Book: A Theologico Political Treatise [Part II]

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Part 1 - Chapters I to V - 1spnt10.txt
Part 2 - Chapters VI to X - 2spnt10.txt
Part 3 - Chapters XI to XV - 3spnt10.txt
Part 4 - Chapters XVI to XX - 4spnt10.txt



Sentence Numbers, shown thus (1), have been added by volunteer.





A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 2 - Chapters VI to X
by Baruch Spinoza









A Theologico-Political Treatise
Part 2 - Chapters VI to X
by Baruch Spinoza




TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CHAPTER VI - Of Miracles.

Confused ideas of the vulgar on the subject.

A miracle in the sense of a contravention of natural laws an absurdity.

In the sense of an event, whose cause is unknown,
less edifying than an event better understood.

God's providence identical with the course of nature.
How Scripture miracles may be interpreted.



CHAPTER VII - Of the Interpretation of Scripture.

Current systems of interpretation erroneous.

Only true system to interpret it by itself.

Reasons why this system cannot now be carried out in its entirety.

Yet these difficulties do not interfere with our understanding
the plainest and most important passages.

Rival systems examined - that of a supernatural
faculty being necessary - refuted.

That of Maimonides.

Refuted.

Traditions of the Pharisees and the Papists rejected.



CHAPTER VIII. - Of the authorship of the Pentateuch,
and the other historical books of the Old Testament.

The Pentateuch not written by Moses.

His actual writings distinct.

Traces of late authorship in the other historical books.

All the historical books the work of one man.

Probably Ezra.

Who compiled first the book of Deuteronomy.

And then a history, distinguishing the books by the names of their subjects.



CHAPTER IX. - Other questions about these books.

That these books have not been thoroughly revised and made to agree.

That there are many doubtful readings.

That the existing marginal notes are often such.

The other explanations of these notes refuted.

The hiatus.



CHAPTER X.- An Examination of the remaining books of
the Old Testament according to the preceding method.

Chronicles, Psalms, Proverbs.

Isaiah, Jeremiah.

Ezekiel, Hosea.

Other prophets, Jonah, Job.

Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.

The author declines to undertake a similar detailed
examination of the New Testament.

Author's Endnotes to the Treatise





CHAPTER VI. - OF MIRACLES.

(1) As men are accustomed to call Divine the knowledge which transcends
human understanding, so also do they style Divine, or the work of God,
anything of which the cause is not generally known: for the masses think
that the power and providence of God are most clearly displayed by events
that are extraordinary and contrary to the conception they have formed of
nature, especially if such events bring them any profit or convenience: they
think that the clearest possible proof of God's existence is afforded when
nature, as they suppose, breaks her accustomed order, and consequently they
believe that those who explain or endeavour to understand phenomena or
miracles through their natural causes are doing away with God and His
providence. (2) They suppose, forsooth, that God is inactive so long as
nature works in her accustomed order, and vice versa, that the power of
nature and natural causes are idle so long as God is acting: thus they
imagine two powers distinct one from the other, the power of God and the
power of nature, though the latter is in a sense determined by God, or (as
most people believe now) created by Him. (3) What they mean by either, and
what they understand by God and nature they do not know, except that they
imagine the power of God to be like that of some royal potentate, and
nature's power to consist in force and energy.

(4) The masses then style unusual phenomena, "miracles," and partly from
piety, partly for the sake of opposing the students of science, prefer to
remain in ignorance of natural causes, and only to hear of those things
which they know least, and consequently admire most. (5) In fact, the common
people can only adore God, and refer all things to His power by removing
natural causes, and conceiving things happening out of their due course, and
only admires the power of God when the power of nature is conceived of as in
subjection to it.

(6) This idea seems to have taken its rise among the early Jews who saw the
Gentiles round them worshipping visible gods such as the sun, the moon, the
earth, water, air, &c., and in order to inspire the conviction that such
divinities were weak and inconstant, or changeable, told how they themselves
were under the sway of an invisible God, and narrated their miracles,
trying further to show that the God whom they worshipped arranged the whole
of nature for their sole benefit: this idea was so pleasing to humanity that
men go on to this day imagining miracles, so that they may believe
themselves God's favourites, and the final cause for which God created and
directs all things.

