Could we consider men like Plato and Aristotle prophets of Christianity? When we take into account the amount of theology in Catholic tradition derived from their thinking, it seems as though they were messengers of the divine will (in an indirect way). What do you think was so attractive about their philosophies to the early Church Fathers? Was it because Platonism is veritable or because the Fathers just happened to be of a Greek ideological heritage?
No, they can’t be considered as such. Yes, they spoke of ideas that Christians would incorporate later on (though certain ante-Nicene Christians were adamantly opposed to this practice), but the situation is a bit more complex than most know.
The Jews first encountered Hellenistic thought during the third to second century BC. This is when Jewish thinkers began attaching the omni- attributes (omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence) to Yahweh, which they’d appropriated from the Greek philosophers–the same philosophers Christians would retroactively consider almost as “prophets.” This was
also the beginning of “mystical” Judaism.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
I don’t mean to step on toes here, but nowhere in Judaism prior to the third century BC is Yahweh considered “omni” anything. The Old Testament is all about animal sacrifices and appeasing a deity who deals in very harsh, worldly terms with his people. In fact, Judaism resembled all the other nationalistic religions in the Ancient Near East at this time. Many nations had their own “supreme” deity, they all had temples with animal sacrifices, their own prophets, and so on.
By the first century BC, the “mystical” thread in Judaism had become prominent. Messianic belief had evolved from a figure who would deliver the nation of Israel from its worldly oppressors to that of a spiritual teacher who’d restore the “spiritual purity” of the Jewish nation. Between 100 BC and 200 AD, many men claimed to be the messiah. Many had followers, and some of them were even alleged to be miracle workers.
