ABSTRACT

This chapter explores the radicalism of Baruch Spinoza's chapters on miracles and biblical interpretation from the inside, from the point of view that makes them appear moderate. Most Spinoza scholars today would agree with that early reading of the texts, though the odium has evaporated and even turned to praise. Spinoza stands completely alone among the major European thinkers before the mid-eighteenth century in ruling out miracles. Manfred Walther devotes an interesting article to explaining how miracles represent a particular challenge for Spinoza's hermeneutics. What Spinoza rejects are biblical texts that depict miracles as defying the natural order. The novelty of Spinoza's account of the meaning of Scripture was immediately noticed, and it received no more approval than had his treatment of miracles. Spinoza's interest in the Scripture is for the most part epistemological rather than theological or pastoral.