BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
Christ did, who taught only universal truths (see Matthew 5.28). This is
the reason why Christ promises a spiritual reward, not like Moses a
physical one; for Christ, as I said, was sent not to conserve a commonwealth
and institute laws, but to teach the universal law alone. Hence, we
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readily understand that Christ did not abolish the Law of Moses at all, since
he did not intend to introduce any new laws into the state. His overriding
concern was to o¡er moral teaching, and to distinguish it from the laws of
the state, and this he did chie£y due to the ignorance of the Pharisees
who supposed that man lived well by defending the laws of the state, or the
Law of Moses, despite the fact that this Law, as we have said, related only to
the state and sought to compel rather than instruct theHebrews.
[4] But let us return to our subject, and o¡er other passages of Scripture
a¡ording nothing but material advantages in reward for ceremonies while
promising happiness for adherence to the divine universal law alone. None
of the prophets has taught this more clearly than Isaiah. In chapter 58, 2
after condemning hypocrisy, Isaiah commends liberation [of the oppressed]
and charity towards oneself and one’s neighbour and, in return, makes
this promise: ‘Then shall your light break forth as the dawn, and your
healing shall speedily £ower, and your justice shall go before you, and the
glory of God shall gather you’, 3 etc. After this he also commends the sabbath,
and as a reward for diligent observance promises this: ‘Then you
shall have joy with God, 4 and I will make you ride 5 upon the heights of the
earth, so that you may feed upon the heritage of Jacob your father, as the
mouth of Jehovah has spoken’. 6
Thus we see that the prophet promises as the reward for liberating [the
oppressed] and practising charity, a healthy mind in a healthy body 7 and
the glory of God after death, but the reward for ceremonies is merely the
security of the state, prosperity, and worldly success. In Psalms 15 and 24
no mention is made of ceremonies, but only of moral teaching, evidently
because in these psalms only happiness is proposed and o¡ered, albeit in
¢gurative language. For it is certain that in these psalms the ‘mountain of
2 See Isaiah 58:1^9.
3 Spinoza’s footnote: A Hebrew idiom, by which the time of death is signi¢ed;‘to be gathered to one’s
people’ means ‘to die’: see Genesis 49.29, 33.
4 Spinoza’s footnote: This means to enjoy honestly, just as also in Dutch,‘met Godt en met eere’
[‘with God and with honour’].
5 Spinoza’s footnote:This signi¢es governance, as in restraining a horse by the bridle.
6 Isaiah 58.14.
7 Juvenal, Satires, 10.356.
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