BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
Jehoram the son of Ahab reportedly began to reign in the second year
of the reign of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat (see 2 Kings 1.17). But
the ‘Chronicles of the Kings of Judah’ stated that Jehoram, son of
Jehoshaphat began to reign in the ¢fth year of the reign of Jehoram, son
of Ahab (ibid., 8.16). Again, anyone who undertakes to compare the
accounts in the book of Chronicles with those of the books of Kings will
¢nd many other similar discrepancies, which I do not need to survey
here, and I certainly do not need to review the manoeuvres of those
writers who try to reconcile them. The rabbis talk evident nonsense. The
commentators I have read fantasize, fabricate and completely distort the
language. For example, where 2 Chronicles 15 says,‘Ahaziah was forty-two
years old when he began to reign,’ some forge a ¢ction whereby these
years have their beginning from the reign of Omri and not from the
birth of Ahaziah. If they could show that this was the intent of the author
of Chronicles, I would not hesitate to say that the latter did not know
how to express himself. They make up a good many other such things. If
they were true, I would state categorically that the ancient Hebrews were
totally ignorant both of their own language and of the art of constructing
an orderly narrative, and I would not accept that there is any method or rule
for interpreting Scripture,but anyone could make up anything he liked.
135 [12] If anyone thinks that I am speaking here too generally and without
adequate grounds for what I say, I challenge him to try the thing himself
and show us a genuine order in these histories which historians could
emulate in writing chronological narratives without going astray. In interpreting
the stories and attempting to reconcile them, I ask him to pay close
attention to the speci¢c language and to the ways in which things are
expressed and the topics arranged and connected, explaining them in such
a way that we too could emulate them in our own writing, following his
explanation. 16 Should he succeed, Iwill without hesitation concede defeat,
and for me he‘will be the great Apollo’. 17 I confess that I have not been able
to ¢nd anything like this, despite a long search. I say nothing here that
I have not long been pondering deeply, and despite being steeped in the
common beliefs about the Bible from childhood on, I have not been able to
resist my conclusion. But there is no reason to detain the reader longer on
15 2 Chronicles 22.2.
16 Spinoza’s footnote: see Annotation 18.
17 Virgil, Eclogues 3.104: ‘eris mihi magnus Apollo’.
136