BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

On the vocation of the Hebrews
Scr iptu re its elf. For the Ps almist s ays ( Ps al m 145.8), ‘Go d is n e ar to all
tho s e who c all upon hi m, to all who c all upon hi m in tr uth’. Likewis e at
145.9, ‘Go d is kind to all me n, and his me rcy is to all thing s that he ha s
made’. At Ps alm 33.15 it is plainly st ate d that Go d gave the s ame in telle ct to
all me n, in the s e words , ‘who for ms the ir he ar t in the s ame mann e r ’. For
the he ar t wa s b eli eve d by the Heb rews to b e the s e at of the s oul and of the
in telle ct, a s I supp o s e is well e nough know n to eve r yon e. Again it is cle ar
from Jo b 29.28. 4 that Go d pre s cr ib e d this law to the whole human race , to
fe ar Go d and ab st ain fro m w rongdoing, that is , to do go o d, and that is why
Jo b, though a ge n t ile , wa s the m o st acce pt able of all me n to Go d, s ince he
su r pa s s e d all others in p i e ty and relig ion. 5 Finally fro m Jonah 4 .2 it is
abundan tly evide n t that it is not only to the Jews but to all me n that Go d is
well - disp o s e d, me rc iful, long- su¡e r ing, full of kindn e s s and u nwilling to
in£ict su¡e r ing ; 6 for Jonah s ays : ‘That wa s pre c is ely why I de c ide d to £ e e to
Tarshish b efore , b e c aus e I kn ew’ (i.e., fro m the words of Mo s e s c on t aine d
in Exo dus 34 .6) ‘that you we re a prop it ious Go d, me rc iful’, e tc., and the refore
would forg ive the ge n t ile s of Nin eveh.
[8] We c onclude the refore (s ince Go d is well - disp o s e d to all me n and the
Heb rews we re cho s e n only by re a s on of the ir s o c i e ty and st ate) that no
individual Jew c ons ide red apar t from his s o c i e ty and st ate p o s s e s s e s any
g ift from Go d b eyond what other me n have , nor is the re any di¡e re nce
b e twe e n him and a ge n t ile.
Since the refore it is tr ue that Go d is e qually kind, me rc iful, e tc., to all
me n and that the duty of the prophe t wa s not s o much to pre s cr ib e the
par t icular laws of his c ou n tr y a s to te ach tr ue vir tue and to admo nish me n
c once r ning it , the re is no doubt that all nat ions have had prophe ts , and
that the prophe t ic g ift wa s not p e culiar to the Jews. Profan e a s well a s
s acred histor i e s likewis e provide evide nce of this ; and while from the
sacred narratives of the Old Testament it is not evident that other nations
had as many prophets as the Hebrews, or that any gentile prophet was 51
expressly sent by God to the nations, this is of no consequence, for the
4 Job 28.28 in RSV.
5 Note that here as in many other places Spinoza rede¢nes ‘religion’ to mean obedience to the universal
moral law and not adherence to any particular confession, faith or doctrine.
6 ‘Deum ...paenitentemmali’:seeJonah3.10‘When God saw what they did, how they turned from
their evil way, God repented ofthe evil which hehad said he would do to them; and he did not do it’ (RSV).
Sp i no z a explai ns t hi s c ha ra cte r i s t i c of G o d f ro m s cr iptu re at c h. 2 ,para18 (s e e p .40).
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