Socrates
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Bahá'u'lláh, Socrates, bahai-library.com.
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Socrates

Bahá'u'lláh

Abdu'l-Bahá

Shoghi Effendi

Universal House of Justice

Universal House of Justice, Research Department

, compiler

n.d.

From the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh

Verily, the philosophers have
not denied the Ancient of Days. Most of them passed away deploring
their failure to fathom His mystery, even as some of them have testified.
Verily, thy Lord is the Adviser, the All-Informed.

Consider Hippocrates, the physician.
He was one of the eminent philosophers who believed in God and acknowledged
His sovereignty. After him came Socrates who was indeed, wise, accomplished
and righteous. He practised self-denial, repressed his appetites
for selfish desires and turned away from material pleasures. He withdrew
to the mountains where he dwelt in a cave. He dissuaded men from
worshipping idols and taught them the way of God, the Lord of Mercy, until
the ignorant rose up against him. They arrested him and put him to
death in prison. Thus relateth to thee this swift-moving Pen.
What a penetrating vision into philosophy this eminent man had! He
is the most distinguished of all philosophers and was highly versed in
wisdom. We testify that he is one of the heroes in this field and
an outstanding champion dedicated unto it. He had a profound knowledge
of such sciences as were current amongst men as well as of those which
were veiled from their minds. Methinks he drank one draught when
the Most Great Ocean overflowed with gleaming and life-giving waters.
He it is who perceived a unique, a tempered, and a pervasive nature in
things, bearing the closest likeness to the human spirit, and he discovered
this nature to be distinct from the substance of things in their refined
form. He hath a special pronouncement on this weighty theme.
Wert thou to ask from the worldly wise of this generation about this exposition,
thou wouldst witness their incapacity to grasp it. Verily, thy Lord
speaketh the truth but most people comprehend not.

After Socrates came the divine Plato who was
a pupil of the former and occupied the chair of philosophy as his successor.
He acknowledged his belief in God and in His signs which pervade all that
hath been and shall be. Then came Aristotle, the well-known man of
knowledge. He it is who discovered the power of gaseous matter.
These men who stand out as leaders of the people and are pre-eminent among
them, one and all acknowledged their belief in the immortal Being Who holdeth
in His grasp the reins of all sciences.

I will also mention for thee the invocation
voiced by Balinus who was familiar with the theories put forward by the
Father of Philosophy regarding the mysteries of creation as given in his
chrysolite tablets, that everyone may be fully assured of the things We
have elucidated for thee in this manifest Tablet, which, if pressed with
the hand of fairness and knowledge, will yield the spirit of life for the
quickening of all created things. Great is the blessedness of him
who swimmeth in this ocean and celebrateth the praise of his Lord, the
Gracious, the Best-Beloved. Indeed the breezes of divine

revelation are diffused from the verses of thy Lord in such wise that
no one can dispute its truth, except those who are bereft of hearing, of
vision, of understanding and of every human faculty. Verily thy Lord
beareth witness unto this, yet the people understand not.

(From Law
h
-i-
H
ikmat,
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas
(Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1988), pp.
146
-
47
)
[1]

From the Tablets and Utterances of `Abdu'l-Bahá

As to what thou didst
ask regarding the history of the philosophers: history, prior to Alexander
of Greece, is extremely confused, for it is a fact that only after Alexander
did history become an orderly and systematized discipline. One cannot,
for this reason, rely upon traditions and reported historical events that
have come down from before the days of Alexander. This is a matter thoroughly
established, in the view of all authoritative historians. How many
a historical account was taken as fact in the eighteenth century, yet the
opposite was proved true in the nineteenth. No reliance, then, can
be placed upon the traditions and reports of historians which antedate
Alexander, not even with regard to ascertaining the lifetimes of leading
individuals.

Wherefore ye should not be surprised that the
Tablet of Wisdom is in conflict with the historical accounts. It
behoveth one to reflect a while on the great diversity of opinion among
the historians, and their contradictory accounts; for the historians of
East and West are much at odds, and the Tablet of Wisdom was written in
accordance with certain histories of the East.

Furthermore, the Torah, held to be the most
ancient of histories, existeth today in three separate versions:
the Hebrew, considered authentic by the Jews and the Protestant clergy;
the Greek Septuagint, which is used as authoritative in the Greek and other
Eastern churches; and the Samaritan Torah, the standard authority for that
people. These three versions differ greatly, one from another, even
with regard to the lifetimes of the most celebrated figures.

