Did Christians adopt the belief in the soul from the Greeks?

 

There is a common accusation that Christians adopted the concept of the soul from the Greeks, most notably from Plato. There’s a variation of this argument that Christians adopted ideas about the soul and the afterlife from the Egyptians. By soul, I’m referring to the immaterial essence of humans that encompasses consciousness and continues on after physical death. But just how true is this accusation? How much did the Greeks influence Christian theology? And can it be established that the mainstream Christian concept of the soul is not purely the product of Greek philosophy? We will seek to answer these questions.

It should first be established that Israelite/Jewish thought had already allowed for a postmortem existence prior to Greek influence. One very prominent example can be found in 1 Samuel involving the story of the Witch of Endor. King Saul had gone to visit the witch to summon Samuel from the grave. Much to the witch's surprise and dismay, she summoned what appeared to be the spirit or ghost of Samuel (1Sa 28). 

The summoned spirit of Samuel is often dismissed as a trick, hallucination, or a demonic deception. Those are all separate objections that can be addressed another time. But it is far less relevant whether it was the actual spirit of Samuel or not for this discussion. What is relevant is that it clearly demonstrates that the ancient Israelites believed that humans could live on after death and that the soul could exist apart from the body.

The events of First Samuel transpired around 1010 BC. That was long before Greek Hellenization began in Judea around 332 BC and peaked from 175 to 167 BC. Other Old Testament passages also allude to a continued existence beyond the grave. Subsequently, by the 1st century, many Jews and Christians already believed in the concept of the soul independently from Greek influence.

Certainly, Greek culture did have an influence on Jewish culture starting during the Second Temple era. But not all Jews embraced Greek Hellenization. There were some sects like the Essenes, Zealots, and Sicarii who were hostile to Greek influence. The Pharisees, while not physically hostile toward Hellenization, were conservative about the Torah and Jewish law and resistant to religious syncretism.

Location also mattered. More urban areas, like Jerusalem, tended to be more Hellenized, while the more rural areas, like Galilee, were far less Hellenized. Galilee is where Jesus and many of the apostles came from. The first followers of Jesus were Aramaic-speaking Jews who mostly did not have an education in Greek philosophy. Their primary influence came from traditional Jewish culture, not Greek culture.

That’s not to say that Greek philosophy had no influence on Christianity. There were some early Christians who saw merit in Greek logic, though it was not universal. Clement of Alexandria argued that Greek philosophy was God’s providential way of leading the Gentiles to Christ just as the Mosaic Law was God’s providential way of leading the Jews to the Christ. One of his most famous quotes was, “Philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, until the Lord should call the Greeks. For philosophy was a schoolmaster to bring the Hellenic mind to Christ, as the Law was for the Hebrews.” -The Stromata (Book I) Chapter 5. Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology

Thomas Aquinas echoed this rationale and believed that even pagans could discover the truth through philosophical reasoning, and if something is true, it belongs to the Lord, no matter the source. Therefore, it wasn’t so much about borrowing or adopting pagan ideas as it was about arriving at the same or similar conclusions. It's also the reason why some Greek philosophers believed in a supreme being, because it was reasonable and logical to do so. The Greeks philosophized about a great many things, and just because something is found in Greek philosophy shouldn't automatically disqualify it.

Additionally, Greek influence should not be overstated. The Greeks didn't invent the soul; they merely philosophized it. The concept of life persisting after death was near universal across cultures. The Greeks also didn't have a consensus about the soul. Plato believed the soul continued on after death, but his student, Aristotle, had a more nuanced view and didn't clearly teach that the soul survives death.

Do similarities exist between the Greek understanding of the soul and the predominant Christian understanding of the soul? Sure, just as similarities exist between the Hebraic cosmology and Mesopotamian cosmology. The origin of a concept, however, does not determine whether it is true or not.

There are many biblical motifs, for example, that share similar themes with pagan motifs without adoption. One notable example is the Genesis flood account, which mirrors the Chaldean flood tradition as told in the Epic of Gilgamesh. We wouldn’t dismiss the Biblical flood account just because it shares similar themes to older pagan flood traditions. That’s because similarities don’t necessarily invalidate something as untrue or prove borrowing in itself.

Moreover, whatever similarities exist, there exists a multitude of differences. The Greeks may have believed in disembodied souls but not bodily resurrection like the Christians. Nor did Christians believe in eternal disembodied souls like the Greeks did. Likewise, the Egyptians believed in the concept of the soul, but it vastly differed from Christian belief. They believed the soul was comprised of multiple components and wasn't fully disembodied. So, to say that Christians got their ideas of the soul and the afterlife from the pagan Greeks or Egyptians is to ignore the major differences between them.