NOTES
FOR READING THE BIBLE
WITH JOHN LOCKE
George M. Gross
The preference
for republicangovernmentovermonarchy in theHe
brewBible appears to be revisitedin thewritings of themodernpolitical
philosophers,especiallyJohnLocke. The revival of thispreferencein the
teachingof themoderns occurs in themode of ideology,and restsupon a
new epistemology that skirts the classic contention about the
relationship
of knowledge and virtue. Even so, the modern teaching is at once an
and a qualifiedrevival of theScriptural teachingthatman
interpretation
is to "be fruitful and multiply,
1:28).
abound
(Genesis
in the earth, conquer
it and rule"
Introduction
in the Hebrew
The preference
Bible for republican
government
over monarchy
in the preference
to be revisited
for repub
appears
over
in
the
lican government
the
of
modern
writings
monarchy
on
as the
covenant
The
Bible's
teaching
political
philosophers.
new
on
a
of
likewise
lease
receives
government
republican
principle
in the argument
for consent in
transformed,
life, albeit significantly
thinkers.
the writings
of the early modern
JewishPolitical Studies Review 9:3-4 (Fall 1997)
5
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George M.
6
Gross
do not defer to the Bible, but it does appear
The early moderns
even
in some important way to persuade
them.
to guide
and
them,
in their address
is neither
the
of Scripture
mode
The dominant
reason to revelation nor the aim of "replac
intention to subordinate
that
finds rather a recognition
ing Scripture with reason."1 One
one
on
are
so
reason
in
call
far
that
and
may
agreement
Scripture
reason. The early
more manifest misuses
to
correct
of
the
Scripture
thinkers did not seek to expel the Bible from the city that
modern
theybuilt, as Plato sought to expel thepoets; but theydid notmake
on itmakes
the role
Their dependence
its admission
unconditional.
one.
in their city an interesting and complicated
of the Scriptures
The basis for classic republicanism
is the rule of the wise, but in
the foundation of republican
the modern
government
interpretation
is the reason
is consent.
This difference
for the famous divide
Classic
between
classic and modern
republicanism.
republicanism,
as
as in Plato's Republic, supplies an image of republican government
as
in
Hobbes's
Modern
Leviathan,
sup
monarchy.
republicanism,
on consent,
an image of monarchy
as
founded
and hence
plies
on
consent
The
modern
that
founded
teaching
monarchy
republican.
inmotivation
it serves
is conservative
is a form of republic
because
to moderate
the revolutionary
of
and to guide
criticism
republican
unleashed
monarchy
by Machiavelli's
writings.
advert to themoderation
The modern
thinkers characteristically
the classic thinkers as intellectualist,
and
that guides
pusillanimous
are
in
These
leitmotifs
the
documents
ascriptions
founding
puerile.
science as well as of modern
of modern
politics.
are cases
In his
in point.
The writings
of Galileo
and Bacon
"The Starry Messenger,"
Galileo
declares
that the tele
pamphlet,
man
to
enables
of
the
heavens
"with
scope
every
acquire knowledge
all the certainty of sense evidence."
In this pamphlet,
in which he
announces
his discovery
that "the surface of themoon
is not smooth,
as
a
and
uniform,
great number of philosophers
precisely
spherical
believe it (and theother heavenly bodies) to be,"2 Galileo proposes
a new
epistemology.
The
invention
of the telescope
signifies
for
Galileo the inauguration of an era inwhich thepublic may partici
The approach
pate in the increase of knowledge.
Galileo
is
which
ismore
proposes
through body,
than mind.
common,
to knowledge
that
or more
universal,
Like Machiavelli
before him, Galileo
the priority
exaggerates
over theory, in contra
that modern
to observation
science assigns
to ancient and medieval
distinction
science, which he caricatures.
a
is
to
Galileo's
clarion
call
His epistemology
essay
Enlightenment.
one because
is an ideological
it skirts the classic
contention
that
is the property of the few, while
excellence
the
claim
that
resting
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NotesforReading theBiblewithJohnLocke
7
on a kind of knowledge
can be universal
that ranks low
knowledge
the
to knowledge
in the classic
suggests
teaching. This approach
in
notion
of
whose
influence of Machiavelli,
popular
teaching the
to be an oxymoron.
