BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Remaining Old Testament books
Again, Josephus in his Antiquities 10.7 relates that Ezekiel predicted that
Zedekiah would not see Babylon, but we do not ¢nd this in his book as
we have it. On the contrary, in chapter 17 we read that Zedekiah would
be taken to captivity in Babylon. 4
[7] Of Hosea, we cannot say for certain that he wrote more than is contained
in the bookwhich goes under his name.Yet I am surprisedwe do not
possess more from him, as by the writer’s own testimony, he prophesied 144
for more than eighty-four years. More generally, we know the writers of
these books did not collect the writings of all the prophets that ever lived
nor all the writings of the prophets that we have. Of the prophets who
prophesied in the reign of Manasseh mentioned in a general way in 2
Chronicles 33.10, 18, 19, we possess no prophecies at all. Nor do we retain
all the prophecies of the Twelve Prophets. 5 Of Jonah, only his prophecies
concerning the Ninevites were copied down for us, though he did also
prophesy to the Israelites; about which see 2 Kings 14.25.
[8] Regarding the Book of Job, and Job himself, there has been much
controversy among the commentators. Some take the view that Moses
wrote it and that the whole story is just a parable; this is what some of
the Rabbis of the Talmud teach and Maimonides also advocates in the
Guide of the Perplexed. 6 Others believed the story to be true and thought
that Job lived in Jacob’s time and married his daughter Dinah. Ibn Ezra,
as I said above, a⁄rms in his commentary on the book that it had been
rendered into Hebrew from another language. I wish he had demonstrated
this for us more conclusively, since we could deduce from it that
the gentiles too possessed sacred books. I leave the question therefore in
some doubt, surmising only that Job was a gentile and a man of the
highest constancy, whose situation was initially favourable, then extremely
adverse, and in the end full of good fortune; for so Ezekiel 14.14 7
speaks of him along with others. I believe Job’s varied fortune and constancy
of mind have given many the opportunity to disagree concerning
divine providence, or at least gave the author of this book the opportunity
to compose his dialogue. For its content and style seem to be not
those of a man miserably ill on an ash-heap but rather someone
4 Spinoza’s footnote: see Annotation 22.
5 The ‘minor’ biblical prophets from Hosea to Malachi.
6 Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 3.22^3.
7 The Latin text has 14.12. Noah, Daniel and Job are named as three supremely righteous men.
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