Plato, Aristotle, and the Jews

[sw85]

Historical question here. To what extent were Plato and Aristotle aware of Judaism? Did they have personal knowledge of it? Are they referenced in any of the writings attributed to them? Any potential influence, going in either direction?

 

[Theophorus]

I don’t know if there was any direct relationship between them but the later wisdom books of the OT were infulenced by the hellenistic philosophy of alexandria.

 

[catholictiger]

Historical question here. To what extent were Plato and Aristotle aware of Judaism? Did they have personal knowledge of it? Are they referenced in any of the writings attributed to them? Any potential influence, going in either direction?

from my reading of their writings they don’t talk much about the Jews and they really focus on their own pagan religions in their discussion when they talk. I’m sure they heard about them, but didn’t know much about them.

BTW if you read these two guys its amazing that even though they lived in a polytheistic culture how they come to conclusion that there must be one supreme being. So even if they didn’t know jews they certainly had a lot of the same philosophical views as the jews.