science first ceases
New
is Bacon's
for these ascriptions
Another
locus classicus
that
the
mentions
Bacon
Egyptian
apothegm,
Organon.
approvingly
or
"were always boys, without
the Greeks
antiquity of knowledge
name
own
in his
that:
of antiquity,"
adding
knowledge
Assuredly theyhave thatwhich is characteristicof boys; theyare
abounds
for theirwisdom
prompt to prattle, but cannot generate;
in words
but is barren of works. And therefore the signs which
are taken from the origin and birth-place of the received philoso
are not good.
phy
that the Greek thinkers were, as Bacon
agrees with Galileo
to the
Bacon's potent criticism alludes
calls them, "intellectualists."3
to
that the divine blessing
of the moderns
shared conception
Bacon
be fruitfuland multiply, fill the earth and subdue it,and have
dominion
over
the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the air and
over every living thing thatmoves upon the earth (Genesis 1:28)
is in agreement with reason. Bacon seems to go farther than Galileo
thwarts the divine blessing
that Greek intellectualism
in suggesting
and is both irrational and fruitless.
reach a fruition in the
authors
of the classic
These
criticisms
to
to inspire men
writes
on Method,
which Descartes
Discourse
render
thus
"and
for
philosophy,
practical
exchange
speculative
follows
of nature."4 Descartes
the lords and possessors
ourselves
on
a science based
for
to enlist public
in aiming
Galileo
support
and is at least indirect inspira
summons
His
entails,
experiments.
In the political
in self-government.
tion for, the liberal experiment
be
can be statesmen
science of the Enlightenment,
philosophers
to knowledge.
is a contribution
cause politics
In its original version, the teaching thatman is to subdue the
earth and
subordinate
one. Its purpose
is not to
rule in it is not an ideological
Its
of one portion of humanity.
reason to the passions
to elevate all of
original purpose appears to be to inspirit and
this
to
aims
Bible
The
purpose through the
accomplish
humanity.
and subsequently-disclosed
teaching that covenant
complementary
in the context of
that
and
is the basis of law
government
republican
to
is preferable
covenant
monarchy.
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George M.
8
Gross
are similar to one another
in this respect:
Genesis
and Exodus
each begins with an element which one must reinterpret in the light
of the new teaching on the covenant, which each text only subse
to be fruitful and
In Genesis,
the divine blessing
quently discloses.
new
to
in
context
the
outside
the
rule
and
reads
differently
multiply
in
covenant
the
human
become
where
Garden,
partners
beings
Man will
differently
interpret the divine blessing
through Noah.
than while he was
after he leaves the Garden
living in it. In Exodus,
receive while
the promise of liberty that the Israelites
they are still
to know what
slaves and are not yet in a position
liberty is takes on
new meaning
the covenant
in the light of their subsequent
to law under
consent
at Mount
Sinai.
In breathing new life into the teaching that man is to conquer
the
call on human beings to recognize
earth and rule in it, the moderns
that theyhave done little to fulfilleither part of thedivine blessing
1:28, either the part that calls on them to be fruitful and
to abound
in the earth, or the part that calls on them to
and
multiply
as a rule tend to connect humanity's
subdue and to rule. The moderns
failure to live up to either part of the divine blessing with the failure
as distinct from monarchy.
to establish
government
republican
at Genesis
Locke's
Exegesis
of the Divine
Blessing
In detecting
and overthrowing
Sir Robert Filmer's
of
readings
1:28 and 3:16 as foundations
for patriarchy,
Locke
John
the way back to the republican
reading of the Bible. Locke's
in his Two Treatises on Government
intends, among other
exegesis
Genesis
shows
to explore
the inner
where
logic of the divine
blessing,
man
one
rule
is
not
because
rule
but by
multiplication
precedes
by
to Locke, monarchy
all men. According
to
is a great hindrance
things,
carrying
out
the divine
blessing.
