227 / 298
Vico’s Ring
227
as such is not within our scope, which, in any case, enjoys a wealth of studies;
besides those referred to above, in view of its focus on Spinoza, mention
should be made at least of T. L. Frampton,
Spinoza and the Rise of Historical Crit-
icism of the Bible
, New York-London, T & T Clark, 2006, and his overall histor-
ical assessment: «Historical criticism should be regarded as a product of post-
Reformation religious controversies over the authority of the Bible. It was not
solely the invention of modern rationalism of the early Enlightenment, or
modernity» (p. 235).
416
Id.,
History of Biblical Interpretation
, vol. 4, cit., p. 92; similarly: «Also in
the [
TTP
], Spinoza builds on the foundations laid down in the
Ethics
» (
ibid.
, p.
95).
417
Given a broad scope, including all kinds of «recipients of revelation»
(
ibid.
, p. 96).
418
Spinoza’s treatment of Christ and miracles is also an outgrowth of the
reflections developed in
Ethics
; Christ is made to resemble «the ideal philoso-
pher» who «grasped things truly and adequately» (thus possessing intuitive
knowledge), while miracles are assessed in the light of his «philosophical defi-
nition of God», for which see
ibid.
, pp. 98, 100. His “christology” has little, if
anything, to do with the doctrine of incarnation, resurrection, and Christ’s
role as savior (
ibid.
, p. 98).
419
Ibid.
, p. 99.
420
See also
Ethics
, Part I, Proposition XXXIII, Note I, and D. Savan,
Spi-
noza: Scientist and Theorist of Scientific Method
, cit., p. 98.
421
For a modern account of definitions in logic, including its aspect of in-
tentionality, see J. Hintikka - J. Bachman,
What if …? Toward Excellence in Rea-
soning
,
cit., pp. 334-353.
422
St. Breton also sees the first and second kinds of knowledge as the
ways in which Spinoza evaluates Scripture, for which see Id.,
Spinoza. Théologie
et politique
, Paris, Desclée, 1977, p. 41.
423
TTP
, p. 88, first paragraph to p. 90, first paragraph (inclusive).
424
Reventlow includes in his
History of Biblical Interpretation
, vol. 3, cit., in-
formation on Hebrew language studies by Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459);
Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522); Huldrych (Ulrich) Zwingli (1484-1531); Jesuit
colleges established by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) and successors; Jesuit
scholar Joannes Maldonatus (Juan Maldonado) (1533/34-1583); Hugo Groti-
us (1583-1645); Abraham Calov (1612-1686). Reventlow concluded: «[…]
Hebrew, hitherto cared for by Judaism alone, is made available to Christian
biblical interpreters. Inseparably connected with this undertaking, after the
beginning Manetti made, is the name Reuchlin, who first laid the overall