@BretDevereaux question for you, since I bet you'd know. In hackett publishing's 1997 version of Plato's complete works, Socrates constantly says "the god has..." Instead of "the gods have..."
Do you know why it was translated like this? (This in the Apology)
-
It is a common mistake to read this as a sort of proto-monotheism. It isn't, rather it is just the standard respectful form of reference. For whatever reason there has been a general shift, for a while now, for scholars and translators to replicate that usage in English.
I am mixed on it (although to be honest, I do it when lecturing or speaking), because on the one hand it more accurately captures the Greek and its emphasis but on the other hand can be misleading to students who hear 'the god' and think monotheism.