Locke maintains
that "how much
Absolute Monarchy helps to fulfilthisgreat and primary Blessing of
God Almighty, Befruitful,andmultiply,and replenishtheEarth,which
in it the improvement
contains
too of Arts and Sciences,
and the
conveniences
of Life," may be seen in the fact that lands under the
of the Turkish monarchy
contain
less than 1/100 of the
suzerainty
in
that
held
former
times.5
population
they
Locke argues not just from the empirical
example of the Turkish
monarchy,
but from the nature
of reason
itself. The development
of
technology in fulfillmentof thedivine blessing depends not on one
man's
discovery
virtually all men
of his ability
to do so:
to reason,
but
on
the capacity
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of
9
Locke
NotesforReading theBiblewith John
to think, that God who
bid mankind
It is more
reasonable
rather himself give them all a
increase
should
and multiply,
and other Conve
Right, tomake use of the Food and Rayment,
so plentifully
he had
whereof
of Life, the Materials
niences
provided for them; than tomake themdepend on theWill of a
Man
for their Subsistence....
Locke sees in the Bible's account of the Garden
the universal
principal
right to reason. Locke's
the origin of
tomonar
objection
of Eden
chy is that itviolates this right.The problem with monarchy is not
of life but that it ham
the conveniences
that itmonopolizes
new conveniences
it "is likelier by
because
inventors
of
the
strings
to tye them to hard
of a scanty Fortune,
want and the dependence
the elements of the divine
considers
for a moment
Locke
Service."
reverse
of the
"liberal Allowance
that
in
order
and
proposes
blessing
serve "to promote
the great Design
of
of Life" would
Conveniences
just
the second part
Here Locke construes
God, Increase and Multiply."*
to the fulfillment
of the divine blessing as the condition or the means
"He that doubts
of the first part. Locke comments,
this, let him look
and see what becomes of
of theWorld,
into the Absolute Monarchies
of People." Monarchy
of Life, and the Multitudes
the Conveniences
to carrying out each part of the divine blessing.
is a hindrance
is not neutral with
to Locke, the divine blessing
Thus, according
Technology
republic and monarchy.
respect to the choice between
remark that
Locke's
under monarchy.
and science do not advance
Conveniences
other
and
the divine blessing encompasses
"Rayment,
to the birth of
that the divine blessing
of Life," indicates
points
or
of nature.
transformation
to
of
man's
the
beginning
technology,
forman
is
is
it
that
The principle of Locke's
necessary
interpretation
divine
the
to adequately
in order
to leave the Garden
interpret
blessing. Fulfilling the divine blessing requires disobeying the di
of good and
not to eat from the tree of knowledge
command
the divine blessing
Furthermore,
encompasses
self-preserva
tion, at least, for a creature with reason, to a career as a maker.
interest in showing the concord of reason and revelation
Locke's
from
to draw some motivation
or of natural and divine law appears
are in full
of the divine blessing
that the elements
the discovery
accord with reason. Locke argues in his Two Treatises on Government
vine
evil.
that thedivine blessing is significant,but not just because the first
man
hears
hear
the divine
it. Locke
suggests
benison aloud,
to
for Adam
that itwas unnecessary
indeed he doubts "not, but before
and
thesewords were pronounced (if theymust be understood Literally
to have
been
spoken)
and, without
any such Verbal
Donation,
Man
had a right to a use of theCreatures, by theWill and Grant ofGod."
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George M.
10
Gross
1:28
that the statement of the divine blessing at Genesis
a
in
to
set
of
condensed
form,
very
express,
closely
allegory
which form the first substantive
connected
teaching of
propositions
reason. Adam
did not need to hear the divine blessing because
Locke
is an
hints
reason, which was the voice of God in him, could not but teach him
and assure him, that pursuing
that natural
Inclination he had to
and
his
he
followed
will
of his Maker,
the
preserve
Being,
therefore had a right tomake use of those Creatures, which by his
or Senses
Reason
he could
be serviceable
discover
would
thereunto.7
particular
insight is that each term of the divine blessing
the one that succeeds
it.
to
and the law of nature
reason, revelation
Locke,
According
in
to
the
to self
that
the command
agree
standing
they assign
in
also
but
is
that
this
command
agree
preservation,
they
teaching
not simply selfish. The blessing
to be fruitful is itself so fundamental
in nature
that it curbs or guides
the instinct to self-preservation.
Here Locke argues
from the universality
of nature.
