Theologico-Political Treatise
Benedict de Spinoza 1670
This treatise opens by examining biblical prophecy through close readings of scripture. Spinoza asks why prophets pictured God differently, comparing their visions and temperaments.
350 pages 6h 47m reading time
- A founding work of modern Bible criticism and one of the first great arguments for freedom of thought.
- Argues that the prophets were not wiser than other people but had unusually vivid imaginations, so their messages teach how to live rightly, not facts about nature or God.
- Argues that the Bible should be read like any other old book, by studying its language, its history, and who wrote it, rather than by assuming it holds hidden truths.
- Its method of reading scripture as a historical document helped launch the modern study of the Bible that scholars still practice today.
- Its case that a state should let people think and speak freely shaped Enlightenment thinkers and later arguments for the separation of church and state.
Fake printer on the title page
It was published without the author's name, claiming to come from a Hamburg printer, though it was printed in Amsterdam.
Called a book forged in hell
Critics attacked it fiercely, and one early opponent described it as forged in hell by the devil himself.
Banned across the Netherlands
In 1674 the Dutch authorities officially banned it, along with other books they considered dangerous to religion.
Sold under false covers
To get around the ban, copies circulated with fake titles claiming to be medical or historical works.
Translated from Latin by R. H. M. Elwes