BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
styled the the envoys and ministers of God, and there are many other
things in the Bible to this e¡ect, showing very clearly that the decree of
God, his command, his utterance, his word are nothing other than the
90 very action and order of nature. Without doubt, therefore, everything
narrated in Scripture actually happened naturally, and yet it is all ascribed
to God, since it is not the intention of the Bible, as we have shown,
to explain things in terms of natural causes but only to speak of things
that commonly occupy people’s imaginations, and to do so in a manner
and style calculated to inspire wonder about things and thus impress
devotion upon the minds of the common people.
[14] Consequently, if we ¢nd certain things in the Bible for which we
cannot attribute a cause, and which seem to have occurred beyond or
even contrary to the order of nature, these things should not represent a
problem for us; rather we should be fully persuaded that whatever really
happened, happened naturally. This is also con¢rmed by the fact that
some of the details of miracles are sometimes omitted in the telling,
especially in a poetic narrative. These details of such miracles, however,
plainly show that they involve natural causes. For instance, in order for
the Egyptians to be a¥icted with boils, it was necessary for Moses to
throw ashes up into the air (see Exodus 9.10). The locusts reached the
land of Egypt by a natural command of God, namely by means of a wind
from the east that blew for a whole day and a night; later they left because
of a very strong wind from the west (see Exodus 10.14, 19). It was by the
same command of God that the sea opened up a path for the Jews (see
Exodus 14.1), namely because of an east wind that blew very strongly
for a whole night. To raise the boy who was believed to be dead, Elisha
needed to lie over him for some time, until he ¢rst grew warm and
¢nally opened his eyes (see 2 Kings 4.34^35). Lastly, in the Gospel of
John ch. 9, circumstances are mentioned of which Christ made use to
heal the blind man. We ¢nd many other things in Scripture which all
evidently show that miracles require something other than what is
called the absolute command of God. This is also clear from Exodus
14.27, where it is merely stated that the sea rose again, at a mere gesture
from Moses, and there is no mention of any wind whereas, in the
Song of Songs (15.10), we learn that it happened because God blew
with his wind (i.e., with a very strong wind); this detail is omitted in the
91 ¢rst telling, and owing to that it appears to be a greater miracle.
90