"The Dens
of
as the
Lions and the Nurseries
of Wolves
know no such Cruelty"
of crimes that Robert Filmer's patriarchal
catalogue
reading of the
men
to
commit.
authorizes
Locke
"And
is it the
asks,
Scriptures
more
to
Man
to
act
alone
of
Nature
than
the
Wild
Priviledge
contrary
and most Untamed
of
the
Creation?"8
parts
Locke frames his argument from nature against Filmer's defense
of practice or custom as a reason formonarchy.
Locke quotes Psalm
106:38 on the Canaanite
to show that the
of
child
sacrifice
practice
Locke's
entails
to "the authoritie of practise."
Bible does not accede
The principle
of Biblical
in
consists
the
intention
to
legislation
interpret and fulfill
the string of elements which compose
the divine blessing. Thus the
text does not "justifie
Incest and Sodomy...;
Scriptural
Adultery,
I suppose, have their
which
in this, that
Sins,
Principal Aggravation
intention of Nature, which willeth
the increase
they cross the main
of Mankind."
to Locke,
the Bible teaches that "the con
According
of the Species
in the highest perfection, and the distinction
of Families, with the Security of theMarriage
for
Bed," are necessary
the fulfillment of the divine
nature
and
revelation
Reason,
blessing.9
"in the highest perfection."
aspire to preservation
The Bible signifies its invention of the
family and of the covenan
tal institution of marriage
in the novel figure of the patriarch
as the
man who
loves his wife, as against
the prevailing,
pre-patriarchal
models
and institutions of Biblical
times. Locke follows the Bible in
the reason for the family and for the consensual
institu
articulating
tinuation
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11
NotesforReading theBiblewith]ohnLocke
in
of patriarchy
tion of marriage
against the prevailing
conception
of Filmer. Locke
ismore or less the conception
his own time, which
that Genesis
3:16 "only fortels what should be theWomans
contends
lot," but does not amount to a grant of authority as such. In elabo
re
or practice,
Locke
argument
against custom
rating the Bible's
of Biblical patriarchy.10 The
the meaning
vives but also reinterprets
to the Bible
and its application
loose use of the idea of "patriarchy"
a
to
amounts
of
reassertion
in some recent scholarship
really
feminism in an extreme form may be a kind of
Filmerism.
Indeed,
Filmerism.
customs or
that the Bible opposes
Locke's
unguided
argument
use
man
an
of
Bible to
instance
of
his
the
is
of
exemplary
practices
criticism
correct Filmer's misuse of his reason. The thrust of Locke's
reason and convention.
A
is that Filmer fails to distinguish
between
correction of Filmer's
instance in the Two Treatises is Locke's
to
fifth
of
the
and
commandment,
misreading
misinterpretation
seems
to
"honor your father and mother."
Filmer, as Locke
says,
as
Words."11
"and
Mother,
Apocriphal
regard
the old
recalls
of the fifth commandment
Filmer's misreading
mother
in
that
the
the
of
Eumenides
of
Aeschylus,
argument
Apollo,
is only "a nurse to the seed."12
is not really a parent, since the woman
In adopting
that argument at the trial of Orestes, Athena
provokes
the Furies in order to put them in a frame of mind where
they will
related
be grateful for the proposal that she finally places before them.
is no
is facetious;
it is a ruse. Filmer's argument
Athena's
argument
follow
Locke maintains,
monarchist
of
the
ruse, however.
speaking
from whence
ers of Filmer,
"That Fundamental
they
Authority
of a single Person only, was not
their Government
derive
would
not
Locke
in one, but two Persons
proposes,
joyntly."13
plac'd
Bible's
the
indicates
that
fifth
commandment
the
entirely facetiously,
for republic over monarchy.
preference
in
a monarchist
Filmer provides
reading, not just of the episode
a
the
but
of
for
I Samuel 8 which grants the Israelites'
request
king,
the
entire Bible. Locke frames his Two Treatises ofGovernment around
1:28
and
of
Genesis
refutation of Filmer's monarchist
interpretations
seem a little far-fetched, such as
3:16. Some of Locke's
exegesis may
Locke even turns
fifth
commandment.
the
of
his republican
reading
a republican
of Peter's
to make
Testament
to the New
reading
of man"
to every ordinance
to
"submit
(I Peter
yourselves
injunction
from
the
document
a
constitutional
is
early
2:13). There
significant
The
Locke's unusual
that
of
Connecticut
reading.
anticipates
colony
to
the
General
the revised preface
American
colonists who wrote
Laws
and Liberties
rather persuading)
of Connecticut
Locke
himself,
perhaps
Colony,
also interpreted
influencing
this verse
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(or
in a
12
George M.