(7) What pretension will not people in their folly advance! (8) They have no
single sound idea concerning either God or nature, they confound God's
decrees with human decrees, they conceive nature as so limited that they
believe man to be its chief part! (9) I have spent enough space in setting
forth these common ideas and prejudices concerning nature and miracles, but
in order to afford a regular demonstration I will show -

(10) I. That nature cannot be contravened, but that she preserves a fixed
and immutable order, and at the same time I will explain what is meant by a
miracle.

(11) II. That God's nature and existence, and consequently His providence
cannot be known from miracles, but that they can all be much better
perceived from the fixed and immutable order of nature.

(12) III. That by the decrees and volitions, and consequently the providence
of God, Scripture (as I will prove by Scriptural examples) means nothing but
nature's order following necessarily from her eternal laws.

(13) IV. Lastly, I will treat of the method of interpreting Scriptural
miracles, and the chief points to be noted concerning the narratives of
them.

(14) Such are the principal subjects which will be discussed in this
chapter, and which will serve, I think, not a little to further the object
of this treatise.

(15) Our first point is easily proved from what we showed in Chap. IV. about
Divine law - namely, that all that God wishes or determines involves eternal
necessity, and truth, for we demonstrated that God's understanding is
identical with His will, and that it is the same thing to say that God wills
a thing, as to say, that He understands it; hence, as it follows
necessarily, from the Divine nature and perfection that God understands a
thing as it is, it follows no less necessarily that He wills it as it is.
(16) Now, as nothing is necessarily true save only by, Divine decree, it is
plain that the universal laws of nature are decrees of God following from
the necessity and perfection of the Divine nature. (17) Hence, any event
happening in nature which contravened nature's universal laws, would
necessarily also contravene the Divine decree, nature, and understanding; or
if anyone asserted that God acts in contravention to the laws of nature, he,
ipso facto, would be compelled to assert that God acted against His own
nature - an evident absurdity. (18) One might easily show from the same
premises that the power and efficiency, of nature are in themselves the
Divine power and efficiency, and that the Divine power is the very essence
of God, but this I gladly pass over for the present.

(19) Nothing, then, comes to pass in nature (N.B. I do not mean here by
"nature," merely matter and its modifications, but infinite other things
besides matter.) in contravention to her universal laws, nay, everything
agrees with them and follows from them, for whatsoever comes to pass, comes
to pass by the will and eternal decree of God; that is, as we have just
pointed out, whatever comes to pass, comes to pass according to laws and
rules which involve eternal necessity and truth; nature, therefore, always
observes laws and rules which involve eternal necessity, and truth, although
they may not all be known to us, and therefore she keeps a fixed and mutable
order. (20) Nor is there any sound reason for limiting the power and
efficacy of nature, and asserting that her laws are fit for certain
purposes, but not for all; for as the efficacy, and power of nature, are the
very, efficacy and power of God, and as the laws and rules of nature are the
decrees of God, it is in every way to be believed that the power of nature
is infinite, and that her laws are broad enough to embrace everything
conceived by, the Divine intellect; the only alternative is to assert that
God has created nature so weak, and has ordained for her laws so barren,
that He is repeatedly compelled to come afresh to her aid if He wishes that
she should be preserved, and that things should happen as He desires: a
conclusion, in My opinion, very far removed from reason. (21) Further, as
nothing happens in nature which does not follow from her laws, and as her
laws embrace everything conceived by the Divine intellect, and lastly, as
nature preserves a fixed and immutable order; it most clearly follows that
miracles are only intelligible as in relation to human opinions, and merely
mean events of which the natural cause cannot be explained by a reference to
any ordinary occurrence, either by us, or at any rate, by the writer and
narrator of the miracle.

(22) We may, in fact, say that a miracle is an event of which the causes
annot be explained by the natural reason through a reference to ascertained
workings of nature; but since miracles were wrought according to the
understanding of the masses, who are wholly ignorant of the workings of
nature, it is certain that the ancients took for a miracle whatever they
could not explain by the method adopted by the unlearned in such cases,
namely, an appeal to the memory, a recalling of something similar, which is
ordinarily regarded without wonder; for most people think they sufficiently
understand a thing when they have ceased to wonder at it. (23) The ancients,
then, and indeed most men up to the present day, had no other criterion for
a miracle; hence we cannot doubt that many things are narrated in Scripture
as miracles of which the causes could easily be explained by reference to
ascertained workings of nature. (24) We have hinted as much in Chap. II., in
speaking of the sun standing still in the time of Joshua, and to say on the
subject when we come to treat of the interpretation of miracles later on in
this chapter.

