GrecoRoman and Jewish Heroes

(A pictorial depiction of the path of perceiving external objects. Words are such objects which we perceive, process, and interpret.)
What struck me after reading page 310 regarding Biblical translation and context, is that none of the assigned reading was originally written in English. Plato wrote the Apologia in Greek; Virgil wrote his Eclogue in Latin; and the selections from the Old Testament of the Bible were originally in Hebrew and Aramaic, and those from the New Testament in Greek. This is interesting because it hints at both the power and limitations of language. Plato and Virgil thought the thoughts that became their masterworks in languages other than English. They interpreted the world around them with symbols other than the ones I use to decode and record my surroundings. It is a profound thought that there is some mutually comprehendible meaning lying behind the symbols used to convey. Though words create meaning and an entirely new world of phenomena in which to explore, some facet of our minds, some aspect of knowledge allows us to translate between symbolic systems and convey meaning that is in some ways common to all human beings. Though I do not use the same words to express “pain” and “love” as Virgil, Plato, Isaiah, or John did centuries ago, intuitively I feel that we can experience pain and love very similarly.

(Charles Sanders Peirce, who philosophized about the nature of language and distinguished between the object a word refers to - referent - the symbolic word itself - signifier - and the import and connotations of that symbol in our minds - signified.)
As I read through these texts, a theme, expressed severally with various English phrases, emerges. Though the word “virtue” may not be explicitly stated, its virtue runs through the Plato’s Apologia and Psalm 41 in particular, but through Isaiah and Virgil’s Eclogue as well. In Plato’s Socrates we see a man who’s life is nothing if not an instrument with which to push toward virtue and knowledge, which for him are one and the same. With death imminent, Socrates does not falter in the least. “Those of us who think that death is an evil are in error,” (Plato, Apologia, 56) says Socrates. “The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness” (Plato, Apologia, 55). Socrates’ righteousness is not founded on reward and punishment, but on pure righteousness, righteousness for righteousness’ sake. His virtue is in his passion, his inquisitiveness, and his serenity in tempering both qualities with NON-ATTACHMENT. (Socrates. "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question."
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863)) Socrates virtuously exemplifies the middle way: “Socrates’ moral seriousness is counterbalanced by a worldly personality who enjoys good food and company – goods which he is also willing to forgo without complaint if they are not available or if the conflict with the much more important pursuit of [virtue]” (Nehamas, “Socrates,” 58). Socrates is distracted from his knowledge quest neither by impending death nor the wrongs that may have been done him by his accusers (he is not even angry with them). His humility brings him strength.

In Isaiah chapter 11, we must again aspire to righteousness. “Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,” and with righteousness shall he judge the poor,” though he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes” (Isaiah, 11:5, 4, 3, p 60). Through humility and attention to that which is beyond the individual can man pay service to his faith. Psalm 41 expresses a similar sentiment to that of Socrates as well. Socrates says that his prosecutors have not triumphed and he has not failed. Psalm 41 states, “I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me…. Thou upholdest me in mine integrity” (Psalm 41:10, 11, p 70). Socrates distinguishes human from divine knowledge by saying that human’s are wise if they can realize their own ignorance. He does not so explicitly pay tribute to a divine body, but humility is an admirable human quality in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Plato. Though cloaked in different terms and contexts, common meanings underlie all these words. Now in English, I can grasp some thread of the meaning intended by these authors centuries ago.