A Theologico-Political Treatise/A Political Treatise

Spinoza's book treats the old and new testaments differently. He claims that he read and analyzed the old testament in it's original Hebrew in which he was fluent, having been raised as a Jew in Spain, then Portugal and then Holland. He analyzes most of the books in the old testament and looks at chronological inconsistencies and potential authorship errors. He shows that some of the Pentateuch couldn't have been written by Moses because some of the events described there happened after Moses died. He posits that many of the earlier books through the Book of Kings might have been assembled and edited by Ezra. As for the new testament, he apologizes for not being fluent in Greek, but doesn't fail to point out the probable books not written by Paul and shows the well known inconsistencies in the death and resurrection of Jesus. For those who believe in the divinity of the bible, this will be a difficult read, because Spinoza is careful to point out, chapter and verse, where the inconsistencies are and it's hard to argue with him. It's not a difficult book to read and for people who think they know the bible well, it is must reading.

The five stars are for the book itself, a work of colossal genius (and political cleverness) that still illuminates issues arising nearly 350 years later, as well as for the price, one of the best values ever.The text is unfortunately marred by a fair number of typos, none of which corrupt the meaning, but many of which can be distracting or annoying. I found myself wishing that my Kindle had an error correction function. I'd have gladly fixed the typos as I read through, as a gesture of gratitude for the great deal Amazon offers on this indispensable work.

Beautiful job reading. The content is most eye opening as well. This man’s voice is heavenly for this job. Substance bless. 😉

this is a well written masterpiece worth reading objectively to see some of the power struggles between religion and government. masterful accounting of history. while it seems that the author emits some prejudices it is nevertheless a key historic denkensturken. i give it a B plus and i recommend perusing it.

A Theologico-Political Treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus) by Benedict de Spinoza In the context of a new emerging wave of religious fundamentalism on one hand, and post-modernist denials of the importance of Reason on the other, the book is as important as ever to the intellectual heritage of modern Society.

Spinoza is a fascinating and relatively clear and simple read in philosophy. However, the Kindle format edition I bought and downloaded only has 10 chapters, whereas the whole treatise includes 20 chapters. Am I missing a certain way of accessing the entirety of my purchase?