BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Theological-Political Treatise
distorted or truncated which is so badly written and composed that its
sense cannot be discerned from its use of language or elicited from
165 Scripture itself. I refuse to grant that because Scripture contains the
divine law, it has always preserved the same points, the same letters and
the same words (I leave this for the Masoretes to prove and others who
have a superstitious veneration of the letter). I assert only that the meaning,
which alone entitles any text to be called divine, has come down to us
uncorrupted, even though the words in which it was ¢rst expressed are
deemed to have been frequently altered. As we said, this removes
nothing from the dignity of Scripture; for Scripture would be no less
divine even if written in other words or in a di¡erent language. Thus, no
one can question that in this sense we have received the divine law,
uncorrupted. For we see from Scripture itself, and without any di⁄culty
or ambiguity, that the essence of the Law is to love God above all things
and one’s neighbour as oneself. And this cannot be adulterated nor penned
in a slap-dash, error-prone manner. For if Scripture ever taught anything
else than this, it would necessarily have had to teach everything else differently,
since this is the foundation of all religion. Were this removed,
the entire structure would immediately collapse. Such a Scripture as that
would not be the same as the one we are discussing here but an altogether
di¡erent book. It remains, then, indisputable that this is what Scripture
has always taught and consequently that no error has occurred here
a¡ecting the sense, which would not have been noticed at once by everybody.
Nor could anyone have corrupted it without immediately betraying
his malicious intent.
[11] As this foundation is thus undeniably unadulterated, the same
must be conceded about everything that £ows indisputably from it and
which is hence likewise fundamental: such as, that God exists, that he
provides for all things, that he is omnipotent, that he has decreed that
the pious will fare well and wrongdoers badly, and that our salvation
depends upon His grace alone. For Scripture everywhere manifestly teaches
all these things, and thus must always have taught them; otherwise
all the rest would be meaningless and without foundation.We must insist
also that all the [Bible’s] moral precepts are equally free of corruption,
since they most evidently follow from this universal foundation: to
defend justice, assist the poor, not to kill, not to covet other men’s
property, etc. None of these things, I contend, can be corrupted by
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