Secret Codes in Plato
Re: Jewish Codes in Plato
In antiquity, {Jay Kennedy says} many of his followers said the books contained hidden layers of meaning and secret codes, but this was rejected by modern scholars.
What is the history of this theory, and its modern disfavoring?
John Benjamin Marsden*, The Influence of the Mosaic Code Upon Subsequent Legislation [1862], p.62:
Serranus, in his preface to Plato, asserts that this philosopher received his symbolic system from the Jews. Numerius, the Pythagorean, asks in derision of his opponent, What is Plato but Moses atticising? Hermippus, in his life of Pythagoras, as quoted by Josephus (Cont. Apion. lib. i.), says that Pythagoras translated many things out of the Jewish institutions into his own philosophy; and elsewhere he calls his master an imitator of Jewish dogmas. [...] Aristobulus, an Alexandrian Jew who lived about two centuries after Plato, is said to have written a commentary on the books of Moses. This work is now lost, but some fragments of it are preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius. Of Plato this author observes," he followed the Jewish institutes closely, and diligently examined the several parts thereof.” Of Pythagoras he says, “he translated many things out of our discipline into the opinions of his own sect.” Josephus likewise affirms that Pythagoras “not only understood the Jewish discipline, but embodied many things therein contained.”
Hermippus, according to Josephus, referring to some of the maxims of Pythagoras, says,—"This he did and said in imitation of the doctrines of the Jews and Thracians, which he transferred into his own philosophy.” [...]Clemens Alexandrinus styles Plato the Hebrew philosopher, and frequently asserts that the Greeks stole their chief opinions out of the books of Moses and the prophets.
Justin Martyr affirms that Plato drew many things from the Hebrew fountains, especially his pious conceptions of God and His worship. Tertullian and Augustin speak to the same effect. While Origen suggests that it was the custom of Plato to hide his choicest doctrines under the mask of fables, lest he should displease the people by referring openly to the Jews, who were so infamous amongst them. And Plato himself owns as much by saying, “what the Greeks receive from the barbarians they put into a better shape or garb.” Moreover, there can be little doubt that he makes distinct references to the Jews under other names, as Phænicians, Syrians, Egyptians, and Chaldeans, amongst whom they were dispersed.
Hermippus, according to Josephus, referring to some of the maxims of Pythagoras, says,—"This he did and said in imitation of the doctrines of the Jews and Thracians, which he transferred into his own philosophy.” [...]Clemens Alexandrinus styles Plato the Hebrew philosopher, and frequently asserts that the Greeks stole their chief opinions out of the books of Moses and the prophets.
Justin Martyr affirms that Plato drew many things from the Hebrew fountains, especially his pious conceptions of God and His worship. Tertullian and Augustin speak to the same effect. While Origen suggests that it was the custom of Plato to hide his choicest doctrines under the mask of fables, lest he should displease the people by referring openly to the Jews, who were so infamous amongst them. And Plato himself owns as much by saying, “what the Greeks receive from the barbarians they put into a better shape or garb.” Moreover, there can be little doubt that he makes distinct references to the Jews under other names, as Phænicians, Syrians, Egyptians, and Chaldeans, amongst whom they were dispersed.
* A most excellent and learned summary, but the purported author (1834-1884) was not even 27yo when this book was written. In fact, he did not attend university, only the equivalent of a prep-school ("Marlborough College"). And he never published anything else. So was he merely a Gentile cover for some ghostwriter?
“In antiquity, {Jay Kennedy says} many of his followers said the books contained hidden layers of meaning and secret codes, but this was rejected by modern scholars.” Of Rowland Hazard III, it was said that from Dr. Carl Jung "he had acquired such a profound knowledge of the inner workings of his mind and its hidden springs, that relapse was unthinkable." Yet (Egyptian; medical) Self-Knowledge was not the Answer.
Of course, the Ludwig Edelsteins (credit Emma first!) were well versed in Plato and Pythagoras, and read such commentators of Antiquity. Their book also has hidden layers of meaning, syncretizing the Jewish Hermetica and Philonica ...
If a mere code of morals or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried.
No, pagan morality codes and Greek Philosophy were insufficient; we needed a new 'Jacob's Ladder' for soul-healing. Anecdotally, ancient historians tell us that both Pythagoras and Plato went to Egypt to study. With 'Chaldaeans' (i.e. Proto-Jews), presumably. So too, a relic Chaldaean Faith (i.e. Judeo-Egyptian mysticism) is our best Source for that Alexandrian Therapeutic metathesis, the palingenesia of Philo's First Century A. A., we find at the foundation of the Edelsteins' crypto-Judaic Program.
I find most aspects of esoterica ('hidden layers of meaning and secret codes') fascinating, but it's obscurity and difficulty is daunting.
For my focus, I can see how the Edelsteins were part of an obscure intellectual trend then known but since forgotten, a scholarship circle which included Leo Strauss, Hans Lewy, Hans Jonas, Gershom Scholem (among others, tbd). Perhaps the best introduction to this occult literary movement is Gary Smith's " 'Die Zauberjuden': Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, and Other German-Jewish Esoterics between the World Wars" in the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy 4 (2):227-243 (1995).
In a December 1939 letter to Walter Benjamin, Scholem would casually describe his own historical critical "Scholem school of research." Notwithstanding the fact that Scholem was basically at the center of a scholarly network including their former classmates Lewy, Jonas, Strauss et al. in Mandate Palestine 1935-38, might his influence on the Edelsteins' 1938 work warrant its necessary inclusion in this informal fold? In other words: an Hermetic/Gnostic turn of the Edelsteins' investigation of Philo's Therapeutae makes the most sense in light of discussions of their project w/ Scholem (in NYC, from Late February - Late July 1938). Therefore, the Big Book can be considered a product of Scholem's camp, although (perhaps) the shadow of Oskar Goldberg also touched the work, if only as a negative fascination.