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A Theologico-Political Treatise

Part III - Chapters XI to XV

by Baruch Spinoza




TABLE OF CONTENTS:



CHAPTER XI - An Inquiry whether the Apostles wrote their
Epistles as Apostles and Prophets, or merely as Teachers,
and an Explanation of what is meant by Apostle.

The epistles not in the prophetic style.

The Apostles not commanded to write or preach in particular places.

Different methods of teaching adopted by the Apostles.



CHAPTER XII - Of the true Original of the Divine Law,
and wherefore Scripture is called Sacred, and the Word of God.
How that, in so far as it contains the Word of God,
it has come down to us uncorrupted.



CHAPTER XIII - It is shown, that Scripture teaches only very Simple Doctrines,
such as suffice for right conduct.

Error in speculative doctrine not impious - nor knowledge pious.
Piety consists in obedience.



CHAPTER XIV - Definitions of Faith, the True Faith, and the Foundations
of Faith, which is once for all separated from Philosophy.

Danger resulting from the vulgar idea of faith.

The only test of faith obedience and good works.

As different men are disposed to obedience by different opinions,
universal faith can contain only the simplest doctrines.

Fundamental distinction between faith and philosophy -
the key-stone of the present treatise.



CHAPTER XV - Theology is shown not to be subservient to
Reason, nor Reason to Theology: a Definition of the reason
which enables us to accept the Authority of the Bible.

Theory that Scripture must be accommodated to Reason -
maintained by Maimonides - already refuted in Chapter vii.

Theory that Reason must be accommodated to Scripture -
maintained by Alpakhar - examined.

And refuted.

Scripture and Reason independent of one another.

Certainty, of fundamental faith not mathematical but moral.

Great utility of Revelation.


Author's Endnotes to the Treatise.




CHAPTER XI - AN INQUIRY WHETHER THE APOSTLES WROTE THEIR
EPISTLES AS APOSTLES AND PROPHETS, OR MERELY AS TEACHERS;
AND AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT IS MEANT BY AN APOSTLE.


(1) No reader of the New Testament can doubt that the Apostles were
prophets; but as a prophet does not always speak by revelation, but only, at
rare intervals, as we showed at the end of Chap. I., we may fairly inquire
whether the Apostles wrote their Epistles as prophets, by revelation and
express mandate, as Moses, Jeremiah, and others did, or whether only as
private individuals or teachers, especially as Paul, in Corinthians xiv:6,
mentions two sorts of preaching.

(2) If we examine the style of the Epistles, we shall find it totally
different from that employed by the prophets.

(3) The prophets are continually asserting that they speak by the command of
God: "Thus saith the Lord," "The Lord of hosts saith," "The command of the
Lord," &c.; and this was their habit not only in assemblies of the prophets,
but also in their epistles containing revelations, as appears from the epistle
of Elijah to Jehoram, 2 Chron. xxi:12, which begins, "Thus saith the Lord."

