Sentence Numbers, shown thus (1), have been added by volunteer.
A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 1 - Chapters I to V
Baruch Spinoza
A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 1 - Chapters I to V
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PREFACE.
Origin and consequences of superstition.
Causes that have led the author to write.
Course of his investigation.
For what readers the treatise is designed. Submission of author
to the rulers of his country.
CHAPTER I - Of Prophecy.
Definition of prophecy.
Distinction between revelation to Moses and to the other prophets.
Between Christ and other recipients of revelation.
Ambiguity of the word "Spirit."
The different senses in which things may be referred to God.
Different senses of "Spirit of God."
Prophets perceived revelation by imagination.
CHAPTER II - Of Prophets.
A mistake to suppose that prophecy can give knowledge of phenomena
Certainty of prophecy based on:
(1) Vividness of imagination,
(2) A Sign,
(3) Goodness of the Prophet.
Variation of prophecy with the temperament and opinions of the individual.
CHAPTER III - Of the Vocation of the Hebrews, and whether the Gift of
Prophecy was peculiar to them.
Happiness of Hebrews did not consist in the inferiority of the Gentile.
Nor in philosophic knowledge or virtue.
But in their conduct of affairs of state and escape from political dangers.
Even this Distinction did not exist in the time of Abraham.
Testimony from the Old Testament itself to the share of the Gentiles
in the law and favour of God.
Explanation of apparent discrepancy of the Epistle to the Romans.
Answer to the arguments for the eternal election of the Jews.
CHAPTER IV - Of the Divine Law.
Laws either depend on natural necessity or on human decree. The existence
of the latter not inconsistent with the former class of laws.
Divine law a kind of law founded on human decree:
called Divine from its object.
Divine law:
(1) universal;
(2) independent of the truth of any historical narrative;
(3) independent of rites and ceremonies;
(4) its own reward.
Reason does not present God as a law-giver for men.
Such a conception a proof of ignorance - in Adam - in the Israelites -
in Christians.
Testimony of the Scriptures in favour of reason and the
rational view of the Divine.
CHAPTER V - Of the Ceremonial Law.
Ceremonial law of the Old Testament no part of the Divine universal law,
but partial and temporary. Testimony of the prophets themselves to this
Testimony of the New Testament.
How the ceremonial law tended to preserve the Hebrew kingdom.
Christian rites on a similar footing.
What part of the Scripture narratives is one bound to believe?
Authors Endnotes to the Treatise.
A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 1 - Chapters I to V
PREFACE.
(1)Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their
circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but
being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being
often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty
of fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the most
part, very prone to credulity. (2) The human mind is readily swayed this way
or that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling for
the mastery, though usually it is boastful, over - confident, and vain.
(3) This as a general fact I suppose everyone knows, though few, I believe,
know their own nature; no one can have lived in the world without observing
that most people, when in prosperity, are so over-brimming with wisdom
(however inexperienced they may be), that they take every offer of advice as
a personal insult, whereas in adversity they know not where to turn, but beg
and pray for counsel from every passer-by. (4) No plan is then too futile,
too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causes
will raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair - if anything happens
during their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they think
it portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may have
proved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen.
(5) Anything which excites their astonishment they believe to be a portent
signifying the anger of the gods or of the Supreme Being, and, mistaking
superstition for religion, account it impious not to avert the evil with
prayer and sacrifice. (6) Signs and wonders of this sort they conjure up
perpetually, till one might think Nature as mad as themselves, they
interpret her so fantastically.
(7) Thus it is brought prominently before us, that superstition's chief
victims are those persons who greedily covet temporal advantages; they it
is, who (especially when they are in danger, and cannot help themselves) are
wont with Prayers and womanish tears to implore help from God: upbraiding
Reason as blind, because she cannot show a sure path to the shadows they
pursue, and rejecting human wisdom as vain; but believing the phantoms of
imagination, dreams, and other childish absurdities, to be the very oracles
of Heaven. (8) As though God had turned away from the wise, and written His
decrees, not in the mind of man but in the entrails of beasts, or left them
to be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, and
birds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!
(9) Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear. If
anyone desire an example, let him take Alexander, who only began
superstitiously to seek guidance from seers, when he first learnt to fear
fortune in the passes of Sysis (Curtius, v. 4); whereas after he had
conquered Darius he consulted prophets no more, till a second time
frightened by reverses. (10) When the Scythians were provoking a battle, the
Bactrians had deserted, and he himself was lying sick of his wounds, "he
once more turned to superstition, the mockery of human wisdom, and bade
Aristander, to whom he confided his credulity, inquire the issue of affairs
with sacrificed victims." (11) Very numerous examples of a like nature might
be cited, clearly showing the fact, that only while under the dominion of
fear do men fall a prey to superstition; that all the portents ever invested
with the reverence of misguided religion are mere phantoms of dejected and
fearful minds; and lastly, that prophets have most power among the people,
and are most formidable to rulers, precisely at those times when the state
is in most peril. (12) I think this is sufficiently plain to all, and will
therefore say no more on the subject.
(13) The origin of superstition above given affords us a clear reason for
the fact, that it comes to all men naturally, though some refer its rise to
a dim notion of God, universal to mankind, and also tends to show, that it
is no less inconsistent and variable than other mental hallucinations and
emotional impulses, and further that it can only be maintained by hope,
hatred, anger, and deceit; since it springs, not from reason, but solely
from the more powerful phases of emotion. (14) Furthermore, we may readily
understand how difficult it is, to maintain in the same course men prone to
every form of credulity. (15) For, as the mass of mankind remains always at
about the same pitch of misery, it never assents long to any one remedy, but
is always best pleased by a novelty which has not yet proved illusive.