Gross
it is important
republican way.14 In reading Locke's Biblical exegesis,
to see the forest behind the trees. Even where Locke's
interpretations
seem facetious and forced, his interpretations
verses
of particular
tend to indicate the direction and the intention of the Scriptural
is republican
and not monarchist.
teaching as such, which
of
law
the
natural
Locke's
teaching and the Scriptural
alignment
seem
to
have
when one considers
mischievous
the
would
teaching
radical mistrust
of unguided
human
conduct
that the Scriptural
for Locke's
reading
teaching fosters. It is easy to find confirmations
the untutored
of Psalm
106:38 that the Bible tends to oppose
prac
of man.
tices or conventions
tradition and the classic natural
tradi
the Scriptural
Moreover,
on
In
of
tion have different teachings
law.
the teaching
the Hebrew
consent. Slaves, such as the Israelites
Bible, the idea of law comprises
in Pharaoh's
they do not give
Egypt, do not live under law because
their consent to the regime that they live under. By definition,
slaves
cannot be said to live under law. The classic natural right teaching,
in contrast, inquires into the law which
is suitable for those who are
"slaves by nature." The medieval
natural law teaching interprets the
covenant
law teaching in terms of the classic natural
law teaching,
as one can see in Thomas Aquinas'
of "the natural order
discussion
as towhether
of rule and subjection,"15
that is, the question
there are
on
the
the
other
nature."
"slaves
hand,
Locke,
by
appropriates
natural
law tradition for use by the covenant
law tradition, as one
can see in his use of reason as the standard
custom
for evaluating
while
criticizing
Filmer's
failure
to distinguish
between
nature
and
custom.
Locke
and
the other moderns
reason
that the Bible's
statement
on
is not
the
theduties ofman in thepristine state of theGarden of Eden ishighly
unsatisfactory.
In the pristine
state, man's
assignment
glorious task of dominion but the humbler task of "tilling and
keeping" theGarden (Genesis 2:15). This is a state inwhich man has
not yetbecome man. He has not yet acquired theknowledge of good
and evil, he has yet to display any one of the human emotions
(which,
because
of their intricate connection with reason, require a devel
oped ability to compare and contrast) and he is as yet incapable of
livingunder thecovenant (nor ishe given theopportunity todo so).
Locke implies that the assignment thatman receives in the
Garden
to the epoch of the Garden.
Man's
pertains
specifically
of
the
human
his
has
disobedience
acquisition
qualities
through
caused him to leave the Garden. One needs an
of
the
interpretation
divine blessing thatenables man to live up to it inhis new state. The
intention to find a workable interpretationof thedivine blessing to
be fruitful and multiply,
subdue
and
rule, appears
to be a primary
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NotesforReading theBiblewithJohn
Locke
13
this
after it has interpreted
political
philosophy,
goal of modern
to be the teaching of reason.
blessing
in the modern
There is a community
of purpose
teaching and in
once
an interpre
a
it
at
is
revival
and
the Biblical
teaching of which
not
is
obvious
because
the mod
tation. The community
of purpose
ern interpretation
of ideology.
of the Bible's
teaching is in the mode
In the Bible's
covenantal.
As
such, it is not, strictly speaking,
a
is the
of
divine
covenantal
the
blessing
teaching,
interpretation
no
one that is suitable
in
to
who
live
the
human
longer
beings
only
A
of
the
divine
of Eden.
Garden
covenantal
interpretation
blessing
at Genesis
the responsibilities
and the appropriate
1:28, indicating
actions of human beings who aim to carry out the divine blessing,
on the human
entails risk (as covenants
do) since itmust depend
to
is
is
Risk
since man
to live according
law.
necessary
willingness
now a being wTho has discovered
the knowledge
of good and evil. The
see risk-taking as anathema
to the classic teaching. Uncov
moderns
in
the modern
criticism of the classic
ering the Biblical motivation
inter
the basis for the non-ideological
teaching helps to illuminate
pretation of modernity.
to credit the Biblical motiva
Readers
of Locke often are abashed
to be the
in
their
diffidence
tion
his argument. Underlying
appears
not
with
itself
that the Bible does
notion
reason, or
ally
misguided
even that the Bible does not often seek to persuade.
