Apologetics, Evil, and the New Testament

Introduction

CHRISTIANS, WHEN THEY THINK OF the trial of Socrates, tend naturally to think also of another trial, the trial of Jesus. The accusations are markedly the same: as Socrates is accused of atheism and the corruption of the young, so Jesus is accused of blasphemy (Mark 14:64; Matt. 26:65) and of leading the people astray (Luke 23:13; John 19:12). In both cases, there is question of the maintenance of the existing political order: the Athenians worry about the stability of their regime; the Jews will have no king but Caesar, for the powers that be have learned to be with Caesar. But how different the comportment of the accused! To kategoria, the logos of indictment, corresponds apologia, the logos of justification, and Socrates takes up his defense at length. Accused of wrongdoing, brought before the bar, he offers a reasoned justification for his action, an apology.

But if Socrates defends himself at length, Jesus remains silent before his accusers (Mark 14:61; 15:5, Matt. 26:23, 27:14; Luke 23:9). For John, this means that the Logos incarnate does not descend to the making of an apo-logos before the accusations of men. Rather, while outwardly it is Jesus who is on trial, in reality it is the world that is on trial (John 12:31), and judgment is being declared on the world (see 12:47; cf. 2:47, 5:22, 27) (just as Paul, at 2 Cor. 2:19, says he is not defending himself but speaking for the good of the Corinthians, who prepare their own judgment according to whether they listen to Paul or not). Or, if the Logos has an "apology," it is one enacted in his death and resurrection rather than spoken in a discourse. Or if the Lord does speak a discourse--the farewell discourse of John--it is spoken only to the disciples, for the condition of hearing it is faith. Or perhaps, the only word of defense for the Lord recorded is spoken by others, and only after the sentence is executed, either by a man himself condemned: "this man has done nothing wrong" (Luke 23:14); or by one of the executioners: "Truly, this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39).

Socrates, then, inaugurates the apology of philosophy, of man's logos, before religion--at least, the human, mythic form of religion. For the continued life of the city depends on a respect for the tradition that justifies it, the customs and laws that constitute it. And this tradition has an ultimately religious warrant. Jesus, on the other hand, is the divine Logos incarnate. He does not defend himself. It is rather to Christians that is delegated the task of having an apology ready for their hope (1 Pet. 3:15). And this means that the Christian contrast to Socrates is to be found not in the Lord so much as in Paul, who takes up an apology of the word of the cross, of the revelation of Christ, before the word of man, before philosophy (1 Cor. 1:18ff.). The ultimate "defense," Paul says, is the demonstration of power and of the Spirit, "that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but, but in the power of God" (1 Cor. 2:5). The word of the cross, because it is the word of God, is self-validating, and it brings its evidence with it, the evidence that in the end is the evidence of a convincing love. ¹ The ultimate "defense," in other words, is a manifestation of the defenselessness of the Son of God on the cross. And the apologetic word of Christians, their word about the cross, is the word about the divine Word who because of love let himself be silenced by man. Still, to hear the silence of this Lamb...