(16) This element of inconsistency has been the cause of many terrible wars
and revolutions; for, as Curtius well says (lib. iv. chap. 10): "The mob has
no ruler more potent than superstition," and is easily led, on the plea of
religion, at one moment to adore its kings as gods, and anon to execrate and
abjure them as humanity's common bane. (17) Immense pains have therefore
been taken to counteract this evil by investing religion, whether true or
false, with such pomp and ceremony, that it may rise superior to every
shock, and be always observed with studious reverence by the whole people--a
system which has been brought to great perfection by the Turks, for they
consider even controversy impious, and so clog men's minds with dogmatic
formulas, that they leave no room for sound reason, not even enough to doubt
with.
(18) But if, in despotic statecraft, the supreme and essential mystery be to
hoodwink the subjects, and to mask the fear, which keeps them clown, with
the specious garb of religion, so that men may fight as bravely for slavery
as for safety, and count it not shame but highest honour to risk their blood
and their lives for the vainglory of a tyrant; yet in a free state no more
mischievous expedient could be planned or attempted. (19) Wholly repugnant
to the general freedom are such devices as enthralling men's minds with
prejudices, forcing their judgment, or employing any of the weapons of
quasi-religious sedition; indeed, such seditions only spring up, when law
enters the domain of speculative thought, and opinions are put on trial and
condemned on the same footing as crimes, while those who defend and follow
them are sacrificed, not to public safety, but to their opponents'
hatred and cruelty. (20) If deeds only could be made the grounds of
criminal charges, and words were always allowed to pass free, such seditions
would be divested of every semblance of justification, and would be
separated from mere controversies by a hard and fast line.
(20) Now, seeing that we have the rare happiness of living in a republic,
where everyone's judgment is free and unshackled, where each may worship God
as his conscience dictates, and where freedom is esteemed before all things
dear and precious, I have believed that I should be undertaking no
ungrateful or unprofitable task, in demonstrating that not only can
such freedom be granted without prejudice to the public peace, but also,
that without such freedom, piety cannot flourish nor the public peace be
secure.
(21) Such is the chief conclusion I seek to establish in this treatise; but,
in order to reach it, I must first point out the misconceptions which, like
scars of our former bondage, still disfigure our notion of religion, and
must expose the false views about the civil authority which many have most
impudently advocated, endeavouring to turn the mind of the people, still
prone to heathen superstition, away from its legitimate rulers, and so bring
us again into slavery. (22) As to the order of my treatise I will speak
presently, but first I will recount the causes which led me to write.
(23) I have often wondered, that persons who make a boast of professing the
Christian religion, namely, love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to all
men, should quarrel with such rancorous animosity, and display daily towards
one another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than the virtues they
claim, is the readiest criterion of their faith. (24) Matters have long
since come to such a pass, that one can only pronounce a man Christian,
Turk, Jew, or Heathen, by his general appearance and attire, by his
frequenting this or that place of worship, or employing the phraseology of a
particular sect - as for manner of life, it is in all cases the same. (25)
Inquiry into the cause of this anomaly leads me unhesitatingly to ascribe it
to the fact, that the ministries of the Church are regarded by the masses
merely as dignities, her offices as posts of emolument - in short, popular
religion may be summed up as respect for ecclesiastics. (26) The spread of
this misconception inflamed every worthless fellow with an intense desire to
enter holy orders, and thus the love of diffusing God's religion degenerated
into sordid avarice and ambition. (27) Every church became a theatre, where
orators, instead of church teachers, harangued, caring not to instruct the
people, but striving to attract admiration, to bring opponents to public
scorn, and to preach only novelties and paradoxes, such as would tickle
the ears of their congregation. (28) This state of things necessarily
stirred up an amount of controversy, envy, and hatred, which no lapse of
time could appease; so that we can scarcely wonder that of the old religion
nothing survives but its outward forms (even these, in the mouth of the
multitude, seem rather adulation than adoration of the Deity), and that
faith has become a mere compound of credulity and prejudices - aye,
prejudices too, which degrade man from rational being to beast, which
completely stifle the power of judgment between true and false, which seem,
in fact, carefully fostered for the purpose of extinguishing the last spark
of reason! (29) Piety, great God! and religion are become a tissue of
ridiculous mysteries; men, who flatly despise reason, who reject and turn
away from understanding as naturally corrupt, these, I say, these of all
men, are thought, O lie most horrible! to possess light from on High. (30)
Verily, if they had but one spark of light from on High, they would not
insolently rave, but would learn to worship God more wisely, and would be as
marked among their fellows for mercy as they now are for malice; if they
were concerned for their opponents' souls, instead of for their own
reputations, they would no longer fiercely persecute, but rather be filled
with pity and compassion.
