Why Spinoza Chose the Hebrews: The Exemplary Function of Prophecy in the Theological-Political Treatise *

Abstract

Spinoza was working on something resembling the Theological-Political Treatise in 1665, a year after Ferdinand Bol's painting was finished and hung in the Town Hall; he had probably begun work before then. Although the medium is obviously different in each case, Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise shares certain crucial features with Bol's painting. First and foremost they share a common subject, the Hebrews, and more specifically the position of Moses the lawgiver. While scholars have all noted Spinoza's use of the Hebrews in the Theological-Political Treatise , their interpretations of it have varied. Some have argued that Spinoza used the ancient Hebrews only as an example of 'a rude and barbarous way of life'; they are not models to be imitated but 'antagonists of the Moderns'. The history of the Hebrews is an example of just how that transition is managed through the prophetic appeal to divine authority and the institutionalization of religion in the life of the state.

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