BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Furtherqueries
32.32). 1 It is word -for-word the s ame , with the exce ption of a few de t ails , 2
from which we c an only c onclude that the re we re var ian t re ading s in
Is aiah’s nar rat ive ^ u nle s s s o me on e wan ts to ¢nd i mag inar y myste r i e s in
the m, a s is don e in othe r c a s e s.
Again, the la st chapte r of 2 K ing s is c on t aine d in the ¢nal chapte r of
Je re miah a s well a s in his chapte rs 39 and 40. We als o ¢nd that 2 Samuel 7
c or resp onds to 1 C hronicles 17 , though he re the words are s o not ice ably
alte red 3 in var ious pa s s age s that it is e a sy to s e e the s e two chapte rs have
b e e n t ake n from two di¡e ren t ve rs ions of the story of Nathan. Finally, the 130
ge n e alo gy of the kings of Idu me a g ive n at Ge n e s is 36 .31¡. al s o ap p e a rs
in the s ame words in the op e ning chapte r of 1 C hronicles , eve n though
the author of the latte r plainly b orrowe d his acc ou n t from other chroni -
cle rs and not the twelve b o oks we attr ibute to Ez ra. 4 If we p o s s e s s e d [ the
works of] thes e chroniclers , the thing itself [ that we are ass erting] would
undoubtedly be immediately apparent. But since we lack them, as I s aid, our
s ole recours e is to examine the histories themselves ^ their order and con -
nection, their dis crepancies in repeated pass ages , and their di¡erences in
chronology ^ s o as to enable us to make judgments about the other writings.
[3 ] Let us the refore examin e the m, or at le a st the m o st str iking of the m,
c o m me nc ing with the story of Judah and Tamar which the histor ian
b e g ins at Ge n e s is chapte r 38 with the words , ‘And it c ame to pa s s at that
t i me , that Judah de par te d fro m his b rothe rs’. That ‘ti me’ must n e ce s s a -
r ily b e relate d to s o me othe r t i me 5 already me n t ion e d, but it c annot b e
linke d to the p e r io d of its i m me diate c on text in Ge n e s is. For from the
t i me whe n Jo s e ph wa s t ake n in to Egypt u n t il the t i me whe n the patr iarch
Jac o b als o s e t out for Egypt with all his family, we c an c alculate no m ore
than twe n ty two ye ars. ( For Jo s e ph wa s s eve n te e n ye ars old whe n he wa s
s old by his b rothe rs , and whe n Pharaoh orde re d hi m to b e rele a s e d fro m
pr is on he wa s thir ty ye ars old; add the s eve n ye ars of abundance and the
two years of famine, and you will get twenty two years.) Yet no one can
imagine that in this short period so many things could have happened.
For Judah begat three children, one after the other, from one wife whom
1 The two books of Chronicles in the Bible are distinct from the non-extant ‘Chronicles of the Kings
of Judah’and ‘Chronicles of the Kings of Israel’ which Spinoza discusses above, ch. 8 para 10,p.126.
2 Spinoza’s footnote: see Annotation 11.
3 Spinoza’s footnote: see Annotation 12.
4 The twelve b o o ks f ro m G e n e s i s to 2 K i ng s : s e e ab ove, ch. 8 pa ra 12 ,pp.127^9.
5 Spinoza’s footnote: see Annotation 13.
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