198 / 298
Horst Steinke
198
so making references to the New Testament, the main focus is
on the Old Testament, the so-called Hebrew Bible). As in all
matters of terminology employed by Spinoza, so the term «inter-
preting Nature» is to be considered in its relation to, and accord-
ing to its place in, Spinoza’s overall philosophical edifice, a task
that will be undertaken below in more detail.
In Spinoza studies that deal with his hermeneutics of Scrip-
ture, the most common form of exposition is to delve, in a man-
ner of speaking and at the risk of oversimplifying, into the tech-
nicalities of Spinoza’s methodology
414
. On the other hand, Spi-
noza readers who approach the
Treatise
with Spinoza’s overall
philosophical outlook and project in mind, seem to be the excep-
tion
415
. The approach that we will follow here is based on the
same premise held by Reventlow: «The [
TTP
], in which Spinoza
described his view of the Bible, cannot be understood without
referring first to the philosophy developed in the
Ethics
»
416
.
Reventlow goes on to elucidate the first six chapters of
TTP
in
light of
Ethics
, especially Spinoza’s view of the biblical «proph-
ets»
417
in terms of the kind of knowledge they possessed, primari-
ly through the power of «imagination». While Spinoza concedes
to «prophecy» a certain measure of knowledge, he emphasizes
the superiority of «natural knowledge» and philosophical insight.
Thus, without expressly stating it, «prophetic» knowledge is rele-
gated to the lowest rank in the three-tiered epistemological hier-
archy articulated in
Ethics
. Another major consequence
418
of the
systematicity of
Ethics
is Spinoza’s explanation of the «divine
law» (
TTP
, Chapter 4). It can be succinctly summarized: «The di-
vine law is nothing other than the order of nature, from which
the equation of Spinoza’s philosophy arose»
419
.
It is through this lens that Spinoza’s hermeneutical methodol-
ogy in Chapter 7 will be read, with particular attention to the
cross-identification of key concepts/terms, analeptically, between
TTP
and
Ethics,
following as much as possible the order in which
Spinoza developed his argumentation. It is not only Spinoza’s