(31) Furthermore, if any Divine light were in them, it would appear from
their doctrine. (32) I grant that they are never tired of professing their
wonder at the profound mysteries of Holy Writ; still I cannot discover that
they teach anything but speculations of Platonists and Aristotelians, to
which (in order to save their credit for Christianity) they have made Holy
Writ conform; not content to rave with the Greeks themselves, they want to
make the prophets rave also; showing conclusively, that never even in sleep
have they caught a glimpse of Scripture's Divine nature. (33) The very
vehemence of their admiration for the mysteries plainly attests, that
their belief in the Bible is a formal assent rather than a living faith: and
the fact is made still more apparent by their laying down beforehand, as a
foundation for the study and true interpretation of Scripture, the principle
that it is in every passage true and divine. (34) Such a doctrine should be
reached only after strict scrutiny and thorough comprehension of the Sacred
Books (which would teach it much better, for they stand in need no human
factions), and not be set up on the threshold, as it were, of inquiry.
(35) As I pondered over the facts that the light of reason is not only
despised, but by many even execrated as a source of impiety, that human
commentaries are accepted as divine records, and that credulity is extolled
as faith; as I marked the fierce controversies of philosophers raging in
Church and State, the source of bitter hatred and dissension, the ready
instruments of sedition and other ills innumerable, I determined to examine
the Bible afresh in a careful, impartial, and unfettered spirit, making no
assumptions concerning it, and attributing to it no doctrines, which I do
not find clearly therein set down. (36) With these precautions I constructed
a method of Scriptural interpretation, and thus equipped proceeded to
inquire - what is prophecy? (37) In what sense did God reveal himself to the
prophets, and why were these particular men - chosen by him? (38) Was it on
account of the sublimity of their thoughts about the Deity and nature, or
was it solely on account of their piety? (39) These questions being
answered, I was easily able to conclude, that the authority of the prophets
has weight only in matters of morality, and that their speculative doctrines
affect us little.
(40) Next I inquired, why the Hebrews were called God's chosen people,
and discovering that it was only because God had chosen for them a
certain strip of territory, where they might live peaceably and at
ease, I learnt that the Law revealed by God to Moses was merely the law
of the individual Hebrew state, therefore that it was binding on none
but Hebrews, and not even on Hebrews after the downfall of their
nation. (41) Further, in order to ascertain, whether it could be
concluded from Scripture, that the human understanding is naturally
corrupt, I inquired whether the Universal Religion, the Divine Law
revealed through the Prophets and Apostles to the whole human race,
differs from that which is taught by the light of natural reason,
whether miracles can take place in violation of the laws of nature, and
if so, whether they imply the existence of God more surely and clearly
than events, which we understand plainly and distinctly through their
immediate natural causes.
(42) Now, as in the whole course of my investigation I found nothing taught
expressly by Scripture, which does not agree with our understanding, or
which is repugnant thereto, and as I saw that the prophets taught nothing,
which is not very simple and easily to be grasped by all, and further, that
they clothed their teaching in the style, and confirmed it with the reasons,
which would most deeply move the mind of the masses to devotion towards God,
I became thoroughly convinced, that the Bible leaves reason absolutely free,
that it has nothing in common with philosophy, in fact, that Revelation and
Philosophy stand on different footings. In order to set this forth
categorically and exhaust the whole question, I point out the way in which
the Bible should be interpreted, and show that all of spiritual questions
should be sought from it alone, and not from the objects of ordinary
knowledge. (43) Thence I pass on to indicate the false notions, which have
from the fact that the multitude - ever prone to superstition, and caring
more for the shreds of antiquity for eternal truths - pays homage to the
Books of the Bible, rather than to the Word of God. (44) I show that the
Word of God has not been revealed as a certain number of books, was
displayed to the prophets as a simple idea of the mind, namely, obedience to
God in singleness of heart, and in the practice of justice and charity; and
I further point out, that this doctrine is set forth in Scripture in
accordance with the opinions and understandings of those, among whom the
Apostles and Prophets preached, to the end that men might receive it
willingly, and with their whole heart.
(45) Having thus laid bare the bases of belief, I draw the conclusion that
Revelation has obedience for its sole object, therefore, in purpose no less
than in foundation and method, stands entirely aloof from ordinary
knowledge; each has its separate province, neither can be called the
handmaid of the other.
(46) Furthermore, as men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily
embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move
another only to scoff, I conclude, in accordance with what has gone before,
that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his
creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits; each would then
obey God freely with his whole heart, while nothing would be publicly
honoured save justice and charity.
(47) Having thus drawn attention to the liberty conceded to everyone by the
revealed law of God, I pass on to another part of my subject, and prove that
this same liberty can and should be accorded with safety to the state and
the magisterial authority - in fact, that it cannot be withheld without
great danger to peace and detriment to the community.
(48) In order to establish my point, I start from the natural rights of the
individual, which are co-extensive with his desires and power, and from the
fact that no one is bound to live as another pleases, but is the guardian of
his own liberty. (49) I show that these rights can only be transferred to
those whom we depute to defend us, who acquire with the duties of defence
the power of ordering our lives, and I thence infer that rulers possess
rights only limited by their power, that they are the sole guardians of
justice and liberty, and that their subjects should act in all things as
they dictate: nevertheless, since no one can so utterly abdicate his own
power of self-defence as to cease to be a man, I conclude that no one can be
deprived of his natural rights absolutely, but that subjects, either by
tacit agreement, or by social contract, retain a certain number, which
cannot be taken from them without great danger to the state.
