BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Divine law and the word of God
letter and being so concerned about it. This I think su⁄ces to explain on
what grounds the Bible should be considered sacred and divine.
[7] Now we must ascertain what precisely is to be understood by
‘debar Jehova’ (word of God). Now ‘debar’ means ‘word’, ‘speech’, ‘edict’
and ‘thing’. We showed in chapter 1 the reasons why in Hebrew a thing is
said to be of God and is ascribed to God; and from this we can readily
grasp what Scripture means by word, speech, edict and thing of God.
There is no need to repeat it all here, nor for that matter the third point
we made, regarding miracles in chapter 6. It su⁄ces to recall the substance
of it, so that what we want to say about our present topic may be better
understood.
When ‘word of God’ is predicated of a subject which is not God
himself, it properly signi¢es the divine law which we discussed in chapter
4 , that is, the religion which is universal or common to the whole human
race. On this subject see Isaiah 1.10 etc., where Isaiah teaches the true
way of living, that does not consist in ceremonies but in charity and
integrity of mind, and calls it interchangeably God’s law and the word of
God. It is also used metaphorically for the order of nature itself and fate ^
since in truth this depends upon the eternal decree of the divine nature
and follows it ^ and especially for what the prophets foresaw of this
order. For they did not see future things by means of their natural causes
but rather as the decisions or decrees of God. It is also used for every
pronouncement of any prophet, in so far as he had grasped it by his
own particular virtue or prophetic gift and not by the common
natural light, and the primary reason for this is that the prophets were
in truth accustomed to envisage God as a legislator, as we showed in
chapter 4.
The Bible, consequently, is called the word of God for these three reasons:
(1) because it teaches true religion of which the eternal God is the
author; (2) because it o¡ers predictions of future things as decrees of God;
and (3) because those who were its actual authors for the most part taught
these things, not by the common natural light of reason, but by a light
peculiar to themselves, and portrayed God as saying them. Although there 163
is much besides in Scripture which is merely historical and to be understood
by the natural light, its designation as God’s word is taken from its
most important feature.
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