BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Sovereign powers and religion
that as soon as the Hebrews transferred their right to the king of
Babylon, the kingdom of God and the divine law immediately ceased to
be e¡ective. For, by that very fact, the covenant with which they undertook
to obey everything that God ordained, and which had been the 231
foundation of the kingdom of God, was utterly abolished. They could no
longer continue to observe it since from that moment onwards they were
no longer under their own jurisdiction (as when they were in the desert
or in their own country) but under that of the Babylonian ruler whom
they were obliged to obey in everything (as we showed in chapter 16).
This is also what Jeremiah expressly teaches at chapter 29.7: ‘Strive’,he
says,‘for the peace of the state, to which I have brought you as captives;
for its well-being will be your well-being’. They could not strive for the
salvation of that state as participants in government do, being captives,
but rather had to as slaves do. This meant observing the ordinances and
laws of the state, even though they were very di¡erent from those to
which they had been accustomed in their own country and being obedient
in everything, so as to obviate all cause of sedition.
It most evidently follows from all of this that religion among the
Hebrews assumed the force of law only from the authority of the state, and
when this was obliterated, religion could no longer be regarded as the
prescription of a particular state but as a universal religion of reason. I say
‘of reason’ because the universal religion was not yet known by revelation.
[7] We conclude, therefore, absolutely, that religion, whether revealed by
the natural light of reason or by prophetic light, receives the force of a
commandment solely from the decree of those who have authority to govern,
and that God has no special kingdom over men except through those
who hold power.
[8] This follows also from what we said in chapter 4 and is further
clari¢ed by it. We proved there that all God’s decrees involve eternal
truth and necessity, and God cannot be conceived as a prince or legislator
enacting laws for men. For this reason divine teachings, whether
revealed by natural or by prophetic light, necessarily acquire the force of
a decree not directly from God, but from those who exercise the right of
governing and issue edicts or by their mediation. Hence, we can only
conceive of God ruling over men and directing human a¡airs in accordance
with justice and equity as e¡ected by their mediation. This is also
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