(50) From these considerations I pass on to the Hebrew State, which I
describe at some length, in order to trace the manner in which Religion
acquired the force of law, and to touch on other noteworthy points. (51) I
then prove, that the holders of sovereign power are the depositories and
interpreters of religious no less than of civil ordinances, and that they
alone have the right to decide what is just or unjust, pious or impious;
lastly, I conclude by showing, that they best retain this right and secure
safety to their state by allowing every man to think what he likes, and say
what he thinks.
(52) Such, Philosophical Reader, are the questions I submit to your notice,
counting on your approval, for the subject matter of the whole book and of
the several chapters is important and profitable. (53) I would say more, but
I do not want my preface to extend to a volume, especially as I know that
its leading propositions are to Philosophers but common places. (54) To the
rest of mankind I care not to commend my treatise, for I cannot expect that
it contains anything to please them: I know how deeply rooted are the
prejudices embraced under the name of religion; I am aware that in the mind
of the masses superstition is no less deeply rooted than fear; I recognize
that their constancy is mere obstinacy, and that they are led to praise or
blame by impulse rather than reason. (55) Therefore the multitude, and those
of like passions with the multitude, I ask not to read my book; nay, I would
rather that they should utterly neglect it, than that they should
misinterpret it after their wont. (56) They would gain no good themselves,
and might prove a stumbling-block to others, whose philosophy is hampered by
the belief that Reason is a mere handmaid to Theology, and whom I seek in
this work especially to benefit. (57) But as there will be many who have
neither the leisure, nor, perhaps, the inclination to read through all I
have written, I feel bound here, as at the end of my treatise, to declare
that I have written nothing, which I do not most willingly submit to the
examination and judgment of my country's rulers, and that I am ready to
retract anything, which they shall decide to be repugnant to the laws or
prejudicial to the public good. (58) I know that I am a man and, as a
man, liable to error, but against error I have taken scrupulous care, and
striven to keep in entire accordance with the laws of my country, with
loyalty, and with morality.
CHAPTER I. - Of Prophecy
(1) Prophecy, or revelation is sure knowledge revealed by God to man.
(2) A prophet is one who interprets the revelations of God to those who
are unable to attain to sure knowledge of the matters revealed, and
therefore can only apprehend them by simple faith.
(3) The Hebrew word for prophet is "_nabi_,"[Endnote 1] i.e. speaker or
interpreter, but in Scripture its meaning is restricted to interpreter
of God, as we may learn from Exodus vii:1, where God says to Moses,
"See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be
thy prophet;" implying that, since in interpreting Moses' words to
Pharaoh, Aaron acted the part of a prophet, Moses would be to Pharaoh
as a god, or in the attitude of a god.
(4) Prophets I will treat of in the next chapter, and at present consider
prophecy.
(5) Now it is evident, from the definition above given, that prophecy really
includes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by our
natural faculties depends on knowledge of God and His eternal laws; but
ordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on foundations
which all share, whereas the multitude always strains after rarities
and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, when
prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included.
(6) Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine, for
God's nature, in so far as we share therein, and God's laws, dictate it to
us; nor does it suffer from that to which we give the preeminence, except in
so far as the latter transcends its limits and cannot be accounted for by
natural laws taken in themselves. (7) In respect to the certainty it
involves, and the source from which it is derived, i.e. God, ordinary
knowledge is no whit inferior to prophetic, unless indeed we believe, or
rather dream, that the prophets had human bodies but superhuman minds, and
therefore that their sensations and consciousness were entirely different
from our own.
(8) But, although ordinary knowledge is Divine, its professors cannot be
called prophets [Endnote 2], for they teach what the rest of mankind could
perceive and apprehend, not merely by simple faith, but as surely and
honourably as themselves.
(9) Seeing then that our mind subjectively contains in itself and partakes
of the nature of God, and solely from this cause is enabled to form notions
explaining natural phenomena and inculcating morality, it follows that we
may rightly assert the nature of the human mind (in so far as it is thus
conceived) to be a primary cause of Divine revelation. (10) All that we
clearly and distinctly understand is dictated to us, as I have just pointed
out, by the idea and nature of God; not indeed through words, but in a way
far more excellent and agreeing perfectly with the nature of the mind, as
all who have enjoyed intellectual certainty will doubtless attest. (11)
Here, however, my chief purpose is to speak of matters having reference to
Scripture, so these few words on the light of reason will suffice.
(12) I will now pass on to, and treat more fully, the other ways and means
by which God makes revelations to mankind, both of that which transcends
ordinary knowledge, and of that within its scope; for there is no reason why
God should not employ other means to communicate what we know already by the
power of reason.
(13) Our conclusions on the subject must be drawn solely from Scripture; for
what can we affirm about matters transcending our knowledge except what is
told us by the words or writings of prophets? (14) And since there are, so
far as I know, no prophets now alive, we have no alternative but to read the
books of prophets departed, taking care the while not to reason from
metaphor or to ascribe anything to our authors which they do not themselves
distinctly state. (15) I must further premise that the Jews never make any
mention or account of secondary, or particular causes, but in a spirit of
religion, piety, and what is commonly called godliness, refer all things
directly to the Deity. (16) For instance if they make money by a
transaction, they say God gave it to them; if they desire anything, they say
God has disposed their hearts towards it; if they think anything, they say
God told them. (17) Hence we must not suppose that everything is prophecy or
revelation which is described in Scripture as told by God to anyone, but
only such things as are expressly announced as prophecy or revelation, or
are plainly pointed to as such by the context.