Their diffidence
in its various manifes
of Filmerism
for reassertions
leaves openings
in
receive
issues
tations. These
sharp definition
theologico-political
mo
the
the exegetical
and
Locke's writings, where
epistemological
tivations are mutually
Locke's work helps to
sustaining. Examining
argument.
clarify the nature of Biblical
Locke's
Statement
on the Bible's
Ambition
of the
In The Reasonableness
contrasting
of Christianity, Locke's
narrow
of the
ambition
the
Bible
and
Hebrew
ambition
of
great
of
of the ambition
reflects Locke's
Greek philosophers
conception
own
In
ambition.
his
the modern
thinkers, including
characterizing
Locke
thinkers as pusillanimous,
the Greek
charges
philosophic
than
in lower standards
for humanity
them with ignobly acquiescing
the Scriptural teachingswould have allowed.
turns
of the Scriptures
to Locke,
the reasonableness
According
to reason.
is proper
Since
on their fulfillment of an end which
reason unassisted,
failed men in its great and proper busi
"human
to supply
ness of morality,"
it has fallen to the Scriptural
teachings
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George M. Gross
14
the defect.16 This is the task of framing "a body
of reason,
be the law of nature, from principles
to
of Ethics, proved
and reaching all the
duties of life." Locke devotes The Reasonableness ofChristianity to an
as themost
for Christianity
for revelation, and to an apology
apology
of revelation.
that is, the most "effectual," mode
reasonable,
the respective spheres
In The Reasonableness, Locke thus establishes
seems
to subordinate
in this way
He
of reason and revelation.
a truncated version of an old
reason. His argument
to
is
Scripture
history. In the old argument, reading
argument with a distinguished
the Bible adequately
requires training in natural science, not because
further training in natural
the Bible provides
science, but because
a miracle when
one
can
know
without
hardly
training
preliminary
a version of this old argument
in his
one sees one. Galileo
makes
knowl
Without
"Letter to the Grand Duchess
Christina."
adequate
in
edge of natural science one can hardly discern which propositions
to the prejudices
of the many.17 One
the Bible are accommodations
that in the
may take Galileo's
argument a step further and propose
not
turned
aside "to
have
would
of
the
Moses
bush,
burning
episode
too
if
had
been
this
he
(Exodus
3:3)
great sight"
supersti
investigate
the anomaly.
tious to recognize
In Locke's
truncated argument,
is to
of miracles
the purpose
exist
evidence
for
the
revelation. Nature
establish
supplies
ample
so little use of their reason, that
ence of God, "yet the world made
saw him not." Miracles
the proofs that are available
supplement
they
are necessary
in nature. Miracles
that nature
because
the proofs
are
to
the
for
all
inaccessible
majority of
supplies
practical purposes
like Maimonides
for example,
the people.
Locke does not maintain,
in belief, without which
that miracles
require a proper foundation
rather
from feats of magic.
Locke
be indistinguishable
they would
is incontestable.18
of Jesus' miracles
a
reasons
to
there
is
host
of
Locke,
According
why the evidence
of nature did not suffice tomake God popularly
known in antiquity.
In Locke's
enumeration
of these reasons, "sense and lust" blinded
in others, and "fearful appre
some, while "a careless
inadvertency"
in most, betrayed multitudes
over to the hands of their
hensions"
insists
that the evidence
and implemented
"false notions,"
"foolish
priests. These introduced
soon
"which
devotion
made
and
immutable."
rites,"
sacred,
religion
Thus superstition
became
firmly established.19
The existence
of God was known
to "the rational and thinking
of
it
but
"locked
mankind,"
part
up in their own breasts as
they kept
a secret." If
and
Him, they "durst"
they acknowledged
worshipped
not let the people, not tomention
the priests, "those wary guardians
of their own creeds and profitable
know of it.20This
inventions,"
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NotesforReading theBiblewithJohnLocke
15
in the Reasonableness
is the locus for the charge of pusilla
that
Locke
levels
the ancient philosophers.
nimity
against
Israelite antiquity was quite different from antiquity everywhere
else and reflected
the boldness
and the greater ambition
of "the
Israel's uniqueness
and
rational and thinking part" of that people.
one
in
consist
the
fact
that
"the
belief
and
of
exemplariness
worship
of
the national
the
Israelites
alone."
