was born in the farthest periphery of the Roman Empire. Despite the above differences (and there may be more), we have found some striking similarities between these two great men who were born four and a half centuries apart and in places so distant from each other.
- Although they were both highly educated and considered wise by their contemporaries, they never wrote anything, not a single word.
It was others who wrote about them. In the case of Socrates it was Plato who wrote profusely, mostly in the form of dialogues about his life and Socratic thought.
In the case of Jesus Christ, it was the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is impossible to believe that they were illiterate, so not writing was in both of them a deliberate attitude that had to do with their way of thinking. In both cases we depend on the impression they made on others in order to know them and understand their messages. - Both were considered strange or enigmatic by their contemporaries and also by their closest followers. Socrates himself was considered a kind of wasp who annoyed others.
In the case of Jesus Christ, several passages in the gospels mention that the apostles did not understand things that Jesus Christ said or did. - Both used words to convey their message, Socrates went through streets and squares in Athens discussing and conversing with people, his method was to ask questions and feigning ignorance, then continue to cross-examine until the interlocutor fell into contradiction if he was not firm in his knowledge; hence the name of his method: “irony”.
Jesus Christ travelled through towns and cities, people gathered to hear him, often in large numbers as in the famous Sermon on the Mount. His preferred method of oral teaching was “The Parable”, which consists of giving an example or telling a story or tale that carries a teaching.
In spite of the different methodology in both cases, it is evident that both knew that the fundamental form of transmission of thought and knowledge in their time was oral, more than 99% of the population of those days was illiterate, they died without ever having seen a book. Both spoke with great firmness and determination, they fascinated or angered their listeners. And both spoke of something that was superior to themselves.
They were masters of the art of oratory and conversation. - Both were considered subverters of the established order. Socrates was accused of subverting the order and corrupting the youth. Jesus Christ was accused of considering himself a son of God. Both challenged the established powers, harshly criticised social injustice and abuses of power.
- Both were judged by unorthodox or common instances in their time and were condemned to death.
Socrates was condemned by a jury of 500 people which was not very common in those days. Jesus Christ had an impromptu trial where the mob shouted “crucify him”, before a stunned Roman governor (Pontius Pilate).
After condemning him to death, he washed his hands, to dissociate himself from the decision taken. - Both could have been saved if they had so wished. If Socrates had pleaded for mercy as his followers asked him to do, the jury would most likely have changed their decision.
He also had the opportunity to escape (his followers had organised an escape plan). Jesus Christ, however, kept silent and accepted the sentence of Pontius Pilate.
Both considered that they would betray their principles and their ideals if they were not able to go all the way, i.e. die for them.
And it was precisely because they accepted their death with dignity that thousands of followers continued their teachings after their death. - Neither of them married, nor had a wife of his acquaintance. And neither left any descendants. Although in his time being unmarried or childless was frowned upon.
In the original post the seventh point was published. In this regard Juan Carlos Ambrasath, makes us a correction regarding the seventh point and reviewing more, indeed Plato in the “Apology of Socrates”, which is a version of the defense speech before the Athenian court, in the trial where he was accused of corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods, Socrates concludes the Apology by saying that he will bear no grudge against those who have accused and condemned him, and in an act of complete trust he asks them to look after his three sons as they grow up, making sure that they put good before self-interest.
It is assumed that Socrates’ wife, Jantipa, was a much younger woman than him, very irascible and short-tempered. Jantipa was Socrates’ wife and the mother of his three sons Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus, although evil and vituperative tongues claimed that only Lamprocles was his son and the other two descended from another mother.
References to the family and descent of Socrates are given by Plato and Xenophantus.
In reality, little of this is verifiable, as there are even those who claim that Socrates did not exist and that he is a Plato character.
The same controversy is generated with Jesus and his relationship with Mary Magdalene.
Although they were such different characters, it is interesting the similarities found in these two great men who have influenced so much of our Western thought up to the present day.
Don’t you think so?
