Spinoza and the Language of Scripture

In his works Spinoza remarks on the relationship between Hebrew and the culture of the ancient Israelites. Thus, the more we unerstand Hebrew, the better we understand the Bible. Moreover, understanding the Bible is for the non-philosophical masses essential for motivating lives of virtue. However, there are irremediable gaps in our knowledge of ancient Hebrew, and this might appear to undermine the moral motivational role that the Bible is supposed to play. But I suggest that the philological deficiency and the hermeneutical impediment should not effectively thwart the Bible’s properly edifying effect on non-philosophical readers.