“Every translator of Plato’s works remarked the strange similarity between the philosophy of the esotericists and the Christian doctrines, and each of them has tried to interpret it in accordance with his own religious feelings.
So Cory, in his Ancient Fragments, tries to prove that it is but an outward resemblance; and does his best to lower the Pythagorean Monad in the public estimation and exalt upon its ruins the later anthropomorphic deity. Taylor, advocating the former, acts as unceremoniously with the Mosaic God. Zeller boldly laughs at the pretensions of the Father’s of the Church who, notwithstanding history and its chronology, and whether people will have it or not, insist that Plato and his school have robbed Christianity of its leading features.
It is as fortunate for us as it is unfortunate for the Roman Church that such clever sleight-of-hand as that resorted to by Eusebius is rather difficult in our century.
It was easier to pervert chronology “for the sake of making synchronisms”, in the days of the Bishop of Caesarea, than it is now; and while history exists, no one can help people knowing that Plato lived 600 years before.”
H. P. Blavatsky