In the Hebrew Torah, it is recorded that from
Noah's flood until the birth of Abraham there was an interval of two hundred
and ninety-two years. In the Greek, that time-span is given as one
thousand and seventy-two years, while in the Samaritan, the recorded span
is nine hundred and forty-two years. Refer to the commentary by Henry
Westcott,

1

for tables are supplied therein
which show the discrepancies among the three Torahs as to the birthdates
of a number of the descendants of Shem, and thou wilt see how greatly the
versions differ one from another.

Moreover, according to the text of the Hebrew
Torah, from the creation of Adam until Noah's flood the elapsed time is
recorded as one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, while in the
Greek Torah the interval is given as two thousand two hundred and sixty-two
years, and in the Samaritan text, the same period is said to have lasted
one thousand three hundred and seven years.

Reflect thou now over the discrepancies among
these three Torahs. The case is indeed surprising. The Jews
and Protestants belittle the Greek Torah, while to the Greeks, the Hebrew
version is spurious, and the Samaritans deny both the Hebrew and the Greek
versions.

Our purpose is to show that even in Scriptural
history, the most outstanding of all histories, there are contradictions
as to the time when the great ones lived, let alone as to dates related
to others. And furthermore, learned societies in Europe are continually
revising the existing records, both of East and West. In spite of
this, how can the confused accounts of peoples dating from before Alexander
be compared with the Holy Text of God? If any scholar expresses astonishment,
let him be surprised at the discrepancies in Scriptural history.

Nevertheless, Holy Writ is authoritative, and
with it no history of the world can compare, for experience hath shown
that after investigation of the facts and a thorough study of ancient records
and corroborative evidence, all have referred back to the Holy Scriptures.
The most important thing is to establish the validity of God's universal
Manifestation; once His claim proveth true, then whatsoever He may choose
to say is right and correct.

The histories prior to Alexander, which were
based on oral accounts current among the people, were put together later
on. There are great discrepancies among them, and certainly they
can never hold their own against Holy Writ. It is an accepted fact
among historians themselves that these histories were compiled after Alexander,
and that prior to his time history was transmitted by word of mouth.
Note how extremely confused was the history of Greece, so much so that
to this day there is no agreement on the dates related to the life of Homer,
Greece's far-famed poet. Some even maintain that Homer never existed
at all, and that the name is a fabrication.

(From a Tablet, translated from the Persian)

[2]

As to deistic philosophers,
such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, they are indeed worthy of esteem
and of the highest praise, for they have rendered distinguished services
to mankind....

Now concerning philosophers, they are of two
schools. Thus Socrates the wise believed in the unity of God and
the existence of the soul after death; as his opinion was contrary to that
of the narrow-minded people of his time, that divine sage was poisoned
by them.

(From a Tablet to Dr. A. H. Forel, published in
The Bahá'í
World: 1968-1973
(Haifa: Bahá'í World Centre,
1976), vol. XV, pp. 37, 40 [Ed. - online at p.
7
,
13
])
[3]

O thou handmaid of God!
It is recorded in eastern histories that Socrates journeyed to Palestine
and Syria and there, from men learned in the things of God, acquired certain
spiritual truths; that when he returned to Greece, he promulgated two beliefs:
one, the unity of God, and the other, the immortality of the soul after
its separation from the body; that these concepts, so foreign to their
thought, raised a great commotion among the Greeks, until in the end they
gave him poison and killed him.

And this is authentic; for the Greeks believed
in many gods, and Socrates established the fact that God is one, which
obviously was in conflict with Greek beliefs.

The Founder of monotheism was Abraham; it is
to Him that this concept can be traced, and the belief was current among
the Children of Israel, even in the days of Socrates.

The above, however, cannot be found in the
Jewish histories; there are many facts which are not included in Jewish
history. Not all the events of the life of Christ are set forth in
the history of Josephus, a Jew, although it was he who wrote the history
of the times of Christ. One may not, therefore, refuse to believe
in events of Christ's day on the grounds that they are not to be found
in the history of Josephus.

Eastern histories also state that Hippocrates
sojourned for a long time in the town of Tyre, and this is a city in Syria.

(
Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá
(Haifa:
Bahá'í World Centre, 1982), section
25
, p.
55
)
[4]

Moses established laws and ordinances; these gave
life to the people of Israel, and led them to the highest possible degree
of civilization at that period.

To such a development did they attain that
the philosophers of Greece would come and acquire knowledge from the learned
men of Israel. Such an one was Socrates, who visited Syria, and took
from the children of Israel the teachings of the Unity of God and of the
immortality of the soul. After his return to Greece, he promulgated
these teachings. Later the people of Greece rose in opposition to
him, accused him of impiety, arraigned him before the Areopagus, and condemned
him to death by poison.

