BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
clear at Romans 1 .11 : ‘because I very much desire’, he s ays , ‘to s e e you, s o
that I may impart to you the gift of the spirit, that you may be strengthened’.
[5] But he re it migh t b e o bjecte d that we c ould just a s well infe r that the
Ap o stle s did not pre ach a s prophe ts e ithe r. For whe n they we n t to on e
place or anothe r to pre ach, they did not do s o by expre s s c o m mand, a s the
prophets had don e. We re ad in the Old Te st ame n t that Jonah we n t to
Nin eveh to pre ach, and re ad at the s ame t i me that he wa s expre s sly s e n t
154 the re , and what he wa s to pre ach the re wa s reve ale d to hi m. Likewis e , we
le ar n, at s o me le ngth, that Mo s e s we n t to Egypt a s Go d’s e nvoy, and at the
s ame t i me we are told what he wa s o blige d to s ay to the Is raelite s and to
Pharaoh, and als o what miracle s he wa s to p e rfor m am ong the m to prove
his crede n t ials. Is aiah, Je remiah and Ezeki el rece ive d explic it orde rs to
pre ach to the Is raelite s. Acc ording to the te st i m ony of Scr iptu re , m oreove
r, the prophe ts pre ached nothing that they had not re ce ive d from
Go d. But in the New Te st ame n t we ve r y rarely re ad of anything c o m -
parable c once r ning the Ap o stle s whe n they we re ab out to jou r n ey to on e
place or anothe r, to pre ach. On the c on trar y, we ¢nd s o me thing s that
cle arly reve al that the Ap o stle s cho s e for the ms elve s whe re they would
preach, as in the case of the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas
which led to their separation (see Acts 15.37, 38 etc.). We also ¢nd that
they often wanted to go somewhere but were unable to do so, as Paul
testi¢es in Romans 1.13: ‘These many times have I tried to come to you
and have been prevented’; and 15.22: ‘This is the reason why I have been
hinde re d many t i me s from c o ming to you’; and the ¢nal chapte r of
1 Corinthians, verse 12: ‘Concerning my brother Apollos, I strongly
urged him to come to you with the brethren; but he had no inclination
at all to come to you; though when he has an opportunity’, etc. Both
from these expressions, thus, and the con£ict between the Apostles, as
well as from the fact that when they were going somewhere to preach,
Scripture does not say, as it does of the ancient prophets, that they went
at the command of God, it might seem that I should conclude that it was
as teachers and not prophets that the Apostles preached.
However, this objection is readily removed, if we look at the di¡erence
between the Apostles’ vocation and that of the Old Testament prophets.
The latter were not called to preach and prophesy to all nations, but only to
certain particular ones, and for that reason they required an express and
particular command in each case. But the Apostles were summoned to
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