(25) It is now time to pass on to the second point, and show that we cannot
gain an understanding of God's essence, existence, or providence by means of
miracles, but that these truths are much better perceived through the fixed
and immutable order of nature. (26) I thus proceed with the demonstration.
(27) As God's existence is not self-evident (6) it must necessarily be
inferred from ideas so firmly and incontrovertibly true, that no power can
be postulated or conceived sufficient to impugn them. (28) They ought
certainly so to appear to us when we infer from them God's existence, if we
wish to place our conclusion beyond the reach of doubt; for if we could
conceive that such ideas could be impugned by any power whatsoever, we
should doubt of their truth, we should doubt of our conclusion, namely, of
God's existence, and should never be able to be certain of anything. (29)
Further, we know that nothing either agrees with or is contrary to nature,
unless it agrees with or is contrary to these primary ideas; wherefore if we
would conceive that anything could be done in nature by any power whatsoever
which would be contrary to the laws of nature, it would also be contrary to
our primary ideas, and we should have either to reject it as absurd, or else
to cast doubt (as just shown) on our primary ideas, and consequently on the
existence of God, and on everything howsoever perceived. (30) Therefore
miracles, in the sense of events contrary to the laws of nature, so far from
demonstrating to us the existence of God, would, on the contrary, lead us to
doubt it, where, otherwise, we might have been absolutely certain of it, as
knowing that nature follows a fixed and immutable order.

(31) Let us take miracle as meaning that which cannot be explained through
natural causes. (32) This may be interpreted in two senses: either as that
which has natural causes, but cannot be examined by the human intellect; or
as that which has no cause save God and God's will. (33) But as all things
which come to pass through natural causes, come to pass also solely
through the will and power of God, it comes to this, that a miracle, whether
it has natural causes or not, is a result which cannot be explained by its
cause, that is a phenomenon which surpasses human understanding; but from
such a phenomenon, and certainly from a result surpassing our understanding,
we can gain no knowledge. (34) For whatsoever we understand clearly and
distinctly should be plain to us either in itself or by means of something
else clearly and distinctly understood; wherefore from a miracle or a
phenomenon which we cannot understand, we can gain no knowledge of God's
essence, or existence, or indeed anything about God or nature; whereas when
we know that all things are ordained and ratified by God, that the
operations of nature follow from the essence of God, and that the laws of
nature are eternal decrees and volitions of God, we must perforce conclude
that our knowledge of God, and of God's will increases in proportion to our
knowledge and clear understanding of nature, as we see how she depends on
her primal cause, and how she works according to eternal law. (35) Wherefore
so far as our understanding goes, those phenomena which we clearly and
distinctly understand have much better right to be called works of God, and
to be referred to the will of God than those about which we are entirely
ignorant, although they appeal powerfully to the imagination, and compel
men's admiration.

(36) It is only phenomena that we clearly and distinctly understand, which
heighten our knowledge of God, and most clearly indicate His will and
decrees. (37) Plainly, they are but triflers who, when they cannot explain a
thing, run back to the will of God; this is, truly, a ridiculous way of
expressing ignorance. (38) Again, even supposing that some conclusion could
be drawn from miracles, we could not possibly infer from them the existence
of God: for a miracle being an event under limitations is the expression of
a fixed and limited power; therefore we could not possibly infer from an
effect of this kind the existence of a cause whose power is infinite, but at
the utmost only of a cause whose power is greater than that of the said
effect. (39) I say at the utmost, for a phenomenon may be the result of many
concurrent causes, and its power may be less than the power of the sum of
such causes, but far greater than that of any one of them taken
individually. (40) On the other hand, the laws of nature, as we have
shown, extend over infinity, and are conceived by us as, after a fashion,
eternal, and nature works in accordance with them in a fixed and immutable
order; therefore, such laws indicate to us in a certain degree the infinity,
the eternity, and the immutability of God.

