BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
38 he heard the sentence against the men of Sodom, he prayed that God
would not carry it out until he knew whether all of them deserved that
punishment; for he says (see Genesis 18.24),‘perhaps there are ¢fty just
men in that city’. Nor was God revealed to him as any other than this [i.e. a
being of limited knowledge who has descended to Sodom to see how many
just men there are there]; for this is how God speaks in Abraham’s imagining:
‘now I will go down, so that I may see whether they have indeed
acted as reported by the great outcry which has come to me, and if it is not
so, I will know it’. 12 Equally, the divine testimony concerning Abraham (on
which see Genesis 18.19) contains only the requirement that he should
obey and instruct his servants regarding what is just and good, saying
nothing about higher conceptions of God.
Nor did Moses adequately grasp that God is omniscient and directs
all human actions by his decree alone. For although God had said (see
Exodus 3.18) that the Israelites would obey him, he nevertheless doubted
this and replied (see Exodus 4.1): ‘what if they do not believe me or obey
me’ Thus to him also God was revealed as uninvolved and ignorant of
future human actions. For God gave him two signs and said (Exodus 4.8),
‘should it happen that they do not believe the ¢rst, they should believe the
latter; but should they not believe this one either, (then) take a little water
from the river’, etc.
In fact, anyone who re£ects on Moses’ opinions without prejudice, will
plainly see that he believed God to be a being that has always existed, exists
and will always exist, and for this reason he calls him ‘Jehovah’ by name,
which in Hebrew expresses these three tenses of existence. But Moses
taught nothing else about his nature except that he is merciful, kind, etc.,
and in the highest degree jealous, as is clear from several passages in the
Pentateuch. He also believed and taught that this being is so di¡erent from
all other beings that he cannot be represented by the image of any visible
thing nor even be seen himself, owing less to the impossibility of the thing
in itself than to human limitations; as regards his power, furthermore, he
deemed him a singular or unique being. Moses did indeed concede that
there are beings who (doubtless by the order and command of God) acted
in God’s name, that is, beings to whom God gave authority, right and
power to govern nations and to provide and care for them. But he taught
39 that the being whom they were obliged to worship is the highest and
12 Genesis 18.21.
36