The Trial Of Socrates

The Trial Of Socrates

The Trial Of Socrates



After Jesus Christ was betrayed by his disciple Judas the Jewish elders found him guilty after he was presented before the Jewish high priest Joseph Caiaphas and the supreme council of the Jews, the Sanhedrin where he was found guilty and condemned to death. The Jewish supreme council however, did not have the authority to carry out the sentence and had to present Jesus before Pontius Pirate, the Roman governor in the province of Judaea. Pilate demanded to know why they wanted Jesus to be crucified and they replied by starting that he had claimed to be the King of the Jews and was advocating that people stop paying taxes to Caesar. Pilate interrogated Jesus, and then declared that that he did not find him guilty to the chagrin of the Jewish elders, who insisted that he was an agitator who should be put to death. After Pilate heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he quickly and gladly passed the trial to King Herod who was in charge of the region. King Herod who had heard a lot about Jesus, and the miracles he performed interrogated him exhaustively but got no reply, as the Jewish elders laid all manner of accusations against Jesus. Herod and his court mocked Jesus and then sent him back to Pilate who washed his hands off the whole matter and handed Jesus back to the Jews who quickly crucified him.
One of the most significant similarities between these two famous trials was the role of new teachings and education that challenged the status quo. The fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ were far removed from the prevailing Jewish teachings of the time. He challenged the piety of the Pharisees and the scribes because he knew they were hypocrites and called for a new sense of righteousness. He used parables and sermons to deliver powerful messages about God the Father and the new way in which Jews should live their lives. In the sermon on the mountain which includes the beatitudes he taught a new moral code that deviated from the one that was being practiced at the time thereby causing the prevailing Jewish religious establishment to view him as a threat. Jesus based his teachings on love and humility in the realm of spirituality rather than an obligatory following of the law. The new teachings caused large crowds to follow Jesus and the Jewish elders started plotting on how to get rid of Jesus Christ. In the trials the Jewish elders claimed that the teachings of Jesus were inciting the Jewish people to rise against their Roman occupiers.
Socrates in his trial was accused of corrupting the youth through his teachings. His teachings on philosophy, through the dialectic method of inquiry, where he addressed and suggested new moral concepts that were grounded on being good and just, became one of the major reasons why he was in conflict with the people of Athens, since he challenged the prevailing ethical and moral philosophies.. The Socratic Method taught by Socrates advocated for problems to be broken down into an array of questions so that an answer can be found in a more structured manner dependent on certain moral principles. He taught new ethics and moral codes that are still used today in various disciplines.
After sentencing, Socrates was to be executed in three days and Jesus was crucified and expected to rise from the dead in three days. This brings in a unique similarity in both cases because within this set period of time Socrates was executed and as had been prophesied Jesus rose from the dead. It is also a contradiction, because in one trial the main subject was to lose his life within three days, and the other was to regain their breath in the same period. Socrates had a dream that reveals that he would die in three days time but Jesus had a prophecy which had revealed that he would rise in three days.
In the trial of Socrates he gave lengthy answers to the charges he faced and explained his philosophy on life. He took the opportunity to embarrass his main accuser Meletus, and claimed that he had been falsely accused because he had exposed the prevailing lack of wisdom among his accusers. In contrast Jesus was silent in his trial and made no response to the many questions he was asked. He did not bemoan the injustice that he was facing but instead chose not to be confrontational with his accusers. This difference can be seen in terms of their philosophies, because in the Bible Jesus stated that his kingdom was not of this world, while Socrates was a thinker who wanted to change the way people thought, and therefore used the trial as a platform to expound and amplify his views and it worked because he inspired a new school of thought led by Plato.
In his defense, Socrates calls on his friends within the courtroom to vouch for his innocence but in the trial of Jesus, he was alone and had no one to vouch for this innocence. Jesus was accused of claiming to destroy the temple and then build it in three days while Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth and refusing to acknowledge the gods and introducing new ones. Socrates was judged by a jury of his peers while Jesus was judged by a mob led by Jewish religious leaders. Athens was the first real democracy and the jury trial of Socrates proved this while in the Jewish context there was no democracy in addition to the fact the region was under the occupation of Rome.
Jesus was crucified, while Socrates was made to drink a hemlock based liquid. The two trials were also different in the sense that the Jews were determined to humiliate, humble and crucify Jesus, while Socrates got a decent public trial and even asked as to what his punishment was to be. Both men readily accepted their punishment without resistance.
The two trails are about men who had gone against the grain of society by educating their followers on new concepts of life in philosophical and spiritual terms. Jesus and Socrates advocated against spiritual and intellectual hypocrisy respectively in order to change the way people thought about life. They were both executed by the mob because they went against the grain of society.

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The presented piece is an excellent example of how a good essay of PhD level should be written. However, the following text or its separate parts cannot be used in your own writing since it will be considered as plagiarism when you submit it to your educational institution. Therefore it is always highly advised not to use papers offered by various websites that offer free samples and free pre-made essays. Using such content is simply risking your academic career and years of studying in your educational institution. Instead, it is advisable to seek help from our professional writers who complete each paper from scratch. Our own plagiarism detection software helps to ensure that every paper you get is 100% original and plagiarism-free. With our highly experienced and well-educated writers, every order is done following all the customer's requirements and instructions, in accordance with the highest standards of PhD level of academic writing.