While I am personally quite open to such considerations, I believe that we can never take this for granted and in any case it is not a sufficient basis for possible hypotheses.A certain Warren Smith brings my attention to this quote in Plato’s Theaetetus:
“In the name of the Graces, what an almighty wise man Protagoras must have been! He spoke these things in a parable to the common herd, like you and me, but told the truth, his Truth, in secret to his own disciples.”
Mark 4:10-12 of course reads:
“When he (Jesus) was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'”
Does it seem likely therefore that the author of Mark was influenced by the Greek philosophical tradition on this point?
Mark 4:10-12 contains imho an allusion to Daniel 2 (especially Daniel 2:19 and 2:44) and also quotes Isaiah 6:9. Mark 4:10-12 refers to these texts and wants to point the reader to these texts, while a possible influence of Plato's Theaetetus cannot be sufficiently justified.
So even if Mark was influenced by Plato on this point, he does not admit it and the flag he is setting is the Hebrew Bible.
Statistics: Posted by Kunigunde Kreuzerin — Thu Jan 16, 2025 12:03 pm