Hebrew Grammar as Potential Corrosive Tool of Modernity: The Case of Spinoza’s Unfinished Compendium grammatices linguae hebraeae
Hebrew Grammar as Potential Corrosive Tool of Modernity: The Case of Spinoza’s Unfinished Compendium grammatices linguae hebraeae

Summary/Abstract: Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was an important early modern thinker. Spinoza came from the Sephardic Jewish community in Amsterdam. After his ban from the Jewish community Spinoza emerged as a towering figure in the Radical Enlightenment. His famous work in political philosophy, Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), was instrumental in the development of modern biblical criticism. Among his least known works, however, was Spinoza’s incomplete Hebrew grammar. Spinoza intended his Hebrew grammar, Compendium grammatices linguae hebraeae, as a practical guide to help his friends learn the Hebrew language so that they could better understand the Bible in Hebrew. This article argues, however, that Spinoza had another intention for this grammar. Spinoza’s grammar was more than just a guide to learning the Hebrew language. Spinoza intended his grammar to be another corrosive tool of modernity, another means of destabilizing trust in the Bible by highlighting what he understood to be the corrupt nature of the Hebrew language and the inescapable impossibility of sufficiently learning the original Hebrew of biblical times, which he maintained was a necessary first step in understanding the Bible. His Compendium grammatices linguae hebraeae was thus intended as another tool to foster skepticism of the Bible and of traditions of Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation.

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