BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

The Hebrew state in the time of Moses
thought to be an outrage, since the worship of God by which they were
for ever bound, could be practised, all agreed, only on their native soil, as
it was held to be the only holy land, all others being unclean and polluted.
When David was forced into exile, he grieved before Saul in these
words: ‘If those who incite you against me are men, they are accursed, 215
because they banish me from walking in the inheritance of God, and say,
‘‘Go, and worship other gods’’’. 14 For the same reason, we must especially
note here, no citizen was condemned to exile: for a transgressor
deserves punishment but not disgrace.
Thus the love of the Hebrews for their country was not simple love
but piety, which along with hatred of other nations, was so nourished
and in£amed by daily worship that it must have become second nature.
For their daily worship was not only completely di¡erent (which made
them altogether unique and utterly distinct from others) but absolutely
contrary to that of other peoples. As a consequence of which these daily
expressions of reproach were bound to generate a ceaseless hatred, and
one more ¢rmly entrenched in their minds than any other, given that
such a detestation born of great devotion and piety, was itself viewed as
pious, and no hatred is greater or more persistent than this type. Nor
was the usual cause of hatred lacking either, that is, of course, reciprocal
abhorrence becoming more and more in£amed, because other nations
were bound to react by developing an extreme hatred for them.
[24] Freedom from human government, devotion to their country, an
absolute right over all others, a hatred which was not only permitted but
pious, a perception that all men are enemies, a unique system of morals
and worship: reason teaches clearly, and experience itself testi¢es, how
much all these things served to harden the minds of the Hebrews in bearing
all things with singular constancy and courage on behalf of their
country. Never while the city was standing, could they bear to be under
alien rule, and therefore Jerusalem was often called a rebellious city (see
Ezra 4.12^15). The second commonwealth was scarcely a shadow of the
¢rst, after the priests had usurped the authority of civil government, but
even so the Romans experienced very great di⁄culty in destroying it, as
Tacitus himself remarks with these words in Histories,book2: 15 ‘Vespasian
had almost completed the Jewish war, the siege of Jerusalem alone being
14 1 Samuel 26.19.
15 Tacitus, Histories, 2.4.
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