(40) We may conclude, then, that we cannot gain knowledge of the existence
and providence of God by means of miracles, but that we can far better infer
them from the fixed and immutable order of nature. (41) By miracle, I here
mean an event which surpasses, or is thought to surpass, human
comprehension: for in so far as it is supposed to destroy or interrupt the
order of nature or her laws, it not only can give us no knowledge of God,
but, contrariwise, takes away that which we naturally have, and makes us
doubt of God and everything else.

(42) Neither do I recognize any difference between an event against the laws
of nature and an event beyond the laws of nature (that is, according to
some, an event which does not contravene nature, though she is inadequate to
produce or effect it) - for a miracle is wrought in, and not beyond nature,
though it may be said in itself to be above nature, and, therefore,
must necessarily interrupt the order of nature, which otherwise we conceive
of as fixed and unchangeable, according to God's decrees. (43) If,
therefore, anything should come to pass in nature which does not follow from
her laws, it would also be in contravention to the order which God has
established in nature for ever through universal natural laws: it would,
therefore, be in contravention to God's nature and laws, and, consequently,
belief in it would throw doubt upon everything, and lead to Atheism.

(44) I think I have now sufficiently established my second point, so that we
can again conclude that a miracle, whether in contravention to, or beyond,
nature, is a mere absurdity; and, therefore, that what is meant in Scripture
by a miracle can only be a work of nature, which surpasses, or is believed
to surpass, human comprehension. (45) Before passing on to my third point, I
will adduce Scriptural authority for my assertion that God cannot be known
from miracles. (46) Scripture nowhere states the doctrine openly, but it can
readily be inferred from several passages. (47) Firstly, that in which Moses
commands (Deut. xiii.) that a false prophet should be put to death, even
though he work miracles: "If there arise a prophet among you, and giveth
thee a sign or wonder, and the sign or wonder come to pass, saying, Let us
go after other gods . . . thou shalt not hearken unto the voice of that
prophet; for the Lord your God proveth you, and that prophet shall be put to
death." (48) From this it clearly follows that miracles could be wrought
even by false prophets; and that, unless men are honestly endowed with the
true knowledge and love of God, they may be as easily led by miracles to
follow false gods as to follow the true God; for these words are added: "For
the Lord your God tempts you, that He may know whether you love Him with all
your heart and with all your mind."

(49) Further, the Israelites, from all their miracles, were unable to form a
sound conception of God, as their experience testified: for when they had
persuaded themselves that Moses had departed from among them, they
petitioned Aaron to give them visible gods; and the idea of God they had
formed as the result of all their miracles was - a calf!

(50) Asaph, though he had heard of so many miracles, yet doubted of the
providence of God, and would have turned himself from the true way, if he
had not at last come to understand true blessedness. (See Ps. lxxxiii.) (51)
Solomon, too, at a time when the Jewish nation was at the height of its
prosperity, suspects that all things happen by chance. (See Eccles. iii:19,
20, 21; and chap. ix:2, 3, &c.)

(52) Lastly, nearly all the prophets found it very hard to reconcile the
order of nature and human affairs with the conception they had formed of
God's providence, whereas philosophers who endeavour to understand things by
clear conceptions of them, rather than by miracles, have always found the
task extremely easy - at least, such of them as place true happiness solely
in virtue and peace of mind, and who aim at obeying nature, rather than
being obeyed by her. (53) Such persons rest assured that God directs nature
according to the requirements of universal laws, not according to the
requirements of the particular laws of human nature, and trial, therefore,
God's scheme comprehends, not only the human race, but the whole of nature.

(54) It is plain, then, from Scripture itself, that miracles can give no
knowledge of God, nor clearly teach us the providence of God. (55) As to the
frequent statements in Scripture, that God wrought miracles to make Himself
plain to man - as in Exodus x:2, where He deceived the Egyptians, and gave
signs of Himself, that the Israelites might know that He was God,- it does
not, therefore, follow that miracles really taught this truth, but only that
the Jews held opinions which laid them easily open to conviction by
miracles. (56) We have shown in Chap. II. that the reasons assigned by the
prophets, or those which are formed from revelation, are not assigned
in accordance with ideas universal and common to all, but in accordance with
the accepted doctrines, however absurd, and with the opinions of those to
whom the revelation was given, or those whom the Holy Spirit wished to
convince.