(18) A perusal of the sacred books will show us that all God's revelations
to the prophets were made through words or appearances, or a combination of
the two. (19) These words and appearances were of two kinds; 1.- real when
external to the mind of the prophet who heard or saw them, 2.- imaginary
when the imagination of the prophet was in a state which led him distinctly
to suppose that he heard or saw them.
(20) With a real voice God revealed to Moses the laws which He wished to be
transmitted to the Hebrews, as we may see from Exodus xxv:22, where God
says, "And there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from the
mercy seat which is between the Cherubim." (21) Some sort of real voice must
necessarily have been employed, for Moses found God ready to commune with
him at any time. This, as I shall shortly show, is the only instance of a
real voice.
(22) We might, perhaps, suppose that the voice with which God called Samuel
was real, for in 1 Sam. iii:21, we read, "And the Lord appeared again in
Shiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the
Lord;" implying that the appearance of the Lord consisted in His making
Himself known to Samuel through a voice; in other words, that Samuel heard
the Lord speaking. (23) But we are compelled to distinguish between the
prophecies of Moses and those of other prophets, and therefore must decide
that this voice was imaginary, a conclusion further supported by the voice's
resemblance to the voice of Eli, which Samuel was in the habit of hearing,
and therefore might easily imagine; when thrice called by the Lord, Samuel
supposed it to have been Eli.
(24) The voice which Abimelech heard was imaginary, for it is written,
Gen. xx:6, "And God said unto him in a dream." (25) So that the will of God
was manifest to him, not in waking, but only in sleep, that is, when the
imagination is most active and uncontrolled. (26) Some of the Jews believe
that the actual words of the Decalogue were not spoken by God, but that the
Israelites heard a noise only, without any distinct words, and during its
continuance apprehended the Ten Commandments by pure intuition; to this
opinion I myself once inclined, seeing that the words of the Decalogue in
Exodus are different from the words of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy, for the
discrepancy seemed to imply (since God only spoke once) that the Ten
Commandments were not intended to convey the actual words of the Lord, but
only His meaning. (27) However, unless we would do violence to Scripture, we
must certainly admit that the Israelites heard a real voice, for Scripture
expressly says, Deut. v:4, "God spake with you face to face," i.e. as two
men ordinarily interchange ideas through the instrumentality of their two
bodies; and therefore it seems more consonant with Holy Writ to suppose that
God really did create a voice of some kind with which the Decalogue was
revealed. (28) The discrepancy of the two versions is treated of in
Chap. VIII.
(29) Yet not even thus is all difficulty removed, for it seems scarcely
reasonable to affirm that a created thing, depending on God in the same
manner as other created things, would be able to express or explain the
nature of God either verbally or really by means of its individual
organism: for instance, by declaring in the first person, "I am the Lord
your God."
(30) Certainly when anyone says with his mouth, "I understand," we do not
attribute the understanding to the mouth, but to the mind of the speaker;
yet this is because the mouth is the natural organ of a man speaking, and
the hearer, knowing what understanding is, easily comprehends, by a
comparison with himself, that the speaker's mind is meant; but if we knew
nothing of God beyond the mere name and wished to commune with Him, and be
assured of His existence, I fail to see how our wish would be satisfied by
the declaration of a created thing (depending on God neither more nor less
than ourselves), "I am the Lord." (31) If God contorted the lips of Moses,
or, I will not say Moses, but some beast, till they pronounced the words,
"I am the Lord," should we apprehend the Lord's existence therefrom?
(32) Scripture seems clearly to point to the belief that God spoke Himself,
having descended from heaven to Mount Sinai for the purpose - and not only
that the Israelites heard Him speaking, but that their chief men beheld Him
(Ex:xxiv.) (33) Further the law of Moses, which might neither be added to
nor curtailed, and which was set up as a national standard of right, nowhere
prescribed the belief that God is without body, or even without form or
figure, but only ordained that the Jews should believe in His existence and
worship Him alone: it forbade them to invent or fashion any likeness of the
Deity, but this was to insure purity of service; because, never having seen
God, they could not by means of images recall the likeness of God, but only
the likeness of some created thing which might thus gradually take the place
of God as the object of their adoration. (34) Nevertheless, the Bible
clearly implies that God has a form, and that Moses when he heard God
speaking was permitted to behold it, or at least its hinder parts.
(35) Doubtless some mystery lurks in this question which we will discuss
more fully below. (36) For the present I will call attention to the passages
in Scripture indicating the means by which God has revealed His laws to man.
(37) Revelation may be through figures only, as in I Chron:xxii., where God
displays his anger to David by means of an angel bearing a sword, and also
in the story of Balaam.
(38) Maimonides and others do indeed maintain that these and every other
instance of angelic apparitions (e.g. to Manoah and to Abraham offering up
Isaac) occurred during sleep, for that no one with his eyes open ever could
see an angel, but this is mere nonsense. (39) The sole object of such
commentators seems to be to extort from Scripture confirmations of
Aristotelian quibbles and their own inventions, a proceeding which I regard
as the acme of absurdity.
(40) In figures, not real but existing only in the prophet's imagination,
God revealed to Joseph his future lordship, and in words and figures He
revealed to Joshua that He would fight for the Hebrews, causing to appear an
angel, as it were the Captain of the Lord's host, bearing a sword, and by
this means communicating verbally. (41) The forsaking of Israel by
Providence was portrayed to Isaiah by a vision of the Lord, the thrice Holy,
sitting on a very lofty throne, and the Hebrews, stained with the mire of
their sins, sunk as it were in uncleanness, and thus as far as possible
distant from God. (42) The wretchedness of the people at the time was thus
revealed, while future calamities were foretold in words. I could cite from
Holy Writ many similar examples, but I think they are sufficiently well
known already.
