BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Annotations
on, is a r idiculous ¢ct ion, and re sts on no othe r fou ndat ion than rabbini -
c al tradit ion, which ins ists that the Pe rs ian e mp ire la ste d a me re thir tyfou
r ye ars. This is the only way they c an argue that the de cre e s of this
Grea t Synago gue or Syno d which wa s c o mp o s e d s olely of Phar is e e s 35
we re acce pte d by the prophe ts , 36 who had rece ive d the m from othe r
prophets , and s o on r igh t back to Mo s e s , who rece ive d the m fro m Go d
hims elf and hande d the m on to p o ste r ity by word of m outh not in w r it ing.
The Phar is e e s [ i.e., the rabbis] may p e rsist in b eli eving the s e thing s with
the ir usual o b st inacy; but exp e r ts , who know the re a s ons for c ou nc ils and
syno ds and who are als o aware of the c on trove rs i e s b e twe e n the Phar is e e s
and the Sadduce e s will re adily b e able to infe r the rea s ons why this G re at
Synagogue or Council was called. It is certain in any case that no prophet
262 participated in this Council, and that the decrees of the Pharisees which
they call traditions, 37 received their authority from this Council.
[C hapte r 11 ]
Annotation 26 (p. 155) ‘we think’: Translators render logizomai in this
passage ‘conclude’ and argue that Paul is using it in much the same sense
as sullogizomai, despite the fact that the Greek word logizomai has the
same meaning as hashab, which is ‘reckon’,‘think’,‘estimate’. Taken in this
sense logizomai agrees very well with the Syriac (i.e. Aramaic) text. For
the Syriac translation (if indeed it is a translation, which may be doubted,
since we know neither the translator nor the time of publication,
and the native language of the Apostles was actually Syriac) 38 renders
this text of Paul as methrahgenan hachil, which Tremellius 39 properly
translates as ‘we therefore think’. For rehg jono, the noun which is formed
from this verb, means ‘thought’; for rehgjono is rehgutha in Hebrew
(‘will’); hence ‘we want’ or ‘we think’.
35 ‘Which were rejected by the Sadducees’ [in French].
36 According to this tradition, the Presidents of the Grand Synagogue were the three latest prophets,
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
37 ‘About which they have made such a noise’ [in French].
38 The language Spinoza calls ‘Syriac’ is now generally called Aramaic.
39 Tremellius prepared an edition of the New Testament in which he set out in four columns
the Greek text, the Syriac text and Latin translations of both. Spinoza generally relies upon
Tremellius’ Latin translation of the Syriac text, which he suggests here was the original text.
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