“ Plato
Plato used the image of prisoners who were locked up in a cave and could only see the shadows of the outside world on the walls of the cave. Plato taught that philosophers are the ones who are freed from the cave and see the blinding light of the day – “face to face.” That sentence reflects a ritual formula from the pagan mysteries. In The Bacchanten of Euripides we read: “He gave me those mysteries” face to face. ” Lucius Apuleius writes about his initiation: “I penetrated into the presence of the gods themselves, both below and above, where I sunk in worship” face to face. ” Justin Martyr acknowledges that: the purpose of Platonism is to see God from “face to face.” Plato describes how “communion with the gods takes place from” face to face “. (Freke and Gandy, The Mysterious Jesus, p 205)
But there is a big difference between Plato and Thomas. Plato teaches that you can learn to “see” by forsaking everything that has to do with matter, including the human body. You won’t find that with Thomas. He tells you that you first have to become like a child to be able to “see”. With Plato you have to free yourself from matter and body, with Thomas you have to free yourself from illusions and delusions. That is really radically different, and therein lies the sublime and great significance of the Thomas gospel as a spiritual document. It is the only spiritual document from the Christian West that is focused on deliverance in the here and now. Plato, on the other hand, wants us to flee from the here and now to an extra-mundane transcendent reality situated outside the earth.
Ecclesiastical Christianity has taken over Plato’s vision. The Christian heaven is the transcendent reality of Plato.
But Thomas is focused on the liberation in earthly existence in the here and now”

LG5^BM #§Plato