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Vico’s Ring
211
This section plays a pivotal role in Chapter 7, in more than
one way. Primarily, it delineates Spinoza’s position on Scripture
in relation to his epistemic system, and in doing so, encapsulates
the thrust of the
Treatise
as a whole. Secondarily, it also acts as a
hinge between what Spinoza expounded before, and what fol-
lows. As shown above, while this section focused on the second
kind of knowledge, the preceding section dealt with matters of
the first kind of knowledge. While purporting to be merely a list-
ing of basic requirements for biblical studies, it already incorpo-
rated Spinoza’s philosophical reflections. The new section
471
,
analeptically, reverts to the topic of the data, belonging to the
first kind of knowledge, involved in biblical studies that were
outlined to a lesser-or-greater degree in the earlier section, and
the same two major areas are taken up again: (1) the Hebrew lan-
guage, and (2) what Spinoza calls «the history of all the biblical
books», including the authors, their biography, historical circum-
stances, and also the transmission of their writings.
Although this new section is the longest of all the sections in
the body of Chapter 7, it has a relatively univocal thrust or
theme, applicable to both major topics. In the earlier section that
came before the key exposition on the «meaning» of Scripture,
he had introduced these topics. At the same time, however, as
we have noted above, he framed these areas of inquiry, or disci-
plines, in ways that transcended their “technical” parameters,
thus laying the groundwork for, and setting the direction of, the
more extensive discussion deferred to in the second half of the
exposition.
Spinoza’s sets the tone and theme, saying that «[a]t this time I
have to discuss any difficulties and shortcomings in our method
which may stand in the way of our acquiring a complete and as-
sured knowledge of the Holy Bible»
472
. With respect to the first
topic, the Hebrew language, Spinoza provides an exhaustive list
of such «difficulties»: the ancient Hebrew speakers left no dic-
tionary, grammar, or textbooks; the semantics of many nouns