BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
49 the most high God, and that he blessed Abraham, as was the right of a
priest (see Numbers 6.23), and that Abraham, the beloved of God, gave a
tenth part of all his booty to this priest of God. All this su⁄ciently shows
that, before God founded the Israelite nation, he had appointed kings and
priests in Jerusalem and given them rites and laws; although as I said, it is
not wholly clear whether he did so by means of prophecy. In any case, I am
convinced that while Abraham lived there he lived religiously, according to
those laws: for he received no rites speci¢cally from God, but nevertheless
it is stated in Genesis 26.5 that Abraham observed the cult, precepts,
practices and laws of God, and this must certainly be construed as meaning
the cult, precepts, practices and laws of king Melchizedeck. Malachi
1.10^11 reproaches the Jews in these terms: ‘Who is there among you to
close the doors’ (i.e. of the Temple) ‘lest the ¢re be placed in vain on my
altar I take no delight in you, etc. . . . for from the rising of the sun even to
its setting, my name is great among the nations, and everywhere incense is
brought to me, and a pure o¡ering; for my name is great among the
nations, says the God of hosts’. If we do not want to do violence to these
words, which can only refer to Malachi’s own time, we must surely grant
that Malachi provides very clear evidence that the Jews in his time were no
more beloved of God than other peoples; indeed, that God had made
himself more conspicuous by miracles to other nations than to the Jews
who, without [the aid of ] miracles, had at that time partly recovered their
state; and that the other peoples had rites and ceremonies which made
them acceptable to God.
But I leave all this aside, for it su⁄ces for my purposes to show that the
election of the Jews concerned only their material welfare at that time and
their freedom, or independent state, and the manner and means by which
they acquired it. It therefore also concerned their laws, in so far as these
were essential to stabilizing that particular polity; and ¢nally the way in
which these laws were revealed. But as regards everything else, including
those things in which the true happiness of man consists, they were on the
same footing as other men.
When therefore it is said in the Bible (see Deuteronomy 4.7) that no
50 people has their gods ‘so near to them’ as the Jews have God, this is to be
understood only with regard to their state and only in that period in which
so many miracles took place among them, etc. For as regards intellect and
virtue, i.e., as regards happiness, as we have already said and proven by
reason itself, God is equally favourable to all, as is indeed evident from
48