Hortatory Address to the Greeks
Chapter 25: Plato's Understanding of God's Eternity
How, then, does Plato blame Homer for saying that the gods can change their minds, although, as is clear from the context, Homer said this for a practical reason? It is natural for those who hope to gain mercy through prayer and sacrifices to stop and repent of their sins. Those who believe that the Deity cannot change are not motivated to give up their sins, as they assume they will gain nothing from repentance. How, then, does Plato the philosopher criticize the poet Homer for saying, “Even the gods themselves can change,” yet himself describe the creator of the gods as so easily swayed that he sometimes claims the gods are mortal and at other times claims they are immortal? And this inconsistency applies not only to the gods but also to matter, from which, he says, the created gods have been made; he sometimes states it is uncreated and at other times that it is created. Yet, he does not recognize that he, by saying the maker of the gods can be easily swayed, has made the very mistakes he criticizes Homer for, though Homer said the very opposite about the maker of the gods. Homer asserted that he spoke thus of himself: “For my promise shall never deceive, fail, or be withdrawn if confirmed by a nod.”
But it seems that Plato reluctantly engaged in these strange discussions about the gods because he feared those who were devoted to polytheism. Whatever he considered worth telling about what he had learned from Moses and the prophets regarding one God, he preferred to express in a mystical manner. In this way, those who wanted to worship God might catch a hint of his own views. He was captivated by what God said to Moses, “I am the really existing,” and carefully considered the concise expression, realizing that God meant to convey His eternity to Moses.
Therefore, He said, “I am the really existing,” as this term “existing” refers to the past, present, and future. When Plato uses the phrase “and which never really is,” he uses the verb “is” to indicate an indefinite time. The word “never” is related, not to the past as some think, but to the future. Even secular writers have accurately understood this. So, when Plato aimed to explain to the uninitiated the mystical expression about the eternity of God, he said: “God indeed, as the old tradition states, includes the beginning, end, and middle of all things.” Here, he clearly and openly refers to the law of Moses as “the old tradition,” out of fear of the hemlock-cup, avoiding directly naming Moses.
He understood that the teaching of Moses was disliked by the Greeks and implies Moses by indicating the ancient nature of the tradition. We have sufficiently demonstrated with evidence from Diodorus and other historians in previous chapters that the law of Moses is not only ancient but even the first. Diodorus states that Moses was the first of all lawgivers, and the letters used by the Greeks to write their histories had not yet been discovered.