Which period Plato's Timaeus comes from?

Philo is the guy that philosophy is named after, he came after Jesus in Greece. He said that to read the bible literally would be reading it as nonsense, because there are all these contradictions, double meanings, fiction, etc, and he talked about how the enlightened read the bible, unfortunately that whole bunch of stuff got forgotten and of course as a result Christianity is nonsense, except for basic ideas like do unto others. People are real dumb, and that was an important part of the religion, that it needs to be interpreted allegorically, as a story with a moral to it. For me the moral is, religion is stupid, but if you're going to have one, just make sure it's about forgiveness and love, not about stoning, burning and crucifying people for "sins".

If you are referring to Plato...

Greek culture and ideas were very popular in the century when Christianity began. The Romans idealized the ancient Greeks and carried that respect and passion with them to much of the rest of the world. Greek was the most spoken language in the world at that time. So as you read the Bible, you will find some ideas from Greek philosophy and culture referred to in the Bible.

Probably the best know is the opening of the gospel of John which speaks of Jesus as being "the Word" or the "logos" (in Greek) of God. This refers to Plato's concept that everything in the spiritual realm will have an earthly representation of itself, Jesus was the "earthly" representation of the 'spiritual" God.

Or in the book of Acts Paul makes a reference to a Greek altar dedicated to the "Unknown God" and uses that as a starting point to point to the One True God of the Christian faith. Again, this goes back to the writings of Plato and others who argued that there was only One God begin the pantheon of the Greek deities and that he alone was the True God. (But that he was also unknowable, a concept that Paul did NOT refer to.)

Neither of those Christian authors were endorsing Greek philosophy, nor did Christianity have its origin in those writings from several centuries before. Rather they were using the common philosophy of that day that everyone understood as a starting point for a conversion about religion or as a way of explaining some of the deeper concepts of the Christian faith. It is always smart to stat with something people understand or want to discuss.

Had the Bible been written today, you would probably have found one of the authors referring to a concept like Star War's "The Force" as a beginning point to discuss the concept of God. Not because the Bible was base on Star Wars or endorsed that philosophy, but because it was a starting point to begin a conversation that would eventual get the teachings of the Christian faith.

There is no evidence that early Christianity was not based on Plato. It is evident that the some of the early Christians (many of whom were educated professional men) did understand Greek philosophy and sometimes uses concepts or images (popular at that time) to express Christian concepts.

If you are referring to Philo of Alxandria, he was a contemporary of the New Testament authors who as a Jewish rabbi tried to reconcile Greek philosophy with Jewish laws. Again, it was an attempt to take something popular (Greek philosophy and culture) and use it as a starting point to introduce religious concepts (in this case Judaism.) Some o the early church father did borrow from the writings of Philo and uses some of the same "tricks" to use Gree philosophy as a tarting point to introduce the Christian faith. Again, that is common to most generations. Look at the wriitngs of CS Lewis from the 1950's. His texts like "Mere Christianity" borrow heavily from philosophy and logic to make a argument for the Christian faith. But it is no based on either of those. It is based on the teachings of Christ.

The origin of the Christian faith was the teachings of Jesus. That those teachings would reflect the culture and beliefs of the society in which they were given only makes sense. Why would I try to explain an idea to a American audience using concepts from ancient China? The audience would not follow them. I would use ideas that were common to the American audience.

It is based on the teachings of Christ.