(4) In the Apostolic Epistles we find nothing of the sort. (5) Contrariwise,
in I Cor. vii:40 Paul speaks according to his own opinion and in many
passages we come across doubtful and perplexed phrase; such as, "We think,
therefore," Rom. iii:28; "Now I think," [Endnote 24],  Rom. viii:18, and so
on. (6) Besides these, other expressions are met with very different from
those used by the prophets. (7) For instance, 1 Cor. vii:6, "But I speak
this by permission, not by commandment;" "I give my judgment as one that
hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful" (1 Cor. vii:25), and so on
in many other passages. (8) We must also remark that in the aforesaid
chapter the Apostle says that when he states that he has or has
not the precept or commandment of God, he does not mean the precept or
commandment of God revealed to himself, but only the words uttered by Christ
in His Sermon on the Mount. (9) Furthermore, if we examine the manner in
which the Apostles give out evangelical doctrine, we shall see that it
differs materially from the method adopted by the prophets. (10) The
Apostles everywhere reason as if they were arguing rather than prophesying;
the prophecies, on the other hand, contain only dogmas and commands. (11)
God is therein introduced not as speaking to reason, but as issuing decrees
by His absolute fiat. (12) The authority of the prophets does not submit to
discussion, for whosoever wishes to find rational ground for his arguments,
by that very wish submits them to everyone's private judgment. (13) This
Paul, inasmuch as he uses reason, appears to have done, for he says in 1
Cor. x:15, "I speak as to wise men, judge ye what I say." (14) The prophets,
as we showed at the end of Chapter I., did not perceive what was revealed by
virtue of their natural reason, and though there are certain passages in the
Pentateuch which seem to be appeals to induction, they turn out, on nearer
examination, to be nothing but peremptory commands. (15) For instance, when
Moses says, Deut. xxxi:27, "Behold, while I am yet alive with you, this day
ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after
my death," we must by no means conclude that Moses wished to convince the
Israelites by reason that they would necessarily fall away from the worship
of the Lord after his death; for the argument would have been false, as
Scripture itself shows: the Israelites continued faithful during the lives
of Joshua and the elders, and afterwards during the time of Samuel, David,
and Solomon. (16) Therefore the words of Moses are merely a moral
injunction, in which he predicts rhetorically the future backsliding of the
people so as to impress it vividly on their imagination. (17) I say that
Moses spoke of himself in order to lend likelihood to his prediction, and
not as a prophet by revelation, because in verse 21 of the same chapter we
are told that God revealed the same thing to Moses in different words, and
there was no need to make Moses certain by argument of God's prediction and
decree; it was only necessary that it should be vividly impressed on
his imagination, and this could not be better accomplished than by
imagining the existing contumacy of the people, of which he had had frequent
experience, as likely to extend into the future.

(18) All the arguments employed by Moses in the five books are to be
understood in a similar manner; they are not drawn from the armoury of
reason, but are merely, modes of expression calculated to instil with
efficacy, and present vividly to the imagination the commands of God.
(19) However, I do not wish absolutely to deny that the prophets ever argued
from revelation; I only maintain that the prophets made more legitimate use
of argument in proportion as their knowledge approached more nearly to
ordinary knowledge, and by this we know that they possessed a knowledge
above the ordinary, inasmuch as they proclaimed absolute dogmas,
decrees, or judgments. (20) Thus Moses, the chief of the prophets, never
used legitimate argument, and, on the other hand, the long deductions and
arguments of Paul, such as we find in the Epistle to the Romans, are in
nowise written from supernatural revelation.

(21) The modes of expression and discourse adopted by the Apostles in the
Epistles, show very clearly that the latter were not written by revelation
and Divine command, but merely by the natural powers and judgment of the
authors. (22) They consist in brotherly admonitions and courteous
expressions such as would never be employed in prophecy, as for instance,
Paul's excuse in Romans xv:15, "I have written the more boldly unto you in
some sort, my brethren."

(23) We may arrive at the same conclusion from observing that we never read
that the Apostles were commanded to write, but only that they went
everywhere preaching, and confirmed their words with signs. (24) Their
personal presence and signs were absolutely necessary for the conversion and
establishment in religion of the Gentiles; as Paul himself expressly states
in Rom. i:11, "But I long to see you, that I may impart to you some
spiritual gift, to the end that ye may be established."

(25) It may be objected that we might prove in similar fashion that the
Apostles did not preach as prophets, for they did not go to particular
places, as the prophets did, by the command of God. (26) We read in
the Old Testament that Jonah went to Nineveh to preach, and at the
same time that he was expressly sent there, and told that he most preach.
(27) So also it is related, at great length, of Moses that he went to Egypt
as the messenger of God, and was told at the same time what he should say to
the children of Israel and to king Pharaoh, and what wonders he should work
before them to give credit to his words. (28) Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel were expressly commanded to preach to the Israelites. Lastly, the
prophets only preached what we are assured by Scripture they had received
from God, whereas this is hardly ever said of the Apostles in the New
Testament, when they went about to preach. (29) On the contrary, we find
passages expressly implying that the Apostles chose the places where they
should preach on their own responsibility, for there was a difference
amounting to a quarrel between Paul and Barnabas on the subject (Acts xv:37,
38). (30) Often they wished to go to a place, but were prevented, as Paul
writes, Rom. i:13, "Oftentimes I purposed to come to you, but was let
hitherto;" and in I Cor. xvi:12, "As touching our brother Apollos, I greatly
desired him to come unto you with the brethren, but his will was not at all
to come at this time: but he will come when he shall have convenient time."

