This unique Personage [Moses], single and alone, rescued the
children of Israel from bondage through the power of religious training and
discipline. He led them to the Holy Land and founded there a great civilization
which has become permanent and renowned and under which these people attained
the highest degree of honor and glory. He freed them from bondage and
captivity. He imbued them with qualities of progressiveness and capability.
They proved to be a civilizing people with instincts toward education and
scholastic attainment. Their philosophy became renowned; their industries were
celebrated throughout the nations. In all lines of advancement which
characterize a progressive people they achieved distinction. In the splendor of
the reign of Solomon their sciences and arts advanced to such a degree that
even the Greek philosophers journeyed to Jerusalem to sit at the feet of the
Hebrew sages and acquire the basis of Israelitish law. According to eastern
history this is an established fact. Even Socrates visited the Jewish doctors
in the Holy Land, consorting with them and discussing the principles and basis
of their religious belief. After his return to Greece he formulated his
philosophical teaching of divine unity and advanced his belief in the
immortality of the spirit beyond the dissolution of the body. Without doubt,
Socrates absorbed these verities from the wise men of the Jews with whom he came
in contact. Hippocrates and other philosophers of the Greeks likewise visited
Palestine and acquired wisdom from the Jewish prophets, studying the basis of
ethics and morality, returning to their country with contributions which have
made Greece famous.
- ‘Abdu’l-Baha (From a talk, 12 October 1912, San Francisco,
California; ‘The Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by
'Abdu'l-Bahá during His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912’)
