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Christianity by the Century: Fourth Century BCE (400–300 BCE)

by Shirley Paulson, PhD

Detail of Alexander Mosaic found in House of the Faun (Roman domus in Pompeii, perhaps the largest in the city at the time of its destruction) by unknown author – The Guardian (DEA/G Nimatallah/De Agostini/Getty Images), Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

The fourth century BCE saw a deepening impact of Plato’s philosophical legacy, stretching from his own time in the fifth century into the heart of the fourth. During this period, Aristotle—Plato’s student for nearly twenty years— also came into prominence. Their teachings, three centuries before the birth of Jesus, and 1000 miles away, would exert profound influence on Christian thought for the next millennium and beyond.

The military campaigns of Alexander the Great played a critical role in spreading the ideas of both philosophers. His conquests cleared the way for the dissemination and integration of Greek ideas—including philosophical thought—across the Mediterranean world, Judea included.

Key Figures and Dates from the Fourth Century BCE

• Plato was about 27 years old at the start of the century, in 400 BCE.
• Aristotle, born in 384 BCE, was 43 years younger than Plato.
• Alexander the Great began ruling the Greek kingdom of Macedonia at age 20, in 336 BCE.
• In 333 BCE, Alexander defeated the Persians and took control of Judea (Jewish homeland).
• After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, Greek culture—known as Hellenism—spread across the vast territories he had conquered.

All three figures—Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander—died before the start of the third century BCE (the 200s).

The Role of Alexander’s Conquests

Although neither Plato nor Aristotle was Jewish, the enduring Greek cultural influence throughout the region meant that Jewish thinkers gradually absorbed aspects of Hellenistic philosophy into their own theological and ethnic frameworks. In hindsight, this fourth-century BCE interaction between Jewish and Greek cultures set the stage for developments that would become crucial in early Christian thought. The major theological debates of early Christianity were often grounded—explicitly or implicitly—in Platonic or Aristotelian categories.

Shared Philosophical Foundations

While Plato and Aristotle differed in significant ways, both had a substantial influence on the Greek culture that was being spread by Alexander’s conquests. Among other things, both valued the pursuit of knowledge and truth as central to the good life. They emphasized the importance of virtue and moral character, saw reason as essential to human identity, and acknowledged the soul as a key element of human nature.

As we will discuss further in the next blog post on the third century BCE, Alexander’s vast empire was divided up among his generals after his death in the late fourth century. These generals created several Hellenistic kingdoms that flourished and left a lasting impact on the development of Western civilization. Our focus on the evolution of Christianities will draw our attention to the Hellenistic impact on Judea, but we should recognize this dynamic exchange of Greek and eastern cultures took place throughout the entire Mediterranean area and spread as far as Persia and India.

Not to get too far ahead of ourselves with the story, we want to consider more specifically what Plato and Aristotle were thinking about in the fourth century BCE.

Of the two, Plato’s influence was initially more significant for early Christianity, especially within eastern Christ communities. His metaphysical concept of the One and the Infinite resonated with early followers of Jesus, who saw it as analogous to the idea of a single, all-encompassing God. Plato’s theory of Forms—eternal, perfect realities of which the physical world is only a shadow—also found affinity with Christian ideas about heaven, divine perfection, and spiritual truth. For many early Christians, especially those interested in gnosis or spiritual knowledge, reason and contemplation were more trustworthy guides than the physical senses.

Though Plato’s ideas shaped Aristotle’s early thinking, Aristotle eventually developed a distinct philosophical system of his own. Over time, his more empirical, structured approach to knowledge proved especially influential in the western Christian tradition much later, particularly through theologians like Thomas Aquinas. Aristotle’s formal logic and his use of syllogism became essential tools for medieval theologians seeking to systematically defend Christian doctrines.

The most important distinction between Plato and Aristotle lies in the way they understood the methods of gaining knowledge (epistemology). Plato emphasized the transcendent world of ideal Forms as the basis for understanding reality, while Aristotle grounded his thought in empirical observation and the study of the material world.

Hellenism and Its Legacy

Alexander’s empire-building facilitated the widespread adoption of Hellenism—Greek language, art, political institutions, and, most importantly for the Jews and later Christians, philosophy. This cultural blending reshaped urban life, encouraged individualism, and fostered a climate of cosmopolitan exchange. In such an environment, questions of meaning, virtue, and the nature of the soul became increasingly central.

As a result, Greek philosophy—and particularly the thought of Plato—reached far beyond its original audience. It shaped not only Jewish philosophical and theological discourse during the Hellenistic period but also the foundational intellectual framework of early Christian thinkers. The legacy of this fourth-century BCE convergence of Greek and Jewish cultures would reverberate for centuries, leaving a lasting impact on the spiritual, philosophical, and theological foundations of Western civilization.

This is the second post in a series offering Bible and Beyond readers a chronological reference for events and major ideas that influenced the evolution of various Christianities, Christian History by the Century. In the series we identify key events and people who influenced both the immediate and future generations of those who came to identify as followers of Jesus. This historical series offers readers an opportunity to engage in the collective rethinking of how Christianities have evolved across the centuries—past, present, and future.