The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

the hellenic consciousness
It is most significant that Aristotle points in his Ethics to repentance as
the psychological phenomenon aroused by conscience. The self indulgent “man
is of necessity unlikely to repent and therefore incurable, since a man who
cannot repent (ametameletos) cannot be cured.” 35 This state of mind described
by Aristotle as being without repentance is the opposite of moral virtue.
The Aristotelian idea of repentance and the Platonic daimonion were those
steps which gradually led to the concept of conscience as the word syneidesis
finally expressed it. The first evidence of this word syneidesis can be found in
Demokritos; it then appeared in Demosthenes and was finally taken over by
Philo of Alexandria and appeared in the Epistles of Saint Paul.
The word synesis-syneidesis was of Ionian origin, coming from that tribe
which excelled in the unique contributions of drama and philosophy. As a
late-Hellenistic word it arrived in the Roman world and was there coined as
conscientia, from which our conscience derived.
It is a fact philologically proven that neither the Hebrew nor the Aramaic
language knew a word for conscience. “As a Hellenistic idea, not only as a
Hellenistic word, syneidesis arrived at the religion of Hellenistic Jewry as well as
at that of the New Testament.” 36 Among the writers of the New Testament, Paul
alone introduced the word conscience (syneidesis), for he was the only Greek
scholar among the apostles and evangelists. He received the word conscience
from the usage of the Hellenistic world-language (the Koine) as well as from
the treasures of Greek literature.
The origin of conscience is the culmination of the growth and change
that took place in Hellenic consciousness. The fact that its existence in the
soul of man was recognized and written about by the Attic dramatists and the
philosophers constitutes the last and greatest gift of Hellas. Through this single
contribution Hellas became a cofounder, together with the Hebrews, of the
truths and ideals of Christianity.