Its first thorough and systematic treatment within the powers of human reason is found in Plato’s Republic, which would be more accurately translated The City. This book is really a study of the human soul and of the condition in which the soul must be in order for human beings to live well and manage to do what is right. The condition required is called, precisely, dikaiosune in the Republic. This is exactly the term that Jesus centers on in his Discourse on the Hill, as we have it in the Greek language. It is usually translated “justice” in Plato’s texts. But this is, once again, an
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