(43) However, we get a still more clear confirmation of our position in Num
xii:6,7, as follows: "If there be any prophet among you, I the Lord will
make myself known unto him in a vision" (i.e. by appearances and signs, for
God says of the prophecy of Moses that it was a vision without signs), "and
will speak unto him in a dream" (i.e. not with actual words and an actual
voice). (44) "My servant Moses is not so; with him will I speak mouth to
mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the
Lord he shall behold," i.e. looking on me as a friend and not afraid, he
speaks with me (cf. Ex xxxiii:17).
(45) This makes it indisputable that the other prophets did not hear a real
voice, and we gather as much from Deut. xxxiv:10: "And there arose not a
prophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face,"
which must mean that the Lord spoke with none other; for not even Moses saw
the Lord's face. (46) These are the only media of communication between
God and man which I find mentioned in Scripture, and therefore the only ones
which may be supposed or invented. (47) We may be able quite to comprehend
that God can communicate immediately with man, for without the intervention
of bodily means He communicates to our minds His essence; still, a man who
can by pure intuition comprehend ideas which are neither contained in nor
deducible from the foundations of our natural knowledge, must necessarily
possess a mind far superior to those of his fellow men, nor do I believe
that any have been so endowed save Christ. (48) To Him the ordinances of God
leading men to salvation were revealed directly without words or visions, so
that God manifested Himself to the Apostles through the mind of Christ as He
formerly did to Moses through the supernatural voice. (49) In this sense the
voice of Christ, like the voice which Moses heard, may be called the voice
of God, and it may be said that the wisdom of God (i.e. wisdom more than
human) took upon itself in Christ human nature, and that Christ was the way
of salvation. (50) I must at this juncture declare that those doctrines
which certain churches put forward concerning Christ, I neither affirm nor
deny, for I freely confess that I do not understand them. (51) What I have
just stated I gather from Scripture, where I never read that God appeared to
Christ, or spoke to Christ, but that God was revealed to the Apostles
through Christ; that Christ was the Way of Life, and that the old law was
given through an angel, and not immediately by God; whence it follows that
if Moses spoke with God face to face as a man speaks with his friend (i.e.
by means of their two bodies) Christ communed with God mind to mind.
(52) Thus we may conclude that no one except Christ received the revelations
of God without the aid of imagination, whether in words or vision. (53)
Therefore the power of prophecy implies not a peculiarly perfect mind, but a
peculiarly vivid imagination, as I will show more clearly in the next
chapter. (54) We will now inquire what is meant in the Bible by the
Spirit of God breathed into the prophets, or by the prophets speaking with
the Spirit of God; to that end we must determine the exact signification of
the Hebrew word _ruagh_, commonly translated spirit.
(55) The word _ruagh_ literally means a wind, _e.g._ the south
wind, but it is frequently employed in other derivative significations.
It is used as equivalent to,
(56) (1.) Breath: "Neither is there any spirit in his mouth," Ps. cxxxv:17.
(57) (2.) Life, or breathing: "And his spirit returned to him"
1 Sam. xxx:12; i.e. he breathed again.
(58) (3.) Courage and strength: "Neither did there remain any more spirit
in any man," Josh. ii:11; "And the spirit entered into me, and
made me stand on my feet," Ezek. ii:2.
(59) (4.) Virtue and fitness: "Days should speak, and multitudes of years
should teach wisdom; but there is a spirit in man," Job xxxii:7;
i.e. wisdom is not always found among old men for I now discover
that it depends on individual virtue and capacity. So, "A man in
whom is the Spirit," Numbers xxvii:18.
(60) (5.) Habit of mind: "Because he had another spirit with him,"
Numbers xiv:24; i.e. another habit of mind. "Behold I will pour
out My Spirit unto you," Prov. i:23.
(61) (6.) Will, purpose, desire, impulse: "Whither the spirit was to go,
they went," Ezek. 1:12; "That cover with a covering, but not of My
Spirit," Is. xxx:1; "For the Lord hath poured out on you the
spirit of deep sleep," Is. xxix:10; "Then was their spirit
softened," Judges viii:3; "He that ruleth his spirit, is better
than he that taketh a city," Prov. xvi:32; "He that hath no ru
over his own spirit," Prov. xxv:28; "Your spirit as fire shall
devour you," Isaiah xxxiii:1.
From the meaning of disposition we get -
(62) (7.) Passions and faculties. A lofty spirit means pride, a lowly spirit
humility, an evil spirit hatred and melancholy. So, too, the
expressions spirits of jealousy, fornication, wisdom, counsel,
bravery, stand for a jealous, lascivious, wise, prudent, or brave
mind (for we Hebrews use substantives in preference to
adjectives), or these various qualities.
(63) (8.) The mind itself, or the life: "Yea, they have all one spirit,"
Eccles. iii:19 "The spirit shall return to God Who gave it."
(64) (9.) The quarters of the world (from the winds which blow thence), or
even the side of anything turned towards a particular quarter -
Ezek. xxxvii:9; xlii:16, 17, 18, 19, &c.
(65) I have already alluded to the way in which things are referred to God,
and said to be of God.