(31) From these expressions and differences of opinion among the Apostles,
and also from the fact that Scripture nowhere testifies of them, as of the
ancient prophets, that they went by the command of God, one might conclude
that they preached as well as wrote in their capacity of teachers, and not
as prophets: but the question is easily solved if we observe the difference
between the mission of an Apostle and that of an Old Testament prophet. (32)
The latter were not called to preach and prophesy to all nations, but to
certain specified ones, and therefore an express and peculiar mandate was
required for each of them; the Apostles, on the other hand, were called to
preach to all men absolutely, and to turn all men to religion. (33)
Therefore, whithersoever they went, they were fulfilling Christ's
commandment; there was no need to reveal to them beforehand what they should
preach, for they were the disciples of Christ to whom their Master Himself
said (Matt. X:19, 20): "But, when they deliver you up, take no thought
how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same
hour what ye shall speak." (34) We therefore conclude that the Apostles
were only indebted to special revelation in what they orally preached and
confirmed by signs (see the beginning of Chap. 11.); that which they taught
in speaking or writing without any confirmatory signs and wonders
they taught from their natural knowledge. (See I Cor. xiv:6.) (35) We need
not be deterred by the fact that all the Epistles begin by citing the
imprimatur of the Apostleship, for the Apostles, as I will shortly show,
were granted, not only the faculty of prophecy, but also the authority to
teach. (36) We may therefore admit that they wrote their Epistles as
Apostles, and for this cause every one of them began by citing the Apostolic
imprimatur, possibly with a view to the attention of the reader by asserting
that they were the persons who had made such mark among the faithful by
their preaching, and had shown by many marvelous works that they were
teaching true religion and the way of salvation. (37) I observe that what is
said in the Epistles with regard to the Apostolic vocation and the Holy
Spirit of God which inspired them, has reference to their former preaching,
except in those passages where the expressions of the Spirit of God and the
Holy Spirit are used to signify a mind pure, upright, and devoted to
God. (38) For instance, in 1 Cor. vii:40, Paul says: But she is happier if
she so abide, after my judgment, and I think also that I have the Spirit of
God." (39) By the Spirit of God the Apostle here refers to his mind, as
we may see from the context: his meaning is as follows: "I account blessed
a widow who does not wish to marry a second husband; such is my opinion, for
I have settled to live unmarried, and I think that I am blessed." (40) There
are other similar passages which I need not now quote.

(41) As we have seen that the Apostles wrote their Epistles solely by the
light of natural reason, we must inquire how they were enabled to teach by
natural knowledge matters outside its scope. (42) However, if we bear in
mind what we said in Chap. VII. of this treatise our difficulty will vanish:
for although the contents of the Bible entirely surpass our understanding,
we may safely discourse of them, provided we assume nothing not told
us in Scripture: by the same method the Apostles, from what they saw
and heard, and from what was revealed to them, were enabled to form and
elicit many conclusions which they would have been able to teach to men had
it been permissible.

(43) Further, although religion, as preached by the Apostles, does not come
within the sphere of reason, in so far as it consists in the narration of
the life of Christ, yet its essence, which is chiefly moral, like the whole
of Christ's doctrine, can readily, be apprehended by the natural
faculties of all.

