BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Annotations
[C hapte r 1 ] 251
Annotation 1:(p.13)‘nabi’: If the third root letter of a word, in Hebrew, is
one of those called ‘quiescent’, it is normally omitted, and instead the
second letter of the stem is reduplicated. Thus from khilah, omitting the
quiescent he´, wegetkholeĺ and hence khol, and from nibah we get nobe´b,
and thence nib sepataim,‘utterance’ or ‘speech’. Similarly, from baza we get
bazaz or buz (shagag, shug, misge´h come from shagah; hamam from hamah;
belial, balal from balah). Rabbi Solomon Jarghi [Rashi] has therefore
interpreted this term nabi very well, and is wrongly criticized by Ibn
Ezra, who does not have quite so perfect a knowledge of Hebrew. Note
also that the noun nebuah (‘prophecy’) is a general term which includes
every kind of prophecy, while other words are more restricted and refer
to a particular kind of prophecy, as I believe is well-known to scholars. 2
Annotation 2:(p.14) ‘its practitioners cannot be called prophets’:That is
to say, interpreters of God. For an interpreter of God is someone who
interprets the decrees of God 3 to others to whom these have not been
revealed and who, in accepting them, are relying solely on the authority of
the prophet and the credit which he enjoys. However, if those who listen to
prophets became prophets in the same way as those who listen to philosophers
become philosophers, a prophet would then not be an interpreter
of divine decrees, since his hearers would be relying not on the testimony
and authority of the prophet but on the actual 4 revelation and internal
testimony just as the prophet does. In the same way, sovereign authorities
are the interpreters of the law of their state, because the laws which they
make are upheld exclusively by the authority of the sovereigns themselves
and rely upon their testimony alone.
Annotation 3 (p. 25) ‘that the prophets had a unique and extraordinary 252
virtue’: although some men have certain abilities that nature does not
bestow on others, we do not say that they surpass human nature unless the
capacities they uniquely possess are such that these cannot be understood
from the de¢nition of human nature. Gigantic size, for instance, is
uncommon but it is still human; likewise, very few people possess the gift
of composing poems extempore but this too is nevertheless human; 5 as is
2 ‘Since they do not suggest anything else’ [in Dutch].
3 ‘That have been revealed to him’.
4 ‘Divine’ [in French].
5 ‘And there are some who do it easily’ [in French].
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