232 / 298
Horst Steinke
232
444
Ibid.
, p. 240.
445
To show this, is the main task that Walther took up in his above-
mentioned article.
446
This has been pointed out also by S. B. Smith: «This distinction be-
tween meaning and truth, so apparently innocent and yet so vital, can be fully
understood only when seen in the light of the argument of the
Treatise
as a
whole. In the
Treatise
Spinoza defends the radical separation of reason (phi-
losophy) from theology. By further separating meaning from truth and then
defining truth as a function of reason, the unstated premise of Spinoza’s bibli-
cal hermeneutics is that Scripture cannot speak the truth» (Id.,
Spinoza, Liberal-
ism, and the Question of Jewish Identity,
New Haven-London, Yale University
Press, 1997, p. 66). On the other hand, in N. Sinai’s overview of Spinoza’s
biblical hermeneutics, he denotes the meaning of «truth» in this context as
what «scripture has […] to say to its reader that is true and relevant
today
»
(Id.,
Spinoza and Beyond: Some Reflections on Historical-Critical Method
, in
Kritische
Religionsphilosophie. Eine Gedenkschrift für Friedrich Niewöhner
, ed. by W. Schmidt-
Biggemann and G. Tamer, in cooperation with C. Newmark, Berlin-New
York, De Gruyter, 2010, pp. 193-213, p. 198; italics original). The question of
the role of Spinoza’s overall epistemic system, and the positional value of
«truth» in it, is not raised.
447
«Therefore we have no reason to be unduly anxious concerning the
other contents of Scripture [other than relating to salvation and blessedness];
for since for the most part they are beyond the grasp of reason and intellect,
they belong to the sphere of the curious rather than the profitable» (
TTP
, pp.
98-99).
448
TTP
, p. 90, first paragraph.
449
The history and multifaceted development and application of this no-
tion is described in M. J. Buss,
The Changing Shape of Form Criticism
, ed. by N.
M. Stipe, Sheffield, Sheffield Pheonix Press, 2010, pp. 31-38, 147-211.
450
TTP
, p. 90;
italics added.
451
This is also the reading by J. Sandys-Wunsch: «[…] it can be seen that
Spinoza’s TTP is the first attempt at biblical theology, that is, at the process of
winnowing out of Scripture what is of enduring worth from what can be dis-
missed as irrelevant. In essence, this is what all biblical theologies in the prop-
er sense of the word have attempted to do» (Id.,
Spinoza – The First Biblical
Theologian
, in «Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft», 93, 1981, pp.
327-341, p. 339).
452
The term «certain», like other key Spinozan terms, needs to be studied
according to idiosyncratic Spinoza usage, some of which is found in the first
paragraphs of
TdIE
, cit.: «I say “I resolved at length”, [to enquire whether