Chapter XXXI.—Further proof of Plato’s acquaintance with Scripture.
For from what other source, if not from his reading the writings of the prophets, could
Plato have derived the information he gives us, that Jupiter drives a winged chariot in
heaven? For he knew this from the following expressions of the prophet about the cherubim:
“And the glory of the Lord went out from the house and rested on the cherubim; and the
cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the Lord God of
Israel was over them above.”818 And borrowing this idea, the magniloquent Plato shouts
aloud with vast assurance, “The great Jove, indeed, driving his winged chariot in heaven.”
For from what other source, if not from Moses and the prophets, did he learn this and so
write? And whence did he receive the suggestion of his saying that God exists in a fiery
substance? Was it not from the third book of the history of the Kings, where it is written,
“The Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in
the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after
the fire a still small voice?”819 But these things pious men must understand in a higher sense
with profound and meditative insight. But Plato, not attending to the words with the suitable
insight, said that God exists in a fiery substance.
818 Ezek. xi. 22.
819 1 Kings xix. 11, 12.
Chapter XXXI.—Further proof of Plato’s acquaintance with Scripture.
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Chapter XXXI.—Further proof of Plato’s acquaintance with Scripture.