Dialogue Six: Knowledge vs. Revelation
Socrates Meets Jesus
Setting: The night is deep. A breeze moves through the olive branches. Both men sit silently, until Socrates speaks—wrestling with the limits of human intellect.
Socrates (hands steepled, voice quiet):
All my life I have asked: “What is wisdom? What is piety? What is the good?” But every time I grasped an answer, it dissolved under deeper scrutiny. So I declared, “I know that I know nothing.” That, I believed, was the beginning of wisdom.
Jesus:
It was a good beginning. But it is not the end.
Socrates (curious):
Then where does it end?
Jesus:
In Me. What you sought through questions, I reveal through Myself.
Socrates (leaning forward):
But how can a man be the answer to the questions of all men?
Jesus:
Because man cannot reach God by reason alone. The finite cannot grasp the infinite unless the infinite chooses to make Himself known. That is what I have done.
Socrates (slowly):
Then you claim that truth is not discovered—but revealed?
Jesus:
Yes. And not just revealed, but given. Truth is not a puzzle. It is a person who came to dwell among you.
Socrates (deep in thought):
Then if truth is revealed… why do so few see it?
Jesus:
Because revelation demands humility. Not everyone who seeks, seeks with an open heart. Some use knowledge to build pride. Others, to build altars.
Socrates:
I have known men who wield knowledge like a weapon. But are we not made to pursue wisdom?
Jesus:
You are. But wisdom must bow to love. Revelation comes not to the proud scholar, but to the childlike soul. “You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”
Socrates (with honest frustration):
Then what is the place of reason? Have all my dialogues been shadows?
Jesus:
Reason is a lantern. It helps you walk. But it is not the sunrise. You used your reason to search for truth—that is good. But reason without revelation can only circle the truth. It cannot enter it.
Socrates (softly):
Then I have walked in circles… while You are the center.
Jesus:
Yes. Blessed are those who hunger for truth—but even more, blessed are those who receive it when it is given.
Socrates:
And what must I do, then? Cease questioning?
Jesus:
No. But ask the right questions—not just what is truth, but Who. Not just what is virtue, but how do I become new? Revelation is not the end of thinking—it is the beginning of seeing.
Socrates (quietly, reverently):
Then for the first time… I see.