Plato and Paul on the Purpose of the Law

In Romans 13.1, Paul says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God (ESV). The notion that everyone should be subject to governing authorities is sometimes misinterpreted as a subjection to authorities simply because they are in authority. This is a mistaken view. Paul is saying that people are under authorities because their authority is derived from God and because their authority rests on their exercising the law. In saying so, he is not offering some new insight or political theory. His point was uncontroversial. Plato’s Laws begins with the accepted view that state laws ultimately derived from the gods. So, for example, the Cretans believed that Zeus gave their laws to them and the Lacerdaemonians (Spartans) believed that they received their laws from Apollo (1.624). This belief is not a mere nod to religious devotion. It recognizes that civil laws need some higher basis than merely human choice. Modern societies might advocate that ‘human rights’ are universal values, but the question remains: whence do such rights derive? Secondly, the Cretan states that their laws ar...