Locke
does
God, was
religion
passage
or lovers of wisdom,
not say that the prophets were philosophers,
of
that
the
the
"was
and supported
existence
introduced
deity
just
that
revelation."21
amongst
people
by
went "farther in all sorts of speculations"
the Athenians
Though
was but one Socrates
them."
there
than other peoples,
amongst
"yet
the fate of Socrates,
Plato and those like him
To spare themselves
to go with the herd, and keep
"were fain, in their outward worship,
too much
to
But
to the religion established
law."
they conceded
by
the herd. Locke regards their teaching as unreasonable.
Superstition
was no less established
among them than in "the rest of the world."22
is
Locke's
sociology of the Greeks and the Israelites
comparative
to the Athenians:
"Ye men
the reason for his recalling Paul's address
I perceive
that in all things ye are too superstitious"
of Athens,
(Acts
the standard
for Locke's
Paul's
address
17:22).23
judgment
supplies
of theGreek philosophic tradition in itsrelation topopular morality.
short.
the tradition falls egregiously
In his judgment as in Paul's,
Locke
As the Two Treatises of Government makes
however,
clear,
that just as superstition,
Locke maintains
differs from Paul because
to science,
which hampers knowledge
of causes, is the chief obstacle
in the arts
to
so popular
is
the
progress
prerequisite
enlightenment
as
bush
the
of
the
and in the sciences.
burning
episode
Again,
science
the
for
establishes
basis
illustrates, revealed
through
religion
or the belief in
the doctrine of miracles, which opposes
superstition,
Locke grafts the ideological
of causality.
pro
principles
multiple
on
to
that revealed
the goal of science
the
of
gram
Enlightenment
is a
the new dispensation,
Under
everyone
religion establishes.
pursuer of knowledge.
The main given and
terse comparative
in Locke's
the chief subject for investigation
is the
Israelite
and
of
Greek
antiquities
sociology
wide gap between the learned and themultitude inGreece, and the
blurring or the obscuring of, without extinguishing, this gap in
of the religion
Locke
agrees with Plato's
judgment
In Greece and
of
handed
down.
in
Homer
the tradition
that the poets
on
ran
account
of
the priests'
amok
almost everywhere
else, religion
were
the
In Israel, however,
the poets and
firmly
priests
power.
under the hand of the civil power, at least in the time of Moses.
ancient
Israel.
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16
George M.
Gross
In The Reasonableness,
Locke also presents a terse sociology of the
chief
incentive to virtue among the Israelites
revealed
religions. The
was
of their kingdom
the political greatness
(and, one should add,
by extension, the prosperity of their children, by way of their
to
covenantal
Moses
used miracles
duty to future generations).
the Israelites.
revelation
establish
Jesus used many more
among
miracles
than Moses,
and in doing so established,
for the first time,
a
"the doctrine
of
future state." This doctrine was
"an imperfect
or
view of reason;
the decayed
remains
of an ancient
perhaps
It was
to man. Yet it was
tradition."
for the most part unknown
for the completion
of reason's
"effectual"
task of establishing
virtue
it rendered virtue "visibly themost enriching purchase,
because
and
the best bargain."
Locke points out in his short essay, "A
by much
of Miracles,"
that Muhammad
at all
Discourse
did not use miracles
(thoughhe affirmedJesus' teachings on theday of judgment and the
thus distinguishes
the revealed
afterlife).24 Locke
religions accord
the incentive to virtue, which may be
ing to two sets of qualities:
noble or selfish; and, to supplement
the use of reason,
the use of
which
miracles,
may
be promiscuous,
Concluding
moderate,
or abstentious.
Comments
The Hebrew Bible and themodern political philosophers share a
over monarchy,
as distinct
for republican
government
preference
from the preference
for the rule of the wise
in the classic
tradition.
modern
the
and
the
Though
teaching regarding knowledge
mastery
of nature
is in an ideological
it stands nonetheless
as an
mode,
of
the
divine
at
Genesis
1:28.