(44) Lastly, the Apostles had no lack of supernatural illumination for the
purpose of adapting the religion they had attested by signs to the
understanding of everyone so that it might be readily received; nor for
exhortations on the subject: in fact, the object of the Epistles is to teach
and exhort men to lead that manner of life which each of the Apostles judged
best for confirming them in religion. (45) We may here repeat our former
remark, that the Apostles had received not only the faculty of preaching the
history, of Christ as prophets, and confirming it with signs, but also
authority for teaching and exhorting according as each thought best. (46)
Paul (2 Tim. i:11), "Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle,
and a teacher of the Gentiles;" and again (I Tim. ii:7), "Whereunto I am
ordained a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ and lie
not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity." (47) These passages, I
say, show clearly the stamp both of the apostleship and the teachership:
the authority for admonishing whomsoever and wheresoever he pleased is
asserted by Paul in the Epistle to Philemon, v:8: "Wherefore, though I might
be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet," &c.,
where we may remark that if Paul had received from God as a prophet
what he wished to enjoin Philemon, and had been bound to speak in his
prophetic capacity, he would not have been able to change the command of God
into entreaties. (48) We must therefore understand him to refer to the
permission to admonish which he had received as a teacher, and not as a
prophet. (49) We have not yet made it quite clear that the Apostles might
each choose his own way of teaching, but only that by virtue of their
Apostleship they were teachers as well as prophets; however, if we
call reason to our aid we shall clearly see that an authority to teach
implies authority to choose the method. (50) It will nevertheless be,
perhaps, more satisfactory to draw all our proofs from Scripture; we are
there plainly told that each Apostle chose his particular method (Rom. xv:
20): "Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was
named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation." (51) If
all the Apostles had adopted the same method of teaching, and had all built
up the Christian religion on the same foundation, Paul would have had no
reason to call the work of a fellow-Apostle "another man's foundation,"
inasmuch as it would have been identical with his own: his calling it
another man's proved that each Apostle built up his religious instruction on
different foundations, thus resembling other teachers who have each their
own method, and prefer instructing quite ignorant people who have never
learnt under another master, whether the subject be science, languages, or
even the indisputable truths of mathematics. (52) Furthermore, if we go
through the Epistles at all attentively, we shall see that the Apostles,
while agreeing about religion itself, are at variance as to the foundations
it rests on. (53) Paul, in order to strengthen men's religion, and show them
that salvation depends solely on the grace of God, teaches that no one can
boast of works, but only of faith, and that no one can be justified by works
(Rom. iii:27,28); in fact, he preaches the complete doctrine of
predestination. (54) James, on the other hand, states that man is justified
by works, and not by faith only (see his Epistle, ii:24), and omitting all
the disputations of Paul, confines religion to a very few elements.

(55) Lastly, it is indisputable that from these different ground; for
religion selected by the Apostles, many quarrels and schisms distracted the
Church, even in the earliest times, and doubtless they will continue so to
distract it for ever, or at least till religion is separated from
philosophical speculations, and reduced to the few simple doctrines taught
by Christ to His disciples; such a task was impossible for the Apostles,
because the Gospel was then unknown to mankind, and lest its novelty should
offend men's ears it had to be adapted to the disposition of
contemporaries (2 Cor. ix:19, 20), and built up on the groundwork most
familiar and accepted at the time. (56) Thus none of the Apostles
philosophized more than did Paul, who was called to preach to the Gentiles;
other Apostles preaching to the Jews, who despised philosophy, similarly,
adapted themselves to the temper of their hearers (see Gal. ii. 11), and
preached a religion free from all philosophical speculations. (57) How blest
would our age be if it could witness a religion freed also from all the
trammels of superstition!




CHAPTER XII - OF THE TRUE ORIGINAL OF THE DIVINE LAW, AND
 WHEREFORE SCRIPTURE IS CALLED SACRED, AND THE WORD OF GOD.
 HOW THAT, IN SO FAR AS IT CONTAINS THE WORD OF GOD,
 IT HAS COME DOWN TO US UNCORRUPTED.

(1) Those who look upon the Bible as a message sent down by God from Heaven
to men, will doubtless cry out that I have committed the sin against the
Holy Ghost because I have asserted that the Word of God is faulty,
mutilated, tampered with, and inconsistent; that we possess it only in
fragments, and that the original of the covenant which God made with the
Jews has been lost. (2) However, I have no doubt that a little reflection
will cause them to desist from their uproar: for not only reason but the
expressed opinions of prophets and apostles openly proclaim that God's
eternal Word and covenant, no less than true religion, is Divinely inscribed
in human hearts, that is, in the human mind, and that this is the true
original of God's covenant, stamped with His own seal, namely, the idea of
Himself, as it were, with the image of His Godhood.

