Another Catholic Theologian - Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Austria - Demonstrates that the 'Naked with Naked' Concept in Plato's Gorgias is Part of the Fabric From Which Christianity Developed its Understanding of the Hereafter

It is quite interesting to see how many Catholic theologians accept the 'naked with naked' concept from Plato's Gorgias as completely compatible with Christianity. I don't think many North Americans fully appreciate what this means. The Catholic faith doesn't just allow its members to 'invent' things on their own. These concepts must be rooted in tradition, the tradition of the Church Fathers. In my next post I will demonstrate that this understanding goes back to Clement's authentic writings and thus ultimately confirms that to Theodore is authentic and all the stupid things those who promote the 'hoax hypothesis' put forward amounts to little more than unfamiliarity with the Patristic tradition. In any event, here is how Cardinal Christoph Schönborn demonstrates the 'naked with naked' understanding in Plato's Gorgias is completely compatible with Christian doctrine:

What does judgment mean, what standard does it use, and how can it be reconciled with God's mercy? Plato (d. ca. 348 BC) had already, in the Gorgias, recounted a myth about judgment, in which he expressed the experiences and expectations of mankind in general. "In the meadow at the crossroads where the two ways part, one leading to the Island of the Blessed, and the other to Tartarus," the souls of those who have died are judged, so Socrates tells us. "Death," he continues, "is obviously nothing but the separation of two things from each other, the soul and the body." [Plato, Gorgias 524ab] But just as the body bears traces of its life, like the scars of earlier injuries, so the same is true of the soul:

When the soul is freed from the body, then everything in it becomes visible. . . . And when it comes to the judge . . . , the latter has it brought before him and observes each person's soul without knowing whose it is. Thus he may perhaps have before him the soul of a king of Persia, or some other king or ruler, and sees nothing sound in it, but finds it thoroughly whipped and full of scars that come from perjury and injustice and that have been imprinted on his soul by each of his actions, and everything is crooked with lies and arrogance, and nothing is straight, because it has grown up without truth. And he sees how the soul is burdened with willfulness and luxury, with pride and rashness in acting with immoderation and disgracefulness. And seeing this, he sends it forth in dishonor and ignominy to the dungeon, where it will suffer the punishment it deserves. Sometimes, however, he sees another soul before him that has led a pious and honorable life, the soul ofan ordinary citizen, or some such person, but most probably—I would maintain, my dear Callicles— it is the soul of a philosopher, who has done what was his to do and has not chased after all kinds ofuseless things in his life: then he rejoices, and sends it to the Island of the Blessed. [ibid., 525a–526c]

Worth noticing particularly, in Plato's myth, is the idea that at the judgment the dead person steps into the open. What could remain hidden in life is now manifest. Plato is depicting profound human experience here. The threat to a soul at departing this life comes not only from outside, from the hostile powers, but above all from within. For in death what is innermost is exposed. No outward appearance, no mere human favor, can help any longer. The soul stands there naked and bare. "Quid sum miser tunc dicturus" — "What shall I, miserable man, say then (before the judge)?", it says in that powerful hymn, the Dies irae. The dead person stands, in all the nakedness of its miserableness, on the threshold of the next world. What can it show for itself; how can it account for itself?

All men know that nothing can be completed in this life; everything, even the most perfect human creation, remains fragmentary. Yet must all the works that were begun and then disrupted simply pass away and decay? There is accordingly within man a cry, demanding that everything good and true and beautiful, all striving and suffering, cannot have been simply useless and meaningless. Together with this there is the question of justice, which has always stirred in man. What about innocent suffering, those who missed out, who were shoved away, who had no place in the sun? Out ofthe painful experience that there is no justice in history arises the question of eternal justice. This longing is also expressed in Holy Scripture. God will reward those who seek him (Heb 11:6). The idea of reward and punishment is inseparable from that of the judgment. At the judgment, God will establish justice; no unrighteousness. At the judgment, God will establish justice; no unrighteousness can stand before him, and anyone who has suffered injustice will be given justice. [Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, God Sent His Son pp. 365 - 366]

I hope that at least some of my readers can see how this makes the 'naked with naked' reference in to Theodore more likely to be an allusion to the understanding at the heart of Plato's Gorgias.  There are many reasons that previous interpretations of the Mar Saba document did not understand this. Ignorance.  Mean-spiritedness.  But now the truth is being made manifest, and our understandings of the origins of Christianity will have to change one way or the other ...