(
Some Answered Questions
(Wilmette: Bahá'í
Publishing Trust, 1984), pp.
14
-
15
)
[5]

It is furthermore a matter
of record in numerous historical works that the philosophers of Greece
such as Pythagoras, acquired the major part of their philosophy, both divine
and material, from the disciples of Solomon. And Socrates after having
eagerly journeyed to meet with some of Israel's most illustrious scholars
and divines, on his return to Greece established the concept of the oneness
of God and the continuing life of the human soul after it has put off its
elemental dust. Ultimately, the ignorant among the Greeks denounced
this man who had fathomed the inmost mysteries of wisdom, and rose up to
take his life; and then the populace forced the hand of their ruler, and
in council assembled they caused Socrates to drink from the poisoned cup.

(
The Secret of Divine Civilization
(Wilmette:
Bahá'í Publishing Trust, 1990), p.
77
)
[6]

The philosophers of Greece—such as Aristotle, Socrates,
Plato and others—were devoted to the investigation of both natural and
spiritual phenomena. In their schools of teaching they discoursed

upon the world of nature as well as the supernatural world. Today
the philosophy and logic of Aristotle are known throughout the world.

(
The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered
by `Abd
'
ul-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and
Canada in 1912
rev. ed. (Wilmette: Bahá'í Publishing
Trust, 1982), p.
327
)
[7]

In the splendor of the reign of Solomon their sciences
and arts advanced to such a degree that even the Greek philosophers journeyed
to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of the Hebrew sages and acquire the basis
of Israelitish law. According to eastern history this is an established
fact. Even Socrates visited the Jewish doctors in the Holy Land,
consorting with them and discussing the principles and basis of their religious
belief. After his return to Greece he formulated his philosophical
teaching of divine unity and advanced his belief in the immortality of
the spirit beyond the dissolution of the body. Without doubt, Socrates
absorbed these verities from the wise men of the Jews with whom he came
in contact. Hippocrates and other philosophers of the Greeks likewise
visited Palestine and acquired wisdom from the Jewish prophets, studying
the basis of ethics and morality, returning to their country with contributions
which have made Greece famous.

(
The Promulgation of Universal Peace
, pp.
362
-
63
)
[8]

Even the celebrated philosophers of Greece journeyed
to Jerusalem in order to study with the Israelitish sages, and many were
the lessons of philosophy and wisdom they received. Among these philosophers
was the famous Socrates. He visited the Holy Land and studied with
the prophets of Israel, acquiring principles of their philosophical teaching
and a knowledge of their advanced arts and sciences. After his return
to Greece he founded the system known as the unity of God. The Greek
people rose against him, and at last he was poisoned in the presence of
the king. Hippocrates and many other Greek philosophers sat at the
feet of the learned Israelitish doctors and absorbed their expositions
of wisdom and inner truth.

(
The Promulgation of Universal Peace
, p.
406
)
[9]

From Letters Written on Behalf of Shoghi Effendi

It was eventually through Arabs that civilization
was introduced to the West. It was through them that the philosophy,
science and culture which the old Greeks had developed found their way
to Europe. The Arabs were the ablest translators and linguists of their
age, and it is thanks to them that the writings of such well-known thinkers
as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were made available to the Westerners.

2

(27 April 1936 to an individual believer)
[10]

`Abdu'l-Bahá stated
that Socrates visited the Jewish doctors and imbibed the wisdom of the
Hebrew Prophets. At present in the library here we have no books
substantiating this statement. However as we know that the Master
asserted its truth, no doubt historical evidence will be forthcoming in
the future to support it.

3

(19 April 1941 to an individual believer)
[11]

The Master said that Socrates—the
Prince of the Grecian philosophers—received inspiration and instruction
from the Hebrew Prophets; so we cannot say that Greece was devoid of contact
with any Prophetic Source.

4

(5 April 1945 to an individual believer)
[12]

We must not take many of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
statements as dogmatic finalities, for there are other points which when
added to them round out the picture. For instance, when He calls
Aristotle and Plato Philosophers of the East, He is obviously placing them
in that category because He believes they belong more correctly to Eastern
culture than to Central European and the New World cultures of the West.
When He calls the philosophers of the West materialistic this does not
for a moment mean He includes
all
Western philosophers for, as you
truly point out, many of them have been very spiritual in their concepts....

Historians cannot be
sure Socrates did not visit the Holy Land. But believing as we do
that `Abdu'l-Bahá had an intuitive knowledge quite different from
our own, we accept His authority on this matter.

5

(7 June 1946 to an individual)
[13]

2nd. We have no historical proof of the truth of
the Master's statement regarding the Greek philosophers visiting
the Holy Land etc., but such proof may come to light through research in
the future.

3rd. We must not take this statement too literally; "contemporary" may
have been meant in Persian as something far more elastic than the
English word. Likewise, the whole translation probably needs revising.