(66) (1.) As belonging to His nature, and being, as it were, part of Him;
e.g. the power of God, the eyes of God.
(67) (2.) As under His dominion, and depending on His pleasure; thus the
heavens are called the heavens of the Lord, as being His chariot
and habitation. So Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God,
Assyria the scourge of God, &c.
(68) (3.) As dedicated to Him, e.g. the Temple of God, a Nazarene of God,
the Bread of God.
(69) (4.) As revealed through the prophets and not through our natural
faculties. In this sense the Mosaic law is called the law of God.
(70) (5.) As being in the superlative degree. Very high mountains are styled
the mountains of God, a very deep sleep, the sleep of God, &c. In
this sense we must explain Amos iv:11: "I have overthrown you as
the overthrow of the Lord came upon Sodom and Gomorrah," i.e. that
memorable overthrow, for since God Himself is the Speaker, the
passage cannot well be taken otherwise. The wisdom of Solomon is
called the wisdom of God, or extraordinary. The size of the cedars
of Lebanon is alluded to in the Psalmist's expression, "the cedars
of the Lord."
(71) Similarly, if the Jews were at a loss to understand any phenomenon, or
were ignorant of its cause, they referred it to God. (72) Thus a storm was
termed the chiding of God, thunder and lightning the arrows of God, for it
was thought that God kept the winds confined in caves, His treasuries; thus
differing merely in name from the Greek wind-god Eolus. (73) In like manner
miracles were called works of God, as being especially marvellous; though in
reality, of course, all natural events are the works of God, and take place
solely by His power. (74) The Psalmist calls the miracles in Egypt the works
of God, because the Hebrews found in them a way of safety which they had not
looked for, and therefore especially marvelled at.
(75) As, then, unusual natural phenomena are called works of God, and trees
of unusual size are called trees of God, we cannot wonder that very strong
and tall men, though impious robbers and whoremongers, are in Genesis called
sons of God.
(76) This reference of things wonderful to God was not peculiar to the Jews.
(77) Pharaoh, on hearing the interpretation of his dream, exclaimed that the
mind of the gods was in Joseph. (78) Nebuchadnezzar told Daniel that he
possessed the mind of the holy gods; so also in Latin anything well made is
often said to be wrought with Divine hands, which is equivalent to the
Hebrew phrase, wrought with the hand of God.
(80) We can now very easily understand and explain those passages of
Scripture which speak of the Spirit of God. (81) In some places the
expression merely means a very strong, dry, and deadly wind, as in
Isaiah xl:7, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of
the Lord bloweth upon it." (82) Similarly in Gen. i:2: "The Spirit of the
Lord moved over the face of the waters." (83) At other times it is used as
equivalent to a high courage, thus the spirit of Gideon and of Samson is
called the Spirit of the Lord, as being very bold, and prepared for any
emergency. (84) Any unusual virtue or power is called the Spirit or Virtue
of the Lord, Ex. xxxi:3: "I will fill him (Bezaleel) with the Spirit of the
Lord," i.e., as the Bible itself explains, with talent above man's usual
endowment. (85) So Isa. xi:2: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon
him," is explained afterwards in the text to mean the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, of counsel and might.
(86) The melancholy of Saul is called the melancholy of the Lord, or a very
deep melancholy, the persons who applied the term showing that they
understood by it nothing supernatural, in that they sent for a musician to
assuage it by harp-playing. (87) Again, the "Spirit of the Lord" is used
as equivalent to the mind of man, for instance, Job xxvii:3: "And the Spirit
of the Lord in my nostrils," the allusion being to Gen. ii:7: "And God
breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life." (88) Ezekiel also,
prophesying to the dead, says (xxvii:14), "And I will give to you My Spirit,
and ye shall live;" i.e. I will restore you to life. (89) In Job xxxiv:14,
we read: "If He gather unto Himself His Spirit and breath;" in Gen. vi:3:
"My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,"
i.e. since man acts on the dictates of his body, and not the spirit which I
gave him to discern the good, I will let him alone. (90) So, too, Ps. li:12:
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me; cast
me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." (91)
It was supposed that sin originated only from the body, and that good
impulses come from the mind; therefore the Psalmist invokes the aid of God
against the bodily appetites, but prays that the spirit which the Lord, the
Holy One, had given him might be renewed. (92) Again, inasmuch as the Bible,
in concession to popular ignorance, describes God as having a mind, a heart,
emotions - nay, even a body and breath - the expression Spirit of the Lord
is used for God's mind, disposition, emotion, strength, or breath.
(93) Thus, Isa. xl:13: "Who hath disposed the Spirit of the Lord?" i.e. who,
save Himself, hath caused the mind of the Lord to will anything,? and
Isa. lxiii:10: "But they rebelled, and vexed the Holy Spirit."
(94) The phrase comes to be used of the law of Moses, which in a sense
expounds God's will, Is. lxiii. 11, "Where is He that put His Holy Spirit
within him?" meaning, as we clearly gather from the context, the law of
Moses. (95) Nehemiah, speaking of the giving of the law, says, i:20,
"Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them." (96) This is referred
to in Deut. iv:6, "This is your wisdom and understanding," and in
Ps. cxliii:10, "Thy good Spirit will lead me into the land of uprightness."