(57) This we have illustrated by many Scriptural instances, and can further
cite Paul, who to the Greeks was a Greek, and to the Jews a Jew. (58) But
although these miracles could convince the Egyptians and Jews from their
standpoint, they could not give a true idea and knowledge of God, but only
cause them to admit that there was a Deity more powerful than anything known
to them, and that this Deity took special care of the Jews, who had just
then an unexpectedly happy issue of all their affairs. (59) They could not
teach them that God cares equally for all, for this can be taught only by
philosophy: the Jews, and all who took their knowledge of God's providence
from the dissimilarity of human conditions of life and the inequalities of
fortune, persuaded themselves that God loved the Jews above all men, though
they did not surpass their fellows in true human perfection.

(60) I now go on to my third point, and show from Scripture that the decrees
and mandates of God, and consequently His providence, are merely the order
of nature - that is, when Scripture describes an event as accomplished by
God or God's will, we must understand merely that it was in accordance with
the law and order of nature, not, as most people believe, that nature had
for a season ceased to act, or that her order was temporarily interrupted.
(61) But Scripture does not directly teach matters unconnected with its
doctrine, wherefore it has no care to explain things by their natural
causes, nor to expound matters merely speculative. (62) Wherefore our
conclusion must be gathered by inference from those Scriptural narratives
which happen to be written more at length and circumstantially than usual.
(63) Of these I will cite a few.

(64) In the first book of Samuel, ix:15, 16, it is related that God revealed
to Samuel that He would send Saul to him, yet God did not send Saul to
Samuel as people are wont to send one man to another. (65) His "sending" was
merely the ordinary course of nature. (66) Saul was looking for the asses he
had lost, and was meditating a return home without them, when, at the
suggestion of his servant, he went to the prophet Samuel, to learn from him
where he might find them. (67) From no part of the narrative does it appear
that Saul had any command from God to visit Samuel beyond this natural
motive.

(68) In Psalm cv. 24 it is said that God changed the hearts of the
Egyptians, so that they hated the Israelites. (69) This was evidently a
natural change, as appears from Exodus, chap.i., where we find no slight
reason for the Egyptians reducing the Israelites to slavery.

(70) In Genesis ix:13, God tells Noah that He will set His bow in the cloud;
this action of God's is but another way of expressing the refraction and
reflection which the rays of the sun are subjected to in drops of water.

(71) In Psalm cxlvii:18, the natural action and warmth of the wind, by which
hoar frost and snow are melted, are styled the word of the Lord, and in
verse 15 wind and cold are called the commandment and word of God.

(72) In Psalm civ:4, wind and fire are called the angels and ministers of
God, and various other passages of the same sort are found in Scripture,
clearly showing that the decree, commandment, fiat, and word of God are
merely expressions for the action and order of nature.

(73) Thus it is plain that all the events narrated in Scripture came to pass
naturally, and are referred directly to God because Scripture, as we have
shown, does not aim at explaining things by their natural causes, but only
at narrating what appeals to the popular imagination, and doing so in the
manner best calculated to excite wonder, and consequently to impress the
minds of the masses with devotion. (74) If, therefore, events are found in
the Bible which we cannot refer to their causes, nay, which seem entirely to
contradict the order of nature, we must not come to a stand, but assuredly
believe that whatever did really happen happened naturally. (75) This view
is confirmed by the fact that in the case of every miracle there were many
attendant circumstances, though these were not always related, especially
where the narrative was of a poetic character.

(76) The circumstances of the miracles clearly show, I maintain, that
natural causes were needed. (77) For instance, in order to infect the
Egyptians with blains, it was necessary that Moses should scatter ashes in
the air (Exod. ix: 10); the locusts also came upon the land of Egypt by a
command of God in accordance with nature, namely, by an east wind blowing
for a whole day and night; and they departed by a very strong west wind
(Exod. x:14, 19). (78) By a similar Divine mandate the sea opened a way for
the Jews (Exo. xiv:21), namely, by an east wind which blew very strongly all
night.

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