Christ and Socrates: Martyrs to Truth

This is an essay that I recently wrote for a theology class on martyrdom and thought was decent.


The death of Jesus Christ is for Christians the pre-eminent example of martyrdom. Christ’s status transcends that of all other martyrs because he is the unique archetype after which all other Christian martyrdoms are modeled. Yet Christ’s martyrdom, at least one aspect of his martyrdom, has a historical model in the death of Socrates. The similarities between the two men’s deaths are remarkable. It is difficult to identify either man as a martyr for a single cause. Both abide by the positive law of their respective polities, both acknowledge their obedience to God, both die with assurance of eternal reward and, most importantly, both see themselves as witnesses to Truth. It is in his witness to the Truth that Socrates’ death becomes the prototype for the death of Christ.

Christ and Socrates both die according to the positive law of the state, and both not only accept, but defend the state’s authority to condemn them. Jesus’ quintessential explanation of the role of the state is found in Mt. 22:21. He says, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” Here Jesus accepts the authority of the Roman government, and commands his followers to do the same. Jesus’ extends his basic understanding of the nature of political authority to his own trial, and even expands upon this understanding. When speaking with Pontius Pilate, Jesus asserts that Pilate’s political authority comes directly from God. Pilate asks Jesus, “do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” to which Jesus responds, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.” Because the power of earthly rulers comes from God, to disobey the authority of the state is one and the same as disobeying the Father.

Socrates likewise explains the necessity of obedience to the positive law. He refuses to escape his penalty, which is to drink poisonous hemlock. He had the utmost respect for his own city of Athens and thinks that no city can exist “where sentence given has no force but is made null by private persons and destroyed.” The good citizen agrees to “abide by whatever judgments the state may make.” One of Socrates’ primary arguments is that though the state may wrong us, we ought not retaliate by breaking the law, which Socrates sees as an attempt to destroy the state. He says that his escape would be “requiting wrong with wrong and damage with damage.” His condemnation of such vengeful behavior is uncannily like Christ’s command, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Socrates applies this maxim to obedience of the positive law, even when such obedience is harmful to him and leads to his death. Socrates and Christ both die at the hands of the state without protest. Their acceptance of their respective penalties confirms their belief in obedience to the positive law.

More fundamental than their obedience to the state is their obedience to God. Both Christ and Socrates have the opportunity to escape their fate, but believe that God has ordained their deaths. When Christ is praying in Gethsem’ane, he says to the Father, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Christ turns his life over completely to his Father, and subjugates his own desires to the divine will. When Jesus is captured, he makes it clear that if he so desired, he would be able to escape his captors, but chooses to go with them willingly. He says, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” Christ does not avail himself of the possibility to escape because He believes his death is necessary to fulfill that which God has already ordained in Holy Scripture.

Socrates believes his death is necessary not to fulfill the Scriptures, but to best serve his beloved city of Athens. He says, “For this is what God commands me, make no mistake, and I think there is no greater good for you in the city in any way than my service to God.” His death, he believes, is according to the will of God and as such is also good for the state. Like Christ, Socrates could easily escape his punishment if he chose to do so. His friend Criton offers Socrates the chance to flee prison, but Socrates refuses the offer and explains to Criton why he must abide by his sentence. After Socrates has finished his explanation, Criton responds, “I have nothing to say.” To this Socrates says, “Then let it be, Criton, and let us do in this way, since in this way God is leading us.” For Socrates, the will of the state and the will of God are one. Both Christ and Socrates see their deaths as decrees not only of the positive law, but of God Himself. They accept death at the hands of the state because of their obedience to God.

Both men die with firm belief that their obedience to God will win them for themselves eternal reward. In Jn. 16:28, Christ identifies his destination after death: “I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” During his interview with Ca’iaphas, the high priest, Christ declares His exalted role in Heaven. He says, “hereafter you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” He is confident in his own coming glory and in his proximity in Heaven to the Father. Although Socrates will not occupy an exalted place in Heaven, he is certain that he will pass into a better place, into the keeping of the gods. He says, “I shall pass over to gods who are very good masters… I have good hopes that something remains for the dead, as has been the belief from time immemorial, and something much better for the good than for the bad.” Socrates classifies himself as one of “the good” people, for whom the afterlife will also be rewarding. Neither Socrates nor Christ has any doubt that what he is doing is for the good and that they will be rewarded for their obedience in the afterworld.

The two men’s hopes for the afterworld are based on their belief in objective goodness, or Truth. Both believe that their teachings and their choices, even the choices that lead to their respective deaths, contain the fullness of that truth. During his trial, Socrates compares the false charges that have been brought against him with his own teachings. Socrates claims that the arguments of his accusers contain hardly a word of truth, but says, “you shall hear from me the whole truth.” The paramount importance of the truth is present for Socrates up until the moment of his death. He is a witness to truth throughout his trial: he will not lie nor renounce his own teachings. He is honest, and yet is condemned by the state.

Christ explicitly identifies his role on earth as that of a witness to truth. “For this I have come into the world,” He says, “to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” Christ is a witness, and his witness is universal: his teachings apply to all those who believe in truth everywhere and in every age. Indeed, Christ is not only a witness to the truth, but is truth itself, truth personified. He equates Himself with “the way, the truth and the life” and claims that “no one cometh to the Father, but by me.” Christ’s body is truth incarnate and his very person is the fullness of truth. His whole life and being testify to truth and he is thus the ultimate witness to truth.

Although there are manifold differences between the martyrdoms of Socrates and Christ, what is striking is their similarity, not only in circumstances but in the very words that the two men speak. The similarity between their views of political authority and obedience to God and their respective claims to truth are uncanny. The death of Socrates is a model which is perfected in the death of Christ. Socrates is the first paradigmatic martyr to truth and Christ, who dies 400 years later, is the perfection of martyrdom to truth. Socrates dies because he speaks the truth; Christ is the truth.