6

(15 February 1947 to an individual believer)
[14]

From Letters Written on Behalf of the Universal House of Justice

There are, indeed, a

number
of things that Bahá'u'lláh says in the Law
h
-i-
H
ikmat
which differ from the current concepts of western historians. Yet it is
surely significant that in this very Tablet He states:

Thou knowest full well that We perused
not the books which men possess and We acquired not the learning current
amongst them, and yet whenever We desire to quote the sayings of the learned
and of the wise, presently there will appear before the face of thy Lord
in the form of a tablet all that which hath appeared in the world and is
revealed in the Holy Books and Scriptures. Thus do We set down in
writing that which the eye perceiveth. Verily His knowledge encompasseth
the earth and the heavens.

When asked about the statements in the Law
h
-i-
H
ikmat,
`Abdu'l-Bahá wrote, in a Tablet addressed to Miss Ethel Rosenberg,
that the histories of the times before Alexander the Great are very confused,
and that the Words of Bahá'u'lláh are the standard.
He adds that the statements made in the
Tablet of Wisdom
are in
accordance with certain of the historical records of the East.

(10 September 1978 from the Universal House of Justice to an
individual believer)
[15]

The Universal House of
Justice has received your letter of 20 October 1987 and has directed us
to convey the following in response to your question about Empedocles and
Pythagoras referred to in the Law
h
-i-
H
ikmat.

In a Tablet written in response to questions
raised about this Tablet, `Abdu'l-Bahá clarifies the perspective
toward statements made by Bahá'u'lláh in the Law
h
-i-
H
ikmat
which differ from the current concepts of western historians. The
Master states that histories of the times before Alexander the Great are
very confused and that when the subject came under scholarly discipline
in later times the greatest difficulty was, and still is, experienced in
giving dates with any certainty. He further points out that the Words
of Bahá'u'lláh are the standard and that the statements
made in the Tablet of Wisdom are in accordance with certain of the historical
records of the East.

In reference to the specific passage in the
Law
h
-i-
H
ikmat regarding Empedocles and Pythagoras being contemporaries
of David and Solomon, the following is an excerpt from a letter written
on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer who enquired about
this passage:

We must not take this statement too
literally; "contemporary" may have been meant in Persian as something far
more elastic than the English word.

(15 February 1947)

It is noteworthy that at both the beginning and
end of this section of the Tablet, Bahá'u'lláh indicates
that He is quoting "some accounts of the sages". These would have
been the historical accounts familiar to the person whom He is addressing
in the Tablet. The fact that Bahá'u'lláh makes
such statements for the sake of illustrating the spiritual principles that
He wishes to convey, does not
necessarily
mean that He is endorsing
their historical accuracy. In this connection it is interesting to
note the answer given by the beloved Guardian's secretary on his behalf
to a question about the "fourth heaven" mentioned in the Kitáb-i-Íqán [B.Z. - see pp.
89
,
133
].
The translation of the passage is as follows:

As to the ascent of Christ to the
"fourth heaven" as revealed in the glorious Book of Íqán,
he [the Guardian] stated that the "fourth heaven" is a term used and a
belief held by the early astronomers. The followers of the
Sh
i'ah
sect likewise held this belief. As the Kitáb-i-Íqán
was revealed for the guidance of that sect, this term was used in conformity
with the concepts of its followers.

(3 November 1987, written on behalf of the Universal House
of Justice to an individual believer)
[16]

Notes:

1
. The English equivalent of this name written
in Persian by `Abdu'l-Bahá is not certain. [B.Z. - Possibly, Brooke Foss Westcott, the 19th century textual critic?]

2
. The question addressed to Shoghi Effendi
concerned the factors that contributed to the efflorescence of European
culture during the Renaissance.

3
. The questioner referred to `Abdu'l-Bahá's
statement in extract
[8]
, and states that he understood
the Master told a pilgrim that eastern historians had recorded the visit
of Socrates. He asks which writers mention this point.

4
. The answer was provided in response to
a question about what was the motive force of the great civilization of
Greece.

5
. The questioner cites several statements
from `Abdu'l-Bahá and takes issue with the Master's categorization
of western philosophers. He also challenges the assertion that Socrates
visited the Holy Land on the grounds that Socrates was too poor to travel
and that the travels were likely to have been undertaken by Plato, the
student of Socrates.

6
. The questioner enquires whether there is
evidence to support the statements of `Abdu'l-Bahá concerning Socrates'
visiting the Holy Land, and how the statement of Bahá'u'lláh
in the Tablet of Wisdom concerning Empedocles and Pythagoras being contemporaries
of David and Solomon is to be understood.

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-- Socrates (Used by permission of the curator)