(3) Religion was imparted to the early Hebrews as a law written down,
because they were at that time in the condition of children, but afterwards
Moses (Deut. xxx:6) and Jeremiah (xxxi:33) predicted a time coming when the
Lord should write His law in their hearts. (4) Thus only the Jews, and
amongst them chiefly the Sadducees, struggled for the law written on
tablets; least of all need those who bear it inscribed on their hearts join
in the contest. (5) Those, therefore, who reflect, will find nothing in what
I have written repugnant either to the Word of God or to true religion and
faith, or calculated to weaken either one or the other: contrariwise, they
will see that I have strengthened religion, as I showed at the end of
Chapter X.; indeed, had it not been so, I should certainly have decided to
hold my peace, nay, I would even have asserted as a way out of all
difficulties that the Bible contains the most profound hidden
mysteries; however, as this doctrine has given rise to gross superstition
and other pernicious results spoken of at the beginning of Chapter V., I
have thought such a course unnecessary, especially as religion stands in no
need of superstitious adornments, but is, on the contrary, deprived by such
trappings of some of her splendour.

(6) Still, it will be said, though the law of God is written in the heart,
the Bible is none the less the Word of God, and it is no more lawful to say
of Scripture than of God's Word that it is mutilated and corrupted. (7) I
fear that such objectors are too anxious to be pious, and that they are in
danger of turning religion into superstition, and worshipping paper and ink
in place of God's Word.

(8) I am certified of thus much: I have said nothing unworthy of Scripture
or God's Word, and I have made no assertions which I could not prove by most
plain argument to be true. (9) I can, therefore, rest assured that I have
advanced nothing which is impious or even savours of impiety.

(10) from what I have said, assume a licence to sin, and without any reason,
at I confess that some profane men, to whom religion is a burden, may, the
simple dictates of their lusts conclude that Scripture is everywhere faulty
and falsified, and that therefore its authority is null; but such men are
beyond the reach of help, for nothing, as the pro verb has it, can be said
so rightly that it cannot be twisted into wrong. (11) Those who wish to give
rein to their lusts are at no loss for an excuse, nor were those men of old
who possessed the original Scriptures, the ark of the covenant, nay, the
prophets and apostles in person among them, any better than the people of
to-day. (12) Human nature, Jew as well as Gentile, has always been the same,
and in every age virtue has been exceedingly rare.

(13) Nevertheless, to remove every scruple, I will here show in what sense
the Bible or any inanimate thing should be called sacred and Divine;
also wherein the law of God consists, and how it cannot be contained in a
certain number of books; and, lastly, I will show that Scripture, in so far
as it teaches what is necessary for obedience and salvation, cannot have
been corrupted. (14) From these considerations everyone will be able to
judge that I have neither said anything against the Word of God nor given
any foothold to impiety.

(15) A thing is called sacred and Divine when it is designed for promoting
piety, and continues sacred so long as it is religiously used: if the users
cease to be pious, the thing ceases to be sacred: if it be turned to base
uses, that which was formerly sacred becomes unclean and profane. (16) For
instance, a certain spot was named by the patriarch Jacob the house of God,
because he worshipped God there revealed to him: by the prophets the same
spot was called the house of iniquity (see Amos v:5, and Hosea x:5), because
the Israelites were wont, at the instigation of Jeroboam, to sacrifice there
to idols. (17) Another example puts the matter in the plainest light. (18)
Words gain their meaning solely from their usage, and if they are arranged
according to their accepted signification so as to move those who read them
to devotion, they will become sacred, and the book so written will be sacred
also. (19) But if their usage afterwards dies out so that the words have no
meaning, or the book becomes utterly neglected, whether from unworthy
motives, or because it is no longer needed, then the words and the book will
lose both their use and their sanctity: lastly, if these same words be
otherwise arranged, or if their customary meaning becomes perverted into its
opposite, then both the words and the book containing them become, instead
of sacred, impure and profane.

(20) From this it follows that nothing is in itself absolutely sacred, or
profane, and unclean, apart from the mind, but only relatively thereto. (21)
Thus much is clear from many passages in the Bible. (22) Jeremiah (to select
one case out of many) says (chap. vii:4), that the Jews of his time
were wrong in calling Solomon's Temple, the Temple of God, for, as he goes
on to say in the same chapter, God's name would