(97) The Spirit of the Lord may mean the breath of the Lord, for breath, no
less than a mind, a heart, and a body are attributed to God in Scripture, as
in Ps. xxxiii:6. (98) Hence it gets to mean the power, strength, or faculty
of God, as in Job xxxiii:4, "The Spirit of the Lord made me," i.e. the
power, or, if you prefer, the decree of the Lord. (99) So the Psalmist in
poetic language declares, xxxiii:6, "By the word of the Lord were the
heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth," i.e. by
a mandate issued, as it were, in one breath. (100) Also Ps. cxxxix:7,
"Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy
presence?" i.e. whither shall I go so as to be beyond Thy power and Thy
presence?
(101) Lastly, the Spirit of the Lord is used in Scripture to express the
emotions of God, e.g. His kindness and mercy, Micah ii:7, "Is the Spirit
[i.e. the mercy] of the Lord straitened? (102) Are these cruelties His
doings?" (103) Zech. iv:6, "Not by might or by power, but My Spirit [i.e.
mercy], saith the Lord of hosts." (104) The twelfth verse of the seventh
chapter of the same prophet must, I think, be interpreted in like manner:
"Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the
law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit [i.e. in
His mercy] by the former prophets." (105) So also Haggai ii:5: "So My Spirit
remaineth among you: fear not."
(106) The passage in Isaiah xlviii:16, "And now the Lord and His Spirit hath
sent me," may be taken to refer to God's mercy or His revealed law; for the
prophet says, "From the beginning" (i.e. from the time when I first came to
you, to preach God's anger and His sentence forth against you) "I spoke not
in secret; from the time that it was, there am I," and now I am sent by
the mercy of God as a joyful messenger to preach your restoration. (107) Or
we may understand him to mean by the revealed law that he had before come to
warn them by the command of the law (Levit. xix:17) in the same manner under
the same conditions as Moses had warned them, that now, like Moses, he ends
by preaching their restoration. (108) But the first explanation seems to me
the best.
(109) Returning, then, to the main object of our discussion, we find that
the Scriptural phrases, "The Spirit of the Lord was upon a prophet," "The
Lord breathed His Spirit into men," "Men were filled with the Spirit of God,
with the Holy Spirit," &c., are quite clear to us, and mean that prophets
were endowed with a peculiar and extraordinary power, and devoted themselves
to piety with especial constancy(3); that thus they perceived the mind or
the thought of God, for we have shown that God's Spirit signifies in Hebrew
God's mind or thought, and that the law which shows His mind and thought is
called His Spirit; hence that the imagination of the prophets, inasmuch as
through it were revealed the decrees of God, may equally be called the mind
of God, and the prophets be said to have possessed the mind of God. (110) On
our minds also the mind of God and His eternal thoughts are impressed; but
this being the same for all men is less taken into account, especially by
the Hebrews, who claimed a pre-eminence, and despised other men and other
men's knowledge.
(111) Lastly, the prophets were said to possess the Spirit of God because
men knew not the cause of prophetic knowledge, and in their wonder referred
it with other marvels directly to the Deity, styling it Divine knowledge.
(112) We need no longer scruple to affirm that the prophets only
perceived God's revelation by the aid of imagination, that is, by words and
figures either real or imaginary. (113) We find no other means mentioned in
Scripture, and therefore must not invent any. (114) As to the particular law
of Nature by which the communications took place, I confess my ignorance.
(115) I might, indeed, say as others do, that they took place by the power
of God; but this would be mere trifling, and no better than explaining some
unique specimen by a transcendental term. (116) Everything takes place by
the power of God. (117) Nature herself is the power of God under another
name, and our ignorance of the power of God is co-extensive with our
ignorance of Nature. (118) It is absolute folly, therefore, to ascribe an
event to the power of God when we know not its natural cause, which is the
power of God.
(119) However, we are not now inquiring into the causes of prophetic
knowledge. (120) We are only attempting, as I have said, to examine the
Scriptural documents, and to draw our conclusions from them as from ultimate
natural facts; the causes of the documents do not concern us.
(121) As the prophets perceived the revelations of God by the aid of
imagination, they could indisputably perceive much that is beyond the
boundary of the intellect, for many more ideas can be constructed from words
and figures than from the principles and notions on which the whole fabric
of reasoned knowledge is reared.
(122) Thus we have a clue to the fact that the prophets perceived nearly
everything in parables and allegories, and clothed spiritual truths in
bodily forms, for such is the usual method of imagination. (122) We need no
longer wonder that Scripture and the prophets speak so strangely and
obscurely of God's Spirit or Mind (cf. Numbers xi:17, 1 Kings xxii:21, &c.),
that the Lord was seen by Micah as sitting, by Daniel as an old man clothed
in white, by Ezekiel as a fire, that the Holy Spirit appeared to those with
Christ as a descending dove, to the apostles as fiery tongues, to Paul on
his conversion as a great light. (124) All these expressions are plainly in
harmony with the current ideas of God and spirits.
(125) Inasmuch as imagination is fleeting and inconstant, we find that the
power of prophecy did not remain with a prophet for long, nor manifest
itself frequently, but was very rare; manifesting itself only in a few men,
and in them not often.
(126) We must necessarily inquire how the prophets became assured of the
truth of what they perceived by imagination, and not by sure mental laws;
but our investigation must be confined to Scripture, for the subject is one
on which we cannot acquire certain knowledge, and which we cannot explain by
the immediate causes. (127) Scripture teaching about the assurance of
prophets I will treat of in the next chapter.