The
modern
interpretation
blessing
teaching appears tobemotivated at least inpart by the failure of the
classic teaching to do justice to the republican implications of the
divine
divine
blessing.
blessing
The modern
teaching
as
being in agreement
construes
with
the elements
reason.
of the
While Genesis 1:28 presents man with the divine blessing, the
Hebrew
Bible
leaves
it toman
to arrive
at the proper
interpretation
or fulfillmentof this blessing (though
through the teaching on
covenant
to guide him). The duties of man as Genesis
2
them stand as an inadequate
of
the
divine
interpretation
as we know him, since man
for man
is no longer in a
blessing
condition even resembling
that of the Garden.
It is probably
the case
that some of the contemporary
criticisms of the modern
"project"
rest in part on an inadequate
of the respective
func
understanding
1 and Genesis
tions of Genesis
2 in the Biblical narrative.
it intends
describes
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NotesforReadingtheBiblewithJohn
Locke 17
Notes
1.
2
16 of the
Democratic
Steven B. Smith, "Spinoza's
Turn: Chapter
Theologico-Political Treatise," Review ofMetaphysics, XLVIII, 2 (Decem
ber 1994):362.
inDiscoveries and Opinions of
Galileo Galilei, "The Starry Messenger,"
trans.
Stillman
Drake
York:
Anchor Books, 1957), pp.
Galileo,
(New
28, 31.
Selected Writings of Francis Bacon, ed. Hugh Dick (New York: The
Modern Library, 1955), p. 491 (Novum Organon, Bk. I, Sec. 71); also p.
191 (The Advancement of Learning).
G.R.T.
4
Philosophical Works ofDescartes, vol. 1, trans. E.S. Haldaneand
Ross (New York: Dover Publications,
Inc., 1955), p. 119.
5. John Locke, Two Treatises ofGovernment, ed. Peter Laslett (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 164-165 (I 33). This work is
cited below as Two Treatises. Emphases are Locke's unless otherwise
3.
noted.
6
7.
8
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Two Treatises, pp. 169-170 (I 41).
Two Treatises, p. 205 (I 86).
Two Treatises, p. 181 (I 56).
Two Treatises, p. 183 (I 58-59).
Two Treatises, p. 174 (I 47). For the interpretation of marriage
consensual, see esp. Two Treatises, p. 321 (II 81-82).
Two Treatises, p. 184 (I 60).
The Oresteia, trans. Robert Fagles
Aeschylus,
Books, 1984), p. 260.
Two Treatises, p. 304 (II 53).
as
(New York: Penguin
Two Treatises, p. 144 (I 6); "Preface to theGeneral Laws and Liberty of
Connecticut Colony Revised," 1672, inDocuments ofPolitical Founda
tion Written by Colonial Americans, ed. Donald Lutz, (Philadelphia:
Institute for the Study of Human Values, 1986), pp. 360-361.
15. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Politics, trans. Ernest L. Fortin
inMedieval Political Philosophy, ed. Muhsin
and Peter D. O'Neill,
Mahdi and Ralph Lerner (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978), p.
306.
14.
16.
John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity with A Discourse of
and Part of A Third Letter Concerning Toleration, ed. I.T.
Miracles
CA: Stanford University Press, 1958), pp. 61,62,67
(Stanford,
Ramsey
(sees. 241-243). Cited below as Reasonableness.
17.
Galileo Galilei, "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina," Discoveries
and Opinions of Galileo, trans. Stillman Drake (New York: Anchor
Books, 1957), p. 182.
18.
Reasonableness,
pp. 57, 59 (sees. 238, 240).
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18 George M. Gross
19.
Reasonableness,
20.
Reasonableness,
21.
Reasonableness,
22.
Reasonableness,
23.
Reasonableness,
24.
Reasonableness,
p. 57 (sec. 238).
p. 57 (sec. 238).
pp. 57-58 (sec. 238).
p. 58 (sec. 238).
p. 58 (sec. 238).
pp. 69-70 (sec. 245), p. 81 ("A Discourse
ofMiracles").
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