Any intent to investigate the concept of justice in all dimensions implies cross-comparison of the concept on diachronic and synchronic levels in relation to various religions and cultures. The comparative question includes those things which are identical or common on the one hand and those things which are similar but uncommon and always distant on the other. Whatever the resemblance between representations of justice in polytheistic, pantheistic and monotheistic cultures in categories such as motifs, vocabulary, imagery and literary structures may be, there is an essential difference on ontological grounds. Within the Jewish-Christian religion and culture the reference is not primarily to formal cosmic and social order but, with pressing insistence, to moral sense as manifested in human characters and in interpersonal relations. The complex notion of justice indicates that there are two interdependent dimensions of justice: the justice of the soul within the human personality and the justice of the community as the symbol of a relationship within society. Here we shall deal with the basic meaning of the concept of justice in classical cultures of antiquity by placing each tradition in the context of its basic perception of the world, of humans and of God.
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